Unstuck

by Liliana Camarena

  “I know, too much alcohol,” I said while trying to think something to say.

  “I like you too, Brian. But you just got to understand how confusing this is for me. We work together; your best friend is my boss,”

  “And my boss,” he added and I laughed.

  “I haven’t had time to think about what I want this to be,” I said smiling and Brian nodded “I understand. I just wanted you to know that I am not assuming that we have something going on because we had fun last night. It was amazing and I liked it a lot but that’s no way to start something,” Brian definitely was making me doubt myself.

  “Thank you, Brian. You are amazing,” I said placing my hand on his cheek “So are you,” he said leaning over to kiss me. And I let him. What the fuck was wrong with me?? Was I sampling kissers or what? I don’t know what it was but I kissed him and, even though it was a proper kiss where tongue and lips equally took part of the action, I felt the same thing that I felt the night before. No fussy, warmth in me, just glad that I could have human interaction with someone I knew.

  I pulled apart and said “I should go inside,” Brian nodded and got out of the car to open the door.

  “I’ll see you on Monday,” he said hugging me and I nodded. I was in deeper shit than before.

  I opened the door and wave him as he left. I closed and bumped my forehead against the door twice. There were some things that were very clear and some other’s that I could not even begin to understand. That I wanted to go to bed was very clear at that moment and so I walked towards the pool house just to find Patrick swimming.

  “What are you doing?” I said laughing.

  “I was a bit restless. Thought that some laps could remedy that,” I smiled, took my shoes off and crouched in front of him on the pool “What took you so long?” He asked crossing his arms on the border of the pool.

  “Brian took me for some sorbet because it seemed that my stomach was demanding some,” I shrugged.

  “What kind of sorbet?” he asked

  “Passion fruit,” I said smiling

  “Was it delicious?” he asked and I nodded vehemently “It was,” I said.

  “Did you talk?” he finally asked

  “Yes,”

  “What did you say?” It didn’t escape my attention that he wanted to know what I had said.

  “I need time to think. This is a confusing and complicated situation,” I said and Patrick just nodded.

  “I guess I am going to sleep. I am sooo tired,” I said getting ready to go but Patrick grabbed my hand and pulled me into the water with him.

  “Oh. Mother fucker,” I said coming out for air and getting the hair out of my face “It’s freezing,” I could hear Patrick laughing his ass off at the opposite side of the pool

  “You little shit. This is Stacy’s dress,” I screamed trying to climb out of the pool.

  “Oh, I’m pretty sure she won’t ever wear it again,” I could hear him laughing again.

  “Good night, Patrick,” I said walking to the pool house.

  “Good night, Lucinda,” He screamed and kept on laughing.

  Nine

  The sun was shining right on my face and I opened my eyes little by little, I was afraid I would wake up to my second day of hangover. I was relieved to see that I was fine and the light in my eyes was quite welcomed. I took a look at my phone and realized two great things 1 Patrick had not asked for midnight snacks and 2 it was 9 in the morning. I had a full night’s sleep. I jumped from bed feeling great; I had turned 30 and the world had not come to an end. I was there, in my room with a beautiful day ahead and I was going to make it count… by working my ass off.

  I opened the window to enjoy the warmth of the sun and … “Sweet Baby Jesus,” I said closing the window. It was freezing. Winter was upon us all. It had happened overnight. I was not a winter person, or a summer person, or a spring person as a matter of fact (I had allergies). If I had to be a season person it would be fall and it clearly was giving its last few breaths. At least golfing would not be in the schedule for a while.

  I took a shower, dried my hair and put it up in my favorite nest. I grabbed my lazy jeans and a big gray sweater. I was going to be busy but would not leave the property so I’d decided that I was going to dress comfortable. I put on my snickers and off I went to the house.

  “Morning girls,” I said to Miranda and Sarah that were on the kitchen putting containers with food on the fridge.

