by MF Isaacs
His smirk changed a little, “Thanks hot stuff. I’d like to be a good friend for you too. So, tell me why the fresh start?”
We spent the next two hours talking about all kinds of random stuff. I told him about being stuck in a rut. I lived it up in college; I partied, I traveled, I experimented and yet I ended up right back where I started. I told him about my crazy family and what it’s like having a niece and nephew. I knew a little bit about Sierra and Calvin’s relationship from Calvin; but he told me the whole story along with Steve and Hannah’s story. My heart hurt when he shared the story of how he lost his parents and sister Sophia. I felt comfort in the way he spoke so frankly about the abusive relationship between Cody and Sophia.
When he shared his recently thought out plan of trying to student teach this spring, I was overcome with excitement for him. He already showed me his desire to help guide teenagers by the way he talked about Cody and Sophia. He acknowledged so many areas that the warning signs were ignored.
CURTIS
I hadn’t been kidding earlier when I told her it was the best day I’d ever had, or damn close. I enjoyed just talking to her. After we ate pizza, we shifted from sitting up on the bed to laying down. As soon as the silence washed over us, I was brought back to the phone call I wasn’t prepared for. Instantly, my heart began to race and I could feel the panic bubbling within me. I was caught off guard when Natalie touched my forearm with her small warm hand. The presence of her hand pulled my thoughts away from the phone call.
Her words were calming, “Hey Curtis, I can feel you stressing out all the way over here. You worrying about whatever it is, isn’t going to change anything tonight.”
She was right and the feel of her hand on my arm was just as calming as her words. Without further thought, I took hold of her hand, linking our fingers together before bringing her hand to my mouth for a simple kiss. She rolled until she was facing me with our hands still locked together, she used her other hand to hold onto my bicep. I don’t know which one of us fell asleep first, but I know it was the best night’s sleep I’d had since before life when to shit.
The next morning, we overslept and had to rush around to get her to work on time. She was scheduled back at the Toyota dealership. It worked out fine, Sierra was at the dealership when we arrived and offered to take me to get Natalie’s car. Before walking away with her Honda keys, I pulled her in for a soft kiss. It wasn’t the possessive kiss I wanted to lay on her, yet it was more than any I had given her the day before.
Driving away with Sierra, I could feel myself missing her already. It felt different than what I felt when I missed Callie and Will, I couldn’t put words to the feelings. It was more desperate, I felt more protective; simply put, I felt more everything. Sierra pulled me from my thoughts by asking what my plans were for the day.
“I need to see about doing my student teaching.” When she gasped, I forgot that I hadn’t talked to her at all about my plans. When I glanced over at her, she had tears leaking out of her eyes. It always sucks to see her cry, but it sucks even more when I’m the reason she’s crying in the first place. “Please don’t cry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
She spoke through her tears as she pulled into a cafe parking lot, “When? Why wouldn’t you tell me?”
With the car in park she turned toward me, I swiped a handful of tears from her face before telling her. “It’s always been in the back of my mind that I wanted to teach and coach. But then I worried that I wouldn’t make enough money, so I picked a different major. I kept taking all the classes I needed for teaching but didn’t plan on doing anything with them. Yesterday, Amy went running with me.”
She cracked a huge smile and laughed. “Sorry, she was so funny last night limping around talking under her breath about kicking someone’s ass. Now, I’m assuming the ass is you.”
I’m sure it was, but she really was better than I thought she would be. “Anyway, talking to her opened my eyes. Despite everything we’ve been through, we are lucky we can afford to do what we like. So now my plan is to see if I can student teach this coming semester and take my last couple of classes in time to teach next year.”
Rather than picking up Natalie’s car, we went in search of food. After ordering, I stepped outside to make the phone calls I needed to get things rolling for my student teaching. It was easier than I expected, the High School Kyler attends has two teachers taking maternity leave starting in March so they are happy to help me get my hours because I am ultimately helping them.
After eating, Sierra dropped me off to get Natalie’s car. It felt like climbing into a shoebox after driving the Explorer and now my new car. Instantly, I was overcome with the sick feeling of worry. She drove this car, the tires were bald, the alignment was off and the brakes were bad. She shouldn’t be driving this. Without further thought, I drove to the storage unit, swapped the shoebox with the Explorer, and figured the problem was solved. She could drive my new car and I’d go back to driving the Explorer.
I made my way back to the McMann’s and spent the afternoon hanging out with Amy who was still limping around like she ran a marathon. I filled her in on all the progress I’d made since the day before, without thinking twice I started to tell her about the phone call I’d gotten from Callie the day before. I hadn’t been kidding myself by pretending it hadn’t happened. Being able to openly talk it through with Amy was so freeing. Freeing until my phone buzzed with a text message from Will, asking if I was free to talk for a minute.
