How The Cookie Crumbles

by Ting, Melanie

“I’d rather sandwich her, Fitz likes that shit, doesn’t he?”

  They started laughing and I walked away, feeling completely nauseous. But then I realized that just because these a-holes were saying something didn’t mean it was true. I went to find Liam to demand he take me back to Kingston. I looked all over the house, and finally found him coming out of the basement.

  “Frances! There you are!” Liam seemed all hyper, unlike his usual cool self. He gave me a big hug, lifting me into the air and then putting me down.

  “Liam, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

  “Really? Because I’ve been looking everywhere for you! Are you having a good time? Can I get you a drink or something? What about something to eat? Are you hungry?”

  “Um no, actually I’d like to go now,” I told him firmly. Why was he acting so weird? Then I looked up at his eyes, they looked kind of watery. Then he sniffled, and the clues fell into place. Liam was downstairs doing coke or something! I was an idiot to go out with him, and an idiot to come here. Basically, I was an idiot.

  “Awww, come on, baby. You need to kick back a little… why don’t you come downstairs with me and meet Molly?”

  “Actually, I think I’ve met everyone I want to here. If you just give me the address here, I can get a cab and go, while you stay and party.”

  “Look, I’ll take you back to Kingston, if that’s what you want. But hey, you could stay here tonight, there’s lots of room upstairs. And then we could really get to know each other,” he put his arm around me and leaned down to kiss me but I dodged under his arm.

  “Um, I have to use the bathroom,” I said and scurried away.

  I found an old-fashioned powder room down the hall, went in, and locked the door. Then I called Chloë.

  “Chlo, please can you help me? I’m at this party; I think it’s about half an hour from Kingston. Liam’s really out of it, and I need to get home. But I can’t get a taxi because I don’t know exactly where I am.” I was whispering, but luckily Chloë sensed the desperation in my tone.

  “Sure Frankie, don’t worry. I’ll ask Andrew to get you.” There was a little discussion and then she put Andrew on the phone, and I gave him all the directions that I could recall.

  “We went to dinner at the Stonefarm Inn, then we drove up this two lane highway, and I saw an Esso station – oh, and this cat place, Calico Cats Cattery and Boarding!”

  Fortunately, Andrew was able to translate my ramblings into geography. “Yeah, I heard about some private party near Odessa. I’m pretty sure I know where you’re at, and it’ll take us about 20 minutes to get there. I can text you when we’re there.”

  Thank God Kingston was such a small place. “Okay, in 20 minutes, I’ll be waiting at the end of the driveway for you.”

  “Are you sure that’s safe, Frankie? All alone in the dark?”

  “Oh Andrew, I think it’s safer outside than inside.” It wasn’t that I thought Liam and his buddies were going to actually do anything to me, but he was so out of it that I felt safer getting out of here.

  “Okay Frankie, we’ll leave right now. Call us right away if there’s any problem.”

  He hung up before I could even thank him. I had always liked Andrew, but now I could see that he was good in a crisis too.

  I stalled in the powder room, plotting my escape, until Liam started pounding on the door.

  “Frances? You okay in there?”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I’ll be right out.” But I could still hear his breathing outside the door, so he was clearly waiting, like the gentleman he wasn’t. I opened the door and he grinned blearily down at me, with a refilled drink.

  “Frances! I missed you, baby.” He grabbed me and planted a sloppy kiss on my face, while trying to grab my ass at the same time. How did I ever find this leech attractive? “Say, did I show you the upstairs yet?”

  I checked my watch, and calculated that Andrew would be here in about ten minutes.

  “Um, look Liam, I need to go outside.”

  “Outside? Oh, a nature girl. Okay, if you wanna fool around outside, that’s cool.” He actually started unbuttoning his shirt! So gross.

  “No! I mean, I need to go out for… “ What did people go outside for? “A smoke!”

  He stared at me blankly. “Oh. You’re a smoker? That’s not good. You should quit.”

  Now he’s concerned about my health? He obviously thought I was some slut anyway, so smoking was completely in line with that. “Whatever. Look Liam, I’ll be right back.”

