The Secrets Duet

by Brownell, Rachael

  “Really?” I ask, my voice laced with a hint of annoyance.

  “Yes. It’s time you get out and meet some people. I know you don’t have a boyfriend so I figured I would give you a bunch of guys to choose from. Plus, this is Brett’s fraternity, so we’ll be safe during the party.”

  Safe. Can anyone ever really be safe at a frat party? There are a bunch of drunk, testosterone driven, men in a room full of scantily clad women. No one is safe at a frat party in my opinion. I sure am glad I didn’t wear anything revealing. My breasts may not be excessively large, but they are big enough to draw at least a little bit of unwanted attention if I don’t cover them completely.

  Cam

  “Really, man? You went and set me up on a blind date. You know I don’t want to get involved with anyone.”

  Damn it! How many time do I have to tell him I’m not interested in dating before he gets a clue? You would think the seven times this week alone would be enough but apparently not. It’s not even like we know each other well enough to be setting each other up on dates.

  “Dude, she’s hot. Plus, I’m dating her roommate so I thought maybe you could do me this one favor and entertain her for a bit while we slip away for some much needed alone time.”

  He’s such an ass. They were pawning this girl off on me so they could sneak away and have sex. She better as least be good looking or I am going to kick his ass.

  “Fine but just remember I know where you sleep. If she’s ugly or weird you’re on your own. I can handle talking to her while you two go get freaky but don’t leave me alone with her forever.”

  “I swear, she’s hot,” he says, holding his left hand up with the Boy Scout finger thing. I was never a Boy Scout. My parents wouldn’t have approved of me getting involved with such “low class” activities.

  I see him wave across the room but don’t bother to turn around. I figure they will make their way over here in time. I walk to the kitchen and get myself a beer. I’m not sure why I let him talk me into coming out tonight. I hate frat parties and he has to know there is no way he will be able to convince me to join.

  I decide to be a gentleman and grab a beer for this girl I’m supposed to be entertaining. The least I can do is be nice to her. After all, she probably doesn’t know she’s being ditched either. I wonder if they even told her they set her up tonight or if they are “surprising” her with it just like Brett did with me. It doesn’t really matter. I’m sure I will be able to find something to talk about with her for an hour and then I will go find Brett. That’s all he gets. One hour.

  Both cups hit the floor and beer goes flying everywhere. No one seems to notice except Brett. He gives me a “what the fuck” look, but I can’t form a sentence. There are no words to describe what I’m seeing or how I’m feeling right now. I’ve been looking everywhere for her except the one place I thought to look. Right in front of me.

  “Kat,” I whisper, unsure if she’s real or a figment of my imagination. When she turns around to face me I know I’m not dreaming.

  10.

  Stacy

  It’s loud inside the house. Bethany spots Brett at the same moment he spots her. He waves at us and we start to make our way through the crowd. Bethany stops suddenly and turns to face me, a serious look on her face. I know something is up the second she doesn’t return my smile.

  “What?” I asked, immediately concerned. We’re surrounded by more people than I am comfortable with and the fact that she looks so serious is making me even more uncomfortable.

  “So, I didn’t think you would come tonight if I told you earlier but Brett and I may have set you up on a blind date.” She’s talking really fast and it’s hard to hear her but the second she says blind date I start to see red.

  “Seriously? As if it wasn’t bad enough that you dragged me to a frat party now you’re telling me you did it under false pretenses?” She must be able to hear the anger in my voice because she takes a step back.

  “Come on, he’s really nice and he’s really good looking. Give him a chance. If it doesn’t work out, you never have to see him again.” She’s pleading with me.

  “Fine but you better not leave me alone,” I say, moving past her to where Brett is standing.

  “Hey,” he says cautiously as I approach him. I’m sure I look pissed because I am. There will be no hiding it for a few minutes. It’s probably a good thing my “date” isn’t here yet.

