by Angela Blake
Camilla opened the door, swung her bag over her shoulder and switched the phone back. She cradled it between her shoulders and ears before she clicked on the button that would shut her car.
“Kat, I really think you’re reading too much into it. Nothing even happened between your brother and I. We were just talking.”
“Talking?” Katherine snorted. “Is that what you call mentally undressing each other nowadays? Honey, I could feel the heat in that room, I was about to burst into a rendition of Nelly’s hot in here.”
Camilla rolled her eyes as she looked both ways before she checked to make sure that the traffic light was red. She hastened across the street. “Knowing you, you probably would’ve, so my question is, why didn’t you?”
“And ruin a moment like that? No, I was having way too much fun watching although at one point, I thought he was laying it on a little thick considering he’d just met you.”
Camilla shook her head as she walked up to the building where she worked. She swung the door open. “Well as fascinating as your theory is, it’s unfounded and unsubstantiated —”
Katherine interrupted her. “Don’t you talk to me in the journalist tone of yours.”
Camilla paused, confusion lacing her tone. “Journalist tone?”
“Yeah, that you have no comment, that my claims are unsubstantiated, blah blah.”
Camilla laughed. “I’m so glad you take my job so seriously, Kat.”
“I do,” she responded, “but when I’m trying to weasel a confession out of my best friend, I don’t want Camilla Queen journalist extraordinaire. I want Cam, my best friend.”
Camilla zigzagged in and out of people and made her way up the stairs. “Well, it’s a good thing you don’t want Camilla Queen journalist extraordinaire because she’s clearly a made up fictional character in your head.”
Katherine gasped. “How dare you say that? She is very real thank you very much, you’re just in denial.”
Camilla began panting as she finally reached her floor. She huffed, placed her hands on her thighs and began breathing deeply until her face no longer felt enflamed. She stood up. “If I’m in denial then you’re high.”
Katherine laughed. “Wouldn’t have it any other way. Anyway, listen, I have to go now, I’ll talk to you when you get home, bye.”
She hung up before Camilla could get a word in edgewise, and Camilla stared at her phone for a minute before she shook her head and headed to the office.
***
Camilla exhaled as she leaned back in her chair and began rubbing her forehead in slow circular motions. She took her glasses off, placed them on the desk and stared at her laptop as she tried to figure out how to end the article.
That was the problem with doing a piece you weren’t really passionate about, and that lead you nowhere, there was no good way to end it because you weren’t even sure how you started it.
She ran her hands through her blonde hair and decided to keep it simple and direct. She put her glasses back on, straightened her shoulders and heaved herself forward nearly making herself tilt off the chair.
“Voodoo curse on the chair,” she muttered underneath her breath as she let her fingers hover over the keyboard for a second as she gave her thoughts time to gather themselves.
A minute later, her fingers were flying across the keyboard as she stared at her screen in concentration.
“Finally,” she said as she hit the save button and leaned back in her chair with a satisfied grin.
She swiveled in her chair in a celebratory circle before she paused and checked the time. Her grin fell as she cursed and hopped up from her chair.
“Katherine is going to kill me.” She began jumping from one end of the desk to the next, shoving all her stuff into her bag as she hit the shutdown button on her computer and waited for it to power down. The second it did, she shoved it in her laptop bag, threw her purse over her shoulder and raced down the stairs.
Katherine called her as she was getting into the car. “Kat, I’m so sorry, I’m on my way, I lost track of the time when I was working on my story.”
“You mean that gutter story that turned out to be a dead end?”
Camilla revved the engine and backed out of her space. “The same one. I told my boss this morning, but he said finding nothing is something in and of itself, so he said I need to write an article about how finding nothing is evidence.”
“Of what?”
Camilla switched on her turning signal as she made a right to exit onto the highway. “That’s exactly what I said.”
Camilla could hear the sound of a cutting board. “And what did he say?”
“He said something like nothing is something, and something is nothing. It was sort of like Jaqen Ha’gar from Game of Thrones.”
