A Date With Fate

by Tracy Ellen

  “Yes, first grade. Did she also happen to mention when we met she smacked me with her lunch box?”

  I found my legs and pushed off the closed door to stand next to Luke while shaking my head and muttering, ‘And they’re off….”

  Luke grinned, his dimple creasing his cheek. “No, she didn’t mention that part. She did that to you? Anabel seems to have violence issues. She smacks, she bites,” he squeezed my waist and slanted me a sly look, “she pushes. As her best friend, should I be worried, Anna?”

  I rolled my eyes as Anna trilled with laughter. “Knowing her, I’d say you should worry most when Junior is quiet for too long. All the rest is just her way of showing affection.”

  Luke chuckled, but I observed a calculating look fleetingly pass over his face as he spoke with Anna. If I hadn’t been watching him closely, I’d never have seen it flash by. It made me straighten to alertness, curious what he was up to.

  “I think we’ll need to talk more about Anabel’s bad habits. This would be only for my future protection, of course.” Luke gave me a quick smile. He ran his hand lightly up my arm and settled his arm around my shoulder.

  Laughing, Anna instantly agreed. “Oh, of course!”

  Protesting, I yanked on the zipper of his leather jacket. “You’re both crazy. I haven’t heard even one bad habit mentioned here yet. What are you two talking about, anyway?”

  They both groaned. Luke hugged me close while saying to Anna over my head, “Add delusional to the list, Anna.”

  Anna was laughing, but I saw her fascination with Luke’s easy affection towards me. Moving away from his arms to walk a few steps to the checkout counter, I groaned again silently. I was really in for the third degree soon.

  “Since Anabel has no bad habits,” Luke coughed into his fist and cleared his throat, “then what should you warn me about, Anna?” He leaned in and joked conspiratorially, “It must be all her dirty secrets only a best friend knows you want to tell me about.”

  I relaxed. My earlier suspicions from seeing that look pass over his face melted away. Surely he wouldn’t announce his intentions to pump Anna for intel about me, not with me right there?

  Luke and I have talked about anything and everything as we explore getting to know one another. Anything and everything except our personal pasts, if we were currently seeing anyone else, or our wants and needs in a relationship. We are carefully dancing around those touchy subjects.

  I was happy never to go there. Those types of conversations got out of hand too easy. Talks like that invariably brought up issues. Issues caused misunderstandings and problems. Problems meant explanations, discussions, and more discussions. Enter next the resolutions, and then the ultimatums. Ultimatums brought on head-aches. Who in their right mind actively seeks a head-ache? One minute you are happily dating and thinking everything is groovy, and nothing needs fixing. The next you are depressed and contemplating lifelong self-pleasuring as the only answer.

  I had no idea how Luke would react to finding out I was dating other men. Men can be so contrary. Too often in the past, it seems to drive a man nuts when they really get I’m not looking for a shout-it-to-the-world, sexually monogamous boyfriend scene. They see it as an insult or a challenge. It seems simple to me. If I care about one man enough, I will be monogamous to him because I want to be with no other man. You can’t force loyalty with words. It’s a gift you give with actions. Relationships don’t really come with an automatic, thirty-year guarantee regardless of the wear and tear of daily life.

  I didn’t know what Luke intended to say to me about missing his recent calls before Anna interrupted moments ago. All these thoughts made me unsettled and slightly nervous, so I excused myself to finish closing up.

  Walking into my office, I heard Anna giggling to Luke, “Junior is so full of dirty secrets; I wouldn’t even know where to begin. It doesn’t matter though, since I can’t tell you a single thing.”

  ‘Crap!’ With a man like Luke, that was the same as waving the red flag in a bull ring.

  “Anna, was that a challenge I heard?” was Luke’s teasing response.

  ‘Crap and more crap! Anna, use your brain here….’

  “God, no!” was Anna’s cheerful answer.

  ‘Thank you, I love you Anna!’

  “There’s no challenge, Luke. Best friends are vaults. Period. The end. It’s a girl thing.”

  “So, vaults and best friends are only a girl thing?” was the silken reply.