  Bethany joins us a second later and gives Brett a swift kiss on the cheek, whispering something in his ear. He’s grinning pretty wide until his face falls and turns to a look of utter confusion. That’s when I hear it.

  Over the noise of the crowd. Over the blast of the music. The entire universe seems to disappear at that moment. I would know his voice anywhere, but it’s been so long that I wonder if I am imagining it. As slowly as possible, afraid that if he’s really standing behind me I might scare him away, I turn to see it’s not my imagination.

  “Kat,” he purrs again in disbelief.

  It takes me a minute to realize no one else knows me by that name. If I’m not careful he might blow my cover and the last thing I want to do is run away from him again. I move as quickly as I can towards him and wrap myself around him. His arms feel so good. His body is just as I remember. Everything is just as I dreamed it would be if he ever found me. Everything except the crowd of people who are surrounding us.

  “Stacy,” I whisper in his ear. “Call me Stacy, please.”

  “Anything you want as long as you never leave me again,” he purrs in my ear.

  I pull away and smile at him. Brett and Bethany are long forgotten until I feel a tap on my shoulder. As annoyed as I am that they are interrupting us, I know they are going to want to know exactly what’s going on. Storytime. I unwrap myself from Cam and turn to face Bethany and Brett. He links our fingers and I look down at our hands and smile. I didn’t want to let go of him either.

  “So, I take it you two have met before?” Bethany asks me with a questioning look on her face.

  Yep. Storytime. What the hell am I going to tell them? I can’t tell them the truth, obviously. I got in a hell of a lot of trouble when Greg found the notebook Cam and I wrote in.

  Cam. I’ve thought about him every second of every day since I left Colorado, but I haven’t been able to speak his name. It was too painful. I would say him or he but I couldn’t bring myself to say his name. My mom asked about it once, but I never said anything.

  When Greg found the notebook he asked too. I think he already knew who I had been writing back and forth with. The last line might have been his clue. When I brushed him off he got angry. We moved the next day, again, and that’s when we landed here in Ithaca. I couldn’t have gotten any luckier.

  “We, um, we knew each other a long time ago, when we were younger. I spent a summer at his parents resort,” I say, trying to keep the stuttering to a minimum so I sound convincing.

  Cam squeezes my hand, assuring me he will go along with whatever I tell them. He knows I have to lie. He knows I can’t break my cover. He’s being supportive the only way he can be. He’s going to back my lie.

  “So, how long ago…”

  “Not that long ago,” Cam cuts her off. “If you guys don’t mind I think Stacy and I are going to go catch up.”

  He doesn’t wait for their answer before pulling me through the thick sea of people and out the front door. I’m struggling to keep up with him when he suddenly stops and spins me around. My back is against cold metal and I can’t help but close my eyes and remember the first time I felt his car against my skin. That kiss was intense, but I had a feeling this next one would be in a whole other universe.

  “Kat,” he purrs so quietly that I almost don’t hear him. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long.”

  “Me too,” I say unable to contain the smile which has been permanently plastered on my face since I turned around, “but, my name is Stacy now so you have to be careful. No one can hear you call m
e Kat.”

  “Just you. It’s just for you. I’ll make sure I call you Stacy any time we are out in public but when I get you alone, and I plan on spending as much time alone with you as possible, you are still my Kat. You’ll always be my Kat.”

  That’s when his lips touch mine and the world around us disappears. I’ve dreamt of this moment for so long. I never thought in a million years he would find me, that we would find our way back to each other, but we did. I lost all hope in everyone and everything for a long time and he’s given that back to me.

  He once said we were destined to be together, that I was his destiny. He was right. I will never know how this happened, or why, but in the end it really doesn’t matter. What matters is we found each other again. The one person who I never wanted to live without is pouring his love into me right now and filling my heart with hope again.

  I break the kiss, needing a moment to take it all in. I haven’t been this happy since the hours before he walked out my front door. It’s all a bit overwhelming in the best way possible. I need to breathe.