  “Good morning, Lucy,” said Miranda “I made several dishes in case you want something for lunch and dinner,”

  “Thank you, Miranda,” I said grabbing an apple “did Patrick have breakfast?” “Yes, he is in his office now. What can I offer you?” She asked. I noticed she was ready to leave. Her hair was down and she had pants on as oppose to her eternal work pencil skirts.

  “Don’t worry, Miranda. I’ll have cereal just go, have fun, see you tomorrow,” I said jumping down from the stool and grabbing a bowl.

  “Are you sure?” she asked worried. She’s such a mom.

  “I am sure. Go. You too Sarah,” I told the shy girl and she smiled and left. Miranda gave me a hug and left.

  It was the first Sunday of the month, Update Sunday, and yeah, I made up the name. I had to go around the house checking every mini bar and filling it with whatever it was missing. I had to update the movie collection and the book collection. So there I was with my trolley, yes I had to use a trolley to go from room to room with everything I needed; it was much better than carrying everything in my arms and running upstairs, then downstairs, then upstairs again. Till this day I think that the trolley has been my best idea yet, and believe me, I’ve had ideas that have given May, Inc. a couple of extra billions.

  I began with the T.V room; the snack bar was in serious need of pretzels, juice boxes and bubble gum. The sodas and strawberry flavored milk was ok, only a few missing. I spent about an hour updating the movie collection because, really, how many movies come out in a month??? Seriously.

  After the T.V room I went to Patrick’s room to re-stock the mini bar that seemed to be low in pretzels, little bottles of liquor, and bottles of water and juice boxes. I could definitely tell his mood in the last month by the state of his mini bar. If only the damn fridge could speak. He’d been stressed, he ate too many pretzels when he was; he had a lot of company, girls, in his room, there were too many booze and water bottles missing. He had been waking up with a slight hangover; he drank juice first thing in the morning after he had been drinking. I am sad to inform that I had to re-stock his condom drawer. Yes he had a drawer for them and lately I had to re-stock every two weeks.

  I stopped for a second sitting down on the bed, it was impressive, or stupidly amazing, the amount of facts that I knew about Patrick. If there was somewhere out there a site dedicated to Patrick Maynard trivia, and I could bet my money on it there was, I could become their “source,”

  I shook my head and went on re-stocking the sauna, the gym, the solarium, leaving to the end the office and library. Updating the library always took me half a day, around 4 hours. The amount of books published in a month for every genre Patrick was interested was insane! So, me and my trolley went to his office and knocked.

  “Come in,” I heard and there I went.

  “Good Morning,” I said smiling

  “I still can’t get over the sight of you,” he said laughing and resting his head on the leather chair.

  “It’s easier than running around the house,” I said going to the mini bar. Pretzels, waters and soda, this was a place for work.

  “How did you sleep,”? He asked watching me kneel in front of the mini bar.

  “Oh, amazing! I had the best night’s sleep,” I said while rearranging the bottles of water.

  “Good, you needed it,” he said with a tiny smile.

  “I did. Well,” I said standing up “off to my own personal hell,” I said taking my trolley to the library.

  “I’ll come for you in a bit so we can ha
ve lunch,” I just nodded. I was already dreading to discover what “The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification,” was all about.

  I don’t know how long had I been in there going through books, reading the summary and assigning it to a pile according to its genre, but I was brought back to reality by Patrick’s voice.

  “Hey,” I heard him say and saw him on a leather sofa with his head on a throw pillow.

  “Hey,” I said looking at the book on my hand. I was sitting on my heels contemplating the 10 piles of books I had in front of me “Where do you think a book of cat shifters that fall in love in the middle of World War II would go? Romance, Fantasy or History?” I said looking at him before bursting in a laughing fit.

  “Are you serious?” he asked and reached out to take the book from my hands “Well, I’ll be damned…. Cat shifters. Romance definitely romance,” he said while reading the summary and laughing

  “I’ll just leave it in the Fantasy pile,” I said putting the book on the pile “You have no idea what I’ve found in here,” I said picking up the next book. “What are you doing here?” I asked while reading the summary for the memoirs of a vampire; a man that truly believed he was a vampire.