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m sure there are many gay guys out there that know what I mean, but most straight guys don’t have a clue how a woman really thinks.”

  “Yes, men are basically clueless idiots, aren’t we?” Luke easily agreed.

  Anna and Luke laughed happily together.

  ‘Reminder to self: kick Anna’s ass later.’

  I didn’t know where Luke was going with this, but somehow it didn’t sound good for Team Anabel.

  I quickly took care of the rest of my closing business. All the while, I was very aware of Luke’s eyes tracking me around the store from where he stood chatting with Anna. I didn’t glance over at them, but I was aware of his every movement, as well. It gave me a feeling of heightened excitement for the night ahead. Maybe Anna was right; this was not normal behavior coming from me about a man near our sixth date. Since I rarely had a sixth date, I couldn’t be sure what normal was.

  Grabbing my purse, I was ready to go. As I approached the pair, I was momentarily surprised to hear Luke casually invite Anna to join us for dinner. She was pleased as punch but demurred, not wanting to horn in on our date.

  I thought it was a great idea and seconded the invite, pleased Luke suggested it. Anna knows I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want her, or if I thought Luke was asking only to be polite, so she cheerfully accepted.

  I figured I had all night to be with Luke. A couple of hours of him getting to know my best friend was a good transition into a letting people know we were dating, and that it was no big secret.

  Luke led the way out as I locked up. Behind his back, Anna kept giving me big eyes while grinning and nodding her approval of Luke.

  Mouthing the word “Wow!” she motioned towards him ahead of us and silently clicked her fingers like pincers. Okay, she was specifically pretending to pinch his ass. Even as I elbowed her to behave, I had to agree his back side looked very fine from where I was standing.

  On that note, the three of us walked our merry way down a block to Rueb’s to have a drink and some food. Anna and I were both starving since neither of us had time for lunch that day. Inside Rueb’s, it was not too crowded. We’d arrived between happy hours. Luke got us settled at a table, ordered a round of drinks, and proceeded to get to know Anna.

  When I introduced them, I had a vague thought Anna’s giddy bossiness could put Luke off, or his supreme confidence would repel Anna. Not so. He encouraged her to talk about growing up with me in Northfield. He listened attentively and soon had her forgetting any self-consciousness around him.

  I was supplied with drinks and then, for all practical purposes, ignored.

  Anna gets very excited and animated when telling stories. She jumps and bounces all over the place, or up and down in her chair if restrained by locale or seat belts. She laughs often and she’s also a toucher. The girl is always grabbing someone, or something, or herself. When telling stories, she could go on endlessly with minute details. She easily gets sidetracked and digresses into other stories, forgetting her original train of thought until reminded.

  It’s the way a lot of girls talk when getting together and doesn’t faze me. Women have so much to say. Although, I think Anna does take the prize for going off the beaten path during a conversation. I was used to prompting her to go back and finish a story if I ever wanted to know an ending.

  It didn’t seem to faze Luke, either. He sat back and nursed his beer, kept the drinks coming for us, and smiled often at Anna’s antics. She told him many adventures of our growing up
years that had Luke chuckling even while he sent me appraising looks. This was probably due to the fact I was usually getting us in and out of trouble. He most likely was reconsidering my offer of having his children. If I’m a scary sister, imagine what I’d be like as a mother.

  Typically, I don’t drink much when I am out. My norm is to sip on one cocktail forever. I don’t have anything against drinking per se, I just don’t seem to need alcohol to let loose and party. I often forget to drink. I have fun talking with friends and dancing without getting drunk, even though people often think I am drunk.

  Tonight, Anna and I were totally wasted within an hour.

  I understood much later it was all part of a diabolical Luke Drake plot to infiltrate, divide and conquer, then interrogate. I think I have a firmer grasp where his detailed career path may lead. Something like Lead Man in the neo-Spanish Inquisition sounds about right. It may be time to find out exactly what this man is up to when he’s out of town.

  After plying Anna with several drinks, no food, and his smiling regard, I was astonished to see my male-savvy friend was drunkenly lulled into putting her guard down completely with Luke.

