One of the Guys

by Jessica Strassner

  “Just a little cold, I’m sure. Don’t stay too long. Get out and enjoy what’s left of your weekend!” Julia smiled and breezed out of the office.

  Kate scratched her head and contemplated the mess of paperwork on her desk. How did people like Julia do it? Married with a kid. Full time job. Good at what she does. But she never seemed stressed. She was one of those chicks who always seemed so… together.

  “I want to be like Julia when I grow up,” she muttered.

  “Excuse me?”

  Kate looked up and grinned. Chris stood in the doorway with a manila envelope under one arm and a cup of Starbucks in his other hand. “Hey!”

  “Hey, yourself, champ. Is Julia here?” Chris asked, handing her the coffee.

  “You just missed her.” Kate took the top off of her cup to blow on it a little. “Thank you!”

  “No problem. I was going to give her the prints from that little vow renewal we did last week. She was really excited to see them.”

  “The couple that’d been married sixty years? Let me see,” Kate said. Chris handed her the envelope and she slid the photos out. She flipped through them, smiling at the elderly couple’s photos. “These are great,” she said. “What a cute couple. Sixty years. Wow.”

  “They didn’t act like they were in their eighties. It was the cutest thing.”

  Kate sighed and returned the photos to the envelope. “Ugh. Even if I met someone and got married, like, today, I’d be ninety-one when we celebrate our sixtieth anniversary.” She took a sip of coffee. “If I even make it to ninety-one.”

  “I didn’t know you were looking to get married,” Chris said.

  Kate sat back in her chair and folded her hands behind her head. “Someday, maybe. I’m not in a rush. Everyone’s always asking when I’ll get married. Especially here. I don’t know. But it’s not like I’m getting any younger.”

  Chris chuckled. “Oh, you’ll get married someday.”

  “I’m the bachelorette wedding planner. I am going to be an old maid.”

  “Oh, stop.”

  “I am irony personified.”

  “Knock it off,” Chris said, reaching across the desk and chucking her under the chin. “If you’re not married by the time you’re… thirty-five, I’ll marry you.”

  “What?” Kate spluttered. She checked to make sure she hadn’t spilled coffee down the front of her blouse.

  “Take it easy. I was just kidding,” Chris grinned. “I’m going to leave these pictures here with you, if that’s okay.”

  “It’s fine,” Kate replied. “What are you up to today?”

  He looked down at his watch. “I have a lunch date, actually. I need to get going.”

  Kate took another sip of her coffee. “Oh. All right. Have fun.”

  “See ya,” Chris said.

  “Thanks again for the coffee,” Kate called after him.

  Kate stared down at her desktop and grinned, thinking about what Chris had said. “If you’re not married by the time you turn thirty-five…”

  Hmm. That was only four years away.

  She’d had maybe two serious relationships in the past four years.

  Shoot, maybe the past… six… no, eight years.

  Sure, she had dated around here and there. And she had Max, so it’s not like she was suffering. She just had yet to meet a guy that was really marriage material. Or actual boyfriend material, for that matter.

  Chris, on the other hand… She straightened up her papers, thinking about it and ticking off his positive qualities in her mind.

  Looks like Bradley Cooper. Naughty smile, nice body. Thoughtful. He brought me coffee, didn’t he? He has a good job. Owns his own business! Loves what he does. He’s talented. We spend a lot of time together already. Hmm…

  *

  Kate slid onto the bar stool and watched with amusement as Lucy and Jackson navigated around each other in the kitchen. They were so cute together. Jackson was stirring pasta sauce that was bubbling away on the stove while Lucy chopped vegetables for salad. Kate leaned over the counter and picked up a red pepper slice out of the salad bowl.

  “Jackson, do you know who Chris went on a date with on Sunday?” Kate asked, crunching on the pepper.

  Jackson lifted the wooden spoon to his lips to taste the sauce. “I can’t remember. It might have been the beer girl from the Rocky Pass Pub. Unless she was Friday. Why?”

  “Does he date a lot?” Kate asked.

