Fireside Love

by S. L. Sterling

  "Can you please get me a bowl from the cupboard?" Austin asked, since his hands were covered in raw chicken.

  "Of course." I reached for a bowl and heard my phone go off.

  "You need to get that?"

  "No, I'm sure it’s nothing important," I said, reaching for my phone and turning it off.

  Once the food was in the pan frying and the rice was on the stove cooking, Austin hoisted me up on the counter and stood between my legs. He placed his hands on my hips and leaned in for a deep and gentle kiss. Everything about kissing him was perfection. I could feel the throbbing building between my thighs when a knock on the door drew our attention away from one another.

  "You expecting someone?" he questioned, kissing my neck.

  I shook my head. "It might be my neighbor Mrs. Clark," I said as he stepped to the side while I hoped down off the counter with Austin’s help. "She suffers from dementia, so she might be in trouble."

  I went to the door and was just about to open it when I decided to glance out the peephole first in case someone left the main door to the building open. Addie stood on the other side waiting impatiently. My eyes bulged, and I ran back to the kitchen.

  "Who was it?" Austin questioned as he stirred the chicken and vegetables.

  "It's Addie. I totally forgot she was going to stop by. You've got to hide," I whispered.

  Addie banged on the door again. "Kristy, open up!" She yelled from the other side. "I know you’re home. Your car is parked in its normal spot."

  "Go to the bedroom," I whispered and watched as Austin took off down the hall. As soon as I heard the bedroom door shut, I walked to the door and opened it.

  "Addie, sorry, I had my headphones on," I lied.

  "That's okay. You have that ticket? Phil is waiting downstairs."

  "Yep, come on in."

  I turned and headed into the kitchen and grabbed the ticket off the fridge where it hung. I turned around to walk back to the door but was surprised to find that Addie had followed me inside and now stood right behind me.

  "Cooking with headphones on, Kristy?" Addie said, looking to the stove. "With music playing?"

  "I was listening to a podcast," I lied.

  "Uh huh," she said, glancing around the kitchen. "And two wine glasses?"

  I closed my eyes. I was just about to tell her everything when she looked at me and smiled. "Are you seeing someone? Is he here?"

  "You caught me." I shrugged.

  "Who is it?" she asked.

  "Just a guy from the office. You don't know him."

  "Okay then, well, I won't keep you. You could have just told me. I wouldn't have been upset. I will get out of your way then. Have a good night," she said, pulling me in for a hug. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” As soon as I let her go, she looked down to the floor. I too glanced in the direction she was looking and eyed Austin's shoes lying there. I bit my bottom lip, praying that she didn't recognize them.

  "It's funny because he wears the same shoes as Austin. They even look like they might be the same size."

  "I'm sure lots of people wear the same shoes as Austin."

  "I guess."

  An anxious feeling started to build, and I almost froze but played it cool and walked Addie to the door. "Have fun tonight," I said, praying she didn't see her brother’s coat from the Hope Valley Fire Department hanging on the hook by the door.

  "Will do. I am so happy for you, Kristy."

  "Go have fun. I will call you later," I said, closing and locking the door.

  I turned around to see Austin standing in the kitchen doorway. I couldn't help but look at him with sad eyes. I hated lying to my best friend. I did my best to perk up and smile. "I bet dinner is probably ready. We should eat," I said, walking past him into the kitchen.

  We sat across from one another, our empty plates in front of us as I reached for my wine.

  "We really need to talk," I said, swallowing down the last of my wine.

  "Okay."

  "Austin, this is great and everything, but I am afraid that we are just ignoring the inevitable."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Austin, I am the queen of impossible relationships, and I am accustomed to disappointment. It's only going to be a matter of time before you get bored with me or something comes up that we won't be able to fix."

  "Kristy…" He ran his hands over his face. "I think your luck is about to change. This is totally possible. We are totally possible."

  "Really, Austin? I just had to lie to my best friend, right to her face, because we haven't told her yet. She's going to be so angry with us."

  "So we tell her. What difference does it make? Just give me a chance, Kristy. I really like you, and to be honest, I have never felt this way about anyone before."

  I looked up at him. I could tell he wasn't just saying this. The look in his eyes said it all. He was telling me the truth. He wanted this just as badly as I did.

  He stood up from his chair and held out his hand to me. I placed my hand into his, and he pulled me up from where I was sitting and into his arms.

  "Another week, that's all I ask. Let me tell her, okay. It might take some of the pressure off of you, that way if she is pissed, she can take it out on me," he said and leaned in for a kiss.

  "Okay. One more week and we come clean." I smiled, leaning in and kissing him back.

  "What do you say we clean up and then curl up in bed together, watch a movie, and just relax?"

  "That sounds like a perfect way to spend the rest of the night," I whispered, kissing him again.

  16

  Austin

  I had just dumped the last of the spices into the ground beef and mixed everything together. I flipped the radio on, rolled a ball of meat in my hands, and plopped it down between two plates, pressing down to form the perfect burger patty. I repeated the steps, pressing out another perfect patty when my favorite song came on the radio. I sang out the lyrics as I continued making the burgers.

