by Simon, Misty
Justin started packing his batting bag in the cage in front of them. Claudia moved her body a little on the bench to make room for Justin to sit down when he came out. But instead of moving down away from Nate, she moved toward him and ended up nearly smooshing her very curvy body up against his.
He popped off the bench like a jack-in-the-box. She nearly fell on the ground, righting herself at the last second.
“Are you okay?” he asked, grabbing her arm and fighting embarrassment. What the hell was wrong with him? “God, I’m so sorry.”
“Not a problem, Nate.” She lowered her lashes and fluttered them.
On second thought, what the hell was wrong with her?
Cool fingers trailed up his arm and lightly pinched his bicep. “Why so nervous?”
Good question, but he didn’t feel he had a good answer. She was running him ragged. Time to take control back and get onto a different subject. He could still feel the imprint of her breast on his arm where she’d leaned against him. And as much as he’d like to say it hadn’t affected him in the least—come on, this was his friend Claudia—a boner was starting in his pants. A completely inappropriate response to the girl whose ponytails he used to pull and whose shoes he had put slugs in.
“I’m not nervous. I, um, just remembered I need to get to the grocery store before they close.”
“But it’s only six-thirty. You have hours. I was thinking maybe we could get some pizza and a movie and close ourselves in for the night.” She leaned back against the bench with her arms behind her, crossed her legs and seemed to thrust out her chest.
He almost swallowed his tongue. He found it tucked into the side of his mouth between his teeth and unstuck it so he could say, “Tonight’s not going to work for me, but I’ll definitely see you Sunday at the Peter lunch. Have a good night.” He scooted out of there so fast his pants might have been on fire. That description was not too far from the truth he realized as he sat in his car telling his libido to calm the hell down.
****
“Now when you go near him again, you might not want to revert to the blinking thing again.” Two hours later, the lesson had begun. While Claudia groaned at her sister’s words, Zoe was obviously relishing every single syllable coming out of her mouth. It wasn’t often she got to be the one telling her older sister what to do and how to do it. There was a reason for that.
Apparently Zoe’s date had not gone off well, and so she had come back to the apartment to corner Claudia, who was alone for the night. After Nate had left for his mysterious and ridiculous errand to the grocery store, one of the moms of Justin’s baseball teammates had found them at the batting cages and invited him for a sleepover. Even though the night stretched out before her, Claudia had said yes. Honestly, it would be nice to have a night off to regroup after Nate had turned her down for dinner and a movie in. She needed to lick her wounds, and instead she was getting flirting tips from Zoe.
“It wasn’t a blinking thing! I was trying to bat my eyelashes at him.”
She demonstrated, and Zoe jumped right on her. “Honey, that is not batting your eyelashes. That it definitely blinking like you have something in your eye.”
Claudia heaved a sigh. “I told you I was a complete lost cause. Even at the batting cages I couldn’t get it right. He talked to Justin and then just walked away as if I didn’t exist except as the mom.”
“No, no, no. I’m just saying we might need to take a more direct approach. After all these years, he may not get a more subtle hint.”
“I’m going to give up on it. I don’t know why I thought I could flirt anyway. We’re comfortable the way we are. Forget about it.”
As if.
“I will not forget about it. You want that cake, finally, and we’re going to get it for you. Maybe even cake with icing! We are not giving up.”
“I wish I had your enthusiasm. I think all I’ll ever be is a mother. I don’t even know how to be a woman anymore. And I just want the cake. I’ll never actually find the icing.”
Apparently, Zoe thought that line of thinking needed to be nipped right in the bud.
“I was right there along with you when you were getting bigger and bigger with your pregnancy. Hell, I even had odd cravings right along with you, at the ripe old age of fifteen. I am not going to let you shrivel up and die an old maid at twenty-eight. Life is not over. We’ll nail this, and then you’ll be the happiest woman in the world.”
