His & Hers

by Francheska Fifield

  “She’s leaving again.”

  “What? Why?”

  “A catering business. She and a friend have been looking at places together.”

  “A male friend?”

  I shake my head. No, but it don’t matter. “No.”

  “Well you can still ask her out. If she doesn’t work for you it will be less weird to ask her out.”

  “She hasn’t even mentioned it to me yet. I caught her talking to her friend about it a month or so ago. She’s been going out looking at places without telling me she plans to leave.”

  They all flinch and look away. Yeah, that is a bad sign.

  “We can figure this out. I can try talking to her again if you want.” Tommy says.

  I snort. “Last time you made it worse Tommy. I think she’s ready to move on. She told me she would only stay a few months until she decided what she wanted to do. I guess she’s figured it out.”

  “Okay everyone tonight we have to let Will win every game.”

  I can’t help but laugh and shake my head.

  “As if you can win trying anyway.”

  I am challenged and we kick each other’s asses.

  A few hours later my phone rings. I look at the caller I.D. and answer in a panic.

  “Trisha what’s happened, are you alright?”

  It is her friend Cindy. Trisha is partially unconscious in the bathroom drunk off her ass. That can’t be right.

  “What? Are you sure? Okay I will be right there.”

  I text Bobbi and get up putting my shoes and coat on, hoping Bobbi will hurry his ass over here.

  “What’s going on?”

  “She’s passed out drunk in the bathroom. Apparently she drank a lot. Cindy got her into the bathroom and she cried herself into a coma. Cindy doesn’t know if she should go to the ER for alcohol poisoning or not.”

  “Did someone slip something into her drink?”

  “Cindy didn’t see her leave her drink anywhere so she doesn’t think so. I'm going to make sure she gets the care she needs. I don’t like this girl. Every time they are together Trish gets into trouble.”

  “Keep us updated.”

  I nod and run outside as Bobbi honks his horn.

  Chapter Twelve

  I get there and Bobbi and I hurry inside. We have to pay to pick up a drunken person. They should be letting you grab them for free.

  “What’s she doing in here?”

  Cindy shrugs and glares.

  “She was still conscious when I brought her in. She felt sick so I brought her in to hold her hair while she puked, a lot. I got her some mouthwash and washed her face off. She didn’t puke again so I thought she was okay, but instead she just sat down and started crying.”

  “How much did she drink?”

  “A lot when we were with her.”

  “You weren’t always with her?”

  She shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

  “We come here to dance. Usually Sam holds down the table because she doesn’t like dancing, she just likes to get out of the house since she works two jobs and doesn’t get out much. She munches, talks with us when we break to drink or sit and chat. Tonight Trish got into the car and said she wasn’t dancing just drinking. We figured she had a bad day so she would drink a few beers and then get over it. I didn’t think she would actually drink as much as the bartenders said she did.”

  Places so big they have multiple bar tenders don’t limit the amount you drink. That’s what bouncers are for, to toss you out if you get out of hand after having too many.

  “I’ll take care of her.”

  “She’s been mumbling. About being kicked out. Is that what you did?”

  “No. I haven’t said anything to her about leaving.”

  She is the one who wants to. Or at least it seemed it.

  “Bobbi and I will make sure she is taken care of.”

  I lift her up. Her eyes are fluttering, but I don’t think she is awake.

  “Miss…kitchen…”

  What the hell is she dreaming about kitchens for?

  We carry her out to the car. Bobbi opens the door and helps me get her in. I have to pretty much hold her on my lap. She can’t keep herself from falling on the floor.

  “Will…will starve.”

  She isn’t making any sense...not that drunken people ever do.

  “Do you think she thinks you’ll starve when she moves? You didn’t eat really that one week she was gone.”

  I hadn’t thought of that, but it makes sense. She is worried about me. It is almost sweet. But she is wasted. She might not worry when sober.

  “Bobbi take us to the hotel around here I stay at sometimes during those conferences. I don’t think she can take the guys all being there when she wakes up.”

  “So you are going to leave her alone in a room?”

  Oh sure, condemn me before I even can defend myself.

  “No, I'm going to stay with her. You can stay at my house with the guys tonight or your own. I’ll text you when she is sober enough to deal with people again.”

  “Sounds good. You and she need to talk anyway.”

  I nod. When he drops us off he goes in and handles the front desk while I go up to the room with Trisha still unconscious in my arms.

  “I want to go home.”

  It is the clearest thing she has said so far. Does she miss her family? They have been on fairly good terms for the last few months. If they pulled another stunt like after the first call, I would have called them myself and bitched them out. They made her cry that one time.

  “You can go home if you want. I know your family misses you.”

  I don’t think she is awake, but maybe hearing it will help anyway.

  “Home with Will.”

  Home with me? She does still live with me. If she wants to stay why is she looking for places to move? This whole situation is confusing and when she wakes up I am asking her straight out if she is moving or not. I can’t take the wondering anymore.

