Friends & Fortune Cookies: A Sudden Falls Romance (14 page)

The service at Zen was even faster than usual, which left us a lot less time for talking. Gracie held back all the way through dinner, and I wasn’t sure how to draw her out.

Then Fifi brought the check with fortune cookies.

“Age before beauty.” Gracie nudged the plate with the cookies toward me.

I broke one open and couldn’t help laughing. “There is a prospect of a thrilling time ahead of you.” I paused for effect. “
Between the sheets.”

Gracie’s face flushed, but she didn’t respond. Breaking open her cookie, she popped half in her mouth while she contemplated her fortune.

“Well?”

“Be especially careful tonight.” She sighed deeply. “That’s the best advice I’ve heard in a while.”

Between the sheets
was left unsaid by both of us.

Some of my interest in the evening waned as we left. I wasn’t sure where this road led, but I found myself desperately wanting to follow it and find out. Even if that wasn’t particularly fair to either of us.

After the charged atmosphere of the speed-dating and dessert, the trip home was a little anticlimactic. She turned on NPR, and the only conversation involved the latest kerfuffle in Washington. Disappointment was sharp as she put her key in the door of her apartment.

We stepped in, and it only took one look, and the moment was back. I hooked her gaze, and she didn’t look away. Heartbeats stretched out and became moments.

I reached for a curly strand of hair that rested on her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. Still, she didn’t look away. I wasn’t going to get more of an invitation than this. I leaned in, and Gracie sucked in a slow breath.

Her lips were so, so soft. I brushed mine against hers gently. A couple of brushes, and she responded with her whole being, almost like she’d given up fighting. I pulled her into my embrace and leaned back against the door. My crutches fell unheeded to the floor. Gracie brought her hands to my lapels and held on for dear life.

One of my hands found the soft curve of her rump, and the other tunneled its way into the mass of her hair, which instantly fell out of the clip holding it prisoner. She whimpered in the back of her throat.

My tongue tested the seam of her lips, and she opened for me, sliding her tongue along the length of mine. Her fingers dropped to my lapels, and I feared she’d call a halt. Instead, they found their way around my waist.

No way could she miss how much this affected me. I pressed my hips into the softness of her belly and groaned. I never wanted this moment to end.

Then her phone rang from inside her purse, and she sprang back as if she’d been zapped. Checking the face of the phone, she took three swipes of screen before finally answering. She cleared her throat, backing away from me as she did so.

“Hey.”

I hadn’t seen the display before she answered and wondered who she was talking to. Her sister? Her boss? One of the guys she’d met online?

“No. I’m not busy.”

I begged to differ. When that phone rang, she’d been very busy. Or she’d been about to get very busy.

She turned her back on me and stepped into the kitchen. With her head tilted to the side and the phone trapped between her ear and shoulder, she tided the counter—which didn’t need tidying—and then wiped it off. I still couldn’t tell who she was talking to, and it was eating me alive. She studiously avoided looking my direction.

And there I stood, by the door, with—I was fairly certain—a dumbfounded look on my face. Finally, she said, “Thanks, Katie,” and I took my first full breath in minutes.

Stepping over to the couch using one crutch to keep the weight off my ankle, I eased myself down into a sitting position and waited. Even if Gracie was completely mortified by our kiss—and that would seriously depress me— she certainly couldn’t pass by me on her way from the kitchen back to her bedroom without some acknowledgment. And I was dying to know what that acknowledgment would be.

Finally, she ended the call and then, after a long,
looooooong
moment, turned her gaze to me.

“So yeah...
That
happened.”

I can usually tell exactly what Gracie is thinking by looking at her face. But her face was completely unreadable, and I wanted to leap from the couch, cross the room, and shake her. Of course, that would be borderline assault even if I was physically capable of leaping anywhere, which I wasn’t.

She didn’t follow up her non-revealing statement with anything further.

Taking the bull by the horns, I grabbed a deep breath for luck. “Then I’m going to say it. I don’t regret that it did.”

She blinked at me. Several times. God, I wish I knew what was going on in her mind. “Joe...”

