A Life Changing Encounter

by Alexa Kane

  Having Kyle waiting for me when I walk through the door from work has become a normal occurrence.

  It’s something that I’ve come to look forward to, I love telling Kyle about my day and surprisingly he loves hearing about it.

  Kyle has barely spent any time in his apartment since that first night he crashed here and he has spent every night here. Alice seems to think that this behavior is strange but that I shouldn’t bring it up because I will scare him off.

  The last thing I want to do is scare Kyle off, if this behavior is so out of character for him then maybe there’s hope for a future after all.

  Unlocking the door to my apartment, I can’t help but smile at the thought of seeing Kyle. That is until I hear another voice.

  Walking into the apartment, I see Kyle and a small child in my living room trying to fight each other with a three-foot gap between them.

  I’m beyond shocked that there is a small child in my apartment but I have to say that Kyle looks damn good playing Daddy.

  The kid notices me first and pipes up loudly, “Hey Uncle Kyle is that the Pretty Girl?”

  Kyle spins around to face me and I’m greeted with a huge smile, “It sure is my little man, you want to come meet her?”

  “Uh huh,” the kid runs over to me and holds out his hand, taking his small hand into mine, I shake it gently, “I’m Tyler, nice to meet you Pretty Girl.”

  “It’s nice to meet you too Tyler but you can call me Jessica if you like,” Tyler looks over at Kyle for confirmation that this is alright.

  Once Kyle nods his agreement he says, “Okay, you want to play karate with me? I just finished practice and I didn’t want to watch my sister dance so Kyle brought me here.”

  That made absolutely no sense but I nod my head in agreement.

  While Tyler is distracted kicking the air, Kyle puts his arms around me, “I go to karate with him each week with Mason, it’s hilarious and normally Mason takes him to his little sister’s ballet class afterwards but they have something on tonight and he didn’t want to watch it. Don’t really blame the kid for wanting to skip it.”

  “So he is Mason and Eva’s kid?” and is it weird that I find him even more attractive now?

  “Yeah, and I’m his favorite Uncle.” Kyle seems rather pleased with himself over this fact.

  Tyler must be impatient with us as he yells, “You guys coming or what? Don’t be gross with the kissy stuff, it’s bad enough at home.”

  “Sorry little man,” Kyle gives me a quick kiss on the lips and then does a slow-motion high kick over Tyler’s head.

  Somehow, I end up getting ganged up on in this imaginary fight and I’m soon on the ground and begging for mercy.

  Kyle’s phone ringing interrupts us but when he answers it, it doesn’t stop Tyler from jumping on my chest and karate chopping my throat a few times.

  Kyle laughs as he watches Tyler but thankfully picks him up before he can do any actual damage, kid was really getting into it.

  Trying not to be obvious about it, I listen to Kyle’s end of the conversation while Tyler is dangling from his arm, “Hey man…yeah I’m not there…I’m across the street…just come pick Tyler up from here…nah I’m not going home tonight…just shut up, I’ll text you the apartment number.” Putting Tyler on the ground he says, “Sorry little dude but funs over, your dad is coming to pick you up.”

  When the doorbell rings a few minutes later, Kyle is still running around my apartment trying to settle Tyler down. He doesn’t seem too impressed that he has to go home.

  Seeing as Kyle is distracted, I walk over to answer the door. For some reason I’m super nervous, I’ve already met Mason at Alice’s engagement party but this just seems different.

  Especially when I’m greeted by raised eyebrows and Mason saying, “Well this is an interesting development.”

  Having no idea what to say, I stand there saying nothing, like an idiot.

  Kyle walks over with Tyler under one arm and hands him over to Mason, it looks like Kyle is about to shut the door when Mason speaks again, “Is she why you were glued to your phone on Sunday?”

  “What do you mean?” Kyle looks around nervously, clearly avoiding the conversation.

  It seems Mason doesn’t really care as he changes the subject, “When was the last time you went to your apartment?”

  Kyle narrows his eyes in suspicion, “Why?”