  Bobbi texts asking if we're okay and I tell him yes and to text Tommy and tell him where I am. I toss my phone onto the couch and carry her to the bed. I lay her down, take off her jewelry and shoes and put them with her phone on the side table and go into the living room section of the room. I turn the TV on low, grab a pillow and blanket from the storage, pull the bed out of the couch and sit down waiting for her to wake up.

  “Oww.”

  The sound rouses me from the slight dose I’d been falling into. I have been texting the guys once an hour and they finally they stopped about an hour ago. I planned on getting a nap in before she woke up, but if the ‘oww’ is any indication she is awake and the leftover alcohol in her system is not agreeing with her.

  “You’re awake.”

  I go over and dab her head with a cold washcloth. She relaxes a bit. I give her Tylenol and water and she downs it without question. I give her the washcloth which she drops almost instantly. She looks around a bit confused.

  “Where are we?”

  She lays back down as I sit on the bed next to her dabbing her head some more. She’s not able to hold it herself or she is too tired, but it will help.

  “A hotel near the bar you were at.”

  “Oh. Why?”

  “You passed out. Cindy freaked and called me. Bobbi and I headed right over, but the guys were still at my place awake and worried. I figured too many people wouldn’t be a good idea once I saw you. I didn’t believe her when she said you got so drunk you passed out. I thought maybe someone had spiked your drink or something.”

  She looks at me slightly confused still. Her brain is processing slower than I can talk right now.

  “No. It was all me.”

  “I brought you here so you wouldn’t have twelve more guys trying to play nursemaid. They were so worried; I got a call or text every hour until about two. I guess they finally fell asleep.”

  “Thanks. I would have gone insane.”

  I smile and take the washcloth
from her head. This is okay, but a shower will help her more.

  “I figured. Come on let’s get you into a shower. You will feel more sober after a cold shower.”

  I have to help her up and walk her to the bathroom. I slowly let her go until she seems steady enough to stand. She should be able to undress and get into the shower. I turn it on and go for the door so she can undress in peace.

  “Help.”

  “Help? I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I don't want to take advantage of a drunk woman.

  “I can’t stand alone. I can’t even sit up on my own.”

  It’s true she is swaying and she doesn’t look like she has any coordination right now. I can get her into her undergarments, shove her under the cold water, and run out of the room. She can dry her clothes in the dryer here.

  I try to keep telling myself she is drunk and I am helping and not to be embarrassed, but I can’t help turning red. Hopefully she won’t notice. Fat chance because she starts rubbing my face.

  “Alright let’s get you into the shower.”

  I take off her shirt and skirt; it is my best dream and worst nightmare in one. She wants me to undress her, but it is so she can take a cold shower and sober up instead of having me take her to bed. Any bed she hits she will be unconscious. I just have to do this and I can go out and order some soup from the kitchens.

  Once she is mostly naked, ugh, I am going to have the best and torturous dreams when I finally get to sleep. I shove her under the cold shower and hold the door closed until she stops gasping and I hear her turn the dial to warm. She remembers showers can be warm that is good enough for me. I book ass out of there as the air gets foggy and go to the phone to order room service.

  I hear the shower go off and the washer start up. If she is washing her clothes what does she plan to walk around in? I hope she sees the robes in there. Hotel towels are not big enough to cover anything really.

  She comes out in a robe and I sigh in relief. Resisting her in a towel that is so short it would show her entire thigh standing, let’s not even think about when she sits down, would’ve been too much for me.

  “Hey, I ordered some food from the kitchens. It’s soup. I know you don’t really like soup, but you have to eat and it’s good for you. Also rolls. Bread products are great to help soak up the alcohol. Although, as much as Cindy saw you drink I should feed you coal. She said you drank a lot when the others were off dancing or so the bartenders said. Why were you drinking so damn much? I’ve never seen you touch alcohol and even your last incident the cops said you were way below the limits. One beer at most they said.”

  She hangs her head, likely in shame, and hugs her stomach. I go over grab an elbow and help her get to a chair where she sits and grabs a roll. Bread is good it will soak up whatever bile is in her stomach right now. Which I am guessing is a lot despite the vomiting Cindy said she did.

  I watch to make sure she continues to eat. At some point we have to talk. I’m not sure if she is up for it yet, but maybe when still a bit drunk she will be more forth coming.

  “If you didn’t want to leave you could have said so.”

  “Uhhh, I take it I talked a bit when drunk out of my mind?”

  I smile. That’s what we will go with.

  “A bit is an understatement. You kept saying you wanted to go home. I thought maybe you meant with your family at first. Then you mumbled on and on about having to leave your kitchen…”

  She hadn’t really talked a lot, but it is funny to see her blushing thinking she’d been a chatterbox while out of it. She can’t remember. How often do I get to tease her?

  “And feeling bad because I would starve without you.”

  “Ahhh.”

  She’s not responding. I want to ask what she was thinking and if she is embarrassed, but we have other things to discuss.

  “So why didn’t you say you wanted to stay?”

