by Cassie Cole
I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to keep this feeling forever.
I can, if I move to California with him.
The thought drifted across my mind. I didn’t dismiss it outright. I had Darryl and my nephews here, but aside from them the only thing keeping me in Denver was my record store. And no matter what I did during the grand opening and counter-sale next week, I was probably going to go out of business. That was the hard reality of the situation.
Wasn’t that the perfect time to leave and start somewhere fresh?
Brody’s phone vibrated on the bedside table, and made a soft ringing noise. It was too far for me to reach, so I gently shook him awake.
“Your phone alarm is going off.”
He groaned. “Alarms are evil. They should be illegal.”
“I do not disagree.”
He blindly reached out and slapped at the table. His fingers tightened around the phone and he tapped the screen. The ringing and vibrating stopped.
But it turns out, it wasn’t his alarm.
“Brody?” a voice drifted out of the phone.
I snorted. “I think you turned on the speakerphone.”
“Are you there?” the person on the phone asked.
“Huh?” Brody groaned.
“Brody, this is Mr. Armbruster at Pacifica Vinyl. We wanted to talk to you about the numbers you sent over yesterday…”
I sat upright in bed.
“You work for Pacifica?”
33
Katherine
Brody went from being a sleepy zombie to an adrenaline-fueled maniac, jumping up and slapping at his phone like it was a mosquito. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Brody, is everything alright?” the person on the phone continued. “The spring market analysis you ran on the greater Denver area…”
Brody finally grabbed hold of the phone. “Mr. Armbruster, I’ll call you back.”
He ended the call, and lowered the phone slowly.
A silence stretched between us. The calm before the storm. I stared at Brody, but he wouldn’t look back at me. It felt like someone had stabbed me in the chest. Finally, his eyes rose to meet my gaze. The blue orbs were full of guilt.
I pointed at the phone as if it were a poisonous snake. “Tell me this is some shitty April Fool’s gag,” I whispered.
“Kat, I can explain,” he began.
“You told me you were a data analyst,” I breathed. “You said you worked for a company called Bay Area Analytics.”
“All of that is true,” he said slowly. Like he was defusing a bomb. “We do consulting for other companies…”
The last three months replayed in my brain on fast forward. “All this time at the gym you’ve been next to me on your tablet, doing research for Pacifica…”
He held out his hands soothingly. “They’re just one of my clients. I have four companies under my umbrella right now…”
“The man on the phone mentioned your spring report. For the Denver area.” My eyes widened. “Market analysis… Brody, are you the reason they decided to build a store down the street from me?”
“It was my job to study the area and determine the best location. Magnolia Street is a growing area…”
“With a record store already there!” I shouted. “My store!”
“I didn’t know you then,” he pleaded. “Kat, how was I supposed to know?”
“But you got to know me. We’ve been dating. You’ve known all this time…” I shivered. “You slept with me knowing that you were destroying my store!”
He ran a hand through his messy blond hair. “That’s why I’ve been putting it off! I’ve been making excuses because I knew I shouldn’t…”
He slid closer to me on the bed. I backed away, but he grabbed my arms. He held me in place and stared deeply into my eyes.
“I’m in love with you, Kat,” he said, voice brimming with emotion. “I couldn’t help but fall in love with you. Every hike, every ski trip, every swim practice and flirty interaction at the gym…”
Brody was pouring his heart out to me. If he had given me this speech last night, I probably would have told him that I was in love with him, too. But now all I could think about was how he was literally destroying my business, the thing that had been my entire life for the past five years, and then he fucked me for good measure.
The pit in my stomach was returning. The same bottomless hole that had formed after my parents had died, which I had been trying to fill ever since. In one night, after one betrayal, it was back and larger than ever.
“Say something,” he begged. “Say anything, Kat!”
“You could have told me.” My vision was becoming blurry with tears.
Brody smiled painfully. “If I had told you, you would have hated me for it.”
“Exactly!” I shouted. “Then I would have known who you really were, and I would have avoided you at all costs!”
“Kat…”
I shook off his hand and hastily got dressed. Brody knelt on the bed, watching me, defeated.
When I stalked out of the bedroom, I heard him try to follow. But his foot must have still been hurting him because there was a loud thud, and then he cursed with pain.
By then I was gone.
I walked two blocks down the street, then called an Uber. As soon as I was in the backseat, the flood gates opened and I began sobbing uncontrollably.
The Uber driver didn’t say a word. He didn’t even glance in the rear-view mirror, for which I was grateful. Five stars and a healthy tip. I hobbled up to my apartment and fell onto my bed, barely even taking the time to pull the covers over me.
Today was Paul’s day off. I didn’t feel like opening the store, so I decided to leave it closed. I also took the day off from the gym. I told myself that it was because I needed a rest day after yesterday’s crazy marathon, but the truth was that once I crawled into bed I couldn’t muster the energy to get out.
