One of the Guys (24 page)

           
She slept on and off throughout the
day, ignoring her phone as it buzzed on the nightstand next to her. Every time
she woke up, the light in her room had changed, and she knew that hours had
passed.
Fine with her.
All she wanted to do was sleep.
She got up once to go to the bathroom and considered getting something to eat,
but as she looked around the kitchen, nothing seemed appealing. Back to bed she
went.

           
Later that afternoon, she became
aware of her cell phone’s almost constant buzzing. She reached for it and
dropped it into her purse on the floor, hoping that it would get lost in the
contents and dull the sound. She wanted desperately to go back to sleep so that
she didn’t have to be annoyed by her stuffy nose and scratchy throat. The
pounding in her head got worse and worse until she realized that it wasn’t just
her headache… there was actually a very loud knocking coming from the front
door.

           
Holding her head, she got out of bed
and stumbled through the living room to the door. She opened it and winced at
the afternoon sunlight. It took her a second before she realized that Kevin was
standing in front of her, holding two plastic shopping bags. She didn’t know
what to say, so he carefully moved past her and headed towards the kitchen. She
closed the door and followed him.

           
“I heard you were really sick. Lucy
told Jackson and Jackson told me and I felt really bad because you probably caught
a cold from sitting outside last night.”

           
Kate’s mouth dropped open.
“Oh, gosh.
It’s not like it’s your fault or anything,” she
said. She watched as he emptied the grocery bags onto her kitchen counter –
Kleenex, ginger ale, orange juice,
NyQuil
, a decongestant,
Lysol spray, cough drops, and a deli container of soup.

           
“Well, I still feel bad. Where are
your bowls?”
 
She pointed to a cabinet
and watched in a daze as he poured her a steaming bowl of soup and handed it to
her.
“Spoons?”
 
She pointed to a drawer and he handed her a spoon. “Now, eat that,” he
said, “take this, and go back to bed.”
 
He pushed the decongestant towards her, balled up the grocery bags, and
tossed them in the garbage can under the sink.

           
“Thank you,” Kate managed to say.

           
“No problem,” Kevin said. He patted
her gently on the shoulder and went back into the living room, where he paused
at the front door. “Call me if you need anything.”

           
“Thank you,” Kate repeated. Kevin
let himself out and closed the door softly behind him. She stood in the middle
of the kitchen, looking down into her bowl of soup. “What the heck was that?”
she said to herself.

           
She sat at the counter and slurped
her soup. She was really hungry, and even though her sense of taste was dulled,
the hot soup felt good on her throat. When she finished, she put her bowl and
spoon in the sink and poured herself a glass of ginger ale. She helped herself
to the decongestant and was headed back to her bedroom, following Kevin’s
orders.

*

           
“Feeling any better?” Lucy asked.

           
“A little,” Kate sighed into the
phone. She’d spent most of the past two days in bed and had finally returned to
work so that she could reschedule her missed appointments. All the work had
made her even more exhausted, so now that she was home again, all she wanted to
do was go to bed.

           
“Do you need anything?” Lucy asked.

           
“No, I’m okay. Actually, Kevin
brought a bunch of stuff over the other day.”

           
“Kevin?”

           
“Yeah.
He
said he heard that I was sick and he showed up with a bunch of stuff.”

           
“Really?”

           
“Yeah.”

           
“Well, that was sweet,” Lucy said.

           
“And totally unexpected,” Kate
agreed. “As a matter of fact, I should probably call to say thank you.”
 
She vaguely remembered thanking him when he’d
brought everything over, but she was so sick and in such a daze, that she felt
it was necessary to thank him again now that she was a little more
clear-headed.

           
When Kevin answered the phone, he
was happy to hear that she sounded better. “No offense, but you looked like the
walking dead when I came by your house the other day.”

           
Kate laughed, and it turned into a
spluttering cough. She cleared her throat. “None taken,” she said. “I felt like
it.”

           
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,”
Kevin said. “But you still sound like crap.”

           
“Thanks. I’m getting there,” she
said.

           
“Well, go get some rest. You
probably still need it.”

           
Kate hung up the phone and made
herself
comfortable on the couch. She was flipping through
the channels when she heard a big truck pull into the driveway. Her parents
were back. The front door flew open and the house was immediately filled with
noise as her parents came in carrying the first armfuls of boxes. “House is on
the market!” her dad cried.

           
“How are you feeling?” her mom asked.
“You just stay put,” she said, putting down a box in the middle of the living
room and going over to feel Kate’s forehead. “No fever. That’s good.”

           
“I’m fine,” Kate said. “Let me help
you.”
 
As exhausted as she was, she
couldn’t sit by and watch her parents unload the U-Haul by themselves. She
would help them carry everything in and then they could sort it out later.

           
As they made their trips back and
forth, Kate found herself dragging, but seeing her parents so happy together
lifted her spirits. Living with them again probably wouldn’t be a picnic, but
it was reassuring to see them being so cheerful, the way they always were.

           
When they finished unloading the
truck, her parents got cleaned up and went out to dinner to officially celebrate
their reunion. They invited Kate to join them, but she decided to take a shower
and get to bed early.

