Just A Step Away (Closer)

by Roberts, Flora

  I swung my head around, thinking I had heard him wrong. “What?”

  “I said that I’ll go with you. You know…to your cousin’s wedding.”

  Lucas gave me one of his signature half smiles and a quick shrug of his shoulders. He shifted his eyes to look at me, and drew in a deep breath before saying, “You’re my best friend, Lanie, ya know? Besides, what the hell am I going to do without you for the next couple days?”

  Everything about Lucas was beginning to surprise me.

  “So I’ll go. I’ll be your poor bastard and deal with your loony family right along with you. So what do you say? Be my girlfriend?”

  “I will.”

  Chapter 4

  ~Lucas~

  Standing in my office, trying to get things in order for the trip, my mind was still going over yesterday’s events.

  “Have you told her yet?”

  “Told who what?”

  A low chuckle traveled up my friend’s throat as he shook his head. Brody Chandler knew everything about my pathetic situation with Lanie, including the fact that I was a pussy for not telling her how much I wanted to be with her.

  “You know damn well what I’m talking about.” Brody’s eyes narrowed. “The longer you wait, the easier you’re going to make it for some other fucker to snatch her right up. And you never know, that other fucker might just be me.”

  My blood boiled at his words. Just thinking about another man touching Lanie made me sick to my stomach. Not to mention it pissed me the fuck off. The urge to kick Brody’s ass for even mentioning Lanie in such a foul way was lethal.

  I grabbed at the file on my desk. “Shut the fuck up, Bro.”

  “As a matter of fact, why don’t you give me her number? I’d love to take her out, fill her pretty head with some sweet shit and then maybe take her back to my place. You know, if you’re too chicken shit to go there.”

  In a rush, the file I had been holding went sailing across my office and I was in front of Brody before either of us could blink.

  “I would suggest that that if you want to keep those straight teeth in your mouth, you put a fucking lid on it…now.”

  We were toe-to-toe, and thoughts of disfiguring my best friend’s face flashed wickedly through my mind. Lanie wasn’t my girl, or anybody else’s for that matter, but I was about to change that shit and fast.

  “Good. Get angry,” Brody said, patting me on the shoulder and acting like he hadn’t just pissed me off. “Now maybe you’ll let your balls drop long enough to tell her how you really feel. Have I taught you nothing?”

  Brody and I were never supposed to be friends. It kind of just happened. When I initiated for my fraternity, it was Brody that welcomed me with open arms. Literally. One part of rush week called for the pledges to strip naked, spray their junk with whipped cream and run through the campus singing “It’s A Hard Knock Life”. Needless to say, when my cream started to drip, it was Brody that came to my rescue, spraying my Johnson with another round of the fluffy stuff.

  I stilled and took a minute to think about the situation at hand. I knew that my friend was right. I was being a pussy, and if I didn’t confront Lanie soon about my feelings, some other guy just might swoop in and take hold of the one thing I wanted more than anything.

  Brody flopped back in one of the chairs, grabbing a Tootsie Roll from the jar on my desk.

  “Dude, what the hell? I should chop your damn fingers off.” I eyeballed the empty candy wrapper in Brody’s hand. Ever since I was a kid, Tootsie rolls were always one of those guilty pleasures. “You know how I feel about things that belong to me.”

  Brody followed my line of sight and shook his head. “Fuck your candy, dude. Tell me why you’re so scared to tell that woman how you really feel.”

  “She’s not just any woman, Brody.” I felt myself on the defensive now. But, from the moment Lanie walked into that bar and into my life, I’ve always felt that way. She’d never been just any woman to me. She was the woman. She was the only woman that could piss me off and make me fall in love all the same. She was the one. “Hear me?”

  Brody stood up and walked over to the edge of my desk. “Look. The longer you draw this shit out, the bigger your chances are of allowing her to slip through your fingers. I like Lanie. She’s cool people. But you’re going to lose her before you even have her. Get your shit together and go get your girl, Lucas. You deserve this.”