Katherine choked on a sip of water, and Camilla could hear her hacking in the background. “You alright, Kat?”
Katherine’s voice came back on. “Yeah, just swell.”
Camilla did her best Ingrid voice. “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”
They both burst out laughing, and Camilla heard Leroy’s voice in the background. “Leroy says we’re both geeks for quoting Game of Thrones.”
Camilla grunted. “Like he doesn’t watch it with us.”
Camilla heard the sound of shuffling before Katherine’s voice came back on. “Hang on, Cam. I’m putting you on speaker.”
“You’re such a geek, sis.” Leroy’s voice wafted through the car’s speakers. Camilla could hear the sound of deep throaty laughter, a laugh she didn’t recognize. “Oh, Jayden is here too by the way.”
“Hey,” his voice quipped. Camilla felt herself blush and think of what he heard, and what he made of it.
“Hey,” she responded weakly.
“I only have one sentence to say to that, bro,” she veered the subject back on track.
“What’s that?”
“Valar Morghulis,” Camilla said smugly knowing that despite his teasing, Leroy was a huge Game of Thrones fan, and he’d know exactly what she was referring to.
“Oh, really? Well, just remember that I’m a Lannister, and the Lannister’s send their regards.”
“It’s on, Dracaris, Lee.”
Leroy laughed as he hung up, and Camilla pulled into the driveway a few minutes later. As she parked her car in the driveway, Camilla could smell the scent of Katherine’s cooking wafting down the driveway.
Katherine was a software engineer, so she usually worked from home unless they needed her to come down to the office which was fairly rare, and as such, she had a lot of time to cook. Luckily for Camilla because Camilla couldn’t cook to save her life.
Katherine knew how to make a variety of dishes, and Camilla loved sampling them. She walked up the path and placed her key in the lock, it clicked open, and the smell of tacos and burritos invaded her senses.
She dropped her bags on the couch near the door. “Kat, it smells amazing.”
She froze in her tracks as she saw Jayden standing next to Katherine in the kitchen. He was wearing a shirt that was rolled up to his elbows showing off his biceps, and a pair of black jeans. His brown hair stuck out on all ends of his head making him look younger than he actually was.
“You can cook?” Camilla’s voice sounded amazed even to her own ears. She had a weakness for men who could cook because it meant a guy was not only independent, but also great with his hands.
Jayden looked amused as he reached for his beer and took a sip. “Don’t sound so surprised, or my ego will be wounded.”
Camilla shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be, I just didn’t know.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about, Jay,” Katherine said from next to him as she placed the food in the oven. “He can sing, too.”
Jayden looked uncomfortable. “You’re my little sister, your opinion is biased.”
Katherine rolled her eyes as she poked him. “Come on, you know me. If you have a horrible singing voice, I’d tell you. I
mean, I have no problems telling you that sometimes you have a one track mind.”
“Thanks, Sis,” Jayden commented, very dryly.
“Daddy, uncle Lee won’t let me play with the light saber,” a little voice complained. A second later, a little girl with blonde hair and chocolate eyes walked into the room and made a beeline for Jayden.
“Aby, honey, you know how Uncle Lee feels about his toys.”
“I heard that,” Leroy called out as he emerged a while later dressed in a tutu and wearing a sparkly tiara over his jeans and shirt. “It is not a toy. It’s a collector’s item.”
Camilla stood there, the wheels spinning in her mind as she looked from father to daughter, the pieces clicking in her head. If Abigail wasn’t his girlfriend’s daughter, then where was the mother?
“Baby, I know we’re very open and honest with each other, but if dressing up like a Disney princess is some weird fantasy of yours, I think I’m going to have to draw the line,” Katherine teased as she placed a kiss on his cheek.
“But come on, I am rocking this tutu.” He struck a pose, and everyone laughed. Camilla gave Leroy a weak smile as she tried to cast her mind back and remember what Katherine said when she talked about her brother.