  “It’s okay, I’ll come out with you.”

  “No, don’t. Um, second-hand smoke is really bad for you,” I told him. He was busy staring down my dress and didn’t look particularly worried about his long-term health. I sighed inside. “Look, I won’t be long. You can go back downstairs with your buddies, and I’ll meet you there… right after my cigarette.” He gave me a bleary look and I escaped before he could figure out his next move. I got out into the blessed quiet and fresh air. I made my way down to the end of the driveway, and then I heard a voice.

  “Where do you think you’re going, Frances? We’re not exactly close to anything. You know, I get the feeling you’re playing me here.” Liam stood right behind me, and he looked a little angry.

  19. To The Rescue

  Jake

  “I’ve got to go and pick up Frankie,” Andrew explained, as they started leaving the pre-party at Tolly’s place. “She’s in trouble.”

  “I’ll come. Let’s take my car,” I said, grabbing my keys. “It’s faster.”

  We hopped into the Rover, and took off towards Odessa. It was dark and there wasn’t any traffic, so we were making good time, but Chloë was talking nervously the whole time. “Oh my God, I hope Frankie is okay. I told her not to go out with that preppy pervert. Guys like that are all the same, they think so highly of themselves and they take whatever they want. They don’t care about people’s feelings or anything.” Andrew kept looking back and telling her that things would be okay, but both of them looked worried. I accelerated hard once we got past the city limits. It wasn’t too tough to find the place, we knew the general area and Andrew texted some Queen’s friends to get the exact location. As I swung into the long driveway, the lights picked out two figures: Frankie and some guy yanking on her wrist. I honked the horn, and the two of them looked over in surprise. Andrew was out of the car before I even stopped. He seemed to be on some superhero mission, probably to impress Chloë.

  “Let her go,” he yelled.

  “Why don’t you fuck off,” the guy said. “She’s my date, and you’re on private property. You were not invited here, fuckhead.”

  “Frankie’s my friend, asshole. Let her go!”

  “I don’t have to take orders from Kingston grease,” he sneered. Frankie used the distraction to pull her wrist out of his grip and then bent down to grab her purse.

  “Get in the car,” Andrew told her, but as he turned the asshole shoved him to the ground. Instead of getting in the car, Frankie helped Andrew up, and they both faced the guy. I guess I needed to get involved too, so I got out of the car.

  “Hey asshole, back off,” I told him.

  “Yeah, come on! I can take both of you at once!” He started jumping around with his fists up, like some stupid boxer. This asshole figured he was Superman, or something.

  “Stop it, Liam!” Frankie told him. “I’m leaving now and you need to back off, or I’ll – I’ll tell your grandmother what you did.”

  “What I did? C’mon Frances, where’s your gratitude? I blow 200 bucks on dinner and now you want to take off?”

  “Don’t start with me! You’re the one who begged me to go out with you again! You’re the one who chose that expensive place and insisted on paying! You’re the one who got all high and started acting weird! Who in their right mind would want to be with such a complete jerk?” Frankie was really mad and it was kinda funny to see her ripping into the guy. I thought she’d be all scared, but she seemed
to be as confident as ever.

  The guy looked like he still had more to say but his eyes flickered over to me. “Shit! Jake Cookson? Man, what are you doing here?”

  “Frankie’s with me,” I told him. Frankie shot me a look, but for once she shut up.

  “No shit.” He looked completely stunned. “Hey man, I’m sorry. I had no clue. I didn’t touch her or anything, really… nothing happened.”

  I was glad to hear that. “No worries. We’re out of here now.” We all hopped back in the car, but this time Andrew got in the back with Chloë, and Frankie sat beside me.

  Nobody said a word until we were a few minutes away, and then Chloë started giggling. “I’m sorry, I just feel so relieved. You were wonderful, Andrew,” she said, leaning against him. “Are you okay, Frankie?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Frankie said, calmly. “Thank you so much for coming out to get me. Really, you’re all such good friends.” She smiled back at Chloë and Andrew. “Andrew, you were so brave. Thanks for standing up for me, and I’m so sorry Liam tried to hit you. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, don’t worry, I’m good,” Andrew said casually, but I could tell he was pretty stoked that both girls were admiring him.