“We could be so good together, Gracie.”

“Joe, you only want me when you think someone else is about to have me. And when it doesn’t work out, you run away.”

“What?!”

“High school. We’d been best buds up until I started dating Paul Artson, and then you and I went to prom when he dumped me at the last minute. I don’t think I have to tell you how that turned out.”

“Maybe you do. What do you think happened? Because in my recollection, I misunderstood something you said, and then you closed up and refused to speak to me for six months.”

“It went two ways, Joe. I don’t remember getting any calls or letters or emails after you left for the army.”

She had me there. We’d sorted that mess out after I’d come home from basic. And by sort it out, I mean Gracie said, “We don’t have to go into it. Water under the bridge.”

“And then you came home ‘for good’” – she actually used air quotes— “And things were great until Mike asked me to marry him. Then you told me my fiancé was a weasel and then left.”

I stood. We were almost shouting at this point. “Your fiancé
was
a weasel.”

“Well, so were you, Joe. We had one little argument, and you left. Which is kind of a schtick with you. So maybe I don’t think I’d
be good
with someone who leaves at the drop of the hat when things get tough. Your life is transient. Your entire life could be packed in the back of your truck with room to spare. Plus, you’re leaving in six weeks.”

“I couldn’t watch you do it.” I didn’t even care my voice cracked as I said it.

“Do what?”

“See you marry someone else. Because I knew you’d never forgive me if I interrupted your wedding at the “If anyone can show just cause while these two people shouldn’t be married” point. Which I’ve got to tell you I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from doing if I’d been there in the church.”

Her face went pale. “I guess we’ll never know, will we?” I didn’t know how to interpret the waver in her voice. “I’m going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”

She brushed past me. I reached for her, but she was too quick and I ended up with empty hands. The scent of her perfume was the only indication that she’d been there at all.

Chapter 23 — Grace

“The heart wants what the heart wants…even if what it wants is completely unreasonable. Not unlike a toddler who wants to climb to the top of the monkey bars when the only way down involves a free-fall and a hard splat.”
~ Luddite in Love: A Cautionary Tale of Dating in the Modern Age,
Grace Mendoza

The next morning, I got up feeling like I hadn’t slept a wink. Mostly, I suspect, because I hadn’t slept a wink.

I wasn’t sure I could deal with Joe this morning. Or my incredibly mixed feelings about him. The kiss he’d laid on me last night pointed out how much more vulnerable my heart was to him than I’d realized. And the fight afterward made me realize how mad I still was at him.

He’d let me down so hard so many times. And yet, I still loved him. He was the only best friend I’d ever had. Sure, I was close to my sisters. And I had other girlfriends, but none who I would call in the middle of the night because my favorite actress was hosting SNL and we should watch it. Together. Now. On the telephone.

Something Joe and I used to do all the time when he was stateside and after he came home from Iraq and Afghanistan. A sore point between me and Mike. And who knows? Maybe a contributing factor to his hooking up with Destiny.

I trudged my way into the bathroom and tried to pull myself together. Not enough concealer in the world would hide the black circles under my eyes. But at least I’d no longer looked like I’d forgone sleep.

Joe was sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee when I came out. He didn’t look well-rested either. “You still able to take me to my car?” he asked.

“Of course.” I sighed. “I’m sorry about last night.” Which wasn’t to say that I’d changed my mind about anything I’d said. Only that maybe I shouldn’t have said them.

“Me, too. I don’t want to fight with you, Gracie.”

“Me neither.”

“So where does that leave us?”

“Where we belong. Really good, lifelong friends.”

His face fell. And, if I had to pinpoint the look on his face, I’d call it despair. Which seemed inconceivable. I didn’t doubt that he wanted more than what we had. But I couldn’t imagine this would break his heart. I had never been the kind of girl who inspired heartbreak.

“If that’s how you feel. For the record, it’s not how I feel.”

I was afraid he was going to say something like that and it would be hard to take back. Or hard to forget. So… I changed the subject. “You ready for me to drop you off? I need to get to work.”

