Face the Music (11 page)

“I’ll see you then.  Thanks, Allie.”  He looked at me for a long second before turning to go.

***

My friend Lauren was waiting for me by the lab.  “Hey, stranger,”
she called from down the hall.  “Why have you been ignoring me?”

“
Why would you think that
?”

“I’ve called, left messages, sent texts.  And I haven’t heard a peep from you.  So that means you’ve either been ignoring me or that P
-
O
-
S phone of yours still isn’t working.”

I laughed.  “Like I could ever ignore you.  Even if I wanted to.”

“So it is the phone.”  She was holding back a grin.  “I knew it.  Why don’t you get a new one?”

“Are you going to buy it for me? I don’t have a spare red cent to my name.”

She held up the picture from Maury’s.
 
“When did you go and become so famous?” 

“
N
ot you, too,” I complained as I unlocked the door.  Would that
stupid
picture haunt me forever?

Lauren and I met a few years ago. We were both enrolled in freshmen Biology and had been assigned to be lab partners.  She and I hit it off right away and became good friends.  I was even a bridesmaid at her wedding.  She was
now
expecting her first child and
was staying
busy with her own life, so we didn’t get to hang out much
.
  But every now and then we’d run into each at the university.  She took an occasional class here and there.

I flipped on the lights and froze.  “What are they doing in here?” I asked, pointing a shaky finger at a cage filled with spiders.

Lauren shuffled past me into the lab.  Her chestnut hair, which was styled in a short, pixie cut, seemed to bounce with each step.  “I don’t know.  The
entomology
lab must be locked up.”

“W-w-would you get rid of them, pleas
e?”  My pulse was racing along i
n overdrive.

“I can’t believe they bother you so much.”  She picked up the cage and pressed her nose to the glass.  “They’re kind of cute.”

“They are not.  They’re the complete opposite of cute.  They’re monsters with hairy legs and creepy little faces.  I can’t stand them.”  My heart
palpitated.

Lauren put them in a cabinet under the sink.  I felt a little better since they weren’t in plain sight, but I was still uneasy knowing how close they were.

She returned her attention
back
to the picture
of me and Chris
.  “Is he really this hot in person?”

I had to laugh.  “No, not really.” 

“That’s too bad.  They always look better on TV, don’t they?”

I thought about him wearing that maroon sweater. 
“
H
e’s even hotter.”
 

She looked up at me. 
“So you’re seeing him?  What happened to Jake?”

Who knew what was going on with him?  He’d been acting so strange lately.  “Jake and I aren’t dating.  We hang out, but it’s completely platonic.  And it’s not like that with Chris.”

“Not like what?”

“Not like you’re insinuating.  There’s nothing going on.”

She
waved the picture
.  “Looks like there could be.  When will you see him again?”

I bent down to adjust the objective lens on one of the mi
croscopes.  “Tonight, actually. 
He’s meeting me and Molly at the park.”

A corner of her mouth pulled up into a half-grin.  Her hazel eyes narrowed.  “The park, huh?”

“Will you stop it?”

“I’m just saying.  You’ve got this incredibly hot, talented guy following you around.  You should be a little more interested.  What’s the problem?”

“He’s not following me around.”  I
put
a slide on the
microscope
and
fumbled with the knobs until the image came into focus
.  “And there’s no problem.”

She waited for me to look up before asking, “Have you
ever
heard
anything
from Paul?”

I glared at her. 
“Nope.”

“Do you want to?  Because it would be totally understandable if you did.
  The way he ran out, y
ou never got any closure.
”

“No!”  I made another adjustment to the lens.  “Why would you even ask me that?”

She shrugged.  “Just curious.  Trying to figure out why you’re so
reluctant
about Chris.  Is there someone else
then, besides Jake or Chris
?”

Because she was married, Lauren thought I needed to hurry up and find someone, too. 
“I don’t have time for someone else.  You know how busy I am.” 

She got up and walked to the door.  “All work and no play makes for a very boring Allie.”

“But you still love me, right?”

She paused and pretended to think about it.  “Yes.  I suppose I do.”

Chapter 6

“Hi sweetheart!” I said, setting down my things and pulling
Molly
into a hug.

She craned her little neck
and
peer
ed
into the living room.  “Look
,
Allie!” she whispered.  “Sup-a-star Chris is here.”

He an
d Emily were on the couch, laughing
.  When I walked in she
gave me a look
that seemed to ask,
Why is he here?

“I wa
s just telling Chris about that confrontation you had,
”
she said.

“My what?”

She laughed again.  “Remember when you told one of your student’s mothers that she needed to be a better role model for her son?”

“Oh,
yeah, h
ow could I forget?
”  Her son had fallen asleep in my class.  When I questioned him about it, he said he was so tired because he had to pick his mom up from a bar at three
in the morning.  “I was so mad!
  How am I supposed to educate kids if their parents don’t
even
give a crap?  Some days it’s like
I’m
banging my head against a wall.”

Chris pressed his lips together.  “Parents these days. 
Sometimes they
don’t have a clue.”

“Seems that way.”

“Well
,
anyway, it was hilarious,” Emily said.
 
“
Allie was charged up for weeks.  It was all she could talk about.
  Tell him about the letter you had to write.
”

I smiled as I remembered. 
“
Sh
e complained to my principal
. 
He told me to
write a letter of apology
.”

“
Did you
?”

I nodded.

“And?  What happened?”
he asked.

Emily
was excited
.  “The lady probably didn’t understand a word of it.
  I know I didn’t!
”

I gave an innocent shrug.

Emily continued,
“
There are only so many five-syllable words you can cram into a sentence.  What was that one part, where you twisted it all around?  What did it say?”

I did a mental tally and shook my head.  “There weren’t any five syllable words.  The longest one was only four, and that was ‘respectfully’.  Hardly a brain teaser.”

“Okay, anyway.”  Emily rolled her eyes
.
  “
Tell him what you wrote.
”

I recited it slowly so I wouldn’t mess up. 
“It said, ‘
I respectfully ask your acc
ession for my veracious comment.’
”

Chris and Emily exchanged a look.  “You see?” she said.  “
N
o sense.”

He looked dumbfounded. 
“
A
ccession?”

I smirked.  “Acceptance.”

“And veracious?”

“Truthful.”

It didn’t take him
long
to figure it out.  “That’s really funny,” he laughed.  “I wish I had your vocabulary.”

“Naw.”  I waved a dismissive hand.  “I just know how to use a thesaurus.”

Emily stood
and smoothed out
the front of her slacks
.  “It was sure good to see you again, Chris.  I’ve got to go get dressed for work.  Don’t let her give you too much trouble.”  She flicked her head in my direction.  “She can be a bit mouthy.”

He looked at me and winked.  “I think I can handle her.”

My stomach did a flip-flop.

“Have you been here long?”
I asked, watching as
Molly
piled a stack of books
on
his lap.

“Not at all.”

“
Good. 
Are you
okay here for another minute?”

“Take your time; it looks like I’ve got
to catch up on some reading
.”
  Molly had climbed onto the couch and snuggled against his side.  He seemed content to sit with her.

Emily grabbed my arm and pulled me into her room
when
I walked by
her bedroom door
.  “What’s this all about?” she asked, nodding towards the living room.

I kept my voice low.  “He has a niece he really misses, so I invited him to the park
to play with Molly. 
I thought it would cheer him up.”  I gave her a sideways look.  “You don’t mind, do you?  We’re just going over
to the playground for a while.”

She grinned as
she
wrapped
her apron
around her waist
.  “Do you really think he’s here to play with Molly?  I bet he’d rather play with you.”  Her eyebrows lifted suggestively.