She mentioned him so many times, but Camilla always kind of zoned out. Especially because she did it so often. Camilla cast her mind back far enough trying to drag up a memory of Katherine talking about her brother which shouldn’t have been that hard considering she’d done it enough.
As she half listened to the conversation going on around her, she frowned as the memory finally resurfaced.
The mother had left.
“Smell something rancid?” Katherine teased as she waved her hand in front of Camilla’s face and snapped her fingers.
Camilla gave a start. “What?” She blinked as everything swam back into focus. “God, no. Your food is divine, as if you need me to keep saying that.”
Katherine pretended to brush lint off her shirt. “It can never hurt to hear that, but then why do you look like you swallowed something bitter?”
Abigail interrupted. “Daddy, who’s that pretty lady?”
She was pointing at Camilla with a big smile on her face. Camilla flushed as she bent down, so that she was at eye level with Abigail. “Hi, I’m Camilla, but you can call me, Cam, what’s your name?”
“Abigail,” she said shyly as she gazed up at her with deep brown eyes.
“That’s a lovely name, can I call you Aby?”
Abigail nodded enthusiastically as she ran off to Leroy.
She couldn’t tell them that she was trying to remember what Katherine said, so she took her time standing back up. “I was just thinking that the sight of Leroy in a tutu will probably leave me scarred for life.”
Leroy was busy doing ballerina poses with Abigail. “You’re just jealous that you can’t rock this tutu like I can.”
“Yeah, sure, that’s what bothers me.”
Leroy spun on his heels and stopped directly in front of Camilla and began clucking. “Sexism is an ugly color on you, Sis.”
Camilla laughed. “It’s not sexism to say that it doesn’t suit you, at all.”
Leroy picked Abigail up and tucked her under his arm while she squirmed and giggled. “Is too, now I’m taking Aby, and we’re going to go play in the living room where your negative comments cannot penetrate our Disney bubble.”
He made airplane noises as he dramatically swung Abigail out of the kitchen, the sound of their laughter following in their wake.
Katherine, Jayden and Camilla all watched with identical expressions of joy on their faces.
“She seems like a really sweet kid,” Camilla offered as Jayden and Katherine resumed cooking. Jayden was dicing up mushrooms and without looking up, he said. “She really is. I’m lucky she’s so even tempered. She keeps me calm, most of the time.”
Camilla leaned her hip against the counter as she tried not to be too obvious about watching him. “I can see that.”
Katherine set the timer and poked her head inside the oven for a quick look. “Dinner should be ready in about thirty minutes. Jayden, do you mind finishing up here? Cam can give you a hand, I’m going to go see what the sparkly princess and my niece are up too.”
Jayden and Camilla laughed as Katherine grabbed her glass of wine, took a sip and made her way out to the living room.
Camilla moved into the kitchen and rolled up her sleeves. “What do you want me to help you with, Chef?”
“Can you hand me the bowl on the top right shelf?”
Camilla stood on her tiptoes and reached for the bowl and placed it beside him. “Now what?”
“Can you wash the lettuce?”
Camilla nodded as she turned on the faucet, waited for the water to warm up then proceeded to wash the lettuce. “There you go.”
She wiped her hands on her jeans as she watched him work.
“Want to hear a funny story about Aby?”
Camilla leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sure, go ahead.”
“I was helping her with her math homework the other day, and there was a particularly difficult problem that she was struggling with, so after I explained it to her, and I was checking to make sure she didn’t miss anything, she suddenly says ‘Daddy if I had Facebook I know what I’d write’, so when I ask her what it was, she says ‘I’d write #I’msoconfused.”
Camilla burst out laughing. “No way. She actually said that.”
Jayden paused, took a sip of his beer and turned around to face Camilla with a grin. “I kid you not. She actually said that. When I expressed surprise over the fact that she knew what a hashtag was, she kind of gave me this pointed look and said. ‘Daddy of course I know what a hashtag is’ then she flounced away to continue playing as if she hadn’t just said that.”