  I unconsciously finished off my third vodka tonic. It was one of those nights when it felt good to kick back and the drinks were going down easy. I shook the cubes in my glass while Anna giggles ran up and down the scales as Luke entertained her with sexist, blonde jokes and politically incorrect, tiny person one-liners.

  I snorted into my empty glass. ‘Yeah, go ahead and giggle, Anna; you’re a five-foot-five brunette, and not a short, little Blondie like me.’

  I caught Luke’s small smile at hearing my snort.

  Our server, a woman I didn’t know named Cindy, quietly delivered a shot to me. She nodded towards a man I didn’t know sitting alone at the bar.

  Raising the shot glass in a toast, I threw it back in one motion and sputtering, I nearly threw it right back up.

  ‘Woo-wee!’ I slammed the shot glass down on the table and shook my head in revulsion as the unknown, clear liquor burned down my throat.

  Once I was sure I wasn’t going to die, I became aware Anna was laughing uproariously at Luke’s dry retelling of how we first met. Instead of taking my female side like a proper best friend, she kept telling him it was “so funny”. She thought the part when he attempted to leave me standing there talking to myself while he exited Reggie’s house was “flipping awesome”.

  I snorted again. ’Ha-ha. Too bad she didn’t know the story of our first date that same night. Then she’d REALLY have something to laugh about at my expense.’

  The faithful Cindy arrived a few minutes later with a tray. She set down a fourth vodka tonic for me and a rum and coke for Anna--courtesy of Mr. Funny Man himself. She then put a second complimentary shot at my elbow.

  Cindy sang softly out of the side of her mouth, “Somebody loves you….” and nodded towards the same guy at the bar. He raised his glass, smiling, when I glanced over.

  I turned my head to Cindy. “You mean, somebody’s trying to kill me.” Resolutely, I cheered myself on. “Okay, man up, Anabel!”

  As Cindy giggled, I took a deep breath and bravely threw this shot back after the first. It went down smoother. My body involuntarily shook for a minute like I was having a seizure, but it didn’t burn as bad as the first shot.

  ‘I was getting good at this!’

  In victory, I held up the shot glass and grinned with numbed lips at my two new friends, Server Cindy and Guy at the Bar. They clapped in praise, and then a grinning Server Cindy whisked the shot glass away.

  Luke had paused in his current story to Anna to watch me take the shot. I saw him watch my new friend, Guy at the Bar, who was talking with the bartender and unaware of Luke’s once-over. He watched my finger as I rubbed it slowly over my lips to restore feeling. He watched as I propped up my suddenly buzzing head with palms on my hot cheeks and elbows plopped on the table.

  I couldn’t help smiling happily at Luke’s watchful, unsmiling face. I think he’s the hottest man I’ve ever seen in my life.

  “Thank you, Anabel.”

  “Sure. For what?” I grinned.

  “For what you just said to me.” He answered, brows raised.

  “I didn’t say anything.” I scoffed, laughing. I amended emphatically, “I was thinking something.”

  Luke tipped back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, grinning and shaking his head at the same time. He started to reply, then stopped and laughed out loud.

  Tipsily, I can’t turn off my delighted grin as he laughs. Luke has an excellent sense of humor, but I would never call him happy-go-lucky. As we’ve gotten closer, I know under his amiable, calm surface he’s often on the more serious side and can sometimes be dark.

  His voice is naturally low and gruff, but when he laughs the sound comes from far down inside him, popping out almost against his will and he appears slightly surprised. I think Luke grins dryly at irony, snorts wryly in his own secret amusement at people, and sarcastically chuckles at life’s little foibles, but he doesn’t often genuinely laugh for the sheer, wonderful fun of it. I always feel like I have won a prize, or done something special when I surprise his happy laughter this way.

  Anna was noisily sucking down the last of one drink and waving enthusiastically across the room to someone she knew. Hearing Luke’s deep laughter she said smiled. “What’s going on? What did I miss?” She took a big swig of her new drink. “Wuke, finish telling me about that westaurant in Chicago where your friend works.”

  I giggled at Anna’s use of w’s in place of other letters. This always happens when she’s getting wasted and never fails to tear me up. Luke righted his chair. He shrugged helplessly at me like he had no choice but to entertain, and then resumed his conversation with Anna.

