One of the Guys

by Jessica Strassner

  “Take it easy,” Kevin said, coming up behind her. “I know what happened the last time you had too many.” He gestured to the two beer bottles on the table.

  “One’s for you,” Kate said, rolling her eyes. “Thanks for coming out.”

  “No problem,” Kevin said, sitting down next to her. He struck the same pose, putting his feet up on the empty chair across from him, and took a sip of his beer. Kate peered at him. She found it funny that they were dressed alike – jeans, hooded sweatshirt, flip-flops. He smiled at her, and she realized that he still looked a little sleepy.

  “Sorry for waking you up,” she said.

  “It’s really no problem. I’m glad you called. I keep telling you not to be a stranger. So, to what do I owe this unexpected invitation?”

  “Well, I wasn’t planning on doing anything tonight,” she said. “But I got home from doing this thing for work, and… You know how I told you my parents were separated?” Kevin nodded. “Well, I got home and apparently they’re back together.”

  “That’s great!” Kevin said.

  “Kind of. They’re back together, and they’re moving back in. With me.”

  “Oh…” Kevin said.

  “I mean, it’s their house anyway, so it’s not like I can do anything about it, but… It means that I’ll be living with my parents again.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yeah. Not too thrilled about that. I mean, I love my parents, and I’m glad they worked everything out. I’m just not sure that I can handle living with them again,” she admitted.

  “Maybe it won’t be so bad.”

  “I don’t know,” Kate sighed. “We’ll see.”

  *

  The next morning, Kate woke up with a terrible headache. She rubbed her eyes and reviewed the night before. All she had done was have a few beers with Kevin. Three. That was it. They’d sat together at the Sand Bar until it got too cold and they were both too sleepy, and she came home and went straight to bed. She didn’t think it was much after midnight when she’d fallen asleep. So why did she feel so awful?

  She yawned, and her yawn turned into a cough. She swallowed and her throat felt dry and scratchy. When she sat up, she felt a little light-headed. On her nightstand, her cell phone rang. The shrill tone made her head hurt even worse. “Hello?” she croaked.

  “God, you sound terrible!” Lucy cried.

  “I feel terrible,” Kate groaned.

  “Oh, no. Are you sick?”

  “I don’t know,” Kate said, sinking back down against her pillows. “My head hurts, my throat hurts, and…” she sniffled. “And my nose is stuffy.” She felt very cold.

  “Do you want me to bring you anything?”

  “No, I think I just want to go back to bed. Thank you, though.”

  “Okay. Well, let me know if you need anything.”

  Kate said goodbye to Lucy and then, before she could fall back to sleep, she called Julia. As soon as she spoke, Julia could tell something was wrong. “You poor thing!” Julia said. “You probably got yourself all run down from working on the Valentine’s Day gala. You’ve just been go-go-go for weeks!”

  “I just wanted to let you know that I wouldn’t be in today, in case you were looking for me,” Kate said. “I really think I just need to go back to sleep and then I’ll feel better.”

  “No problem!” Julia said. “You just get some rest and let me know if you need anything.”

  Kate replaced her phone on the nightstand and snuggled back down under the covers. She was asleep within minutes.

  When she woke up a few hours later, her head was still pounding and her nose was completely stuffed up. Kate made her way into the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. She helped herself to some Advil, some vitamin C, and some cold medicine that was probably expired. She walked slowly into the kitchen and it dawned on her why the house was so quiet – her parents had gone to start packing and moving things out of the other house. At least she’d have the place to herself a little while longer. She poured herself a glass of orange juice, gulped it down quickly, and then poured herself a refill, which she took back into her bedroom.

  She slept on and off throughout the day, ignoring her phone as it buzzed on the nightstand next to her. Every time she woke up, the light in her room had changed, and she knew that hours had passed. Fine with her. All she wanted to do was sleep. She got up once to go to the bathroom and considered getting something to eat, but as she looked around the kitchen, nothing seemed appealing. Back to bed she went.