           
She was just dozing off when her
cell phone rang. “Hello?”

           
“Hey, Kate.
It’s Kevin.”
 

           
“Hey,” she said.

           
“I know that you’re still getting
over your cold, but I was wondering if maybe, if you were feeling better this
weekend, if you’d want to come to my niece’s first birthday party on Saturday.”

           
Kate sat up in bed. What an odd
invitation. She wasn’t sure how to respond. “Uh…”

           
“I know. That’s weird, right?
 
The thing is, it’s going to be a lot of
family and little kids, and I figured it would be kind of boring. I mean… Yeah.
You don’t have to come. I just told you it was going to be boring. Why would
you want to come?
 
I just thought, you
know, it would be a little more bearable if I had someone to hang out with.”

           
“Okay,” she replied, after some
hesitation. “If I’m feeling better, I’ll go.
If you want me
to.”

           
“If it’s not your thing, I
understand. It’s not really my thing either, but it’s family,” Kevin chuckled. “You’ll
really go?”

           
“Sure,” she said. “I mean, I’ll call
you on Friday and let you know how I’m feeling.”

           
“Really?
 
Thanks,” he said, sounding almost relieved.

           
“Thanks for the invitation,” she
said. “I’ll talk to you on Friday.”

           
Kate hung up the phone, turned off
the light, and slid down under the covers. She wasn’t sure what was going on
with Kevin. She hoped she hadn’t given him the wrong impression by calling and
asking him to hang out on Valentine’s Day.

*

           
Recalling how Lucy had showed up to
her own engagement celebration with gifts for the host, Kate stood next to
Kevin holding a pink ceramic piggy bank for the birthday girl as he introduced
her to his entire family – his parents, Carol and John; his sister and
brother-in-law Kelly and Peter; his niece Isabella, several cousins, some aunts
and uncles, and even his 89-year old grandmother.

           
Kelly accepted the piggy bank and
gave Kate a huge hug. “This is so cute!
 
Thank you!” she said.

           
“Would you like to hold her?” Carol
asked, coming forward with Isabella. “She loves to cuddle.”
 
Kate looked at Kevin as he suspiciously took
a step away from her.

           
She didn’t want to seem impolite so
Kate took Isabella in her arms and smiled down at the little girl. Isabella
looked back and forth from Kelly to Kate and then finally reached up with both
chubby hands and squished Kate’s cheeks together. Kate made a fish face and
Isabella cracked up. Then she reached up further and grabbed two chunks of
Kate’s hair in both hands and pulled. Kate gasped and giggled nervously.

           
“Bella!
 
No!
 
Leave Kate’s hair alone!”
Kelly said, rushing forward to
untangle the baby’s fingers from Kate’s hair. She scooped the baby up and
offered Kate an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry about that,” she said.

           
“No problem,” Kate said. “It’s fine.
I’m fine!”

           
“Maybe you should put your hair in a
ponytail,” Kevin winked, nudging her. He gestured to the sliding glass doors
leading out to his parents’ backyard and Kate followed him. They sat down at a
picnic table to wait for the festivities to begin. One of Kevin’s preteen
cousins came up with a football and asked him to throw it around for awhile. “Will
you be all right for a few minutes?” Kevin asked.

           
“Sure. Go play,” Kate said. She
cupped her chin in her hand and watched Kevin pass the ball back and forth with
his cousin.

           
“Have some punch,” Carol said,
coming and sitting down next to her. She handed her a cup. Kate thanked her and
took a sip. “Kevin’s talked about you an awful lot lately. It’s nice to finally
meet you.”

           
“He has?” Kate asked, nearly choking
on her punch.

           
“Yes. He said that you two went out
on Valentine’s Day,” Carol smiled.

           
Kate found herself blushing. “Oh. We,
um, went out on Valentine’s Day, but we didn’t… go out,” she tried explaining.

           
Carol patted her hand. “That’s what
I meant.”

           
“Oh,” Kate grinned.

           
“He must like you, though. He told
me that he got up out of bed to go meet you.”

           
Kate’s blush grew deeper. “I felt
bad for waking him up,” she admitted.

           
Carol laughed. “If there’s one thing
that Kevin loves, it’s his sleep.”

           
“Are you guys talking about me?”
Kevin called from across the yard.

           
“No!” Kate replied.

           
“Of course!”
Carol teased.

           
“Mom, leave Kate alone!” he groaned.
Kate and Carol both chuckled. They were joined by his sister Kelly.
“Not you, too!”

           
Kelly giggled. “How long have you
and my brother been dating?”

           
“We’re not dating,” Kate replied. “We’re
just friends.”
 
She wasn’t sure, but she
thought she saw Carol and Kelly exchange glances across the table.

           
“Sorry,” Kelly said. “It’s just that
he mentioned there was someone…” As if she could sense Kevin approaching her
from behind, she let her words trail off. He rested his hands on her shoulders.

           
“What are you guys talking about?”
he asked.

           
“
Nothiiiing
,”
Kelly grinned, stiffening.

           
Kevin jokingly pretended to wrap his
fingers around Kelly’s throat and wring her neck before sitting down next to
her. He nudged Kate’s foot under the table with his own. “Are they harassing
you?”