  “That’s the problem, Brody.” I scrubbed my palms down my face and walked over to the window, overlooking the LA skyline. “I don’t think she wants to be ‘got’.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? What woman doesn’t want to be got? She have a funky toe, a third nipple or something?”

  I shook my head. “She just acts like I don’t exist. Well, she knows I’m there, but, dude, I can literally walk into the room with my balls swinging around and she just runs out. My balls look good! What the fuck?”

  “Is she a lez-be-friends kinda gal?”

  My eyes screwed shut and before I could retort against Brody’s comment, my office doors flung open.

  “You had better have a very good excuse for ditching our lunch date, Lucas Matthew Sparks.”

  Well, shit!

  My mother looked none too happy as she gracefully walked into my office, her perfectly groomed brow in full arch.

  Melanie Sparks took extreme pride in her children and all their endeavors. From their school plays, to their senior proms, my mother was always on the frontline, watching and gloating. And I loved her for that. She had always been the one woman I could count on, the one woman who loved me unconditionally.

  “What’s your excuse this time?”

  “Hello to you too, Mom.”

  “I think this is my cue to leave.” Brody picked up his coffee mug from my desk and started for the doors but not before stopping to share pleasantries with my mother. “Always a pleasure to see you, Mrs. Sparks.”

  “As you, Brody.”

  “Well, I’ll leave you two to talk.” Brody shifted his apologetic eyes to me and then back at my mother. “Take care, Mrs. Sparks. Oh and good luck, Lucas.”

  As soon as his office doors closed, I turned and regarded my mother.

  “I’m sorry about missing lunch, Mom. Things have been…hectic. But now that you’re here, I guess it’s as good a time as any to let you know that I’ll be going out of town until Sunday.”

  “When are you leaving?”

  “Tomorrow early morning.”

  “Business?”

  “Personal. I’m helping Lanie out with something.”

  And wait for it...

  “How come I haven’t met that girl yet? You’ve been living with her for a year now, and I haven’t even been introduced to her.” My mother looked pointedly at me. It was that kind of look that could etch fear deep into your bones. “Is there something wrong with the girl? Because, really Lucas, it’s bad manners not to introduce your mother to your girlfriend.”

  “She is not my girlfriend, Mom. She’s my friend. And why does everyone think that there’s something wrong with her?”

  “Well maybe if you didn’t keep her under lock and key like some fragile little china doll, the rest of us, meaning me, wouldn’t pester your ass about it.”

  “Like I said, she’s not my girlfriend.” The words dripped from tongue like battery acid and I hated the way they sounded.

  “But you want her to be,” My mother said matter-of-factly.

  “Mom, I don’t really—”

  “Don’t really what, Lucas? You know you can’t fool your mother. I see it in your eyes every time you talk about that girl. So what’s the problem?”

  What was the problem? Oh, that’s right. The woman I was in love with acted like I had the goddamn plague!

  “It doesn’t matter, Mom. She and I are friends and that’s the way it’s going to stay. Besides, I don’t think she’s interested.” Again, the hypothetical acid coated my mouth.

  The expression on m
y mother’s face told a very clear story. She understood how much it hurt not to be wanted by the one person you loved the most. My mother knew exactly how that felt. Better than most.

  “Listen, sweetheart.” I felt her hand on my shoulder as I turned toward the window, looking out over the city below me. “You are every bit the man I had hoped you’d grow up to be. You are worthy of a good woman, and you deserve to be happy.”

  My chest tightened, and my mother’s praising words hit me like a freight train. She’d always been so supportive of my choices, and this wasn’t an exception.

  “I just don’t know what to do about it. Every time I look at her, it’s like I can’t breathe. She’s all I ever think about, Mom. All I want. It’s frustrating, to say the least.”

  My mother moved to stand in front of me, placing her soft hands on my cheeks and looked me sternly in the eye.

  “If you want the girl, get the girl. Simple. I did not raise a fool or a coward Lucas. I raised a man. A good man.” She smiled before pulling back. “Now, what’s this about going out of town?”