  The back door opened and Addie walked in, dropping her bags just inside the door. She looked tired after her shift at the hospital, and she dropped onto one of the kitchen chairs and looked at me.

  "Hey."

  "Hey, you're home early," I said, pressing the next patty in the same fashion and flipping it onto the plate. "Everything okay? You look beat."

  "Yeah, I was called in early. It was a hell of a day, and I figured I would have the house to myself tonight. I thought you were working. I've completely lost track of my days I guess," she mumbled, removing the elastic from her hair. She ran her fingers through her hair.

  "Nope, not working tonight. You’re stuck with me," I said, dropping the dirty bowl into the sink and filling it up with hot soapy water. "I'm just about to barbecue some burgers. Did you want any?" I asked, looking over my shoulder at my sister.

  "Dude, it's snowing out!" Addie said, reaching for the glass I had left on the table and taking a sip of my water. "There has to be a foot out there!"

  "So what?" I shrugged. "I felt like burgers, and they are better barbecued," I said, continuing to sing to my absolute favourite part of the song.

  "What the hell has gotten into you?" she asked, laughing at me as I missed every single note of the song. "God you sound awful." She laughed.

  "Nothing has gotten into me. Can’t I be in a good mood?"

  "Does this have anything to do with Kristy?" she questioned.

  I was about to pick up the plate of burgers and take them to the barbecue, but, instead, I froze, not really sure what to say. This question felt like some sort of trap to get me to confess to where I had been going the last couple of weeks. I had been married, and this was the exact tactic Laura used to use to get me to confess when she thought I was hiding things. I knew how this worked.

  "Just tell me. I'm not mad, but just so you know, I am the one who sent you both up to Serenity Lake. I'm practically to blame, since I set you up. So, spill it because no matter how hard I’ve tried Kristy sure won
't budge."

  I looked at Addie who sat there with a smile on her face. I thought for a second. Kristy had said she was feeling awful having to lie to Addie and that she wanted this out in the open. I, too, felt terrible keeping this from my own sister. Even though we had agreed on one more week, I had also promised I would be the one to talk to her. Now, seeing the end in sight of having this secret out in the open, the secret we had been keeping lifted off me like a weight.

  "How did you know?"

  "I'm not an idiot, Austin. I saw your shoes in the hallway at her apartment last night, and your coat hanging on the hook inside her door. I wasn't going to confront her on it, especially with you hiding in her bedroom," Addie said, laughing.

  I laughed to myself and ran my hand over my face. "Listen, Addie, you can't say anything to Kristy. I told her I wanted another week before we said anything. I don't want to blow this with her. I really like her."

  "Hey, look, you've got the perfect opportunity to make this work, so I promise I will keep it to myself."

  "Good," I mumbled and blew out a breath, "because I think, I might be in love with her."

  Addie jumped up off the chair and wrapped her arms around my neck, hugging me. I hugged her back. It felt good to get my feelings out in the open.

  "You are something else, Austin. It’s taken you all this time when I could have told you that you loved her all along."

  I looked at my sister and frowned. "What do you mean?" I questioned.

  "Come with me," she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me along behind her like she used to do when she was a little kid.

  She pulled me into the living room and then opened the cupboard where we kept the photo albums. She pulled out one I hadn't looked at in years and flipped it open to a page. It was one of our family trips up to Serenity Lake. I looked at the images. Addie, Kristy, and I were on the dock out in the middle of the lake. Kristy and Addie were sunbathing, while I sat behind them both, my focus clearly on Kristy. She flipped the page to another bunch of photos, where again in each of them I was either clearly staring at Kristy or next to her. Then she opened the album of my engagement photos.

  "What are you doing with that?" I questioned.

  "Just wait and see," Addie said, flipping to one of the pages and pointing at one of the photographs.

  In one of the photos Laura stood in the background posing for the shot. Instead of being enamored with my future bride like I should have been, I was looking off in the distance at Kristy who sat behind Laura with a sad look on her face.

  "Seriously, man, it couldn't be more obvious. Did it ever occur to you that this was what the problem was with your marriage?"

  "The problem with my marriage was the fact that my wife preferred the company of someone else in the bedroom."

  "No, Austin, I'm not talking about that. It doesn't take rocket science to know that you were never happy. You were forced into a situation to marry Laura because together 'you made sense' to everyone but yourselves. You never really loved her. That is why Kristy wasn't invited to the wedding. It wasn't because of money and needing to cap guests like you told her. It also wasn't because Laura didn't want her there. It was because you were in love with Kristy. That was the real reason why she was not there at the wedding. Just admit it."

  "No, Addie, it was because we had to cap guests. Laura was throwing a fit about how much we were spending."

  "You know that isn't true, because I know that isn't true. I can guarantee that if Kristy had been sitting in the audience, you would have been stuck on what could have been if you had of made a different choice. Perhaps you might not even have gone through with the wedding at all."

  I slowly flipped through the album in front of me and then it hit. I had spent hours upon hours and thousands of dollars in couples therapy, and in one conversation, Addie hit the nail on the head. Suddenly, the embarrassment of the entire situation started to hit, and I wanted to crawl into a hole.

