“She came up to me after the game. I was still on the floor before we all went back to the locker room. That’s when Tiffany asked if I was going to The Grid after everyone got changed. I told her no. As soon as I declined, Coach walked up and told me how well I’d played. I reached out to shake his hand, and Tiffany must have seen the photographer trying to get the shot between the coach and his player. She literally clung to me like a damn octopus, Cora—like that Ursula chick in The Little Mermaid.” I hoped she didn’t question my knowledge of the purple hag.
“I want to be mad at you. I look like an ass to everyone on campus, even though I know how she is.”
“If you look at my face, you’ll see my expression is directed at Coach, and my left arm is limp at my side—not embracing her the way I always do you.”
“I don’t care to look at it. I just want to be pissed off for a while. And maybe make you wander around school doting on me and turning your nose up at the likes of Tiffany. You should probably carry my books, too. Oh, and I might have drawn a few mustaches on papers left in the student center.”
“On me? Why?” I pushed her back to see her expression.
“No! On Tiffany. Don’t worry, I used a light blue Sharpie to keep with school spirit.” Her laughter filled the air around us, and I quickly became aware of people staring in our direction.
Seconds after we seemed to have moved past the uncomfortable photograph, Tiffany wandered up as though she’d been waiting for the perfect moment to destroy my day…more than she already had.
“Hey, Carp. Did you see our picture on the front page this morning?” It was like she was oblivious to the fact that Cora was stuck to my side. Hell, Cora could have had her hands down my pants and her tongue in my mouth, and it wouldn’t have deterred Tiffany.
“Not cool, Tiffany. Do you have any idea how many problems you’ve caused?” I hadn’t run into Todd yet, though I was sure I’d have a pissing contest on my hands with him, as well.
She flipped her hair over her shoulder and adjusted the books in her arms. “Oh, calm down. It was just a victory picture.” Tiffany turned her attention toward Cora, yet she continued to speak to me. “If anyone has an issue with it, maybe they should have been there or not be so insecure. Confidence is so much more attractive.” Her eyes flitted to mine. “Right, Carp?”
“What are you trying to pull, Tiffany? You’re not endearing yourself to anyone on the team. All this is going to do is make people angry. Not only have I had to explain your actions to Cora, I’m sure I’ll also have to face Todd this afternoon in practice. Not a great way to build team morale.”
“You guys are too uptight.” She hit my arm playfully while Cora and I stared at her like she’d lost her ever-loving mind. “See you on the court.” She didn’t even bother saying goodbye to Cora, and for some reason that pissed me off as much as what she’d done the night before.
As we watched her saunter across the commons, I had no idea what to say. She’d done me a favor by giving me the chance to deny what it appeared had happened, and she hadn’t countered that it had been anything more. Although, at the same time, I felt the tension ebbing off Cora, and that made me want to hit the bitch—Tiffany, that is.
I leaned down to take Cora’s mouth, distracting her from the heinous beast that had just left us, before breaking away and to lighten the situation. “Maybe we should go buy a pack of light-blue Sharpies and get all the guys together to do some more artwork on Tiffany’s cover shot.”
She looked up at me with humor in her eyes, and then we set off to the bookstore and tagged every copy of the paper we could find. Throughout the day, we noticed people had joined our plight in disfiguring Tiffany’s image and laughed with each new rendition we found. There were some really talented artists on campus.
4
James
Other than kids, the one thing Cora and I had avoided like the plague was our plans after graduation. Neil and I had talked openly about buying a small financial firm and joining their team once we had our diplomas in hand, but Cora planned to go to grad school—although she hadn’t said where.
“We’re going to have to talk about it at some point, Cora.” I tried to reason with her when she walked in on Neil and me discussing businesses to consider. He politely excused himself, leaving the two of us alone.
“Why ruin the end of our senior year when we don’t have to, James?” She flitted about the kitchen putting away the groceries she’d bought. I loved the way she hummed a song I’d never heard trying to placate me into denial. It was endearing even though ineffective.