“Or I’ll nail Nate and have no more best friend. I don’t know if I still even remember how to have sex.” Claudia threw her hand over her brow and leaned back against the kitchen counter.
Zoe grabbed her hand and pinched her finger. “Do not go all drama queen on me. Now, let’s get started so we can get you laid and happy. Time’s a-wasting, and I don’t have any more of it to go out and buy you blue and green streamers for your poor-me party.”
“You have never been funny, and I don’t know why you continue to try. I’m being serious here, and you’re mocking me.”
“I’m not mocking you.” Zoe sat at the kitchen table and retrieved a notepad from under the jumble of crap that had accumulated there throughout the week. It seemed like it was the one place everyone dropped their stuff. Justin’s socks, Claudia’s purse and mail, Zoe’s jacket, all mounded on the table like a trash heap gone bad.
“You are.” At the wooden table, Claudia pulled out the chair across from Zoe and plopped into it. “You think this is easy after so many years? Nate has seen me breastfeed my kid and cry all over him when Justin did something unbearably cute or horribly wrong. Why is he going to want this?” She waved a hand at her less-than-perfect body and then pulled some of her long hair away from her head.
“I think Nate has wanted that since he was sixteen years old.”
“Yeah, and at sixteen I weighed forty pounds less and had highlights shining in my perfect hair.”
“You also fixed your bangs in a fan that stood about five inches above your forehead.”
Claudia thunked her head on the hard wood of the table. “Don’t remind me. This is useless.”
“All right, that’s the last time you’re allowed to say that. I’ve given you time to be a sad sack, but no more. We’re going to do this, and we’re going to do it right. Once Nate gets a clue, he’ll fall right into your clutches.” Zoe made note of the highlights on her pad and added a few ideas about how to go about making Nate even more besotted than he already was. When Claudia tried to get a better peek at the paper, Zoe slapped a hand on top of the pad.
“And what about you?”
Zoe’s head whipped up and she zeroed in on Claudia with narrowed eyes. “Nothing about me. This is all you.” She doodled a heart on the page under the word “manicure” and avoided looking at Claudia.
“Then I guess you don’t have any problem with the fact Dexter Zegray called and wants you to come in to go over some additional suggestions?”
“Sure. Not a problem. I’ll go see him next week.”
Trying to force Zoe to change the subject was not helping. Claudia was going to have to either buck up and do this or get rid of Zoe, and the getting rid of thing was not looking promising.
“I don’t even know why we’re discussing flirting with Nate, much less trying to sleep with him. I don’t want him to see me as some hussy.” Claudia rose from her seat and fussed with the knob of the silverware drawer to the left of her hip. “Besides, it’s not going to work, and I don’t want to waste any time doing ridiculous things. I have that luncheon Sunday at May’s house.”
“Oh, no, you’re not getting out of it that easily, sister dear. I spent time making this list, and I’m not going to throw it away simply because you’re getting cold feet. Now sit down, and let’s get moving.”
What followed was too agonizing to describe. Claudia would have nightmares for years about making kissy faces at herself in the mirror and turning her head just right so her hair fell over her shoulder. And in the end she only felt like more of a f
ailure. Not that she’d tell Zoe that, if she valued her sanity.
She went to bed counting down the hours until she could see Peter and get him out of her hair. If she seriously wanted to pursue Nate, she would have to do it her own way.
****
“Emergency girl meeting,” Claudia called out the next morning as she streamed through the front door of Decadence with her heart racing and her palms damp.
May looked up from her kneeling position in front of a dress dummy covered in silk. Pins dangled from between her lips, and her hair was up in a sloppy bun.
Claudia kept on toward the back, knowing May would follow close behind, pins or no pins. Zoe called out she’d be right there after she stuck something in the refrigerator.
When Zoe showed up, she grabbed one of the other chairs from the wall and pulled it in close, then took Claudia’s left hand in hers. May did the same thing with the last chair and her right hand.