“Yeah. Bag’s already packed. There’s coffee in the kitchen for you.” He indicated the travel mug sitting on the island in the kitchen.

“Thanks.” For half a second, I wondered if I’d made the wrong decision. I shook my head to rid myself of the thought. He made me coffee. A very kind gesture, but it didn’t negate his leaving when things got tough. Or how hard that had been on me every time he’d done it.

I went to grab my keys from my purse by the front door, but they weren’t there. Apparently, they’d fallen unnoticed from my hands the night before when Joe and I had made out by the front door. A flush stole up over my cheeks. I picked the keys up without comment and opened the door.

Joe might have snickered behind me, but I didn’t turn around to check for certain. Everything just felt so… weird.

It didn’t take long to drop him off at his truck, which was still at the job site.

The house looked better than I’d ever seen it, and I’d probably driven past it a thousand times over the course of my life.

“It looks like you’re making progress,” I said.

He focused his attention on the roof.

I realized the distance he’d fallen. “Holy God. That’s a long way up there!”

“It seemed longer coming down.”

“I’m sure.” I thanked Joe’s lucky stars. His ribs were still hurting him, but it could have been so much worse. So, so much worse. Tears burned at the back of my eyes, and I blinked rapidly.

“Thanks for the ride,” he said.

I needed to say something to repair the mess we were making of this, but I didn’t know what that might be.

“Let me know what the orthopedist says.”

“Will do.”

I waited for him to climb into his truck and then handed his crutches in.

He waved then turned the truck on. What else could I say?

I made my way to the office, unable to get the fear that we might have done serious damage to our relationship with that kiss last night. And I couldn’t completely blame Joe for that. Because I didn’t have to let him. I could have stepped away before it happened. I knew it was coming. And part of me wanted to see what would happen.

I hadn’t expected that I would have gotten completely carried away in a matter of seconds.

Thank God Katie had called. If she hadn’t, what might have happened? For a second, I let my imagination take the kiss to its natural conclusion. My lower abdomen clenched as I could almost feel the slide of Joe’s body against mine. Even though he was miles from the interior of my car, I could still smell him. I imagined how much more fully the scent would be in my nose if I were breathing against the warmth of his neck.

My heart pounded almost as hard as it had the night before. I closed my eyes for a second and imagined the feel of his rough hands rasping against my breasts. My back. Between my legs.

A loud horn sounded, breaking me out of my fantasy. Thank God I was stopped at a traffic light and not wandering down the wrong side of the highway! My heart pounded in embarrassment instead of passion as I made my turn and carried on to my office.

My hands still shook as I opened the door to our building, so I clenched them into fists. My boss, Dave, was standing in front of my cubicle when I arrived. “I’ve got some news.”

“Oh? About the syndication deal?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t look as excited as I’d hoped he would.

“Bad news?”

“Not necessarily. Apparently, you have some competition.”

“Who?”

“Do you know Stephanie Bowman?”

“Not personally, but I know of her. She has a fun column at the
Indianapolis Star
.”

“And apparently a book.”

“I’d heard that, but I haven’t read it.” Maybe I should since I was also writing a book. Even if I hadn’t told anyone about it.

“She’s signing at Barnes & Noble this afternoon. Want to go?”

“Sure. Checking out the competition?”

“Yes. And so should you be.”

I spent the time at my desk working on the speed-dating column and trying to figure out what the takeaway of that experience was. Don’t take a date to speed-dating? And if you do, don’t let it get almost out of hand?

I still hadn’t figured it out by the time Dave knocked on the door to my office. “You ready?”

I grabbed my handbag. “Lead on.”

He drove. “I wasn’t going to say anything until I was a little farther along, Dave, but I’ve been working on a book, as well.”

“Really? What’s it about? Fiction?”

“No. Memoir. It’s kind of an expanded form of the Grace Notes articles.”

“Do you have a title?”

“I’ve been playing with something like, ‘
Luddite in Love: A Cautionary Tale of Dating in the Modern Age
’.”