  “Are you okay?” he asks.

  “Yes,” I say reassuringly. “I’ve never been better.”

  “Kat, that’s not what I meant. Aside from this moment, are you okay?”

  “Oh! I thought you meant with all of this,” I say, motioning between us. I never thought he was referring to everything else. “Yes. We are… safe.”

  “Thank God! I’ve been worried and angry and every other emotion you can possibly think of. I practically lost my mind after you left.” You can see he’s still worried and maybe a little angry.

  “Do you want to go back to my dorm room and talk?” I ask, knowing the questions he’s going to ask need a little privacy.

  “No,” he replied firmly. “I want to take you back to my dorm room and kiss you senseless. I want to feel your amazing body pressed against mine. I want to show you how much I’ve missed you and how much I still love you.”

  My mouth is probably hanging open. I am at a loss for words but even if I was able to form a coherent sentence, I wouldn’t be able to speak. His mouth is back on mine in an instant and I’m being lifted off the ground. We’re walking, or rather he is, down the sidewalk. He comes to a stop, bends slightly and that’s when I hear his alarm.

  I drop my feet to the ground and run my hand over the hood of his car. I missed this car. I missed so much about him. Without saying a word, I climb in the passenger seat and put on my seatbelt. He follows my lead, intertwining our finger as soon as we are safely on the road.

  “I love you, Kat. With all my heart. I never stopped. Even if I had wanted to stop loving you I wouldn’t have been able to. I told you I would find you, that you were my destiny.” He pauses and glances over at me.

  I’m resting the side of my face against the headrest, staring at him, admiring his beauty, inside and out. He is the most beautiful man in the entire world. I didn’t think it would be possible for him to become even more beautiful, but he has. His facial features are exactly as I remember, exactly as I have imagined them every day for the last eleven months and three days. His body looks even more toned than before, if that’s possible. More than anything, it’s his eyes I notice. When I first saw him tonight they looked a clear shade of blue. The last time I saw him they were stormy and now you can see the storm has passed.

  “I love you too, Cam.” I say his name out loud for the first time in almost a year and it glides off my tongue effortlessly, like I never stopped saying it.

  “You have no idea how much I needed to hear you say that. The last year has been hell, but it’s all worth it now. I have you back and I’m never letting you go again. Ever.”

  We’re silent the rest of the drive. Everything which matters has already been said.

  Cam

  We spend the night wrapped around each other in my bed. I have so many questions I want to ask her, but I don’t want to stop kissing her long enough to ask even one of them. We have time. I have to keep telling myself that. So I kiss her, like it’s the last time I’m ever going to be able to kiss her again. I pour my entire heart into every kiss and I know she’s doing the exact same thing.

  The feel of her skin against mine makes me feel alive for the first time in a long time. I never realized how empty I was feeling until I saw her standing in front of me, until she wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered in my ear. It was like I was instantly alive again.

  I drop her off at her dorm the next morning and we make a date to go to lunch. It’s only going to be a matter of hours before I see her again but the second she’s out of sight I instantly want to run after her. I stop myself from acting on my crazy impulse and pull out of the parking lot. I try to focus on the fact I will see her again. It’s not forever this time. It’s only for a few hours.

  When I finally get back to her dorm my heart settles down for the first time that morning. I knock on the door and tap my fingers against my leg in anticipation. I knock again when no one answers. Then again when still no one answers.

  I’m starting to panic when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I whip around to see Bethany staring me down. She doesn’t look happy with me.

  “So…”

  “So what?” I need to act innocent. I’m not sure what Kat’s told her and I don’t want to mess up her story. We are going to have to make sure we figure out her cover at lunch today.

  “Where’s my roommate? She didn’t come back last night.”

  “I dropped her off this morning. Don’t worry about her. She’s a big girl.”

  “I haven’t seen her yet,” she says, sounding concerned. “What time did you drop her off?”

