One of the Guys (18 page)

           
“What are you doing?” Lucy asked,
coming into the room and crawling onto the bed next to her.

           
Kate tossed the phone over her
shoulder onto the bed behind her and rested her chin on her hands. “This whole
dating thing is so stupid,” she said. “I don’t know anybody worth dating. Maybe
I should go on a dating sabbatical.”

           
Lucy let out a groan. “Why are you
so obsessed with dating all of a sudden?”

           
Kate sighed. “You wouldn’t
understand.”

           
“Uh, hello.
I’m your best friend. Try me.”

           
Kate hesitated. She didn’t want to
ruin the afterglow of Lucy and Jackson’s engagement, but since she’d
asked…
 
“You’re getting married,” Kate
said. “You’re going to be married, and I’m still going to be single.”

           
“So what?”

           
“So…
 
Things are going to change. You’re going to start doing… married
things.”

           
“Are you serious?”

           
“Yes, I’m serious,” Kate said. “Our
friendship won’t be the same.”

           
“You’ve got to be kidding me. How
will our friendship be any different?”

           
“I don’t know. It just will. You’ll
see,” Kate said. Lucy sat looking at her in amazement. “I told you that you
wouldn’t understand,” Kate smiled.

           
“My sister’s pregnant,” Lucy
blurted.

           
“Yeah.
And?
 
What does that have to do with anything?”

           
“You think I don’t understand?
 
My little sister is having a baby. She’s totally
excited and ready for it. She can’t wait. She’s one of those girls that loves
being pregnant and loves shopping for maternity clothes and loves watching her
belly grow.”

           
Kate raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah?”

           
“So… It scares the shit out of me. And
it made me realize that I don’t want to have kids. And Jackson and I have
talked about it – he doesn’t, either. So now, we’re going to have to spend the
rest of our lives explaining to people why we don’t have kids. Or why we don’t
want to have kids.
While everyone fawns over my sister and
her baby and her family.
We just got engaged and people are already
asking us when we’re going to start having kids.
Already!”

           
Kate chewed her lip. Lucy had a
point. She did understand.

           
“So, I promise you. Even after I get
married, I’m still going to be me. Just with a different last name,” Lucy said,
holding out her left hand and smiling at her sparkly engagement ring. “And we
will still be best friends, no matter what.”

           
Kate rested her head on Lucy’s
shoulder. “Thank you,” she said.

           
Lucy patted her chin.
“Anything for you.”

           
“Anything?”
Kate asked. “Does Jackson have any cute cousins you could introduce me to?”

           
“Kate…”

           
“I was kidding!
 
Just kidding.”

           
“No, you weren’t.”

           
“Okay, I wasn’t kidding.”

           
“Seriously.
Maybe you
should
just give the whole
dating thing a rest for awhile. Take a break. You don’t need to date anybody. Just
have fun.
Work.
Go out. Do stuff.
Without
worrying about finding the right guy.
He’ll come along eventually.”

           
“Says the one
marrying her high school sweetheart.”

           
“And look how long that took to work
out,” Lucy said, getting to her feet. “It’ll happen when you least expect it.
Watch.”

*

A
few days later, Kate was shocked to come home from work and find a stack of
moving boxes piled up in the living room. She surveyed the coffee table, which
was scattered with Post-It notes, rolls of packing tape, and thick black
markers. She swallowed hard. Of course Lucy would be moving out. Jackson had
bought them a house.

Kate
dropped her purse by the door and crossed the living room to peek into Lucy’s
bedroom. “Hi,” she said.

“Hi!”
Lucy said, loosening and retying her ponytail. “How was your day?
 
I was thinking about ordering a pizza or
something,” she said. “I brought home all these boxes from school and once I
started, I completely forgot about dinner.”

Kate
plopped down on the edge of the bed, sitting on a pile of t-shirts. “That’s
fine.”

“Are
you okay?” Lucy asked, taking a handful of paperback books off of the bookshelf
and crouching down to layer them in the box at her feet. “How was your
day?”
 
When she looked up again, she was
surprised to see tears spilling down Kate’s cheeks.

Kate
managed a feeble laugh through her tears. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,”
she said. “I should be happy for you.
For both of you.
I just feel like I’m losing my best friend!
 
I don’t know.”

Lucy
pushed aside a pile of folded sweaters and sat down next to Kate. She threw her
arms around her friend and gave her a squeeze. “I
told
you, nothing will change!”

“I
know, I know,” Kate said, fanning herself. She wiped her nose. “I guess I just
can’t believe you’re getting married. And to Jackson!” she said. “I feel like
you should’ve done all this ten years ago!”

Lucy
grinned. “I know. I feel the same way.”

Kate
smiled and slid her arm around Lucy. “I really am happy for you guys. You guys
were meant to be together.”

Lucy
inhaled deeply and looked down at the box of books at her feet. She exhaled. “It
wasn’t easy. For awhile there, I wasn’t sure if we were ever going to get
together. And we definitely pissed some people off along the way,” she said. Then
she looked at Kate. “But I’d do it all over again to be with Jackson.”

Kate
nodded and wiped at her eyes, looking around at the clothes strewn around the
floor and on the bed. “So, what can I do to help?”

“Oh.
So now you’re ready to kick me out?” Lucy giggled.

“You’re
the one with the big fancy house waiting for you,” Kate teased.