  Jackson held the spoon out for Kate to try a taste. “Define ‘a lot.’”

  Kate slurped the sauce off the spoon. “Good,” she said, wiping her lips. “I don’t know. I mean, is he serious about anybody or just dating around?”

  Jackson chuckled. “Chris? Serious? No way. He just dates around.”

  Lucy stopped chopping a cucumber and shot Jackson a look. “That’s putting it mildly.”

  Kate looked back and forth between Lucy and Jackson. “What does that mean?”

  Lucy pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows at Jackson. Jackson lowered the heat on the sauce and gave the spaghetti noodles a stir. “Chris is kind of a man-whore.”

  Kate’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “Kind of? You mean he’s a total man-whore,” Lucy echoed, scooping up the cucumber slices and dumping them into the salad bowl.

  “Really?” Kate asked.

  “I know he’s your friend and all, but he’s such a player,” Lucy said.

  “Worse than Max?” Jackson asked.

  “Max is harmless,” Lucy said, grabbing the salad tongs and tossing everything around. “He flirts with everybody and half the time he’s not even serious. You said Chris just goes after anything with a pair of boobs!”

  Jackson attempted to come to Chris’s defense. “He’s a guy!”

  “I know, but he’s just kind of… sleazy,” Lucy shuddered. “I don’t know what it is. I mean, he’s kind of cute, I guess, but he kind of grosses me out. I don’t know. Sleazy. That’s the only way I can describe him.”

  Kate sat back in surprise. “Really?” she echoed.

  Jackson looked at her. “Like you’ve never seen Chris in action?”

  Kate thought about it. Had she ever seen Chris in action? Had she ever bothered to pay attention? A lot of times, when they went out for beers after work, it was just her and the guys. Or else they were at Kevin’s house, playing poker on Saturday nights. “Not really.”

  Lucy carried the salad bowl to the table. “Jackson once said he was ruthless.”

  “I think I used the word ‘relentless,’ babe,” he said, opening a cabinet and handing Lucy a stack of plates and bowls.

  “Same thing!” Lucy said. “What Jackson means is that if Chris sees a chick that he wants to take home, he won’t give up. He usually ends up taking her home.”

  Kate rested her chin in her hand and looked back and forth from Lucy to Jackson. “But they don’t mean anything?” she asked. “He’s not dating anybody seriously or anything?”

  Lucy snorted as she set the table. “I don’t think he takes anything seriously. Well, except maybe himself.”

  “No,” Jackson said, playfully swatting Lucy on the behind. “He’s not dating anyone seriously. Says he hasn’t met the right girl yet.”

  “But I bet he sure is having a good time looking,” Lucy grinned.

  Kate considered things as Jackson drained the spaghetti and Lucy pulled the garlic bread out of the oven and sliced it. Chris hadn’t met the right girl yet. She hadn’t met the right guy. Maybe they were right for each other? She’d have to think about it, and figure something out.

  Kate, Lucy, and Jackson sat down at the table and ate dinner together. Lucy entertained them with stories about her fourth grade students and Kate talked a little bit about the painfully long meeting she’d had with a bride and her overbearing mother that afternoon. When dinner was over, she offered to clean up and declined Lucy and Jackson’s invitation to go out for and get ice cream for dessert.

  Left alone in the k
itchen, it dawned on Kate how quiet the house was with Lucy and Jackson gone. She loved Lucy and Jackson, and was glad they had found each other again, but sometimes she got tired of feeling like the third wheel, as she so often did. It kind of reminded her of high school; she’d always suspected something was going on with Lucy and Jackson, and as a result, she always felt like she was a little bit of an outsider. She went into the living room and turned on the stereo, cranking up the volume. She returned to the kitchen to scrape the plates and rinse the dishes before she put them in the dishwasher. As she wiped the counters clean, she couldn’t get Chris out of her mind.

  She had to admit that she had always been attracted to him, ever since her boss had introduced them at the office a few years ago. It was hard not to find him attractive; he was very charming and good-looking. They saw each other often through weddings and work, so they spent a lot of time together and eventually learned that Jackson was a mutual friend.