  I sucked in a deep breath and let my mother’s words resonate. She was right. I wasn’t a fool. I needed to just come straight out and tell Lanie how I felt. Simple.

  “I’m going with Lanie to Texas for a few days. She asked me to attend her cousin’s wedding with her. I said yes.”

  “And you don’t see this as a sign?”

  “She asked me as a friend, Mom, not as her date.”

  Mom crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Lucas Matthew, you had better grow some damn balls and get over your ego. Just because the girl doesn’t express it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t feel the same way. The only way you are going to find out is if you take the plunge and ask. What are you so scared of?”

  One word. “Rejection.”

  The solemn look on her face painted a clear picture. She knew exactly what I was referring to.

  “She isn’t your father, baby.” My mother moved closer to me, her eyes searching my face. “Don’t let this slip away from you. Okay?”

  She was right, again. She had never steered me in the wrong direction before, and I knew she never would.

  “Okay.”

  “Good. Now I have to get to the country club. Tennis with the girls.” She raised up on her tip toes and placed a chaste kiss on my cheek. “Have fun, will you? And don’t worry so much. And when you get back, I want to meet this girl. No ifs, ands or buts. You hear me?”

  And with that, I was alone. Alone and determined. This week was going to prove to be interesting.

  Chapter 5

  ~Lanie~

  “Are you sure you don’t need me to go? The Hamilton’s wedding isn’t for another month. I’m sure we could close up shop completely for a few days.”

  I absolutely adored my assistant, Deena. Not only had she been with me since I started my business, she had also been the only female that I could truly call my friend.

  “I would say yes, but Mrs. Hamilton has been calling me non-stop for the past week, saying that she cannot decide on this, or there’s a problem with that. One of us needs to be here.”

  “Fine.” I laughed at Deena’s irritation. She reminded me of a perturbed child that didn’t get her way. “But just so you know, if the woman so much as gives me any lip, I have absolutely no problem going toe to toe with her and you know this.”

  Meeting Deena Archer for the first time was like an out of body experience. Not that I’ve ever experienced one, but if I had, that would’ve been it. From her outrageous flamboyancy, to her “Take No Shit” attitude, Deena was a force to be reckoned with. The men she dated were not excluded from her knee-jerk reactions.

  If you crossed Deena Archer, trust and believe that you’d will have a shit ton of misery coming your way. As off as it sounds, I guess that’s what I liked most about her. She and I are complete opposites, and I think that somewhere in my self-conscious makeup, I needed that balance.

  Every time she and I would go out to the bar it never ceased to amaze me that the men flocked to her like they were starving. There was a part of me that held a tinge of jealousy at her amazing good looks. Deena had legs that seemed to go on for miles, and her red hair and bright green eyes added to her beautiful ivory complexion. And then there was the obvious fact that Deena was stacked. I mean the girl had the biggest, perkiest boobs I had ever seen on any woman.

  I momentarily looked down at my mediocre mosquito bites. I seriously got shorted in the boob department. I had to at least be thankful that I was sporting a full B cup, but when you’re standing next to someone who has a nearly rack the size of Dolly Parton’s, you pretty accept the fact that you have tiny morsel chocolate chips for boobs.

  “How about that brother of yours?” She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, smiling wickedly. “Is he dating anyone?”

  I instantly forgot about my membership to the Itty Bitty Titty Committee at Deena’s question. My eyes flew up to look at her, and I laughed out loud because the thought of she and my brother “dating” was the equivalent to two bears wrestling over their next kill. Putting the two of them together would be like unleashing World War III onto the human population. My brother was a horn dog, Deena was a man-eater, and the two of them in the same realm would be a love-hate explosion. No and thank you.

  “Changing the subject,” I quickly said, tossing Jasmine’s wedding itinerary into my bag. “I’ll be gone for a few days, but if you need me just call. Oh, and can you ship everything I need tomorrow? I need it all by the time I get there.”

  “Yeah, yeah, fine.” Deena pursed her lips, playing with her long perfectly manicured nails. “I hate that you’re going by yourself to deal with that bitch of a cousin. I should go.”