“It doesn’t have to ruin anything.” I followed behind her in a perfectly choreographed dance, taking items from her to put them in places she couldn’t reach in an effortless display of teamwork—we worked together like peanut butter and bananas. She was the flip to my flop. The basket to my ball. The nut to my sack.
She stopped and turned unexpectedly, nearly knocking me over. “Don’t make life decisions based on my whims. You and Neil clearly have a plan outlined, which I think is fantastic. I never believed he’d manage to graduate with us—he’s worked hard to pull this out. Regardless of what happens, or where either of us ends up, we’ll figure it out.”
“If you’d tell me what schools you are considering then we can look at investment firms in that area so we can all stay together.” My tone had taken on a plea that verged on whining, and I neared a point I wanted to put myself in timeout.
“You are aware we aren’t a ménage, right?” Her laughter filled the small space.
I pressed her against the counter with my hips, swaying slightly. “Brother husbands—like sister wives in reverse. You into that kind of thing?” Cora was about as modest as they came; the mere question was laughable.
“You know me, the Porn Queen looking for my next poke.” Her eyes rolled, though I couldn’t help but think of her on video.
“Let’s make you my private royalty.” I waggled my eyebrows.
And she blew me off with silly laugher. “You could hang a crown from Neil’s—”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” No matter what the situation, the two of us found a way to make it fun.
Part of our avoidance of this topic was neither of us knew how to approach the truth that we might separate. Even if for only a short time, in the grand scheme of things, two years was nothing compared to eternity—regardless, she wasn’t willing to face the possibility.
Her small hands snuck under my shirt and roamed my chest while she tilted her head up to stare into my eyes. She’d gone from distant to playful to erotic in less than three minutes, and under her touch, I was a goner. As much as I craved taking her right there on the counter, I had to back away and pry her delicate fingers from my skin.
Her lip stuck out, and she pouted in my direction. The problem was, Cora always knew my hand, and she always held the ace of hearts. When I refused to return her affection until we’d had some semblance of a conversation, she took matters into her own hands. And Cora played dirty. She had a wicked poker face and could totally count cards if necessary—she flat out cheated. Her brows rose as if to question my resolve, just before she lifted her shirt over her head.
“What are you doing? Neil could come back in.” I turned between my half-dressed girlfriend and the front door. “Put your shirt back on, Cora.”
Her coy smile toyed with me.
“Fine, if you’re interested in playing this game, then let’s move to the bedroom.”
She gently shook her head in refusal, reached behind her back, and unclasped her bra. I tried to grab the straps before they slipped down her arms, although she evaded my reach and shot it across the room. It hung from a lamp beside the couch, and I couldn’t get past her to retrieve it.
“Cora…” My tone held a warning—and zero weight.
“James…” she mimicked, mocking me.
“Can you be serious for just a minute?”
“Depends, can you drop this and e
njoy your girlfriend? Or do we really need to get Neil involved? I’ve heard he’s hung like a—”
“Don’t go there.” The rumor mills on this campus were insane. I had no desire to think about the size of Neil’s junk, and Cora sure as hell didn’t need to be pondering his endowment.
“How about here?” Her hand snuck beneath the waistline of her shorts. “Is this a safe place?”
I growled in response.
She knew I’d give in and not get answers. I was tempted to call her bluff and text my best friend to have him come home. I snickered at the thought of how quickly she would use me as a shield if he walked in the door, or how fast she’d duck behind the counter or try to make an escape to our room. I didn’t want to do it, there was no way in hell I wanted anyone seeing parts of her she reserved for me, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“What are you doing?” Her voice was sultry and seductive.
“Dialing Neil.”
She called my bluff, and the hand that was down her pants now assisted the other in removing them completely, along with her underwear. There she stood in all her naked glory in our kitchen with her clothes—minus the bra still hanging from the lamp—in a pile on the floor. “You wouldn’t do that.”