  Jackson, Chris, and their friends ended up hanging out a lot as a group, and none of them seemed to care that Kate was the token girl. Because of her busy work schedule and single-girl status, she was always up for grabbing a beer after work, getting wings at Hooters, or going somewhere to watch football on Sundays. She was just like one of the guys.

  “That’s it,” Kate said to herself. They didn’t think of her as a girl. Chris probably just considered her a buddy; just one of the guys. She’d have to do something to change his mind about that.

  *

  The following Saturday, Kate was overseeing a wedding at the Davenport Hotel and Chris happened to be the photographer. She could see him approaching out of the corner of her eye as she stood in the doorway of the ballroom talking to the bride’s father.

  “I just want to say thank you for the job you’ve done, Miss Thompson. It wasn’t easy, not having Michelle’s mother here to help her plan, but I know she’s looking down on this evening and is pleased with the celebration you gave our daughter,” he said.

  Kate placed her hand on the man’s shoulder. “I’m so glad that you and your daughter are happy,” she said.

  “Happy? She’s ecstatic. I can’t thank you enough,” he said, beaming.

  “Well, it was a pleasure working with you, Mr. Banks,” she said, holding out her hand.

  The father of the bride ignored the offer of a handshake and instead wrapped Kate in a big bear hug. Kate giggled and smoothed out her dress as Mr. Banks excused himself to say goodnight to some guests who were leaving. She turned to look at Chris, who was loosening his tie.

  “Ready to get your ass kicked at poker?” he asked.

  Kate shook her head. “Not tonight.”

  “Not giving up without a fight, huh?”

  “Nope. Just not playing. I have a date.”

  Kate flashed him a smile and slipped out of the ballroom behind a few elderly wedding guests.

  Once in the car, Kate gave herself a pat on the back for keeping her exchange with Chris short and simple. She wanted to seem aloof and mysterious while showing Chris that she had plenty of guys interested in her.

  In fact, she had a rendezvous with two gentlemen planned that evening.

  Ben and Jerry.

  Kate knew that Lucy had planned on going out with her sister while Jackson played poker, which meant that Kate would have the house to herself for most of the evening. She didn’t really have a date planned, but nobody needed to know that. What she did have was a pint of Cherry Garcia in the freezer and a ton of movies on Netflix just waiting for her at home.

  At home, she hopped right into the shower and scrubbed her makeup off. She pulled on her favorite nightshirt and scraped her wet hair up into a ponytail. She rubbed some peppermint-scented moisturizer onto her heels, pulled on a pair of fuzzy socks, and grabbed her ice cream and a spoon. Curled up on the couch, she scrolled through her Netflix instant watch queue, deciding on a girly 80’s movie she hadn’t seen in a long time.

  She ate half a pint of ice cream and ignored her cell phone as it beeped in her purse. Someone was texting her and she was determined to ignore it, because technically, she was supposed to be on a date.

  Truthfully, she just hadn’t feel like dating. She hadn’t met anybody she thought she could have a serious relationship with in ages. And that was what she really wanted – a serious relationship. Love. Like Lucy and Jackson, for example. Their love for each other was so strong that Lucy ditched her fiancé and moved back from Miami and Jackson had moved home from New York and was waiting for his divorce to be finalized. Although other people might not have agreed with their actions, neither of them regretted what they had done, because they both knew that they were meant to be together.

  Thankfully, though, they weren’t the annoying kind of couple that grossed people out by constantly professing their love for each other and showering each other with lovey-dovey behavior and public displays of affection. Instead, they were… easy-going. Comfortable. Like they just belonged together. They were friends and they loved each other and they didn’t need to say anything or do anything to prove it. That was what Kate wanted out of a relationship.

  *

  The next afternoon, Kate was leaving the office when her cell phone rang. “Hi, Mom,” she said.

  “I haven’t talked to you in ages! What have you been up to lately?”

  “Not much. Work and all the same old stuff. Going to meet Lucy for lunch.”

  “Have you gone out at all lately?”

