by Jenna Reed
“Okay,” he says and sits back down, grabbing the football and tossing it from hand to hand.
“After we slept together, I spent like a whole week getting my costume together. I was going as Maverick because I knew she loved Top Gun.”
“Oh,” Grady’s brow furrows, “I thought you were doing a couple’s costume with someone. That I do remember because I thought it was dumb.”
“Thanks, man.” I roll my eyes. “Anyway, I showed up at the Halloween Party and found Nina. I was going to talk to her about letting you know what was going on between us. I heard her tell Tati, she was just using me. She just wanted to sleep with someone, and since I was there, she went with it. I didn’t mean anything to her.”
Grady stares at me for a full minute and then shakes his head. “That’s why you left town? You fucking pussy.”
“What?” I didn’t expect that reaction out of him.
“She told me about Tati and her talks,” he says. “Tati manipulated Nina. She was a serious bitch. They had a falling out not long after that, and never spoke to each other again. She told Nina she was in love with a guy—who I now realize was you—and was going to make her move at the party. Then Nina told her what happened between you.”
“Okay,” I don’t know where this story is going, but I feel my heart cracking down the middle all over again, being reminded of that night.
“Nina told me she downplayed her relationship with the guy to Tati because she was scared of what Tati would do. On top of that, Nina told me she’d just found out the guy she thought she loved was bringing someone else to the party.”
My gaze widens and morphs into confusion, “What, why the hell would she think that?”
Grady winces and scratches at the back of his head. “Considering I didn’t know it was you, now looking back and it’s a bit hazy, but I think that was my fault. I told her you were working on your couple’s costume.”
I could literally punch myself in the face right now. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, man, she asked where you were that night, and I told her.”
“You remember this?” I am impressed.
“Of course. When my sister told me this story, she’d only ever kissed the guy who didn’t have a face, but now does.” He pauses. “I still kind of want to punch you in the face right now.”
“That’s fair,” I say, nodding.
“Just go and talk to her,” he huffs, and for the first time tonight, I think maybe he could accept Nina and me together. “You two need to talk about that night and figure out what really happened. It makes sense now why she didn’t want you to live with her,” he says, tossing the football at me.
Unprepared, I catch it clumsily.
“Yeah, I guess I can go back to the apartment, and hash everything out.” Rising from the couch, I feel a little better. I’m glad Grady knows now and didn’t try to beat my ass. I’m also glad he didn’t say he hated me.
When I get to the door, he turns to me and grins, “Just don’t ever tell me anything about my sister again, okay? It’s way too disturbing to think about her doing very adult things with my best friend.”
“Deal.” I chuckle before fist-bumping him and walking back out to my car. I feel more optimistic than I have in a long time. I’m not quite ready to talk to Nina, not after the way I acted. First, I need to do something to prove to her she’s it for me. That it’s always been her and me.
21
Nina
I need to be a big girl and let Sam know what’s going on. It’s already after dinner time, but I don’t want to wait until tomorrow. This isn’t going to be an easy conversation. Part of me knew since the first time Sam and I hung out romantically that it wasn’t going to work out. I had such an image in my head about what the two of us together would be like, and it just didn’t happen. There really wasn’t any chemistry.
Practicing in the mirror what I’m going to say, I start talking. “Sam, it’s not me, it’s you.” Wait, I said that backward, didn’t I? “Sam, I have to move away.” That won’t work. I work with him, and I’m not quitting my job. I shake away the nervous anxiety I have over this.
I’d be a coward to do something like this via text, so I decide to do it in person. Calling him, I ask if he wants to come over.
Before we hang up, I tell him, “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
“That sounds ominous,” he replies, “I’ll be over in a half-hour, and we can talk.”
I don’t like disappointing people, so this is going to be uncomfortable for me. When Sam comes over, I have him come in and sit on the floor with me.
“I like you,” I start, setting my hands in my lap, “we’ve had a great relationship at work, and I’m so happy I have you there to keep me sane.”
“But you’re not into me romantically.” He finishes, surprising the hell out of me.
“No.” I confirm, nodding, “I think we’re good as friends, and that’s it. I’m really sorry, Sam.”
“You know, I’ve thought about what it would be like to take you out. We get along so well, and you’re so funny, but I agree with you.” The smile he gives me is weak but enough to take some of the sadness off.
“I’m glad. I was really worried that I was going to hurt you.”
“I had a feeling you were into your roommate.” Sam’s comment catches me off guard, and I don’t respond. I don’t need to explain to him what Travis is to me.
After we talk for a short while longer, we hug, and Sam leaves. I feel a huge sense of relief. Now I need to figure out some grand gesture to show Travis how much I care about him, and us.
22
Travis
I have to figure out how to show Nina I’m serious about her, but I need some time to think about it. After the fight, and the way I acted, plus all our back and forth, it’s going to take something special. Something epic. I’ve had to watch enough romantic movies with girls to know some big romantic gesture is what it takes to prove your love.
Unfortunately, I’m not a big romantic gesture type, so this might be a bit difficult for me.