First, Finn and Max had found out about each other. Then I discovered that Brody was essentially a spy for Pacifica Vinyl all this time. In the blink of an eye I’d gone from three dashing male suitors to zero. It felt like my entire world was crashing down around me.
Brody called my cell phone ten times, and left half a dozen voicemails. I ignored them all. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, and him least of all.
Then Finn texted me that evening.
Finn: You alive? I brought a smoothie by the store today but it was closed.
Finn: I’d be super bummed out if we exercised you to death yesterday.
I was relieved to see the text, but
Me: I’m fine. Just taking a long rest day. My body could use it. But the smoothie was very thoughtful of you!
Finn: Want me to come over and massage away the soreness? RMF usually doesn’t do house calls, but I think I can make an exception.
Me: That’s tempting, but I think I’ll pass.
Finn: If you change your mind, let me know. You going to be at the gym tomorrow? It’s a new quarter, and as defending champion for the 25-29 age group you need to defend your crown.
Me: We’ll see how I feel in the morning :-)
Finn: Don’t make me come over and drag you out of bed. I’m not afraid of sinking to drill sergeant tactics
He added a GIF of a drill sergeant screaming “MAGGOT!” at someone doing push-ups. For the first time all day, I smiled.
Then I remembered what had happened last night. At the gym.
I had been so focused about Brody that I hadn’t given much thought to Finn and Max, beyond sort of being aware of it in the back of my head. I had assumed that things were now totally ruined with both of them, but here Finn was texting me as if nothing was wrong.
I started to compose a text asking about the situation with Max. What they discussed when they went out drinking last night. I typed out and deleted four or five messages, unsatisfied with any single one. How could I put such a question into words?
Finally I sent as simple a text as I could
manage:
Me: Hey, are we okay?
Finn: Of course we are.
I groaned at his response. It didn’t make me feel any better. Maybe I had been too vague.
I ordered Chinese food for dinner, something I hadn’t done in a while. I justified it in my head by planning on only eating half the quart of chicken fried rice, but then I wolfed the entire thing down. Plus four spring rolls.
And a Pepsi.
I was thinking about walking down to the corner store to buy ice cream when I got another text:
Max: 71 miles.
Me: What’s that mean?
Max: I was just reviewing the member logs. That’s how far you exercised yesterday!
Max: 1.5 miles swimming, 59 miles biking, and over 11 miles running and walking on the treadmill. Plus all the weights you lifted too!
Max: You essentially did half of an Ironman triathlon!
Me: I had lots of breaks, though. It took me all day.
Max: Still, it’s one hell of an accomplishment. Especially for someone who I had to convince to buy cycling shorts two months ago.
Max: Speaking of triathlons, have you thought about my invitation? To come to San Francisco and cheer me on for the Alcatraz race?
I gave a start. Just like Finn, he was pretending like nothing was wrong.
It was weird.
Then I remembered that I had already booked a flight to San Francisco this weekend with Brody. I hadn’t purchased travel insurance—I couldn’t get a refund.
Me: I did think about it, and I’ve already bought a ticket :-)
Max: Awesome. It means a lot to me that you’ll be there.
Me: After all the support you gave me for the points contest, I’m happy to return the favor!
I woke up and made myself go to the gym on Thursday. Although I was still a little sore, I felt pretty good as I jogged on the treadmill.
Brody was nowhere in sight. The points on the scoreboard had reset, and his score was still zero. Friday was the same; it was like he had vanished. Or was too scared to show his face around me.
I brought it up to Finn while we lifted weights that afternoon. “I heard he suspended his membership for April. He has a stress fracture in his foot and will be out for at least a month.”
“Oh wow, I guess he really wasn’t faking his injury to let me win.”
Finn grimaced. “Poor dude. He had to drop out of his triathlon in California. It must suck training all that time and then hurt yourself the week of the race.”
“Yeah, it must suck,” I said blandly. I felt a momentary burst of schadenfreude at the news of his injury, but it disappeared quickly.
At least things wouldn’t be awkward on the plane ride over to San Francisco.
While we lifted weights, Finn was still acting like nothing was wrong. Like he hadn’t learned two nights ago that I had been seeing Max all this time. I considered bluntly bringing it up, but I couldn’t muster the willpower.
“I won’t be working this weekend,” Finn told me as we finished up. “If you need any help, the front desk will assign you another trainer.”
“Thanks for the heads-up,” I said, even though I knew I wouldn’t be here either.
I packed my belongings that night. The weather in San Francisco would be chilly, but it was still warmer than Denver.
Max picked me up at my place the next day.
“I’ve got a reservation at the Hotel Zelos,” he said on the way to the airport. “It’s right next to the Market Street BART station, and a Muni stop that will take us straight to the starting point. And we’ll be able to walk to Chinatown.”
“I’ve never been to San Francisco before,” I said excitedly. “It’s going to be fun!”
“It’s a cool city. I would never live there, since it’s expensive as hell. But it’s a fun place to visit.” He grinned sideways at me. “Oh, and I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise? I like surprises.”