  “What about me?” I demanded.

  “You’re a knight in shining armour,” Frankie said with her usual sarcasm, looking over my shorts and t-shirt, then she smiled widely at me and patted my arm. “No seriously, thank you so much for coming to my rescue, Jake. You’re a real sweetie.”

  That was more like it. She didn’t seem to be too upset. I thought she might want to go home, but she declared she wasn’t letting Liam ruin her evening and we went to the club. We met up with Tolly, Ratty, and a bunch of other people. They had taken over this balcony section. I partied for a while, talked to the guys, and danced a little. After an hour, I noticed Frankie sitting by herself in a booth. She looked unhappy.

  I sat down beside her. It was pretty loud in there, so I leaned in, put my arm on the seat behind her and spoke right into her ear.

  “You okay?”

  “Besides the fact that I’m an idiot, sure.” She shook her head.

  “You’re not an idiot, Frankie. You’re one of the smartest girls I know.” In fact, I always had the scary feeling that she was two steps ahead of me.

  “Really? How come I got stuck at that party in the middle of nowhere, and had to get you guys to rescue me? Who does stupid things like that?” She sighed, and unpinned her hair and stretched her neck. I liked it when her long hair was down, and reached out and took a strand in my hand. Her hair felt soft.

  “I dunno, maybe you trust people too much?”

  “Maybe. Maybe I can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys anymore. And I used to pride myself on being such an expert on guys.” She was quiet for a minute, deep in thought. I was thinking that it might be a good time to put the moves on her. But she was acting a little weird too.

  “You know what bugs me?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “The fact that I have a certain genetic package and that makes guys assume things.”

  “Sorry, I don’t get what you mean.”

  “Translation: big breasts mean I’m a slut.” She frowned. “Where does he get off? I’m a university student, I come from a good family. Just because he met me while I was working in a café, he assumes I’m some naive, hot-for-it chick who’s going to be bowled over by an expensive dinner?”

  “Uh….” I didn’t know what to say. I mean, she did have great tits, and any guy would want to get his hands on them. Sitting right beside her, I could see down the front of her dress, and it was a pretty sweet view. Man, her bra was blue like her dress, did she have matching underwear for everything? And I hadn’t taken her out anyplace expensive, but mainly because she wouldn’t even go on a date with me.

  “Men. Is that it at the end of the day? They just want to have sex?”

  “Uhhh… no?” I didn’t want to get into trouble when Frankie was all pissy. I had already seen her tear a strip off one guy tonight. But I couldn’t deny that I did want to have sex with her. I moved my arm away.

  “You’re such a nice guy, Jake.” Frankie smiled up at me. “I mean, we haven’t had any trouble being friends, right?”

  I nodded and drank some more beer.

  “More guys should be like you,” she declared and then drained her drink. “I’d like another.” I signalled the waitress, and she ordered some retro drink, while I got a beer and shots for both of us. Frankie knocked back her shot and smiled. “Dance with me, Jake.”

  Okay! Was this going to be the night she got hammered and then accidentally slept with me? I grabbed her hand and led her down to the dance floor. There was a pretty sweet DJ and he was doing some techno mix that was fun to dance to. Frankie and I were dancing, and she smiled up at me, but it was too loud to talk much.

  “Jake, you’re sure a good dancer,” she yelled in my ear.

  “You too!” I yelled back.

  Then the music slowed right down, and I put my hands on her hips and pulled in towards me. She reached up to put her arms around my neck and pushed her body right up into me. Suddenly, we were interrupted.

  “JAKE! Remember you promised me we’d have the next slow dance!” It was some girl I had been dancing with earlier. She was hot, but she wasn’t Frankie.

  “Oh hey, I’m kind of busy now… Lisa” I pulled her name out of the back of my brain.