  "It's not just photographs, Austin. I have watched you with her over the last year and a half. She was the only one you would talk to after Laura died. She was the one you went outside with the day of the funeral after the guys kicked that douche out. She was the one who held you as you cried. She was the one who also dropped everything to be with you during that time."

  "She was being a good friend." I shrugged, still not really sure I wanted to accept the truth.

  "Yep, she was. She also told me a long time ago that she wished her ex was more like my brother Austin. She's the one who has compared every single boyfriend she's ever had to you, and that is why none of her relationships work. It's because there is only one guy who she wants, and that is you. Just so you know, she will never admit that because she fears she is doomed in the relationship department."

  I blew out a breath at all she had just said, I knew the last part was true because she had confessed that to me last night. I stood flipping through the book, letting everything sink into my mind. Finally, I shut the book and looked to my sister.

  "Addie, listen, please. I promised Kristy that after I talked to you, we would talk to you together. She's struggling with this and needs to sort out a couple of things, so just wait to mention it to her."

  Addie looked me in the eye and shook her head. "No, Austin, no more secrets. You need to stop accepting less than you deserve."

  "I'm not. I am giving Kristy a chance."

  "Austin, you need to live your life out loud. She shouldn't be ashamed to be in a relationship with you. She should be proud. Secret relationships are for cheaters and people who really don't love one another. You need to tell her that I know and then tell the world that you are together."

  "All right, fine. Just, before you say anything, give me a chance to talk to her, okay. Let me tell her that you know and that you are okay with it."

  "No worries. I'm not gonna say anything, and yes, talk to her, tell her."

  "I will."

  17

  Kristy

  I had worked morning, noon, and night over the last couple of days to make sure that I met my deadline in time. I hadn't ever been so happy to send an email to Tom as I was today.

  I glanced at the clock, disappointed to see that it was only two in the afternoon on a Friday. I couldn't wait to be finished today. Austin and I had plans to go to the movies tonight once he was done his shift, and then we were going to return to my apartment and spend time decorating my Christmas tree.

  My phone vibrated on my desk, and I smiled to myself, expecting it to be Austin. Instead, Tom's name flashed across the screen. I opened the text to find only three words: my office now.

  A funny feeling crept through me. I had sworn to myself that I would never be caught again in Tom's office. Whenever he requested a meeting with me, I had found a way to either just send him what he needed through email or made him come to me.

  I picked up my phone and feverishly typed, “What do you need?” and set my phone back down on my desk, opening the next scheduled project I had to work on. I hoped that this didn't have anything to do with what he had proposed the other day.

  Seconds later, my phone buzzed again, and I glanced down to see his reply. “I need you to come to my office.” I rolled my eyes and blew out a breath.

  Since that tactic had backfired, I eventually found myself in the elevator going up to the fifteenth floor to his office. I drummed my fingernails on the railing inside the elevator as it lifted me closer to his floor. I glanced down at my watch. I really wished that it was almost time to end my day.

  The elevator bell rang and the doors opened. I was faced with a girl, her face red and tear streaked. I recognized her from the payroll department. She said nothing. Instead, she took one look at me, covered her mouth to stifle a sob, and as I slipped out of the elevator, she slipped in and hit the button going down. I frowned. What the hell was going on?

  I walked down the hall to the dreaded desk of his assistant, the one I had found spread eagle on his desk, and announced myself.
/>
  She looked up from her computer. "Of course. He is waiting for you," she said and smiled smugly before returning to whatever it was she was working on.

  I walked to his office and knocked on the open door. He looked up from his computer and stopped typing. "Kristy, come on in," Tom said, standing and pointing to the chair across from him. "Have a seat."

  "I'll stand, thanks," I bit out and stepped inside his office.

  "Fine, close the door please."

  "It can stay open, thanks," I bit out, glaring into his eyes. He locked eyes with me, debating on challenging me, but I didn't back down. There was no way I was going to be caught in his office with the door closed.

  "Fine. Look, as announced, the magazine is going through a restructure. Unfortunately, many of the departments had to be cut or required cuts, and yours is one of them."

  I looked at Tom. Surely, he wasn't speaking about me. I mean, I was a senior in my position. "Fine, so who am I losing? Jen, Meg, Alexandra?" I questioned, annoyed that he made me come all the way up here just for this information when he could have easily emailed it to me.

  "Pretty much the entire department," Tom said, sitting back down behind his computer.

  "Okay, so no big deal. I can handle the work, and then I can rebuild it. It will take time, of course, to find the right individuals."

  "No, you're misunderstanding me. Your whole entire department has been cut."

  "Tom, there is no way I can do the work of twenty people, so you better come up with something. Go back to the new bosses and explain that I at least need to keep three people."

  "You won't have to, because you are included in your department. They will be outsourcing your department."

  I felt the room start to spin. He just let the words roll off his lips as if it didn't matter that he had just fired twenty people. He sat there clicking on the keys of his computer, probably sending out a notice to announce to any employees who were left not to contact me for anything moving forward.