My phone rang. It was Brody again. I let it go straight to voicemail, then listened to the message when it eventually appeared.
“Kat, it’s me. Can we please talk? I don’t like the way we ended things…”
I hung up. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing to talk about.
“Everything alright?” Max asked.
“Yeah, just something at the store.”
We parked at the airport and unloaded our things. I had just a small carry-on suitcase, but Max had a giant duffel bag filled with gear, plus his bike. It was packed in a large cardboard box that looked like it held a big-screen television rather than a bicycle. It was thinner than a bike; how did the handlebars fit inside?
After checking Max’s bags, we carried the bike box to a special loading area. “Be careful with her, she’s precious cargo,” he told the airport attendant.
They grunted a noncommittal answer.
We made it through security with about ten minutes to spare. “Our gate’s right over there,” Max said.
There was a huge man sitting in a seat in front of the gate, with a backpack on the floor between his legs. I was thinking to myself how he looked like Finn… And then he stood up and smiled at us.
“Finn?” I asked. “What are you doing here?”
He gave Max a bro-fist and then hugged me. “Ready for our trip?”
“Our trip?”
“That’s the surprise,” Max replied. “Finn is coming with us.”
34
Finn
Boy was she surprised. Like I was a polar bear about to board the flight rather than her personal trainer. Max and I grinned at each other. Surprises were best when you really shocked the person.
“It was sort of a last-minute thing,” I explained. “Brody had to back out because of his stress fracture, but his plane ticket was transferable. So I bought it from him and paid the transfer fee.” I smacked Max on the shoulder. “Worth it to cheer on my buddy and see him qualify for Kona. I’ve never been to San Francisco.”
“That’s… That’s great,” Kat said. “I’m just surprised, is all.”
Max glanced at me. “Finn and I went out for a beer the other night, after you won the quarterly contest. And we talked about you.”
“We talked a lot,” I added.
Kat swallowed a lump in her throat. “And?”
Just then, the man at the gate announced that our flight was beginning to board.
“We’ll talk about it in San Francisco,” Max said.
I could tell that Kat was totally uneasy about all of this. Like she thought she had walked into a trap. I put my arm around her reassuringly as we boarded.
I was walking down the aisle toward my seat, reading off each number above the row, when Kat stopped in front of me. I glanced at the two seats next to each other in Economy Plus.
“No way,” I said. “You’re seat 12C? I’m 12A!”
“Really?” she asked.
I grabbed her bag and lifted it into the storage compartment above the seat. “If Brody had not backed out, you two would have been sitting next to each other. Funny coincidence, huh?”
“Hah! Coincidence, yeah,” she replied with a laugh.
Max shared a confused look with me while walking to his seat.
Most of the flight passed without anything interesting. I watched the first half of a movie, and began dozing off in my seat. Kat lifted the armrest between us and then rested her head on my shoulder, clutching my arm for support while she sighed and fell asleep.
I slid my hand underneath her blanket and patted her leg comfortingly. A totally innocent, non-sexual gesture.
Kat scooted her butt toward me, which caused my fingers to slide from the top of her thigh into the space between her legs. Then she inched forward on her seat until my fingers were resting against the seam of her jeans.
She felt warm, and was growing hotter every second.
I glanced down. Her eyes were still closed as if she was sleeping. Slowly I moved my fingers up and down, brushing against
her pussy. Her mouth opened slightly, and she let out a sigh that only I could hear.
I looked around the plane. Nobody near us was paying attention. And even if they were, there was a blanket over Kat’s lap.
Slowly, I dug my fingers deeper into her crotch. Kat’s sigh became a tiny moan. Like a small animal yawning.
Then I felt her fingers sliding across my thigh, underneath my blanket. She zeroed in on my cock, which was now a hard rod down the leg of my pants. I sucked in my breath at her touch, which became a gently, stroking motion of her own.
It wasn’t the mile-high club, but it was the next best thing. Kat and I fondled and groped each other steadily, fingers moving faster and faster. Her chest heaved as her breathing hastened, her cleavage practically swelling out of the top of her shirt from my vantage.
Finally Kat gasped, and her back tightened in her chair. I could feel her thighs trembling underneath me as she came. She twisted her head into my bicep and used it to muffle her orgasm, so that I was the only person who could hear her ecstasy.
She rubbed me faster and faster. It felt so good, and I could feel the tingling, vacuous sensation in my balls, I was so close…
I reached down and snatched her wrist, stopping her in place.
Finally she opened her eyes and grinned up at me. “Close?”
“Too close,” I whispered. “Unlike you, I’d have a much tougher time concealing the evidence.”
“Too bad for you.” She kissed my bicep gently and then went back to sleep.
I sighed back into my seat. I’d definitely made the right choice coming on this trip.
35
Katherine
We landed in San Francisco in the early afternoon. After retrieving our luggage, we took the BART north into the city and exited at the Market Street station. Max struggled carrying his massive bike box until finally Finn took it from him and lifted it over his head like it weighed as much as a sheet of paper.