Camilla shook her head. “Kids these days. This generation is way more aware of the world then we were, far more into technology too, but then again, it does play a larger role in their day to day life.”
Jayden leaned against the counter, mirroring Camilla’s pose. “That’s so true. When I was her age, I was trying to figure out how much candy I could jam into my mouth, and I almost always ended up jamming stuff in my nose.”
Camilla made a face. “You must’ve been quite the handful as a child.”
Jayden gave her a wry grin. “I guess you could say that, but I was a cute trouble maker. I never stayed in trouble for long, I knew exactly how to get out of it.”
“I bet you did,” Camilla said.
“Can I pour you a glass of wine?” Jayden asked.
Camilla nodded. “I’d like that, thanks.”
Jayden moved towards the fridge and opened the door. He took out a bottle of sweet red wine and reached up to take out a champagne glass from the cupboard. As he was reaching up, his shirt hiked up an inch to reveal a patch of tan skin.
Camilla found herself staring at it wondering how it would feel to run her tongue over it. She blushed as she turned her gaze away and stared at the salad bowl instead.
“There you go.”
She gratefully accepted the glass and took a sip allowing the warm liquid to slide down her throat. “Can I help with the salad?”
“Sure,” Jayden responded as he took another sip of his beer.
She stood in front of the salad bowl and looked at him over her shoulder. “Where do you want me?”
Jayden’s eyes darkened as he put down his beer bottle and moved, so he was standing right behind her, his arms came up around her, and he leaned in to whisper. “In every room in this house and mine, and in every position possible.”
She let his hot breath tickle her ear, and goosebumps rose up and down her flesh as she felt his body press up against hers. “For now though, just help me cut the cheese into tiny slices, okay?”
Camilla took a breath before answering. “Okay.”
Jayden didn’t move an inch while Camilla was cutting the ch
eese. She could feel every rise and fall of his chest, she could feel his muscles pressed up against her back, but most of all, she could feel his breath as his head lay on her shoulder, and the sound of his quiet breathing filled her senses.
“Jay?” she whispered as she diced up the last of the cheese.
“Hmm,” he murmured.
“Is this some technique of yours to teach me how to cook?”
“What?”
“Trying to distract me, so I’ll try even harder to focus?”
She felt his quiet chuckle. “That’s actually not a bad plan, but sadly, no, that isn’t what I’m trying to do.”
“Then what are you trying to do?” She tried to turn around to look at him, but she could only move her head an inch to the side.
“I’m just enjoying the moment and trying not to scare you.”
“Scare me?”
“I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m seriously attracted to you, Cam, but it isn’t just that. I rather like you as well, and I haven’t felt both in such a long time.”
Camilla swallowed audibly. “I’m not afraid.”
She heard Jayden shift, and she heard the kitchen door shut as Jayden placed his hand on her shoulders and slowly turned her around, so that she was pressed between him and the counter.
Jayden brought his hand up to her face and twirled a loose strand of hair between his thumb and forefinger.
“I rather like you too,” Camilla whispered quietly as she brought her hands up and began to trace his back. He shuddered slightly beneath her touch before his lips curved into a smile. “I should certainly hope so, Cam. Otherwise, this would be very weird.”
Camilla laughed quietly. Her hands came up and tangled themselves in his hair as Jayden reached behind her and moved the salad bowl to the side. He hoisted her up, so she was dangling off the edge of the counter, and he kicked her legs apart, so he was standing between them.
“Jay,” Camilla took a deep breath before she stared at him. “What are we doing?”
Jayden stilled as he pulled back and stared at her. “Do I have to give you the talk?” He grimaced, and Camilla giggled as she reached her hand out to smooth away the grimace. “No, I don’t mean it like that, I just mean, what are we doing?” She gestured between them. “Your sister is my best friend, and you live right across the street from me, I don’t want things to get awkward between us.”