I know Amy saw the message because I made no attempt to hide it. Without saying a word, Amy stood from the table, kissed my cheek and walked away. I sat there in silence for a few minutes before I made my way down to ‘my bedroom’ at the McMann house. Once inside, I made the call that could potentially ruin the relationship I’d been a part of less than a week ago, “Hey Curtis, thanks for calling.” He paused and I didn’t respond. I wasn’t going to volunteer information, if he had questions I’d answer. “Callie told me she called you yesterday. I just wanted to hear your thoughts.”
Okay, so he already knew. That relieved a huge amount of pressure from me, “I don’t know what you want to hear or if you even really want to hear it. I have enough respect to be honest with you. I don’t know if you understood why I walked away.”
“Go ahead and tell me. I thought I knew, until yesterday when I found Callie crying her eyes out.” I could hear the phone move as he blew out his breath.
“Watching Sierra and Cal get married, I thought ‘I want that.’ The thought was confirmed when I watched Steve and Hannah get married a week fucking later. Standing at their wedding when Callie read her quote of advice about loving your spouse more than anything, in my gut I knew she was talking about you. That insecurity was confirmed when you guys went out drinking after finals and didn’t once think about inviting me. Plus, Will, I really want to be a dad someday, that wasn’t going to happen if I stayed.” My throat was tight with emotion, because the reality is, I did have true feelings and walking away wasn’t easy.
“So, when Callie asked you to come back...” I could hear the emotion in his voice as well.
“Will, it wasn’t like that. I don’t know what she told you, but it wasn’t just her asking me to come back. It was her asking me to choose her. She wants the kids, the marriage where you love your spouse more than anything else. She needs to be the most important thing to you. Hell Will, that’s all anyone needs. I don’t think she really wants all those things with me, I was just willing to admit that I wanted them for myself.” Neither of us spoke for a few beats, after the conversation with Callie yesterday, it took me awhile to get out of the funk and it was only because of Natalie that I was able to do so as quickly as I did. “I know it is a lot so take in, but Will, I’m not coming back. It is not something I am going to fight for. You have already fought so much, don’t give up now.”
“Thanks man. Take care.” he hung up before I could respond. I hated telling Callie no yesterday, but I know s
he doesn’t love me and I knew I didn’t love her either, especially after spending the day with Natalie.
I changed into running gear and went in search of Amy. She was just putting two pans of lasagna into the oven when she saw me and shook her head. “I am not going with you. I can hardly walk from yesterday.”
“Oh come on. Your muscles will thank you afterward. Just a short 2 miles, just enough to get our hearts pumping.” My phone rang just when I thought she would cave. Caller ID said it was Cal, “Hey man.”
“Oh no, it’s Natalie. I didn’t have your number so I asked Calvin if I could use his phone. I was just calling because I thought you would have brought my car back by now. I’m almost done for the day and I have some errands to run.” As I listened to her talk I saw Sierra was getting ready to go get Cal and had a great idea.
“Hey Natalie, why don’t you give Cal a ride home. I’m at the house now, Sierra hasn’t left to go get him yet and I was just getting ready to go for a quick run. I’ll be back by the time you get here. Plus, Amy just put her homemade lasagna in the oven and I’m sure there is enough for you to join us. Right Amy?” For two seconds, I felt bad for putting her on the spot, but it vanished the second she confirmed there would be plenty of food.
“Are you sure? I could just drop Calvin off and get my car.” I could hear the hesitation in her voice, but I wasn’t giving up.
“Hot stuff, I am positive. We’ll see you soon.” I hung up and turned to the two women standing around. “Okay, one of you is coming with me. Can you run being pregnant? If I promise to take it easy? I just want to do a couple miles.”
Sierra went with, she could still run at this stage in her pregnancy. We took it slow and ended up just doing two miles. I told her about the phone call yesterday with Callie and the one today with Will; talking about it with her and Amy solidified it in my mind that I made the right decision.
NATALIE
I felt weird driving my married boss home from work. I felt even weirder walking into his home, but I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t see my car parked out front which means I had to go inside to ask Curtis where I could find my car. Walking into their house, I could instantly smell the aroma of homemade cooking which caused my stomach to make the loudest growling noise ever. I’m sure Calvin’s mom could hear it from where she stood in the kitchen.
I looked around from the entry way wondering where Curtis was, he said he’d be back before we got there. Calvin didn’t pause in the entry way, he bee lined for his mom but only to ask where his wife was. “She and Curtis should be back any second. They went for a quick run.” She walked around Calvin, making her way toward me, “You must be Natalie. It’s nice to meet you, please come in and make yourself at home. Dinner is almost ready. What can I get you to drink? I have beer, wine, soda, water...”
Before I can answer Curtis and Sierra came in the front door, sweaty from their run. Calvin had Sierra in his arms before she can even take her shoes off, apparently, he wasn’t concerned with getting her sweat on his clothes. Curtis tried to approach me, but I was concerned with my clothes so I held both hands out to keep him away from me. “Are you afraid of a little sweat?”
I glanced at Amy, because I suddenly felt a little uncomfortable with the line of questioning. “Um. Uh. No, but I um, haven’t found a dry cleaner here yet, so I don’t want to get your sweat all over my clothes.”
