by Karen Gordon
“No problem, get some sleep.”
“K. And I’ll call you tomorrow to see how your classes go.”
“K. And thank you again … for coming. I love you.” He smiled that she said it first.
“Love you too. Anytime.”
♪ ☺ ♥
He was put on probation at work. If he kept a clean attendance and safety record for ninety days he would be put back on regular status. So he made that his goal. He wanted to have another job lined up and apply as soon as he could leave Tricon with a clean record and a good recommendation.
The only place he knew to start looking was the want ads so he stopped by the quick shop on his way home from work. He also needed to get some food. His dad’s place hadn’t changed –the couch was empty but so was the fridge.
He glanced up briefly as he was lining two hot dogs up on the counter to add ketchup and mustard, and he caught a man staring at him. He stared back. He knew this guy from somewhere … but where the hell would he know a flamer like him from? The guy’s clothes and hairstyle screamed gay from across the room. Was he looking for a date?
Steve shook his head then went back to adding mustard. He wasn’t pissed because to be honest it wasn’t the first time it had happened. Evidently whatever vibe he was putting out there appealed to some gay guys too.
The guy came closer and continued to stare. Damn he was persistent.
“Look, I um ….” He was about to give him the brush off when he recognized him from the morning of September Eleventh. This was the guy who was behind him in line, the one who bought his sandwich and cigarettes so he could leave to find MG.
“You, man, you’re the guy who bought my stuff for me last week.”
The gay guy smiled and possibly blushed. “Did you find your girlfriend? Was she OK?”
His high, lispy voice perfectly fit his overall look and even though he was asking about MG there still seemed to be an element of flirting in it.
“Yeah. I did. She’s fine. Thank you.”
He shrugged it off, and extended his hand. “I’m Bryce.”
Steve wiped his on his jeans to remove some of the dirt from work and some mustard. “Steve and hey, I need to pay you back. I’m not down to my last five today.” He reached in his pocket for the last of the money he’d taken from Stony.
Bryce brushed him off with an exaggerated wave of his hand. “No. Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you found her. So, do you work around here?” He smiled and possibly batted his eyelashes.
Steve wasn’t sure how to answer, because he was getting such mixed signals. The guy obviously knew he had a girlfriend, but he couldn’t be more blatantly trying to pick him up. “Uh, yeah, for now.”
“Oh, are you looking for something else?”
There was so much innuendo in that question he wanted to tread carefully. Bryce was a damn nice guy, and he wasn’t offended but he also just wasn’t interested.
“Yeah, I guess.” He held up the newspaper he was planning to buy. “Starting on the want ads today.” He put both hotdogs in a holder and started walking toward the register, figuring he could end this politely by leaving.
“So what do you do?”
“Warehouse work.” His job was always a conversation ender, maybe that would turn this guy off.
“So you move stuff and lift stuff?” He didn’t hide his appreciative scan of Steve’s muscles.
The guy at the register rang up his hot dogs, newspaper, and soda and chuckled at Steve’s predicament. Steve glared at him before turning to Bryce. “Can I get your coffee for you? Pay you back for the other day?” The guy behind the register coughed/laughed into his hand.
“No, I already paid. But thank you.”
Bryce followed him into the parking lot, holding the door for him. “So, these friends of mine, they’re decorators …”
There was a shock.
“They need someone to help make furniture deliveries and you look like you could handle the job.” He pulled a business card from his pocket. “It’s not full time, but …”
Fuck! This was not good. There was no way he was going to call whatever number was on there, and he hated to be a dick to this guy who had helped him out.
Steve put his can of soda in his jacket pocket so he could take the card. At least it was a legit business card for some decorating company and not Bryce’s phone number. “Thanks. I’ll look into it.” He stuffed the card in his pocket and made a mental note to tell MG her lucky star needed some adjusting. He got an offer but not the kind he needed.
“OK, I guess I’ll see you around. I’m here getting coffee like twice a day. I know I should cut down, but …”
Steve nodded as he got on the bike, wanting the conversation to end, and now dreading running into Bryce again, since he also came by here at least once a day when he stayed at his dad’s place. He smiled briefly at him before pulling away. “Yeah, see you around.”
Bryce waved his fingers like a flirting debutante.
Chapter 23
Chaos and uncertainty worked for MG. She had lived her whole life never knowing when her mom’s current relationship would end and they would move again, into the next guy’s house or apartment. The longest she had ever lived at one address was the house Vin, her mom’s married boyfriend, had rented for them during all four of her years in high school. Even then she kept some of her stuff packed in boxes because it was a rocky relationship at best.
Fall sorority rush had been cancelled, so MG couldn’t formally join the Alpha Chi’s. Alex’s friends still welcomed her to the house anytime, and she usually spent the night, using Alex’s bed until she came back to school. Once classes resumed the parties did too. Some were too heartbroken to party, but most of the students seemed determined to push their celebration of being young and alive into overdrive.
MG kept her stuff in her (now private) dorm room and stayed there when the noise and female energy at the house got to be too much, but most nights she crashed in Alex’s room, too wasted to find her way back to her dorm alone anyway.