Kate
changed into jeans and a sweatshirt and called to order the pizza. Then she
returned to help Lucy finish boxing things up from around her room – mostly
books, summer clothes, and other little odds and ends.

It
had only been eight months or so since Kate had helped Lucy unpack her things
in this room when she had broken up with her fiancé, Matt. Lucy had moved in
with Kate because she didn’t want to return home to her parents’ house. At the
time, Lucy’s sister had been planning
her
wedding, and Lucy had just destroyed her future with Matt in the hopes of
starting over with Jackson. So, yes, she probably understood how Kate was
feeling, even better than Kate realized.

They carried the boxes into the living room and sat
on the floor to eat their pizza. “What’s Jackson up to tonight?” Kate asked.

“He’s
painting our bedroom. We’re leaving most of the house the way it is, but we
wanted some color upstairs. We picked out a shade of sage green. It’s really
pretty. Not too girly, not too… boring,” Lucy said, chewing on a pizza crust.

Kate
picked a pepperoni off of a slice and popped it into her mouth. “At least Jackson
has good taste,” she said. “And he’s neat. He’s not a slob or anything.”

Lucy
nodded in agreement. “We had no problem picking out new bedding and all that
stuff. I couldn’t believe it. And he’s so excited to register for wedding
presents,” she giggled.

“Your
house will look so awesome,” Kate said. “Do you think you’ll be all moved in by
the holidays?” she asked.

“I’d
really like to be all settled by Christmas,” she said. “But we’ll see.”

“Maybe
you could have a Christmas party at your house,” Kate suggested.
“Or New Year’s Eve.”

Lucy
seemed to like that idea.
“As long as we actually have
furniture and stuff.”

“And
please make Jackson buy a dining room table.”

“What?”
Lucy laughed.

“At
Kevin’s apartment, he doesn’t have a dining room table. Kevin has a poker table
where the dining room table should be.”
 
Lucy gasped and Kate giggled, unsure as to why that particular thought
had popped into her head.

“Maybe
that should be the first thing we buy,” Lucy grinned. “Jackson was already
talking about whether or not we’d have enough room for a pool table…”

“No!”
Kate squealed.
“Although that would be better than the poker
table.”

Lucy
shook her head and gathered up their paper plates and napkins. Kate closed the
pizza box and stuffed it in the fridge. “I don’t think so,” Lucy groaned. “Not
in my house.”

*

Kate
shivered as she pulled the gate closed behind her and hurried to get back in
her car. If there was one thing that she didn’t like about her parents’ house,
it was how dark it was. It was only six o’clock, but it was
pitch
black, and it was much colder here than it was back home. The last time she had
been to her parents’ house was when she and Chris had had to do battle with the
roaming pigs. Now it was two days before Thanksgiving!

Her
dad had eventually gotten over the fact that the garden was a complete and
total loss and he had successfully repaired the electric fence surrounding the
pig pen. Now he liked to tease her about it, trying to picture her running
around in the woods, chasing after Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

She
parked next to her dad’s pickup truck and pulled her overnight bag and purse out
of the backseat, along with a twelve-pack of beer. She closed the car door with
her hip and made her way up the steps to the front door.

“There’s
my girl!” Bob Thompson cried, holding the door open for her. “I’ll take those,”
he said, relieving her of the case of beer and bending down for a kiss on the
cheek.

“Hi,
Dad.”
 
While he
went off to put the beer in the fridge, Kate dropped her bag and purse on her
bed in the guest room and then went to join her mom in the kitchen.

She
wrapped her arms around her mom’s shoulders as she flipped three massive
breaded pork chops in a hot skillet. “How are you?”

“I’m
good,” Kate said, giving her mom a squeeze and pulling out a chair at the
kitchen table. Her dad, having finished putting the beer in the fridge, sat
down and passed her a cold one. They both cracked their beers and
clinked
the cans together.

“How’s
your… boyfriend?” Karen asked, turning around to steal a glance at her
daughter.

Kate
knew it wouldn’t be long before her mom asked. “No boyfriend,” she said.

“What happened
to pig boy?” her dad asked.

Kate
grinned at her dad’s nickname for Chris. “Pig boy and I are just friends,” she
said. At the stove, her mom clucked.

“That’s
too bad,” Karen said.

Kate
shrugged. “Not a big deal. We’ve been friends for awhile. No sense in messing
that up. It would just complicate things.”

“Your
mom said he was one of your poker buddies.”

Kate
nodded.

“Don’t
you have any girl friends?” Karen asked, bending down to peek at the scalloped
potatoes in the oven. “I mean, don’t you and Lucy ever
do
anything together?
 
All I ever hear about
is you and Jackson and the boys you play poker with.”

“They’re
my friends,” Kate said helplessly. “And they’re all very good friends, which is
exactly why I’m not dating them anymore.”
 
When this last sentence came out, Kate clamped her lips together, hoping
that her parents didn’t catch how that sounded.
…I’m not dating THEM anymore.

“Smart
move, baby,” her dad said.

“But
she needs to date, too. Do you go out any dates anymore?
 
What about that one guy from awhile back?
 
Brian, I think?”
  
She turned a burner off, took the pot of
broccoli to the sink, and drained it.

“He’s
married.”
 
Kate giggled as her father
made a face behind her mother’s back. “I don’t feel like dating anyone right
now. I work a lot. I’m busy.”