“Oh, makes sense. In that case lets go find you something else to wear.” He leaned in and kissed my cheek making sure not to get his sweat on me. “I’m sure Sierra has stuff you can wear.” He took my hand and pulled me be behind him down the hall.
With a handful of Sierra’s clothes, he showed me to his room. He told me to get changed while he grabbed quick shower. I am sure Sierra knew what she was doing when she handed over clothes for me to borrow at her brother’s request. There is no fucking way she could have possibly thought these clothes would fit me. So here I stand in the middle of Curtis’ bedroom with two choices, put my work clothes back on or walk out there in clothes so tight they are indecent. Glancing around the room I decided to check the dresser to in hopes of finding something, anything, else. Thankfully the dresser wasn’t empty, there were two jersey style dresses and some men’s dress wear. I quickly slipped on the black and white stripped dress and prayed that it was okay to borrow it.
When Curtis returned fresh from the shower he froze in the doorway. Instantly I felt like I was going to hyperventilate, it must not be okay that I borrowed this dress. I quickly turned to grab my work clothes and started to apologize. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have dug” He was standing behind me before I could finish apologizing, with his hands on my shoulders he turned me around to face him.
“Please stop. It is fine that you are wearing that dress. I am sorry if my reaction gave you the impression that it wasn’t. Seeing you in it,” he leaned back and ran his gaze up my whole body, which caused a shiver to follow in its path, “you look amazing. Please don’t change. Let’s go eat dinner with the gang, before I change my mind and lock you in here all night.”
We turned toward the door as I asked, “Whose dress is it? Are you sure it’s okay that I borrowed it?” He stopped at my question, I could see him hesitate to answer.
“I’m sure it’s okay. I bought it.” he paused longer than necessary and it suddenly hit me, the dress belonged to a girlfriend.
“Oh god. I gotta change. I can’t. Oh fuck. I’m sorry. Please, Curtis just let me change.” He hooked his arm around my waist trying to stop me from the panic that already hit. He pulled me against his body and held me so tight I couldn’t squirm away.
“Please stop. I’ll explain, but I need you to stop and listen. I bought both the dresses in there for Callie, she never wore them, they apparently weren’t her style. Please don’t change, I love knowing you are wearing something I picked out. I’m sorry if that is twisted, but it’s true. Please hot stuff?” He kissed the side of my head as he continued to hold me tight. We were pulled from the moment when we heard Luke yell down the stairs that dinner was ready. I hesitated for a second, but gave into his request to wear the dress when my stomach growled.
CURTIS
Holy fucking shit, I almost shot a load just looking at her. I know it’s fucked up, but I can’t help it. I bought the dresses hoping that Callie would wear them, she wouldn’t even try them on. She said they would show all her flaws. So, they ended up long forgotten in the dresser. The dress hugged Natalie’s curves and put them on display. I just wanted to run my hands up and down the curve of her body. I’d start at her tits, then follow the dip at her waist to the flare of her hips. Fuck me, I nudged her out the door toward the stairs before I slid my hand around her waist and pulled her back into my front so she could feel the hardness of my cock poking her. “Please stay close, if they catch sight of this” I gave her a quick thrust so she knew what I was referring to, “they are going to razz us all night. Fuck, you’re killing me hot stuff.”
As soon as we walked up to the table, I pulled a chair out for her right next to Kyler. That was stupid, I saw the way he eyed her and I had to clench my fists in an effort to stop the possessive feelings that hit me. Leave it to Sierra to break the ice, “Dang girl, you got curves. I didn’t realize that, otherwise I would have told my clueless brother my clothes wouldn’t fit. Maybe when I breastfeed I’ll get boobs like you.”
“Hey now. I do not need to hear about my sister’s boobs.” I didn’t know Natalie well enough yet to know if she had insecurities about her body, it was something I planned to learn quickly. I’d take great pleasure in helping her work through them if she has any. As far as I was concerned, her body was fucking perfect.
After eating, Natalie thanked Amy for dinner as she helped Sierra clear the dishes. As they were busy in the kitchen, Cal asked me about her car “Dude, where is her car? She was starting to freak out when she didn’t see it out front.”
“Have you seen what she was driving? No fucking way she’s driving
that around, the brakes are shot, it needs new tires and the alignment is off. Who knows what else is wrong with it. I’ll just drive the Explorer and she can keep driving my new car.” Luke started laughing and Cal shook his head. I looked back and forth between the two of them confused with what was funny.
Luke squeezed my shoulder as he told me, “Good luck with that. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.”
I sat on the edge of the couch as I waited for them to be done in the kitchen. I was suddenly worried that Natalie wasn’t going to like the idea of driving my new car. Honestly, her Honda was a piece of shit so she should like the idea of driving a new car.
When she walked out of the kitchen with my sister, my heart started to race but everything else stopped. When she caught me staring, I just held my breath and watched as her cheeks blushed. Before she could ask me about her car, I invited her to watch a movie down stairs. She tried to decline, “I still have a few errands to run, plus I am not done unpacking. Maybe another time.”