  “I’m stuck,” he said looking at me

  “Do you want me to help unstuck you?” I asked while looking at the book cover.

  “Later. Let’s have lunch,” He said sitting down on the sofa “Sure but first, Fantasy or Non-Fiction?” I asked giving him the book.

  We ate Miranda’s chicken salad and drank lemonade in the Library. We had to up the heat in the house because it truly was freezing and the cold salad was not helping at all. I couldn’t believe that we were soon approaching the end of the year. I’ve had a good last semester so far.

  “So, I was thinking,” I said while we both were sitting on the library’s floor surrounded by sofa’s and books “ I could easily write your Wikipedia page with every single detail I know from you,” I took a bite of chicken. Patrick laughed out loud; he seemed to laugh a lot when we were alone. He didn’t laugh at the office; he didn’t laugh so much with Brian. Ugh! Brian...next!

  “No one has stuck around long enough to learn all my tiny fascinating details the way you do,” he said giving a sip to his lemonade.

  “I don’t know if they are entirely fascinating, but they are tiny details indeed. I shouldn’t be using storage on that,” I said tapping the side of my head with one finger.

  “Ok, I’ll give you fascinating details so you can storage for when you are writing that Wikipedia page… what do you want to know?” He said putting the salad to the side and rubbed his hands together.

  “Wow… I seriously don’t know what to ask,” I did have a question in my mind but I didn’t want things to become awkward between us.

  “Don’t worry, ask away,” It was as if he knew what I was thinking.

  “Ok, an easy one to start,” I said biting my fork “why aren’t you married?” Well there it was THE question I had on my mind I hoped he had fallen for the “easy one,” thing back there.

  “What are you? My mother?” he asked and rested his back on the sofa behind him. “I don’t know. Seriously, I don’t,” He stared to nothing in particular as if his mind was trying to find a good enough reason “it’s not that I don’t want to…,” he sighed deeply “It’s just that….I never felt completely comfortable and at ease with someone, sharing my life, my every day…,”

  “That can’t be too hard, you are comfortable with me, I think,” Oh God! I had just blurted that out. Where was my brain filter when I needed it?

  He looked at me; with intensity I had not seen in him before and said “Exactly,” I felt black caramel apples. I’d decided that the warmth I felt were black caramel apples left overs from two days ago. Were apples biodegradable? Because they seemed to have settled in my stomach for good.

  “My turn to ask?” He said and I nodded while conveniently chewing on my chicken.

  “What the hell is a cat shifter?” I laughed out loud I was not expecting that question.

  “I have no idea. From the summaries I’ve read, I think they are people who turn into cats,” I said shrugging.

  “Like were wolves?” I nodded “why aren’t called ‘were cats’?” “Because they are shifters,” I said nodding and Patrick laughed. He’d unstuck us. He’d pulled us out from the awkwardness and that was perfect.

  “My turn,” I said and Patrick nodded “How did you end up being Patrick Maynard, CEO and billionaire?”

  “What? You didn’t do your research?” He asked with a mock shock expression “ Well, I am sorry to disappoint you but I am no genius entrepreneur whose small company grew out of nowhere and out of dedication,” he shrugged “May, Inc. was a very well known company by the time I was out of Business School. My father had it running perfectly but he had his hotel business running too so he decided to attend to that and asked me to take over May, Inc. I just gave it my full attention and it grew.”

  “It’s impressive, though,” I said looking at him “Everything that you’ve done with it. That I did looked into and I have to admit that I had a professional crush on you for a long time,”

  “Had? What happened?” he tried to look sad but I could see the grin about to appear on his face.

  “Ha! I met you, Patrick. Buying your underwear and condoms can put all that in perspective,” He laughed

  “My turn. How did Lucinda Stuart become Miss Stuart?” I didn’t like this game anymore.

