One of the Guys (2 page)

“You
should come out with us more often,” Kevin said, as they strolled across the
parking lot.

“I
will, one of these nights,” Kate said, unlocking her car door.
“Promise.”
 
She
flashed him a smile and got into her car.

On
the way home, she rolled the windows down and turned the radio up loud. She drummed
on the steering wheel and hummed as she drove, looking forward to getting home
and getting into her pajamas.

Kate
let herself into her house quietly and tossed her briefcase and purse on the
couch. All the lights were off, so she knew her roommate, Lucy, was asleep.

Lucy
was dating Jackson, whom Kate had just won twenty dollars from at poker. Even
though they’d known each other since high school, they were still supposedly in
the “taking it slow” stages of their relationship, with Lucy having broken off
her engagement and Jackson in the midst of a divorce. Kate was glad that her
two friends were taking things slow. She had all the confidence in the world
that Lucy and Jackson were meant to be together, but Kate had to admit, it was
nice having someone to share the house with. And if things with Lucy and
Jackson ever got serious, she’d be all on her own again.

In
her room, Kate quickly shed the cocktail dress she’d worn to the wedding that
evening and replaced it in the closet. She kicked her shoes into the closet and
stood at the bathroom sink in her underwear, scrubbing the makeup off of her
face. She grabbed her nightshirt off the bathroom doorknob and pulled it over
her head. She had just squirted a line of toothpaste on her toothbrush when she
thought she heard a car pull up into the driveway.

Sticking
her toothbrush in her mouth, she crossed her bedroom and peered through the
blinds and out the window overlooking the front yard. Sure enough, there was a
car parked right behind hers. And she knew just who it belonged to.

Kate
hurried into the living room and to the front door before he could ring the
bell. She flung the door open.

“You
left in a mighty big hurry,” Max said, his hand poised to ring the doorbell.

“Not
tonight, Max,” she said, her toothbrush poking out of her mouth.

“What?
 
Do you have a headache?” Max whispered,
letting himself in.

Knowing
that it was pointless to try to stop him, Kate let him follow her into her room.
Max closed the door softly behind him and immediately started getting
undressed.

“Max!”
Kate said his name like a warning.

Max
plopped down on the edge of the bed, kicking his flip-flops and jeans out of
the way. “What?” he asked.

“You
know what,” Kate replied, bending over the sink and brushing her teeth. She
pulled her hair back out of her face and could feel her cheeks growing hot. She
knew that Max was sitting there on the corner of the bed, just watching her. She
finished brushing, swished and spit, and then, drying her mouth on the hand
towel, looked up at Max.

“I
once read somewhere that if you have a headache, that sometimes an orgasm can
release that tension, causing your headache to go…”

Kate
closed the door on him and leaned back against it. She wasn’t sure what the
problem was. Max was definitely a good looking guy. The sex was always good. She
just wanted more than that. And even though he was constantly pressing her to
give their relationship some more serious thought
,
she
just wasn’t sure if it would work with him.

“Okay,
fine,” Max said from the other side of the door. “I’ll be good, if we can just
spoon. Please?”

Shaking
her head, Kate opened the door.
“Just spoon?
 
Seriously?”

Max
nodded.

Kate
studied his face. He looked serious enough. “Okay, come on,” Kate said. “But
don’t try anything. I have to get up early in the morning. And you better be
out before I leave.”
 
She crawled across
the bed and curled up on her side, with Max close behind her. He scooted up
behind her so that he cupped her close with his body; his chest against her
back, his knees against the backs of her knees, their feet intertwined.

*

           
Kate awoke at seven when her alarm
went off. She could hear Lucy puttering around in the kitchen, so she didn’t
bother to hit snooze. She got out of bed and stretched, noticing that all of
Max’s clothes were gone. He must have left bright and early, like he usually
did when they’d had one of their encounters. Kate went to the bathroom and
headed out into the living room, expecting to see Lucy sitting at the kitchen
counter.

           
Instead, it was Max.
Eating a doughnut.

           
“What are you doing?” Kate hissed.

           
The refrigerator door closed and
Lucy leaned against the counter, pouring orange juice into a glass in front of
Max.

           
“I… was just… leaving?” Max began,
licking the powdered sugar off of his lips.

           
Lucy grinned. “I scared the crap out
of him coming out of your room this morning, so I invited him to have breakfast
with me. I went out and bought doughnuts and he came out just as I got back.”
 

           
Kate shook her head. “Great.”
 
She hopped up onto the stool next to Max as
Lucy poured her a glass of juice as well. “Nothing happened,” she said.

           
Lucy opened the box, selected a sticky
glazed doughnut, and took a bite. “You don’t have to explain to me.”

           
Max finished his doughnut. “Honestly,
I just came over and spent the night. Nothing happened.”

           
Lucy held her hands up in the air. “Whatever
you guys do is fine with me,” she said.

           
“We, um, just don’t want anybody to
know,” Kate said. “Like Jackson,” she added.

           
Max nodded in
agreement.