I’m trying to decide where to go because until I figure out what to do for Nina, I don’t want to face her. My phone rings and I grab it, hoping it’s her.
“Baby, can you come and get me?” Sydney is on the phone, and she sounds very slurry. “I can’t drive out of here. I’m at some sort of bar or maybe a restaurant.”
I know this tone of voice. She’s scared, and the chances of her doing something dumb are high.
“Sydney, don’t move and just tell me where you are. What’s the name?”
“Something with a bee, I think, babe. Bee bees,” she slurs.
“Is there a waitress near you?” I hear what sounds like her stumbling up to someone.
“Hey, you. Come tell my man where to come get me,” she says.
“Gladly,” the lady says as she gets on the phone. I assume they aren’t too pleased to have her there with them. “Sir, you can pick her up at Applebees. Some guy dropped her off, and she was already falling over.”
“Applebees, really?” I laugh. “Okay, I’ll be there soon.”
As I hang up the phone, I hear her yell, “boobies,” and realize that I had better hurry up. When I pull up in front of the restaurant, Sydney has cornered a couple and is telling them something with lots of hand gestures.
I jump out and go over to save them.
“Sydney, come on, let’s go.”
“Babe, these nice people were going to take me to their house to show me their aquarium,” she says, throwing her arms around me. I look over to see the couple are a bit older. They’re both rocking leather, and the lady has a sleeve of colorful tattoos. I get the feeling that they were really going to take her with them.
“Maybe not when you’ve been drinking,” I whisper into her ear before turning to the couple. “She will break everything in your house with the state she’s in.”
“That’s okay,” the woman says and give
s me a smile, “you can come over too.”
“Thanks, but I’m going to get her home,” I tell the couple as I guide her toward the car and help her in.
“I’ll come see your aquarium next time,” she yells out the window, and I drive away before they can follow us.
“I thought you left town?” I tell her as I drive back the way I came, “where are you staying?”
“I got a hotel room. I figured maybe you’d want to see me after our fight. Then, you didn’t call, and I went to drink. Met a guy, and he wanted to take me to a nice dinner,” she scoffs, “Applebees is really nice. Eating good in the neighborhood.”
“So, then what, he ditched you?”
“I started acting crazy. You know me.” She smirks and looks out the window. “I can’t keep my shit together for too long. That couple was really nice to me though.”
“They wanted you to do a threesome, Sydney. Sometimes for a smart girl, you can be very clueless.”
“Really,” she says, “I didn’t pick up on that at all. I guess I should have when the guy asked if I thought it was cool they had mirrors on their bedroom ceiling.”
I give her an incredulous look, “Where is your hotel?”
She tells me, and I drive to a Micro-Tel on the edge of town.
I help her to the door, walking inside with her. There is stuff everywhere. It looks like she just took things out of her bag and threw them all over the room. She trips over something I can’t see underneath all the clothes, and I catch her, falling onto the bed with her.
I stand up and take her boots off.
“You’re a good guy, baby,” she says, half asleep. “You’ve always been closed off. I’ve always known I wasn’t the girl for you.”
“What,” I pause surprised, “you’ve never told me that.”
“I know,” she mumbles as she reaches out for my hand, and I give it to her. “Honestly, I’m not really good for anyone right now, Travis. Not even myself. You’ve never been all in with me, or you would have wanted me to better myself.”
“I’m sorry, Sydney, I’ve not been fair to you.” I apologize.
“You’re a good guy.” She smiles. “I’ve not been fair to you either, you can stay if you want.” With those words, she’s asleep. I sit holding her hand for a little while longer, trying to reconcile the fact that I didn’t want her to get better. I enjoyed the drama and the fact that we were never going to be serious.
Since I can’t go home and face Nina, I take her up on staying and go to take a shower. Once I’m clean, I slide into the other bed across the room and fall asleep. I’ll figure out what to do tomorrow. Right now, I’m exhausted.
23
Nina
Feeling a little sad Travis didn’t come home last night so we could figure things out, I wake up in a funk. I decide some good old coffee and surfing the internet is what my soul needs. Heading to The Frenzied Bean, I rehash everything that happened from the sex to the fight. I can’t for the life of me figure out what happened.
As I reach the front of the shop, I see her. Sydney is seated inside the café, looking as hot as ever. I thought Travis said she’d left town?
She has on a black sweater with a deep v showing off perfectly round cleavage and another short skirt with red fishnets and tall boots. Man, she makes that look good. I’d look like a freak. Yeah, I’m not going in there. I don’t want to see her or have her see me.
I’m about to leave when Sydney perks up as a guy approaches her table with two coffees. My mouth drops open, seeing Travis. He is smiling at her as he hands her a coffee and takes a seat across from her.
That’s where he was last night?
“Am I fucked in the head?” I say the words out loud without meaning to. Realizing I look insane, talking to myself in front of the coffee shop, I rush down the sidewalk. I find a bench between two buildings, and I sit there as I try to figure out how I should feel about this.