“What’s going on?” they said in stereo.
“Nate just called, and he has the plans for Decadence ready. He said he wanted to come over and go through them with me, but I can’t do it. I need one of you to stand in for me.”
“Absolutely not,” Zoe said, while May sat with a smile on her face.
“Why is it absolutely not? I’ve done plenty for you. You could do this one thing for me. And, May, you can stop smiling. I believe you just pulled the friendship card the other day about this lunch tomorrow. I can’t do this knowing that he might know I’m attracted to him but he’s too nice to tell me it’s not going to happen. He completely turned me down for dinner and a movie at home the other night, just to go grocery shopping!”
“Don’t be so difficult, Claudia,” Zoe said. “You’re trying to look for reasons not to get involved with a man you find attractive but are afraid to test the waters with.”
But what if that fear was very valid and could end the most important relationship in her and her son’s life? “That’s fine for you to say.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you don’t even date seriously. How can you be any judge?”
“I date, and that’s not the point.”
May leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes. Claudia caught the motion and gave her a sharp look. “I’m just saying you don’t have much experience to go on other than being a serial dater. You haven’t exactly got a track record for long-term commitments.”
“Again, so not the point. The point is that you are ready to finally give the guy who’s lusted after you for years a chance to once and for all convince you he could be more than a friend. Don’t screw it up by hiding.”
Claudia’s heart stuttered as she frowned. That might be all too true, but there was more at stake here than just riding the baloney pony. This was her life.
“I’m sorry,” Zoe said. “That didn’t come out the way I’d meant it to. And I know this is probably hard for you.”
Claudia sat back, but she didn’t roll her eyes like May had. Instead, tears welled up and threatened to spill over. “You think this is easy for me? I just realized the other day that I haven’t been out with a truly interesting man since I was a teenager. Not only that, but I only have your word to go on that Nate is interested in me.”
“And mine,” May said, popping into the conversation. “I know he’s held a torch for years, at least since you were in eleventh grade.”
“No way!” Claudia leaned forward in her chair and grabbed May’s hands. “No way has he wanted me that long without talking about it.”
“Yes way,” Zoe answered, before May could. “You’ve just been blind. Like having a child took away your ability to see what’s going on right beneath your nose.” Zoe put her hands on top of May’s and Claudia’s. “Sweetie, why else do you think he’s stuck around for all these years and done so much for you?”
Claudia sat back in her chair, crossing her legs and hugging her arms tight to her stomach. “Because we’ve been friends for years.”
“I won’t discount that, seriously. But why hasn’t he found someone for himself, then? Why does he continue to come to our house and watch Justin? Or coach his team? Have me make you flowers on your birthday? I’ve had male friends, and they never did even one of those things, much less all of them.”
“Maybe I have been looking at it wrong.”
“Maybe you have,” May said. “He doesn’t say anything specific about you, but I can tell.”
“I think you need to embrace what you want, Claudia, and decide how you’re going to go out and get it done.” May flipped her hair back over her shoulder and out of her face. “You need to go get him, no holds barred, the way I did with Brad.”
A wistful expression flitted across May’s face. One Claudia wanted to see on her own face in the mirror instead of the kissy lips. Before she had time to think about what that would look like, the bell rang over the door and their mother announced her entrance.
“Hi!” Mona waved from the cake counter where she was snitching a small sample.
“Mom, those are for the customers.” Claudia walked away from the emergency girl meeting and snatched the rest of the plate out of her mother’s hands. After putting the domed plate back into the display case, she rested her hands on her hips.
“Oh, posh! I was in the area and hankering for some of your delicious sugary stuff, so I stopped in to see what was going on, now that I’m loosening up my schedule some.” She zeroed in on Zoe, who flinched. “You did get that information for me, right? How long is this going to take?”
“Yeah, it’s all taken care of and the ball is rolling, Mom.”