  “I’ve been Miss Stuart since high school,” I sat next to him against the sofa and looked at the proverbial nothing in search of an answer, “you know how they call you by your last name,” he nodded “well it all began in there. I was a perfect student; of course, I had a job as a receptionist at a lawyer’s office, that’s when I decided that I was not going to law school,”

  “Thank god for that,” he said. I nodded and we clinked our lemonade glasses “And then college, University of Pennsylvania, International Business,” I took a small vow “Impressive,” said Patrick

  “Yeah, you?” I asked

  “Economics, Harvard,” he said

  “Of course,” I nodded and he smiled “Anyway,” I was eager to tell my story after all I was feeling comfortable with it and I realized I wanted Patrick to know it “I took a job in coffee filter company,”

  “Doing what?” he asked he seemed genuinely interested in what I was saying.

  “Receptionist at first, as the time went by I became the boss’s assistant. As you can see I am not stranger to the job,” I turned to look at him and he smiled. “Of course I was Miss Stuart and I was already used to that. Back home my mother would call me Miss Stuart too. She was quite happy that one of her two daughters was on her way of becoming a professional something….”

  “You have a sister,” he seemed surprised.

  “I do the ugly duckling of the family. I would say the black sheep but no, ugly duckling fits better,” I shook my head and played with my fingers on my lap. “My mom is disappointed that she went and got married after college only to become a stay at home mom.”

  “What do you think about that?” he asked

  “Since I have memory all she wanted was to become a mom and have a family. That was her dream. Once she told me that she went to college as an insurance for her future family; you never knew what would happen and she might had to dig out her degree to help her husband out,” I smiled remembering “She knew exactly what she wanted out of life and she went and got it. I respect that and am very proud of her,” I nodded. I really was proud of my big sister

  “Where does she live?” he asked

  “Miami. Daniel, her husband, works over there. She has 4 children. 4!!!!! I haven’t seen them in forever. I don’t even know the youngest one,” I sighed. My heart was aching “But we email each other often, haven’t talked in a while, though.”

  “Did you become Miss Stuart because that’s what your mother wante
d?” He asked and I had to think really hard to give him an honest answer.

  “I think,” I took a deep breath “I think that I did it to make my mother happy. She never asked me to do it; she just expected it in a very passive aggressive way. I think that I wanted to make up for my sister’s choice by becoming an overachiever,”

  “So, how did you end up at Little Black Book?” I guess Patrick sensed my pathetic mood and tried to turn the conversation towards another direction.

  “Oh! That. Well we provided them with filters,” I smiled and shrugged. “So when I was done with college my boss, bless his heart, talk to them about giving me a better job because he knew that I was not going to be able to grow in his company,” I smiled remembering him. I had not seen him in at least 3 years because I was a cold bitch. “I began as an assistant to the head of administration, I got my MBA at Wharton and then moved up as an executive and the last 2 years as head of administration,” I turned to look at him. He was smiling.

  “And now you are the lucky assistant to Patrick Maynard,” he said “And I am still Miss Stuart!” I kicked the floor and he laughed out loud.

  “Well, for me you are just Pepper,”

  “Don’t know which one’s worse,” I said shaking my head and laughing.

  “My turn,” I said “Tell me about your family,” I turned my whole body to face him “My family,” he said “well, my mother, Elaine, she was a college professor for a long time, sociology. She retired when my baby sister, Regina, was born. I think that is why she is such a brat; my mother gave her all her time.” He wanted to sound annoyed but I could tell in his eyes and the tiny smile he had that he loved her too. “My father is a great guy, you know how he keeps asking me to get married and have babies, he is the kind of guy that puts his family first and work second,” I just nodded.

  “I have two younger brothers; Stuart is 30 and works with dad in the hotels, Jameson is 27 and he decided a long time ago that he was going to write travel books, they suck, they are somewhere in here. And then we have the surprise in the family, Regina who is 17,”