  If I hadn’t loved the woman like a sister, I would have fired her by now just because of the sheer magnitude of irritation she sometimes puts me through. That was one of those times.

  “I know, Dee, but seriously, I need you here.” I sucked in a breath and braced myself. “Besides, I’m…um…not going alone.”

  Her eyes bugged out of her face and her jaw nearly hit the floor. “What? Are you kidding me? You fucking replaced me? In all the time that I’ve know you, you have never—”

  “Calm down, Dee.”

  “Calm down? Calm down, she says!” Deena threw her ridiculously toned arms in the air. I swear that woman did not have an ounce of fat on her. Sickening. “You want me to calm the hell down right after you tell me that I cannot go, and then you tell me that you’re taking someone else? Seriously? I—” she pointed to herself “—need to get the fuckity fuck out of here, Lanie. Country bumpkin life is calling my name. Can’t you hear that shit?”

  “I’m taking Sparky.”

  And there you have it. Silence. Well, for half a second.

  “Oh my god! Are you finally fucking that hot piece of man sirloin?” Deena pressed her palms together, making praying hands. “Please, for the love of everything that is fucking indecent and sinful, please tell me that you have finally had your va-jay-jay munched on. Please. Because, believe me, if that fine ass man isn’t eating pussy pie a la mode, I will cut a bitch.”

  “Have you taken your meds today?”

  “Fuck you.” Deena pointed her finger at me. “Tell me what’s going on between you and Mr. I-Will-Fuck-You-Silly-Until-The-Sun-Comes-Up.”

  I had two choices. One, lie to her and give her what she wanted to hear, knowing it would get her off of my back. Or two, tell her the truth, and continue to hear her bitch and whine for the umpteenth time. I’ve never lied to her, ever, so that could pose a whole lot of different issues.

  “Nothing’s going on, Dee. He offered to go. That’s all. End of story.”

  The corners of Deena’s lips slowly curled into a devious smile and that meant only one thing: the wheels in her head were turning. Any other time I had seen that same look on her face, she was either plotting something foul, or she was getting ready to fuck some un
suspecting guy into oblivion. Ropes, whips, and the whole nine yards.

  Yes, Deena was a freaky one.

  “You, my dear friend,” she placed her hands on my shoulders, “are finally going to get those cobwebs cleaned out of your fur burger. I am so damn proud.”

  “Can you be anymore disgusting? Fur burger?”

  “Oh, get over it.” She came up to stand beside me, sliding her arm across my shoulder. “Listen. I’m gonna stop by tonight and bring you some things of mine. Don’t worry, they’ve all been washed and sanitized. Well maybe not the flogger, but that can be remedied. Anyhow, do you want the anal beads, or should we wait on that?”

  My mind moved in a thousand different direction as her words sunk in. There was no way in hell I would ever use, or touch, her wide assortment of “toys”. Never. Besides, nothing, and I mean nothing, was going to happen between Lucas and I.

  “You’re disgusting.”

  Deena waved me off. “Whatever. All I’m saying is that you need to be prepared to be able to deal with a man like that. Take control, Lanie. Assert yourself. Seriously, dude, you need to handle that shit.”

  “There’s nothing to handle!” And there wasn’t. I shrugged out of her hold and continued gathering my things. “Life does not revolve around men and wieners, Dee.”

  “For the love of God, did you just use the word wieners? Have I taught you nothing?”

  “Apparently not.” I picked up my pink leather briefcase. “I have to get going. I still need to pack.”

  On my way to the door, I was forced to come to a stop as my whacked out friend stood in front of my office doors, arms splayed out against the width of the wood.

  I shook my head. My friend had finally lost her marbles.

  “Lanie.” She looked at me with determination in her eyes. “Please let that man fuck you until you can’t see straight. It is absolutely unnatural for you to deny yourself that kind of pleasure. He is basically handing himself over to you on a toasted sesame seed bun, lathered with creamy mayo, and topped with a pickle. Do it, girl. Get your fuck on. Go get your double order of special sauce.”