  “Do you mean have I gone on a date lately?” Kate asked.

  Her mother stifled a gasp. “Yes! Have you?”

  “No, I haven’t. All I do is work and hang out with Lucy and the boys.”

  “Don’t you think that might be part of the problem?”

  “It’s not really a problem, Mom,” Kate huffed.

  “You’re my only daughter. I want you to be happy and get married and have a beautiful family.”

  Kate sighed. Here we go again. “Maybe I don’t want to get married.”

  This time, her mother really did let out a gasp. Then she was silent for a moment. “You don’t want to get married? Ever?”

  Kate sighed. “I didn’t mean that. It’s just… It’s not easy. I haven’t found the right guy yet, that’s all.”

  “Well, keep looking,” she said. “He’s probably right under your nose and you don’t even know it.”

  “Riiight,” Kate groaned, looking down at her watch. “Look, Mom, I’ve got to go. Lucy’s probably waiting for me.”

  “Okay. Talk to you soon. You should think about coming for a visit. Your father and I miss you.”

  “I miss you guys, too. I love you,” Kate said.

  Tossing her phone in her bag, Kate hurried down the street to the restaurant Lucy had suggested that morning. The breakfast and brunch crowd had mostly cleared out, and Kate spotted Lucy sitting at a table in a window.

  “Hi,” Kate said, dropping into the chair across from Lucy. “How are you?”

  “How are you?” Lucy asked, peering at Kate. “Where were you last night?”

  “Me? What do you mean?”

  “Jackson called me to tell me that he won poker last night. He also said that you weren’t there. He said that Chris said that you had a date. So where were you? Who did you go out with? And how did I not know about it?” Her eyes narrowed.

  “I didn’t go out with anybody,” Kate sighed. “I just said that to Chris. I stayed home and watched a movie.”

  “What?” Lucy cried. “You mean you didn’t hang out with the boys for once and you just stayed at home by yourself? You should have come out with me and my sister!”

  Kate folded her hands on top of the menu. “If I tell you something, you have to promise not to think that I’m crazy.”

  Lucy’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “I told Chris that I had a date so I’d seem more… desirable.”

  “Desirable?” Lucy repeated.

  “Desirable.”

  “What? Why?” Then it d
awned on Lucy. “Oh, Kate, shut up.”

  “What?”

  “Please tell me you’re not thinking of going after Chris.”

  “Why not?”

  “What do you mean, why not? I told you the other day, he grosses me out.”

  “He’s all right. He’s a good guy.”

  “He’s full of himself.”

  “He’s a good-looking guy!”

  “He’s a man-whore. Even Jackson said so. One of his best friends!”

  “Hear me out. Yes, he’s kind of a… player. He dates around a lot. But he’s even said it’s just because he just hasn’t met the right girl yet.”

  “Oh, my gravy,” Lucy said, covering her mouth. “So, I take it that you think that you’re the right girl?”

  “I haven’t met the right guy. He hasn’t met the right girl. We get along really well. We have tons in common. We’re good friends.” Lucy was shaking her head. “We could be like you and Jackson!” Kate insisted. Lucy giggled. “I’m serious. I think we’d be a good couple.”

  Lucy took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Don’t say anything,” Kate warned. “I just want to see how this goes. And don’t say anything to Jackson, either, because I don’t want all of the boys to know.”

  “Don’t say anything to anybody about Max. Don’t say anything to anybody about Chris. What are you doing? Why are you so worried about dating someone all of a sudden?”

  “Because sometimes I feel like I’m all alone,” Kate admitted. “I deal with these happy people getting married and planning weddings all day long, and I’m single. I’m getting kind of tired of being single. My mom calls and the first thing she wants to know if I’ve been on any dates lately. You’ve got Jackson. I’ve got… nobody.”

  “This has never bothered you before,” Lucy said.

  Kate shrugged. “I know. That’s why I just want to see what happens with Chris. Who knows? It could be a good thing. Or… nothing could happen. I don’t know.”

  Lucy sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. She smiled at Kate. “You’re crazy.”