  Frankie stood back and looked her over, and then looked at me and smiled. She gave me a push towards Lisa, saying, “Don’t let me stand in the way of your good times.” And then she left.

  20. I Yam What I Yam

  I couldn’t deny that my feelings about Jake were shifting a bit. I still wasn’t really attracted to him, but Chloë was right, he was a nice guy. That night at the club, I felt tempted to explore things between us, maybe using alcohol as my excuse. But just in time, I realized that he was a guy with his own social life and lots of girls who were genuinely interested in him. It would be wrong of me to fool around with him because I was confused. In the clear light of day, I realized that our being friends was the best thing, and I wanted everything to go on as before.

  One day, after we had worked out, Jake was waiting for me when I came out of the gym change room. He fell in step with me as we left the building.

  “We won’t be working out together for a while,” he told me as we got outside.

  “Why not?”

  “Did I not tell you? I’m going to Vegas for the NHL awards. They’re on in a few days. And then I’m going back to L.A. for some team training stuff. I’ll be gone a few weeks.”

  That was unexpected. I wondered if all the players went to these things. “Are you up for an award?”

  “Yeah, the Norris.”

  That was one of the best things about Jake, he never bragged or anything. To be honest I still found it hard to believe that he was an NHL player, he seemed like such a regular guy.

  “Uh, what’s that for?”

  “Best defenceman.”

  “Well, good luck.”

  He smiled at me. “Are you working tonight?”

  “Nope, I’m off.”

  “Do you wanna hang out?”

  He looked shyly uncertain, and I realized he hadn’t been coming on to me lately. Plus, he was going to be gone for a while. “Sure.”

  So we hopped into his car and went back to my place so I could drop off my stuff. It was too early for dinner and the weather was beautiful, so I suggested we go out for a walk and I could make dinner later. We walked through the neighbourhood and surprisingly Jake hardly said anything. He was usually all jokey and fun, so it was unusual. I was worried enough that on the way home I stopped by the corner store to get some Diet Coke for him.

  Chloë called and said she was going out to dinner with Andrew that night, so it was just the two of us. I was cooking fish fillets on her Griddler, and I did some yam fries, a couscous and chopped veggie salad, and a green sal
ad. I figured that might not be enough carbs for Jake, so I added some grilled bread.

  We ate out in the backyard. It was a perfect evening, except for the mosquitoes. Jake stared at the yam fries. “Your cooking always looks like it’s going to be something I really love, then it’s not.”

  “They’re yam fries. Put ketchup on them and you’ll never know the difference. Really, it’s like you’re five years old.” I didn’t bother to mention that yam fries were healthier because that would turn him right off.

  As usual he complained first and then ate seconds of everything. To be honest I would rather have that than people who rave about how good your cooking is and then leave most of it on their plate.

  Jake remained a little preoccupied during dinner and then afterwards I noticed he was biting his fingernails.

  “What’s bothering you?” I asked him.

  “What? What makes you think something’s bothering me?”

  “You have nervous tics, like nail-biting. But mainly because you’re so quiet.”

  He didn’t say anything, but I wasn’t giving up. “So you’re leaving for Vegas? Sounds like a fun time.”

  “Yeah, it will be.”

  “Do you think you’ll win the Norris award-thing?”

  He frowned, “My chances aren’t great.”

  “That’s the spirit. Why wouldn’t you have a good chance?”

  “Too young, haven’t done enough or proved enough.” He made a face.

  I reached over and brushed his hair off his forehead. “You’ll get wrinkles if you keep frowning like that.”

  He didn’t say anything else, but he still looked worried. Most of the time he seemed so relaxed, but I guess stuff around hockey bothered him.

  “Jake, stop. You can’t do anything now, right? The season’s over.”

  He looked at me and then blurted out, “I just worry about letting people down. I want to do well because so many people put their trust in me.”

  “People, like your family?”

  “Yeah, plus the people at the Kings. But mainly my family.”

  “You’re young, you have a chance to win now and maybe win later.” I assumed he did, I would have to ask my brothers how good he really was.