  I snorted in my glass for the third time. ‘Yeah, dude’s about as helpless as a King Cobra.’

  Abandoned, as well as neglected, I was feeling warm. I picked up my drink and put the cold glass against each rosy cheek to cool off, and then I took a long swallow to cool me off inside. When I focused in on their conversation awhile later, my mouth dropped open in shock to hear Anna seconding Luke’s every opinion like Polly the Parrot starving for a cracker.

  This made me woozily realize I was hungry and that I needed to go to the bathroom.

  I interrupted Luke to excuse myself. He was explaining to a bewitched, befuddled Anna either a punch line of a joke or his political viewpoint—I couldn’t be sure which--that in a perfect world we would be better off led by a triumvirate of Republican businessmen with absolute power.

  Luke stood up and gallantly pulled out my chair. This caused the adoring Anna to clap and extravagantly compliment his wonderful manners.

  I muttered, “Thanks should go to his mother.”

  I got up without making eye contact with Luke. This was to hold myself back from delivering a sucker punch to his helpless, eight-pack. He would have only added the blow to the list of my imaginary bad habits. I carefully made my lonely way to the Ladies room sans best friend; an event seldom seen in my lifetime.

  I did my thing, washed my hands, and swayed and grooved to a man named Marvin singing about getting it on. The music was bouncing off the tiled walls at a high volume through an unseen speaker. I patted at my hair, and made sure my clothes were still on after that song was finished. I reapplied my lips gloss, not really able to see my face too clearly in the wavy mirror. They should really do something about that.

  On the way back to our table, I made a detour to thank Guy at the Bar for sending me those god awful shots. Grabbing a handful of nuts from a bowl, I munched hungrily while leaning my back against the bar next to his stool. He looked like a nice guy, so I told him that. I also let him know he shouldn’t waste his money on me, that I was there with my date.

  “You are?” Guy asked, confused.

  “Yep, I am here with that man.” Guy at the Bar turned and followed my pointing finger towards the empty pool
table. I closed one eye, my left, and corrected my aim to my table.

  We both watched Anna take a big slug of her drink. She continued talking and making strange motions like she was sawing a piece of particularly difficult wood in half. Luke was nodding, but his eyes kept coming back to me and my friend at the bar. He was not smiling again. His face looked hard and a little cruel when he wasn’t smiling.

  Guy said, “Sorry, my mistake. It didn’t look like you were with him. What do you think your girlfriend is doing?”

  I nodded my agreement on his first comments. “He’s a very tricky date.” I peered at Anna. “I cannot tell a lie. I have no clue what she’s doing. Is it just me, or does it looks weird?”

  Guy at the Bar, after some consideration, agreed. “It looks weird.”

  He tapped my hand that was beating time to the music on the bar. “Your date doesn’t look very happy right now. Do I need to worry?”

  I looked over at Luke. “Huh. I can’t see real well since the lights are so dim in here,” I smiled brightly at Guy, “but, hey, I was just thinking myself he looks kind of cruel. I think it’s his mouth. What do you think? Don’t worry though, okay? I won’t let him beat up a nice guy like you.”

  “Good, thanks. I don’t know about his mouth. I think he just looks pissed off.”

  In considering silence, we both glanced over at Luke.

  Luke raised his right brow. For some reason, I had no problem seeing that motion. Similar to the Patellar reflex, this gesture made me want to straddle his lap every time it occurred. I snorted a giggle at the thought. Luke frowned and nodded his head slightly towards my empty chair.

  I shoved off the bar. “Ah, he had me at the eyebrow move. Bye-bye, Guy, and thanks again.” I patted Guy at the Bar on the shoulder.

  “You’re welcome. You’re nice, too.” He smiled. “If you decide you don’t like his tricks….”

  I laughed and waved, saying over my shoulder, “Thanks, but so far, I like his tricks just fine.”

  As I sat back down, Luke reached for my hand and linked it with his. I leaned over and kissed his cheek, then slowly wiped off my lip gloss with my thumb. He smiled, but it didn’t erase all the hardness from his face. He turned back to Anna’s story.