Today she was trying to recover from another meeting of the Tuesday night drinking club before she had to be in class at noon. It hurt too much to stand, so she crawled out into the hallway, stopping by Alex’s mini fridge for a Diet Coke on her way. Tessa was already there, lying on her usual ice pack and talking to Viv. They moved as little as possible to greet her.
“Hey, woman.”
She slumped down against the doorjamb and took a drink of soda so she could find her voice. “Hey.” She burped and rolled her eyes because it hurt.
“So, do you know who that guy was that Meegan was making out with last night?”
MG shook her head. “She was making out? When? Where?”
“At the Phi Lamb house.” Viv sat up on the mat she was lying on. “Don’t you remember being there? You stole this.” She pointed down to a woven wall hanging of the Phi Lamb crest that she was using as a rug.
MG glanced over and vaguely remembered pulling it off the wall. “Oh, oops.”
Tessa pointed to Alex’s room. “You might want to check the floor in there. I think you stole some guy’s shoes and cap too.”
“She did.” Margaux inched her way into the hall from her room, stopping briefly to take a drink from MG’s soda. “They’re Josh’s. You were on a steal-shit-from-Josh mission.”
“Oh,” MG smirked, “Ok, no need to return ‘em then.”
“So who was the guy Meegan was all over? I’ve never seen him before.”
Margaux stretched out on her stomach and laid her head on the cool wood floor. “It wasn’t Daniel was it?”
MG’s head shot up at the mention of his name. No matter how hung over she was, she would not tolerate these girls terrorizing her friend. They could save that shit for the frat guys.
“No. It wasn’t Daniel. Your obsession is safe.”
Margaux smiled. “Good, because I would have had to scalp the bitch.”
An image flashed in MG’
s fuzzy brain. “Wait, was it a red-headed guy?”
“Maybe?”
“I think I remember him. I kept telling him he was better off dead than red on the head.”
“Smooth, MG, very smooth.”
“Some red heads are cute, look at Prince Harry.” Viv added her usual positive spin.
“I met him once, he is really cute.” Margaux’s family ran with royalty, so MG wasn’t too surprised.
“You get some of that?” Tessa liked to keep everything crude. No wonder MG liked her so much.
“No, he has a girlfriend.”
“Or you would have.”
Margaux smiled into the floor. “Maybe.”
MG took it all in and shook her head. Only here could a conversation start with someone hooking up and end with royalty.
♪ ☺ ♥
Although hanging with the girls in the sorority made Moreland a lot more fun, it also made her miss Carrie more than ever. MG had tried to call her several times but she was always too busy to talk for more than a few minutes. To be fair, Carrie now had two babies, a husband, and a resort that she was helping to run with her in-laws. They had two brief, polite phone calls that had made MG feel worse, not better about their growing distance.
MG sat in her quiet dorm room attempting to study and failing miserably. It was three p.m. in New York, that would make it two p.m. in the Lake of the Ozarks. MG decided to try an afternoon call. Carrie answered on the third ring.
“Callahan’s”
“Carrie?”
“MG?”
“Yeah, it’s me. You busy? Can you talk?”
“Actually, this is a good time. The babies are napping and I’m supposed to be ordering paper supplies. I’d much rather talk to you.”
“I’m supposed to be writing a paper, ditto.” They both laughed at the familiarity of them blowing off work to talk to each other.
“So, how’s school?”
“Hard. Definitely harder than high school. I actually have to do work here. How’s married and mommy life?”
“Hard.” Carrie hesitated, like she wasn’t sure they were close enough anymore for her to share. “Actually, the babies are great, but …”
“Nick?” MG really hoped Carrie would open up about him. She hadn’t sounded excited about him since they got married, but MG knew she didn’t have the whole story.
“Yeah. He … we … oh, hell, I fuckin’ hate being married.”
MG could feel her pain through the phone, and her relief at being able to talk honestly about it.
“God, MG, he is such an asshole now. He was never like this before the kids and the wedding. His mom tries to keep us apart, keep us from fighting, but … nothing gets solved.”
“Are you going to stay?”
Carrie breathed out a sarcastic chuckle. “I have nowhere else to go, especially with the babies.”
“I’m sorry, girl. I wish I could do something to make things better.”
“Thanks.” Carrie was quietly crying now. “I miss him.”
MG knew exactly who she was talking about, Ben, Carrie’s first love, who was somewhere fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. “I miss him too. And I’m sure he misses you.”
“No, he hates me. I told you he never wrote back to me when I told him I was pregnant and getting married.”
“I know, but that was a long time ago.”
“I just … I can’t help wonder sometimes, what it would be like if he hadn’t left, if I hadn’t screwed up, if I were married to him instead of my crab-ass husband.”
MG didn’t want to tell her she wondered that too. Everyone they hung around with in high school wondered how Ben and Carrie had fallen apart. The irony wasn’t lost on MG. Ben and Carrie were apart and she and Steve were together. Too bad she hadn’t placed a bet on that happening. The odds would have been a thousand to one.