  Later that afternoon, she became aware of her cell phone’s almost constant buzzing. She reached for it and dropped it into her purse on the floor, hoping that it would get lost in the contents and dull the sound. She wanted desperately to go back to sleep so that she didn’t have to be annoyed by her stuffy nose and scratchy throat. The pounding in her head got worse and worse until she realized that it wasn’t just her headache… there was actually a very loud knocking coming from the front door.

  Holding her head, she got out of bed and stumbled through the living room to the door. She opened it and winced at the afternoon sunlight. It took her a second before she realized that Kevin was standing in front of her, holding two plastic shopping bags. She didn’t know what to say, so he carefully moved past her and headed towards the kitchen. She closed the door and followed him.

  “I heard you were really sick. Lucy told Jackson and Jackson told me and I felt really bad because you probably caught a cold from sitting outside last night.”

  Kate’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, gosh. It’s not like it’s your fault or anything,” she said. She watched as he emptied the grocery bags onto her kitchen counter – Kleenex, ginger ale, orange juice, NyQuil, a decongestant, Lysol spray, cough drops, and a deli container of soup.

  “Well, I still feel bad. Where are your bowls?” She pointed to a cabinet and watched in a daze as he poured her a steaming bowl of soup and handed it to her. “Spoons?” She pointed to a drawer and he handed her a spoon. “Now, eat that,” he said, “take this, and go back to bed.” He pushed the decongestant towards her, balled up the grocery bags, and tossed them in the garbage can under the sink.

  “Thank you,” Kate managed to say.

  “No problem,” Kevin said. He patted her gently on the shoulder and went back into the living room, where he paused at the front door. “Call me if you need anything.”

  “Thank you,” Kate repeated. Kevin let himself out and closed the door softly behind him. She stood in the middle of the kitchen, looking down into her bowl of soup. “What the heck was that?” she said to herself.

  She sat at the counter and slurped her soup. She was really hungry, and even though her sense of taste was dulled, the hot soup felt good on her throat. When she finished, she put her bowl and spoon in the sink and poured herself a glass of ginger ale. She helped herself to the decongestant and was headed back to her bedroom, following Kevin’s orders.

  *

  “Feeling any better?” Lucy asked.

  “A little,” Kate sighed into the phone. She’d spent most of the past two days in bed and had finally returned to work so that she could reschedule her missed appointments. All the work had made her even more exhausted, so now that she was home again, all she wanted to do was go to bed.

  “Do you need anything?” Lucy asked.

  “No, I’m okay. Actually, Kevin brought a bunch of stuff over the other day.”

  “Kevin?”

  “Yeah. He said he heard that I was sick and he showed up with a bunch of stuff.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, that was sweet,” Lucy said.

  “And totally unexpected,” Kate agreed. “As a matter of fact, I should probably call to say thank you.” She vaguely remembered thanking him when he’d brought everything over, but she was so sick and in such a daze, that she felt it was necessary to thank him again now that she was a little more clear-headed.

  When Kevin answered the phone
, he was happy to hear that she sounded better. “No offense, but you looked like the walking dead when I came by your house the other day.”

  Kate laughed, and it turned into a spluttering cough. She cleared her throat. “None taken,” she said. “I felt like it.”

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Kevin said. “But you still sound like crap.”

  “Thanks. I’m getting there,” she said.

  “Well, go get some rest. You probably still need it.”

  Kate hung up the phone and made herself comfortable on the couch. She was flipping through the channels when she heard a big truck pull into the driveway. Her parents were back. The front door flew open and the house was immediately filled with noise as her parents came in carrying the first armfuls of boxes. “House is on the market!” her dad cried.

  “How are you feeling?” her mom asked. “You just stay put,” she said, putting down a box in the middle of the living room and going over to feel Kate’s forehead. “No fever. That’s good.”

  “I’m fine,” Kate said. “Let me help you.” As exhausted as she was, she couldn’t sit by and watch her parents unload the U-Haul by themselves. She would help them carry everything in and then they could sort it out later.