           
“Don’t worry. This is all your
business. I won’t say anything,” Lucy said.

           
“I better go,” Max said, sliding off
his stool. He looked at Kate for a minute and then held out a fist.
She fist-bumped him.

           
“I’ll call you,” she said.

           
Max gave Lucy a quick hug and then
let himself out. Shaking her head, Lucy hopped up next to Kate and shook her
head. “Girl… What are you doing?”

           
“Nothing happened.”

           
“I come home from the store to find
him sneaking out of your room, scare the living daylights out of him, and
nothing happened?”

           
“I swear. Cross my heart. We just
spooned!” Kate exclaimed.

           
“Spooned?”
 
Lucy giggled. “You expect me to believe that
a guy like Max came over and you just… cuddled?
 
Riiiight
.”

           
“I swear!
 
It’s not like that with Max!”

           
“It’s not like what with Max?”

           
Kate took a sip of orange juice. “I
don’t have feelings like that for Max. He’s not the kind of guy you end up
having a relationship with.”

           
“But he’s the guy who comes by at
night so you can spoon?”

           
Kate groaned. “I mean, he’s the kind
of guy you hook up with every now and then, but you don’t date him.”

           
“So you have hooked up with him?”
Lucy grinned.

           
Kate smacked Lucy playfully on the
arm. “Just don’t say anything to Jackson, please?”

*

           
Kate pulled her stack of papers off
the printer and sat down at her desk to file her notes on the weddings she
supervised the day before. Julia stuck her head in the door. “I’m out of here,”
she said, slipping her sunglasses on. “Allie isn’t feeling well.”

           
“Oh, I hope she’s all right,” Kate
said, spreading her clients’ folders out on her desk.

           
“Just a little cold, I’m sure. Don’t
stay too long. Get out and enjoy what’s left of your weekend!” Julia smiled and
breezed out of the office.

           
Kate scratched her head and
contemplated the mess of paperwork on her desk. How did people like Julia do
it?
 
Married with a kid.
Full time job.
Good at what she does. But she never
seemed stressed. She was one of those chicks who always seemed so… together.

           
“I want to be like Julia when I grow
up,” she muttered.

           
“Excuse me?”

           
Kate looked up and grinned. Chris
stood in the doorway with a manila envelope under one arm and a cup of Starbucks
in his other hand. “Hey!”

           
“Hey, yourself, champ. Is Julia here?”
Chris asked, handing her the coffee.

           
“You just missed her.”
 
Kate took the top off of her cup to blow on
it a little. “Thank you!”

           
“No problem. I was going to give her
the prints from that little vow renewal we did last week. She was really
excited to see them.”

           
“The couple that’d
been married sixty years?
 
Let me
see,” Kate said. Chris handed her the envelope and she slid the photos out. She
flipped through them, smiling at the elderly couple’s photos. “These are
great,” she said. “What a cute couple. Sixty years. Wow.”

           
“They didn’t act like they were in
their eighties. It was the cutest thing.”

           
Kate sighed and returned the photos
to the envelope. “Ugh. Even if I met someone and got married, like, today, I’d
be ninety-one when we celebrate our sixtieth anniversary.”
 
She took a sip of coffee.
“If
I even make it to ninety-one.”

           
“I didn’t know you were looking to
get married,” Chris said.

           
Kate sat back in her chair and
folded her hands behind her head.
“Someday, maybe.
I’m
not in a rush. Everyone’s always asking when I’ll get married.
Especially here.
I don’t know. But it’s not like I’m getting
any younger.”

           
Chris chuckled. “Oh, you’ll get
married someday.”

           
“I’m the bachelorette wedding
planner. I am going to be an old maid.”

           
“Oh, stop.”

           
“I am irony personified.”

           
“Knock it off,” Chris said, reaching
across the desk and chucking her under the chin. “If you’re not married by the
time you’re… thirty-five, I’ll marry you.”

           
“What?” Kate spluttered. She checked
to make sure she hadn’t spilled coffee down the front of her blouse.

           
“Take it easy. I was just kidding,”
Chris grinned. “I’m going to leave these pictures here with you, if that’s
okay.”

           
“
It’s
fine,” Kate replied. “What are you up to today?”

           
He looked down at his watch. “I have
a lunch date, actually. I need to get going.”

           
Kate took another sip of her coffee.
“Oh.
All right.
Have fun.”

           
“See
ya
,”
Chris said.

           
“Thanks again for the coffee,” Kate
called after him.

           
Kate stared down at her desktop and
grinned, thinking about what Chris had said.
“If you’re not married by the time you turn thirty-five…”

           
Hmm.
That
was only four years away.

           
She’d had maybe two serious
relationships in the past four years.

           
Shoot, maybe the past… six… no,
eight years.

           
Sure, she had dated around here and
there. And she had Max, so it’s not like she was suffering. She just had yet to
meet a guy that was really marriage material.
Or actual boyfriend
material, for that matter.

           
Chris, on the other hand… She
straightened up her papers, thinking about it and ticking off his positive
qualities in her mind.