Carrie changed the subject to the kids and the cute things they were doing, then she got another call and had to take it. They hung up with promises of keeping in touch more often. It wouldn’t be easy. Their lives were so different and so far apart, but it mattered enough to MG to keep trying.
♪ ☺ ♥
Later that week, Daniel searched for MG and found her, sleeping on a bench in the library between classes. He tugged on her hair gently to wake her. She opened her eyes and looked around like she was lost for a minute, until she saw him.
“Hey, Daniel.” She sat up and stretched, “What’s up?”
He sat down beside her, hands in his coat pockets, chewing his lip. He didn’t look happy about something.
“That agent, the one your dad had me call.”
“Yeah.”
“I went down to the city and met with him yesterday.”
This is where he should be jumping out of his skin happy, not stressed. “And …”
He took a deep, fast breath. He may not be the asshole Josh and Austin said he was, but he was still wired really tight. He stressed about everything. “I can’t do it.” He stood up and started pacing in front of her. “I can’t sign the contract.”
“He offered you a contract?” This was huge!
“He wanted …” He sat back down. “He wanted me to be part of a band he’s putting together.”
“OK?” MG wasn’t seeing the problem.
“It’s …” He shook his head. “It’s a boy band.”
“You mean like New Kids on the Block? That kind of boy band?”
He looked at her and nodded like he was delivering horrible news. “Yeah.”
MG cringed. Now she got the picture. The agent might have liked Daniel’s singing and playing, but it was his pretty boy, young looks they were really after. “Like how bad of a boy band?”
“Like synchronized-dancing, screaming teen-girls boy band.”
She cringed again and shook her head. “Damn, I don’t know what to tell you. It could lead to something you really want.”
“Or it could kill any chance I have of ever being taken seriously as a musician.”
He had a point. Some guys made it big after those bands but more ended up doing the reality TV show circuit. She hated the idea of seeing Daniel on The Real World.
“So what now?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “Is your dad gonna to be pissed? He was so great to get me that meeting, and he wants me to call him and tell him how it went.”
“I haven’t known him very long, but he doesn’t seem like he would.”
Daniel nodded, but still looked worried.
“Tell you what, he’s supposed to take me to lunch tomorrow. Why don’t you come too and talk to him in person. I know he really likes you. I think he’ll understand.”
He nodded again.
“Maybe he’ll have an idea of how you can turn this into something you do want. He’s been in the business a long time.”
He still wasn’t talking because he was too lost in thought–worrying. The guy seriously needed to lighten up. Maybe she should tell him about Margaux crushing on him. He might chill out some if he got laid.
♪ ☺ ♥
Randy wasn’t mad. In fact, he and Daniel talked music all through lunch making MG feel more like a third wheel than the guest of honor.
She did learn a lot more about Daniel. They ran into each other occasionally, but they had never really sat down and gotten to know each other very well since the time they had bonded over her spewing red wine all over him and his house.
His dad had been a musician, never professionally, but he’d played clubs and bars in college towns in upstate New York. That was how he met Daniel’s mom who had lived in the same house since she was born. She rented half of it out now to pay bills, but the blue Victorian on Cherry Street had been in Daniel’s family for generations. No one in his family had ever gone to the college. His dad died really young of lung cancer when Daniel was only five.
Randy shared some of his own history, bonding with Daniel over their shared nonaffluent backgrounds.
Before he
left, Randy dangled this summer’s potential awesome job in front of MG. If she pulled all A’s and B’s he would get her on as a Production Assistant for a European tour. He had some friends putting a tour together now, and he would save her the spot, but she had to show him her fall semester grades to have the job.
He had only known her for about a year, but he knew how to motivate her. Before they left the restaurant, she was mentally making a list of everything she needed to bring back to her dorm from the sorority house. She needed to spend a lot more time in her quiet, private hideout if she was going to raise her floundering grades. She told him to hold the position. She’d have the grades.
Chapter 24
If MG placed Steve under her lucky star with her, Amanda must have shot it down. One afternoon with her, and bad luck was back in his corner.
He borrowed his dad’s girlfriend’s truck to get his stuff from Amanda’s apartment. Like he figured, she was there because she was still on maternity leave. Things started out shaky between them and went downhill from there. He had called and asked her to get his stuff together. She hadn’t. To be fair, she claimed she was too busy with the Meggie. He didn’t say anything, but it irked him that she had kept the same name they had picked together. The only difference being her last name wasn’t Shrader.
When he got there Amanda offered to get his stuff for him if he would hold the baby. There was a swing and at least one seat in the apartment designed to hold the baby, so he knew she was up to something.
“Just put her in the swing, or I’ll just get my own stuff.”
“She hates the swing.”
“Then what about that other thing that plays music and bounces?”
“She hates that, too.” She held the pink bundle out to him.
He shook his head; he wasn’t going to play her games. “Not gonna do it, Amanda.”
“You are such an asshole. How can you take this out on her.”