  As they made their trips back and forth, Kate found herself dragging, but seeing her parents so happy together lifted her spirits. Living with them again probably wouldn’t be a picnic, but it was reassuring to see them being so cheerful, the way they always were.

  When they finished unloading the truck, her parents got cleaned up and went out to dinner to officially celebrate their reunion. They invited Kate to join them, but she decided to take a shower and get to bed early.

  She was just dozing off when her cell phone rang. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Kate. It’s Kevin.”

  “Hey,” she said.

  “I know that you’re still getting over your cold, but I was wondering if maybe, if you were feeling better this weekend, if you’d want to come to my niece’s first birthday party on Saturday.”

  Kate sat up in bed. What an odd invitation. She wasn’t sure how to respond. “Uh…”

  “I know. That’s weird, right? The thing is, it’s going to be a lot of family and little kids, and I figured it would be kind of boring. I mean… Yeah. You don’t have to come. I just told you it was going to be boring. Why would you want to come? I just thought, you know, it would be a little more bearable if I had someone to hang out with.”

  “Okay,” she replied, after some hesitation. “If I’m feeling better, I’ll go. If you want me to.”

  “If it’s not your thing, I understand. It’s not really my thing either, but it’s family,” Kevin chuckled. “You’ll really go?”

  “Sure,” she said. “I mean, I’ll call you on Friday and let you know how I’m feeling.”

  “Really? Thanks,” he said, sounding almost relieved.

  “Thanks for the invitation,” she said. “I’ll talk to you on Friday.”

  Kate hung up the phone, turned off the light, and slid down under the covers. She wasn’t sure what was going on with Kevin. She hoped she hadn’t given him the wrong impression by calling and asking him to hang out on Valentine’s Day.

  *

  Recalling how Lucy had showed up to her own engagement celebration with gifts for the host, Kate stood next to Kevin holding a pink ceramic piggy bank for the birthday girl as he introduced her to his entire family – his parents, Carol and John; his sister and brother-in-law Kelly and Peter; his niece Isabella, several cousins, some aunts and uncles, and even his 89-year old grandmother.

  Kelly accepted the piggy bank and gave Kate a huge hug. “This is so cute! Thank you!” she said.

  “Would you like to hold her?” Carol asked, coming forward with Isabella. “She loves to cuddle.” Kate looked at Kevin as he suspiciously took a step away from her.

  She didn’t want to seem impolite so Kate took Isabella in her arms and smiled down at the little girl. Isabella looked back and forth from Kelly to Kate and then finally reached up with both chubby hands and squished Kate’s cheeks together. Kate made a fish face and Isabella cracked up. Then she reached up further and grabbed two chunks of Kate’s hair in both hands and pulled. Kate gasped and giggled nervously.

  “Bella! No! Leave Kate’s hair alone!” Kelly said, rushing forward to untangle the baby’s fingers from Kate’s hair. She scooped the baby up and offered Kate an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry about that,” she said.

  “No problem,” Kate said. “It’s fine. I’m fine!”

  “Maybe you should put your hair in a ponytail,” Kevin winked, nudging her. He gestured to the sliding glass doors leading out to his parents’ backyard and Kate followed him. They sat down at a picnic table to wait for the festivities to begin. One of Kevin’s preteen cousins came up with a football and asked him to throw it around for awhile. “Will you be all right for a few minutes?” Kevin asked.

  “Sure. Go play,” Kate said. She cupped her chin in her hand and watched Kevin pass the ball back and forth with his cousin.

  “Have some punch,” Carol said, coming and sitting down next to her. She handed her a cup. Kate thanked her and took a sip. “Kevin’s talked about you an awful lot lately. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  “He has?” Kate asked, nearly choking on her punch.

  “Yes. He said that you two went out on Valentine’s Day,” Carol smiled.

  Kate found herself blushing. “Oh. We, um, went out on Valentine’s Day, but we didn’t… go out,” she tried explaining.

  Carol patted her hand. “That’s what I meant.”