“Yes, Mom,” Claudia said, winking at May. “All taken care of and wrapped in a pretty bow by a man named Dex, who has caught dear Zoe’s eye.” That ought to show Zoe and deflect any interest in Claudia. Plus, it was exactly what sisters were for, butting in where they weren’t needed.
Zoe retaliated immediately. “Did I tell you Claudia’s trying to figure out how to hook up with Nate?”
It spiraled down from there, with May laughing and Mona probing her daughters for all the information. Zoe, of course, gave as little as she could, continuing to deflect everything onto Claudia.
“We’re not dating,” Claudia said for the fifth time.
“Well, you should be. It’s a good thing you finally woke up to what a pony that Edward was. I can’t believe you went out with him.”
Claudia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry that her mom also thought Edward was a pony, or even knew what that reference meant. She tackled the one thing she could. “You’re the one who set us up.”
“Oh, lordy, girl, that was only to get you to open your eyes to see what a man Nate was. I kept hoping you’d get a clue, but when you never did, I was starting to despair.”
Claudia did an impression of a carp, like Zoe’s from the other night, until her mom gently closed her mouth for her and waved goodbye. She was going to miss having her mom in the shop on a permanent basis, but it would be good for her parents to spend time together, now they were both retired. They’d earned the right to take some leisure time. Maybe she should talk to Zoe about sending them on a cruise. Or she’d talk to Zoe about that once she stopped giving her sister the evil eye and the cold shoulder.
Zoe deliberately stood in Claudia’s way when she came back from putting a cake into the big refrigerator in the back. Claudia tried to step around her, but Zoe just moved with her. “You’re not getting away from me. After this I can bug you all night upstairs in the apartment. I’ll be like a burr on your butt.”
Claudia cracked a slight smile she tried to shut down immediately. “You are a burr on my butt anyway. What’s new about that?”
“Oh, you’re a real comedian, but I can see you want to smile. I know you do. You want to smile, don’t you? Come on.”
“Oh, all right, you pain in the ass. I’ll smile, but I’m still not happy you tried to throw me to the wolf. I have half a mind to go give her a c
all and see if she and Uncle Al can work on getting you and Dex together.”
“Please don’t. You know how she gets. One grandchild isn’t enough for her, and I don’t want to get either the third degree or the major maternal encouragement, otherwise known as ‘push.’ I promise not to mention one more thing about Nate to her. Let’s shake on it. We’ll leave her out of everything. In fact, it may not be that hard to do, since she and Dad should be spending a bunch of time together and she won’t be in here every day.”
Claudia stuck out her hand. “No spitting, though. I can keep a promise without exchanging bodily fluids.”
“But would you want to if I were Nate?”
“You’re not Nate, so that’s not a valid question. Besides, I’m still hung up on what exactly I want there. I saw him yesterday, and he barely looked at me. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Now I have to go sit with him over blueprints when he is completely oblivious to my charms, what few there are.”
“May told you you’re going to have to be blunt with him. It’s been a lot of years, and he’s not going to know what you’re doing—or won’t believe it even if he thinks it.”
Claudia blew out a sigh that lifted her bangs. “Well, that just sucks. He should get a clue, so I don’t have to give him one.” She leaned on the top of her counter, messing with a trail of ivy decorating a fake display cake. “Does this ever get any easier?”
“Unfortunately, I have no idea, as you and May so nicely pointed out to me earlier at the emergency meeting. Now go upstairs, make sure all Justin’s dirty underwear is put away, and vamp yourself out. I’ll pick Justin up from his friend’s and get us some lunch. That should give you enough time to convince Nate of your interest.”
****
Nate shifted from foot to foot outside Claudia’s door, hesitating to go in now that he’d arrived. He heard noise inside the apartment, and the light eastern breeze played with the sheer curtains she’d put up a year ago. It was a welcoming home, one he liked to come to and hang out at. He felt a part of something there, even if it was just as a friend.