  Shit! This cannot be happening again!

  “I don’t remember. A little after nine I think.” You can hear the panic in my voice. It’s almost noon. She’s not answering the door. Bethany hasn’t seen her.

  Bethany reaches past me and unlocks the door. I push past her into the room to find Kat standing in her underwear, a towel wrapped around her head. I can’t help but stare. I know I should look away, divert my eyes, excuse myself from the room, but I don’t. I can’t stop staring at her gorgeous body.

  She covers her bare chest with her arm and grins at me. I smile at her and step out of the room, closing the door behind me quietly. I let out a long sigh of relief. She’s still here. She hasn’t disappeared. I just saw her practically naked.

  My body’s reaction is apparent. I try to think about something else, but the vision of her is burned in my memory. I can’t stop thinking about how beautiful she is and how beautiful she would look laying on my bed, wearing nothing, with her hair splayed across my pillow. Those gorgeous, long, blonde waves.

  I don’t realize Bethany is staring at me until she clears her throat. Shit. It looks like she wants to talk. I still don’t know what to say to her.

  “So, you guys obviously know each other pretty well.” She’s smirking at me. I know she hasn’t had time to talk to Kat yet so I’m not exactly sure what’s going through her head.

  “Pretty well. We spent some time together.” I’m trying to play it cool, but I’m incredibly uncomfortable and not hiding it well. “You are going to have to ask Kat for the details. I’m not saying anything.”

  “Cat? Who’s Cat?”

  Shit! Shit! Shit!

  Think fast. I need a story. I need a really good story, a believable story.

  “It’s a nickname.”

  That’s not going to fly. Now I have to come up with a story about how she got the nickname. What the hell is wrong with me? How could I fuck up this bad?

  “Really? Now, why would you nickname her cat?”

  Here goes nothing. “Well, when we first met she didn’t tell me her real name. She told me her name was Katrina. I shortened it to Kat just to mess with her and it stuck.”

  Wow! That was almost true. It rolled off my tough effortlessly, too. She’ll buy that story, right? It could have happened. Well, it sort of did happen.


  “Oh. That’s kind of cute,” she says, finally smiling at me for the first time today. You can see she’s a little more at ease with me now.

  I begin to relax a little until Kat opens the door. She looks amazing. I let my eyes take her in, all of her, right from her head all the way down to… those damn boots. Fuck me! I forgot how damn sexy she looked in those boots.

  11.

  Stacy

  I walk out of my room to find Bethany and Cam talking in the hallway. He looks up at me and instantly I see the effect I have on him. His eyes look me over from head to toe and when he sees the boots I’m wearing I swear he almost passes out. I see him place his hand on the wall behind him to steady himself and can’t help but smile at the effect I have on him.

  “Ready?” I ask, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

  He clears his throat and swallows the lump which has formed before he speaks. “Yeah.”

  Excellent. He’s speechless. That’s exactly the reaction I was going for. It’s been forever since I’ve had a reason to get dressed up. I was taking advantage of the opportunity today. I was also hoping Cam would take advantage of me later tonight. Now I needed to get us the hell away from everyone else.

  After Cam dropped me off this morning I snuck into my room, being as quiet as possible so I didn’t wake up Bethany and grabbed my car keys. I went to my moms and searched my closet for the perfect outfit. It took a while, almost an hour, but the fact he can barely speak tells me I got it right.

  The skirt is a little shorter than I normally wear, but it was the one which looked the best with my boots. I had to wear the boots. They were the focal point of the outfit. Everything else was a secondary choice for me.

  The shirt I chose is loose and flows nicely when I walk, but the best part is the way it accents my chest. It hugs me in all the right places and it’s cut a little low. Not low enough to show off too much cleavage but low enough where it hopefully makes Cam want to see a little more of me. Considering the reaction he had when he barged in the room and saw me in nothing but my undies I have a feeling he will want to be seeing more of me.