Looking down, I notice a small caterpillar crawling on the arm of the bench.
“I guess you’re the only one to talk to right now. Here I was trying to find something to do that would prove I wanted him. While he’s just out with his fallback plan. Or am I the fallback plan?”
The caterpillar doesn’t offer any advice, not that I expected it to.
“I need Sloan.” I sigh, feeling helpless. I call her, but she doesn’t pick up. Not leaving a message, I hang up.
The thoughts just swirl more and more. I was worried, and he was out screwing. I mean, those oats have already been sown. Believe me, worm, I’ve pictured it. He’s re-sowing. Making himself a big old sweater.
My phone rings, saving the bug, who is now out of sight, from having to listen to me anymore.
“Sloan, I have a problem,” I speak into the phone, bypassing the typical hello.
“What’s up, sugar tits?”
“Travis and I slept together,” I need to get that out of the way, “again.”
“Yes,” she cheers. “Not the advice I gave you, but at least you got laid… again.”
“Not the reason I called,” I hiss.
“Okay, but I’m not going to stop being happy for your vag.”
I scrub a hand down my face at my best friend’s constant snark.
“You remember the sex-pot who showed up and tried to molest him in the living room?”
“Do I ever, you painted a pretty good visual.” I can hear her drooling.
“Focus, Sloan, I just saw them together at my favorite coffee place.”
“So what? He’s sleeping with you now.”
“No,” I say, “he’s fighting with me. Travis told me she left town, he obviously lied.”
“Wait,” Sloan says. “Don’t jump to conclusions. This chick sounds a lot like me. If that’s the case, she could have told him she was leaving and then just stayed.”
“What?” I find myself confused by what she’s saying.
“She wants what she can’t have. I’d have done it. If the man I boned occasionally, moved in with a fox like you, I’d stick around. I’d be trying to get him back.”
“Thanks for that, but what if she does?”
“Just barge in there and kiss him. Stake your claim. Then kiss her, and later tell me if she was a good kisser. Who knows this could work out for all three of you.”
“Sloan, I’m not going to do that.”
“Yeah, I know, but you should. You two are going to have to have a serious conversation. The dancing around each other needs to stop. Sexy ex or not, you two have to talk to each other.”
She’s right, but I don’t want to tell her that. She’ll gloat forever.
“They have history,” she continues, “he could just be seeing her off forever.”
“Or getting her off,” I mumble.
“Nina,” Sloan coos, “you made a joke.”
“No, I was being serious,” I say. I can’t stop picturing what he did to my body and then replacing me with Sydney in my brain.
“Go in there, and kiss him,” she orders.
“Okay, love you. Talk soon,” I tell her, unable to get off the phone fast enough. The caterpillar was more help. I’m not going in there and making a public scene. What good would that do me? No, I’m going to let him know I saw him. The challenge now is finding the perfect words to text to him. But first, I have to go somewhere else for my coffee. Rude.
24
Travis
After dropping Sydney off at her car, she hugged me and wished me well. It was nice to end things on a friendly note. I didn’t want there to be any weirdness. She’d been right, I’d never been fully open to her. The fact I felt ready for a relationship with Nina scared me to death.
Afterward, I arrive at my parents’, and we work straight through lunch. My parents and I get the rest of the framing done and start working on the shelves. With no help from Lindsie and Brian, who claim they’re too tired.
“You know this is a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be,” I say.
&n
bsp; Too late, I see my mother making a line across her throat with her index finger and shaking her head violently. She mouths the words ‘shut up,’ and I raise my brows.
“Well, it would have been bigger,” my dad erupts, “but the city apparently thinks it would be an eyesore. I scaled it back, and now this is what we have. They wouldn’t even have had to look at it.” I feel for him, but those are the rules, and there isn’t anything either him or I can do about it.
After a late lunch, we go back to work on the shelving again.
“I think we’re going to sell tomatoes,” Mom tells me, “it will be a good use for the greenhouse, and we can make a little money on the side.”
My dad has a strange idea halfway through the afternoon, to put mulch beds inside the greenhouse so he can plant bushes inside. We end up going to the store twice just to get the mulch, and then he changes his mind again. By the time six o’clock rolls around, I’m starving.
Dinner is a triumph as it always is when my mom cooks. I have seconds and then feel like I’m going to die. The portions I’d taken were huge.
“I just wanted to let you know Lily called, and I told her you were still thinking about it,” Dad says as he leaves the greenhouse.
I shake my head, of course, he didn’t tell them I said no. Somehow, throughout my life, my dad has always known better than I did when it came to what was good for me. If I am going to stay around and make sure Nina falls deep—can’t get out of the water—in love with me, I might as well get a job while I’m at it.
“I’ll do it, I’ll take the job. Let me have her number, and I’ll call her,” I say.
“You’re staying?” He doesn’t sound over the moon about it, but he can’t hide the grin taking over his face.
Mom has a different reaction. Fanning her face and looking at the ceiling to keep from crying, she comes over to hug me.