  “You were looking at applications…”

  “Only because I thought you wanted to leave.” I yell.

  She flinches. Too loud. I have to take a deep breath. Not looking at her will make this easier so I sigh putting my head in my hands. She is driving me crazy.

  “Trisha you drive me nuts.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  I stand up and kneel before her brushing her wet hair out of her face.

  “Not in a bad way. Trisha you were so upset I was trying to help, but I didn’t know what was wrong and then there’s the fact that I’m just terrible with people anyway. The more upset you got the less I could focus on anything I should be doing because I was so worried.

  “I was only looking at applications because you were looking for another apartment. I saw you looking at them online once. I then remembered what you said about leaving when we first made the deal, when we were driving out here. Honestly, I forgot about it after the first two weeks of having you with me. I never wanted you to leave and if you told me you didn’t want to I would have tossed the applications and never given it another thought.”

  She looks at me blinking for a few seconds then jumps at me knocking me over. She is lying on top of me in a robe squeezing me really tight. I hear a few things crunch and pop on me. Ouch.

  “I think you just broke something on me.”

  She gets off me and sits on the floor pulling on my hand until I sit up. She looks me over once and hugs me again. As much as I am enjoying her hugging me and flashing me her very sexy legs…

  “Trisha you should be eating. Trust me it’ll be better with food in your stomach. Well better in the long run….”

  She lets go of me and I think for a second she is going to go eat again when she grabs my face and kisses me. Oh God, her lips are so soft and she tastes like tooth paste and ginger ale. But more than anything I recognize that she is kissing me. Something I have wanted from day one, but she is still drunk. Damn chivalry.

  I push her back and it makes me annoyed I have to and mad I can’t get what I have always wanted. Why did she have to kiss me while drunk? Ugh, this is the shittiest thing to ever happen to me. I have started to kiss her back, I’ve wanted to for so long my hormones take over until I remember she is wasted. And of course I can’t be one of those terrible people that sleep with a drunken woman.

  “Trisha, you still have a lot of alcohol in your system. Not like this.”

  “You don’t want to kiss me?”

  I have to hug her to me or I will kiss the sadness right out of her. Of course I want to kiss her, but I want her to kiss me when she is sober and won’t regret it.

  “I want to, but you aren’t yourself right now. I want to kiss you when you aren’t drunk and feeling vulnerable. I want to know you want to be kissing me.”

  She just kind of sighs and has me help her back into the chair. She tries to eat the soup, but can’t hold the spoon steady. I feed her and she stares at me the whole time. I don’t have the guts to ask what she is thinking. When she finishes I tuck her into bed, switch her laundry to the dryer, and go back to the couch. I need a nap.

  “That’s not what I asked you Tommy.”

  I wake up and hear Trisha say Tommy’s name. He must have called. I get up and walk toward her on the room phone. Or she called our place because they don’t know our room number.

  “Tommy sometimes you suck.”

  “What’s he doing now?”

  She jumps and almost drops the phone. She is in clothes again and looks all fresh. She must be feeling better; she looks a lot better to. I notice some food on the table. She ordered something and eaten again.

  “Will!”

  She flinches a bit. I guess she still has a bit of a headache. I reach out and grab the phone asking Tommy what’s up. He is laughing hysterically.

  “Dude, I can’t believe she finally kissed you.”

  I look at Trisha. She looks around slightly embarrassed and goes out onto the balcony closing the door behind her.

  “What did she tell you?”

  “That she man han
dled you last night.”

  I roll my eyes. “She did not.”

  “Okay so she didn’t say that. I picked on her about snoring…”

  “She didn’t actually snore at all.” She has a cute little cat like snore actually, but I don’t want Tommy to harass her more than needed about last night.

  “Bummer no more fun for me.”

  “Moving on Tommy. What else did you talk about?”

  “She said she practically jumped you last night, but it didn’t go farther than a kiss.”

  “A half a kiss really. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. She was way too out of it.” I am both proud of myself for holding back and kicking myself for not taking the opportunity to get at least one really good mind blowing kiss from it while I could.

  “So is she still moving?”

  “No.”

  “Have you told her how you feel?’

  “Sort of, but I don’t know if she remembers it. I told her I wanted to kiss her but not while she was drunk.”

  “She’s likely to be embarrassed because she jumped you while drunk so just ask her straight out what she feels for you. It’ll be the only way you get an answer. Embarrassed girls are worse than shy girls.”

  “She’s outside without a jacket so I'm going to take one out to her.”

  “Good luck man.”

  The speaker phone turns off and he hangs up. Whatever they talked about had been on speaker phone, at least the last part. I wonder what they talked about. Wish I’d been awake for the whole conversation.

  I grab her coat and go out onto the balcony.

  “Here you don’t want to catch a cold.”

  She smiles up at me and shrugs it on, but doesn’t zip it. Better than before.

  “The cold feels good right now.”

  “Because your body is burning off the alcohol, but if you catch a cold it will be worse.”