Before I could actually hit send, the front door swung open and in strolled Neil with Hannah right behind him. It all happened so fast. I had gotten too far away from her to actually provide any barrier or coverage, and Neil’s sights landed on her breasts before dipping down to her neatly trimmed landing strip just above her goods.
“Oh, shit. Dude, I had no idea. I thought you two were talking.”
Hannah slammed the door closed to keep outsiders from seeing in, while I watched the scene unfold, and Neil stared at Cora’s baby maker like a prepubescent teen.
“Cora, oh my God. Where are your clothes?” Hannah squealed in hysterical laughter.
In no other situation would anyone find humor in this, but I couldn’t help it. She’d created this by refusing to talk and making jokes about threesomes, and here she had her very own gangbang in the making. When the world started spinning again and time resumed ticking, she ducked behind me and used her toe in an attempt to pull each scrap of fabric close enough to grab without further exposing herself…like everyone in the room didn’t now know what color her drapes were.
My stomach hurt from laughing so hard, and when I bent over to ease the ache, she squawked for me to stand up while she redressed. Hannah and I couldn’t control ourselves, and Neil was the color of a ripe tomato, yet he still hadn’t moved. We all should have been mortified, unfortunately, this was far too amusing to let go.
“I thought you two were going to talk. What the fuck happened?” Neil sounded like his balls had rescinded, which only further spurred me on.
“I tried, dude. This”—I waved my hands at my half-dressed girlfriend—“is what I’m dealing with. It’s always sex with this one. I’m starting to think she’s only after my body.” That comment earned me a playful swipe to the back of the head.
Before I could make the situation any worse, Cora had managed to get dressed—minus the bra—and took her spot next to me. When she tucked her dark hair behind her ear and righted herself as if she hadn’t just been caught naked in the kitchen, I burst out laughing again. I couldn’t stop, and Hannah’s giggles just kept me going.
Cora finally glared at me, shutting me down. That was, until her bra came soaring past my face. I wasn’t sure who’d shot it back to her, Hannah or Neil—they both looked guilty.
“You three are impossible.” She huffed out a loud breath, and I noticed how rosy her cheeks had become when she stepped around me and plopped down at the breakfast table.
When I tried to hug and comfort her, she pushed me off with a fake frown.
Neil sat down, followed by Hannah and myself. “Time for a family pow-wow.”
Cora thought it was adorable that Neil tried to have communal rap sessions between the four of us. Personally, I thought he was a dork who’d lost his cool factor between Geneva Key and Chapel Hill, and we’d never managed to find it again. That first year we were here, he’d become the old man to our youthful antics. When we added Hannah to the mix, it was all downhill. She was the perfect complement to his anal-retentive ways. Yet somehow, together, we all worked flawlessly.
“Cora…” Neil tried to be the voice of reason while Hannah and I continued to giggle like school girls. “You need to give us some idea of what school you plan to attend, so we can make plans with you.”
I didn’t give her the chance to respond before adding, “We’re only like six weeks from graduation. You’ve applied to grad schools. Just tell us which ones you’ve heard from.” I had tried this before and gotten nowhere.
She stared at us like a mute.
“Don’t make me tell them, Cora.” Hannah hated to betray her friend; however, she also wanted me to be happy, and without Cora in my life daily, I wouldn’t be. That, in turn, would make Neil unhappy, which led back to her. It was the circle of life, the days of our lives, as the world turned.
Cora’s shoulders slumped. There was a reason she’d kept this a secret, although, I had no idea what it was until she opened her mouth. “The top two possibilities are both on the West Coast.”
And the Financial District was northeast.
She intentionally waited as long as she could so she wouldn’t have to break the news to me that what she wanted was on the opposite side of the country from what we’d been planning for. Her eyes filled with tears. “It’s like my parents dying all over again.”