  “Because I went inside and I was hungry, I opened your fridge and everything was off, including some nasty as milk.”

  “Huh, that’s weird.” Kyle scratches his head, pretending to look confused.

  “Yeah,” Mason looks between the two of us suspiciously, “It’s weird alright. Don’t worry, Tyler tells me everything, aye Tyler.”

  The kid grins from his Dad’s arms, “Yeah Daddy, Kyle likes kissing Pretty Girl, she’s fun.”

  Kyle quickly slams the door in their face then turns to me and says, “What do you want for dinner?”

  Is he serious right now?

  Are we not going to talk about that awkward as exchange?

  His phone dings in his pocket and he pulls it out to look at it before shoving it back in his pocket.

  When I stare at him and cross my arms over my chest he decides to say, “It’s just Mason giving me shit but it’s not like that, we’re just fuck buddies.”

  “Right,” I say sarcastically. Fuck buddies don’t practically live together.

  My comment seems to put Kyle on edge, “This is still what this is right because I’m having fun and I thought you were having fun, I don’t want you to get any ideas because as I said this is fun and I like your apartment and your couch and-”

  “Kyle stop, we’re just fuck buddies.” Alice was right, if I bring up the idea of something more then it’s only going to cause Kyle to bolt.

  Whatever this is between us is only temporary but I’m not ready to say goodbye to Kyle just yet.

  He physically sags in relief and even goes so far as to hold his hands up to his heart, “Good, you scared me for a second.” He pulls my body flush against his and starts kissing my neck, “Do you want dinner or do you want to skip straight to desert?”

  Chapter 13

  Kyle

  Today is going to be awesome, I haven’t been to the Seattle Aquarium in a long time and it will be fun to see Pretty Girl in action.

  I’ve cancelled my day in the office today and it’s totally going to be worth it.

  It will be cool being able to meet all the kids that Jessica talks about.

  When I get to the aquarium it’s not hard to spot her in the crowd surrounded by kids, but when I walk over to her, she seems surprised for some reason. “Kyle, what are you doing here?”

  “What do you mean?” I ask, completely confused, “You invited me on the field trip.”

  “I did?” she asks cautiously.

  “Yeah, you’ve been talking about it for like a week now,” how does she not remember this?

  She places one hand on her head like she is frustrated, “That wasn’t me inviting you Kyle.”

  “But you said some of the parents pulled out and you needed more volunteers,” I point to myself for emphasis because she definitely said that.

  “Yeah but I need more volunteers that are parents…if the kids go home and tell their parents about the strange guy that followed them around the aquarium, people are going to start asking questions.”

  “But I’m not strange, I’m Kyle.”

  She starts muttering under her breath but I don’t see what her problem is, I’m helping her out and the fact that I don’t have kids should be irrelevant. I’m not some weirdo stalker who is going to kidnap one of the kids.

  Some little boy walks up to her and says, “Miss Miller who’s that?” he points straight at me like it’s not rude to point.

  “That’s my friend Kyle, he’s going to help us out today, do you think that would be okay?”

  He looks me up and down like some punk then turns his attent
ion back to Jessica, “Yeah, I guess.”

  Jessica smiles way too nicely to this kid. “Thanks Jimmy, now why don’t you get back in line we are going to go in shortly.”

  I don’t even wait for the little turd to leave before I say, “Jimmy? As in the kid who vomited on you, Jimmy?”

  She pulls me roughly over to the side, “Yes that’s Jimmy but don’t say anything to him about it, in fact don’t repeat anything I have told you about these kids.”

  “Fair enough but can I be paired up with him? He seems like he would be good entertainment.” Kid looks like a trouble maker.

  Pretty Girl seems to be getting more and more agitated, “You don’t get paired up, you just…fuck Kyle, you’ve thrown me and I can’t concentrate.”

  I’m loving the fact that I can make her so off balance, “Why? You having dirty thoughts around the children?”