  “Oh,” Kate grinned.

  “He must like you, though. He told me that he got up out of bed to go meet you.”

  Kate’s blush grew deeper. “I felt bad for waking him up,” she admitted.

  Carol laughed. “If there’s one thing that Kevin loves, it’s his sleep.”

  “Are you guys talking about me?” Kevin called from across the yard.

  “No!” Kate replied.

  “Of course!” Carol teased.

  “Mom, leave Kate alone!” he groaned. Kate and Carol both chuckled. They were joined by his sister Kelly. “Not you, too!”

  Kelly giggled. “How long have you and my brother been dating?”

  “We’re not dating,” Kate replied. “We’re just friends.” She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw Carol and Kelly exchange glances across the table.

  “Sorry,” Kelly said. “It’s just that he mentioned there was someone…” As if she could sense Kevin approaching her from behind, she let her words trail off. He rested his hands on her shoulders.

  “What are you guys talking about?” he asked.

  “Nothiiiing,” Kelly grinned, stiffening.

  Kevin jokingly pretended to wrap his fingers around Kelly’s throat and wring her neck before sitting down next to her. He nudged Kate’s foot under the table with his own. “Are they harassing you?”

  “Not at all,” Kate smiled. “We were just chatting.”

  “When are you going to ask her out?” Kelly asked.

  It was Kevin’s turn to blush as he sat, gaping at his sister.

  “Kelly, don’t embarrass your brother,” Carol ordered, chuckling. “Let’s go get the cake and get set up out here so Isabella can open her presents.” The two of them got up, grinning.

  “Sorry. I’m not sure who’s worse. My mom or my sister.”

  “It’s okay,” Kate said. “They’re cute.”

  “Yeah. Real cute,” Kevin laughed.

  A few minutes later, Kelly came out with a small cake for Isabella and Carol trailed, carrying another one for the guests. Kevin’s family gathered around as Peter carried Isabella to the high chair and strapped her in. John stood by with his camera, feverishly snapping pictures of the guests, the baby, and her parents. Kelly placed the cake in front of Isabella, who looked at it questioningly. She swiped her fingers across the top, gathering a fistful of fluffy, p
ink frosting. She squeezed the icing in her hand and held out her sticky, messy palm. Everyone chuckled. Isabella’s mouth formed a little round “o” of delight as she did it with the other hand and nobody did anything to stop her. Then she immediately started pounding on the tray of her high chair, sending flecks of frosting splattering everywhere.

  While Isabella destroyed her birthday confection, Kevin got up and got two pieces of cake. He sat down next to Kate and slid a plate in front of her. “Thanks,” she said. They ate their cake and laughed with everyone else as Isabella picked up handfuls of cake and frosting and threw them onto the ground, letting out a laugh with every splat.

  Kate and Kevin sat together as Kelly helped Isabella open her presents, which took a long time, because Isabella had to inspect every scrap of paper, length of ribbon, and piece of tape. From time to time, Kevin would get up to talk to family members and someone would sit down in his spot and make small talk with Kate. She especially liked talking to his grandmother, who seemed very sweet, if not all there.

  When Isabella had finished with her presents and had gone down for a nap, Kelly and Carol started cleaning up. Kevin announced that it was time to take Kate home. “I think she’s had enough of you guys,” he said, wrapping his mom in a big bear hug.

  “He’s just saying that!” Kate said, playfully smacking him on the arm. “It was really nice meeting you!”

  Carol let go of Kevin and pulled Kate into a hug. “It was nice meeting you, too, dear. We’ll have to have you over again sometime when there’s not a huge crowd of people.”

  Kelly was right behind Carol, waiting to give Kate a hug, too. “It was great to meet you!” she said warmly. “Thank you for Isabella’s piggy bank!”

  Kevin and Kate made their way through the house, saying goodbye to the family members that remained. In his car, Kevin let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry about that,” he said.

  “What? Your mom and your sister? No big deal.”

  “I hope they weren’t too annoying.”

  “God, no. They were really nice.”