Her words crushed me. She’d told me countless times that we were her only family. She’d welcomed Hannah like a sister, and she adored Neil. The truth was, we were all tightly knit. During our sophomore year, her grandfather had passed away from cancer, leaving her grandmother—whom she never spoke to—as her only living relative. I felt sorry for Gwendolyn. She was lost without Owen and often tried to connect with Cora, but Cora was unable to forgive whatever grudge her dad had passed down as a family heirloom.
Neil hadn’t said more than about ten words to his parents since he’d left Geneva Key and hadn’t spoken to Natalie at all. And I only went home at Christmas. I still talked to my parents, although Geneva Key seemed like a lifetime ago, and we’d all forged our own way here. Granted it had been with our parents’ money—except Neil who’d worked his ass off—nevertheless, the fact still remained…she’d be alone.
“Oh, honey, don’t say that.” Hannah grabbed her hand across the table and held it tightly with her own. “We can figure something out; we just need to talk about it. Right, guys?”
There was no reason to break up the Breakfast Club; we’d just have to find a way around detention.
***
The compromise ended up with Cora picking Cornell Tech in the heart of New York City to pursue an engineering degree. She’d taken math and science classes, but I didn’t believe that was what she’d intended to do on the other side of the country. It had been a possible path she’d tossed around, yet unlike everything else she did, this was the one thing she’d never had a firm grasp on. Cora had floundered with career choices, and in all honesty, I believed her desire to go to grad school stemmed from her inability to pick a direction. If she continued with school, it bought her more time to be indecisive.
Even with her concession, she didn’t seem the least bit upset with her choice. Hannah had decided to go to culinary school at The Michelin Institute on Long Island. She and Neil were getting their own place, and Cora and I were going in search of one ourselves. Neil had become a miser since his parents lost their fortunes—he’d give Scrooge a bad name. Somehow, he’d managed to pay for college as he went, helped with rent and utilities, and squandered away money to keep them afloat. I prayed to God he hadn’t taken after his old man and started gambling—albeit, if he had, he was clearly better at it than the previous generation. I wasn’t sure how long he could manage, but I assumed he w
ould figure it out. Either way, I was ecstatic we had a plan and multiple businesses to look at investing in.
Graduation came and went with little fanfare. The four of us walked in the ceremony, although since my parents had been out of the country, and Cora’s grandmother hadn’t been invited, that only left Hannah’s parents. They had invited us all out to dinner, and we enjoyed an evening with them. At the end of the day, it was just that—the end of the day. One that simply marked the end of one chapter of our lives and the start of another.
And the following week, the four of us took off on the road trip of a lifetime meandering our way up the East Coast and into New York. The trip included every stop we could find from the capital to the largest ball of yarn and the tiniest rocking chair. If there was a place of interest, we pulled over. We weren’t in a hurry to get anywhere and had a blast on the open road—even when Neil got lost in a corn maze and scared in the World’s Largest House of Mirrors. I had no idea a grown man could have such an aversion to clowns. It had taken us well over an hour to retrieve him from the tangled web of reflections. Although our strangest stop had been one closest to home at the Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum. We’d gotten thrown out for making fun of the Bigfoot and Loch Ness paraphernalia. Apparently, there were people who believed the displays were scientific artifacts.
“Oh look, The Awakening!” Cora cooed as if she’d just uncovered some fantastical exhibit we had to see.
“Isn’t that a Robin Williams movie?” Hannah asked from the back seat.
“This is a sculpture that comes out of the sand. It’s a giant hand.”
“And why do we need to see a huge hand?” Neil jabbed at Cora.
“For the same reason you insisted on seeing proof of Bigfoot, you oaf.” She turned to me in the driver’s seat for the final call. “Come on, we’ve stopped at way stupider things.” Cora wagged her eyebrows and bounced in the seat next to me.
Unexpected Arrivals Page 5