  “No, I just never thought you would come to something like this.” She gestures around wildly like I have never been to an aquarium before.

  “Why?” I ask completely offended, it’s like she has her knives out today.

  “Well, because we’re casual…”

  Now that just pisses me off, “So because I fuck you without any titles, that means I can’t come on a school field trip?”

  She takes a minute to respond but then seems to change her mind at the last minute. “Just, never mind, let’s go, I’ll introduce you to the other teachers and parents so they don’t call the cops on you.”

  All of Pretty Girl’s colleagues seem intrigued by me but I don’t see what the big deal is, it’s only a field trip and spending the day at the aquarium is way better than spending the day in the office.

  This day gets even better when another teacher assigns me to walk around with the group that Jimmy’s in. Jessica seems mortified and gives me a lecture before she walks off with another group but I ignore her, I can’t wait to see what Jimmy has for lunch.

  Turns out that Jimmy is more entertaining than I anticipated but he is also a big bully, he made one of the girls cry when he told her that the giant octopus has been known to suck small girls through the glass and eat them whole.

  He gets points for creativity but for some reason the girl came to me and I had to spend ten minutes telling her that it was in fact impossible to get sucked through glass and that she was safe.

  So when lunchtime rolls around and Jimmy pulls out a big slice of chocolate cake to go with his lunch, I feel obliged to give him my soda to help wash it down.

  He tells me that he never gets soda because it makes him hypo and I grin in victory as I head back to my seat.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Oh hey Pretty Girl, did you want me to buy you lunch?” She seems mad again for some reason, really mad.

  She crosses her arms over that nice chest of hers and narrows her eyes at me. “No, I brought lunch from home but I meant why are you giving Jimmy your soda.”

  “He’s been a bit of a punk this morning so I want to see him throw up,” Jessica throws her hand over my mouth and shushes me. Pulling my face away in annoyance, I ask, “What?”

  “Kyle,” she seems really frustrated with me again, “You can’t give stuff to kids with the intention of making them vomit, that’s wrong.”

  “Tell that to the girl I had to consul for ten minutes after he made her cry.” As far as I’m concerned the soda is karma.

  She drops her arms back down to her sides and softens her features, “You consoled one of the girls because she was crying?”

  “Yeah why?” what else was I supposed to do with her?

  “That’s really sweet Kyle,” she’s starting to look at me with doe eyes and I’m wondering if this will help me get points for later on tonight.

  “You know what else tastes sweet? My di- hey look at Jimmy, he’s going all crazy.” The kids running around and jumping all over the place while shoving his chocolate cake in his mouth.

  Jessica takes a moment to follow Jimmy around the room, “It may be funny now but don’t forget that he’s in your group and he’s going to crash at some point.”

  I didn’t think of that, “True, you wanna swap so we can be in the same group?”

  “Nope, this is your mess and if Jimmy does vomit then you’re going to be cleaning it up.”

  I only smirk in response, there is no way in hell I would clean up after that kid, I would make him clean up his own vomit.

  The afternoon is pretty uneventful but I do end up having to carry Jimmy around when I find him asleep on the ground. I guess this is karma or something but Jimmy should be the one getting punished, not me.

  Jessica finds the fact that I have to carry Jimmy to the bus hilarious and she can’t stop making fun of me. She even takes a damn photo of us before I can get on the bus.

  She’s still laughing at me when I step off the bus then proceeds to show me that Jimmy and I are now her new wallpaper on her phone.

  Fucking. Awesome.

  “Okay, get over it, it’s not that funny. Do you want to get a lift home with me?”

  She manages to get herself under control enough to respond, “Nah I have to go back to school with the kids, then I have a few things to do. I’ll just meet you at home later.”

  Damn, I was hoping she would be able to leave straight away, “Fine, do you want me to order us a pizza for dinner?”

  “That would be nice, thanks Kyle,” she leans in to kiss me softly on the lips and it’s followed by a bunch of first graders heckling us and telling us we now have cooties from the bus windows.

  I pull away from her quickly, “Eww, I didn’t know you had cooties.”

  She slaps my stomach and hops onto the bus, “I don’t, make sure you get a soda with the pizza.” Jessica turns around to wink at me and then disappears from sight.

  Damn that girls awesome.

  When I’m pulling out of the car park my phone rings and I see that it’s Mason, “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Hey, Tyler wants to know if you will come over for dinner?”

  “Can’t tonight sorry,” and don’t think I don’t notice the fact that it’s Tyler that wants me there and not Mason.

  In the silence that follows I can almost picture Mason’s smug face, “Why? Do you have plans?”

  “Yeah, I do,” I love hanging out with Mason and his family but hanging out with Jessica just seems more appealing tonight.

  “Do these plans have anything to do with Alice’s cousin?”

  “They might,” I say coyly.

  “Why don’t you bring her around too? Tyler hasn’t stopped talking about her.”

  “Why would Tyler be talking about her?” he only spent about thirty minutes with her.

  I can hear Mason chuckle, “Because he likes her.”

  “He likes her huh, well you better teach that kid about boundaries.” The last thing I need is for Tyler getting attached to her, I’m his favorite and it needs to stay that way.

  “Why? Are you afraid that a three-year-old is going to steal your girl?”

  “No and she’s not my girl,” I knew this fucking shit would start with Mason sooner or later.

  “Sure…you just spend all of your time with her.”

  “Yeah…and?” what the hell is his point? Just because we hang out all the time it doesn’t make her my girl.

  “And I’m pretty sure that makes her your girl.”

  “No it doesn’t,” I snap. This fucker is just trying to wind me up and if I’m not careful it’s going to work.

  “Whatever man, just bring her around one night.”

  I don’t think so, I’m not falling for that trap. “How about I come over tomorrow after Jessica goes to work?”

  Mason chuckles slightly and I can hear Eva in the background asking him what he’s talking about. The last thing I need is for Eva to get wind of the fact that I’ve only been sleeping with one girl for the last couple months. It will put ideas in her head.

  “Sure thing, see you tomorrow,” he h
angs up just as Eva yells out ‘who’s the girl?’ and I ignore about five of her calls on the way to Jessica’s place.

  Parking in my apartment complex, I head up to my apartment to get some more clothes. It’s kind of getting annoying having my stuff here when I spend all of my time at Jessica’s so I pack a bag with about a week’s worth of clothes in it, then head over to her apartment.

  Chapter 14

  Jessica

  It’s Friday night and Kyle has something big planned for us, he has been dropping hints for the last few days but they have been so cryptic and unusual that I have no idea what it could be.

  I high tailed it out of my classroom as soon as the bell rang this afternoon but when I walk inside my apartment, I find it empty.

  I’ve lived alone for a long time but I’ve gotten used to having Kyle around when I get home and it’s nice. We normally relax on the couch for a while and talk about our day before thinking about dinner.

  Kyle has wormed his way into my life very thoroughly and I’m almost afraid of how I will react when this comes to an end.

  Walking into my bedroom to get changed I see a big box with a bow on it, instantly my heart rate picks up at the thought of Kyle getting me a present and I run over to open it.

  I have no idea what I expected to find but a fancy dress definitely didn’t top the list.

  Why would he get me something so fancy?

  Pulling it out I hold it up against myself and I have to admit that it looks gorgeous. It’s floor length, emerald green and feels so silky soft that I want to rub it against my body.

  I laugh slightly when I find a slit in the dress, I’m just glad that it’s not overly high.

  I’m admiring myself in the mirror when Kyle walks into my bedroom in a big hurry, “Shit, I thought I could beat you home.”

  “Kyle, this is amazing, thank you. Where am I supposed to wear this though?” this looks more expensive than any dress I have ever worn and I have been to a lot of weddings.

  “Tonight at my work thing, luckily I talked to my assistant about you and told her what I did because she said I forgot shoes and I had to race out and get them.” He waves a shoe box around while grinning madly, “I take it you like the dress?”