Uncharted

by Nikki Thornton

  “And eventually I’d like you to go on a trip with some of your girlfriends.” Paige took a long drink from her beer bottle.

  “You mean like a group outing?” Kennedy was curious.

  “Exactly. A group outing. You and your closest girlfriends.”

  “That would be awesome!” Kennedy looked over to Mary. “It would make a great road trip. Me, Mary, Jen, and Abbey.”

  Mary was stunned. “Me? Really?”

  “Of course! You’re my WBF. Do you think Dave will let you get away for a while?”

  “He’ll have to!” Mary smiled. “Wait. What’s a WBF?”

  Kennedy laughed. “Work Best Friend. It’s something one of my friends came up with.”

  Mary giggled. “Alrighty, never heard that one before, but it works!”

  “Ok, now that we have that all settled.”

  Kennedy almost forgot Paige was there. “Will that be a problem? If we do another road trip? And if I steal Mary away for it?”

  “Absolutely not. Four girls taking a road trip together. No men to provide for them and take care of the ‘manly’ things. It will be perfect.” Paige smirked. “All you have to figure out is if you’ll make it a girly trip, at say a spa resort or something, or if you want to make it rough-and-tumble, like a nitty gritty ranch getaway.”

  “That’s a good point. We’ll have to all get together and figure it out.” Kennedy turned to Mary. “You’ll love Jen and Abbey. I think we’ll all get along fabulously.”

  The girls talked more about the future road trip until they finally called it quits after their fourth drinks. Both Mary and Paige were pretty tipsy. They apparently hadn’t drank in awhile. Kennedy drove each of them home in Mary’s car then took a cab back to the bar to pick up Paige’s car and return it before finally taking a last cab to get her own car.

  By the time she got home, it was too late to call her mom and tell her the good news, so she hung the framed clippings on the wall in her office and went to bed.

  When she woke up the next day, she was only slightly hung over, nothing a hot shower wouldn’t cure. She got to the office to find that Mary and Paige weren’t doing as well as her. She had figured that would be the case and stopped to get them coffee before coming in.

  She spent the day working on the rest of the segments for the Voyage series and submitted all of the articles and photos to Paige in mid-afternoon.

  Paige merged a few of the segments. After seeing them combined, Kennedy saw that it made more sense to do so. Instead of having four weeks of articles, she only had two.

  They planned her next trip for the same length of time as the last. This time she would be going to Austin. She spent most of that trip checking out the nightlife with a little bit of time devoted to experiencing the history of the city.

  Reader responses were still good for her road trip series; the paper had run three articles and there was very little negative feedback. It had yet to go into the Emmerick portion of her trip, and Kennedy was nervous about how readers would respond to that.

  * * *

  The next few weeks flew by so quickly with all the trips she was taking that Kennedy didn’t even remember that her columns finally started including the Emmerick portion. It wasn’t until her mom called her during her first weekend off that she remembered, and that was only because her mom brought it up.

  “What’s this I’m reading about you letting some Steve guy hijack your trip? I knew I shouldn’t have let you go.”

  “Mom, you couldn’t stop me. And his actual name was Emmerick.” Kennedy always thought it was funny how protective her mom got, even as Kennedy got older.

  “He was a stranger! And you let him follow you?!”

  “I really didn’t let him, he just kind of did.” She plopped down on her couch and turned the radio down; this was seemingly going to be a long conversation.

  “That’s even worse, Kennedy! Didn’t your father and I teach you anything?”

  “Chill out, mom. I knew what I was doing. He was completely harmless. Actually, he was a really great guy. A gentleman, the kind of guy you’ve always wanted for me.” Kennedy was starting to depress herself.

  “If he was such a great guy, why aren’t you with him? Why’d you take off?”

  Kennedy sighed, “You’ll just have to read next week’s article, I guess.”

  “Kenn—”

  “Look, mom, I really don’t want to talk about this. It’s my first day off in a while. I’m gonna go so I can enjoy it.”

  “Well, fine. Geez. I guess I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Yeah, mom. Later.”

  Kennedy hung up and then turned off her cell phone. She didn’t want to deal with any more conversations like that.

  She turned the radio back up and turned her computer on. It had been awhile since she checked her email account, and she was still waiting to hear from Jen and Abbey about their upcoming road trip.

  Kennedy was happy to see that she had responses from both of her friends. They were both up for the trip but wouldn’t be able to go for another month. Luckily Kennedy had built up a pretty decent backlog of articles that she’d be able to take a week or two off from traveling and make the girl trip a long one.

  She also had a few notes from Facebook. Claire responded to one of Kennedy’s messages, and a couple people commented on some of her photos. She left a few notes for some of her friends and updated her status to “exhausted” before her curiosity got the best of her.

  Thanks to her mother’s inquiring, Kennedy couldn’t get Emmerick off her mind. Though she vowed to never check it again, she navigated over to Emmerick’s page. The last time she’d viewed it was after Emmerick requested her friendship. She denied it, of course, but felt awful for doing so.

  He posted a few new pictures, some older ones from high school along with newer bar night photos. There were many photos where he was sharing the camera with different good looking women. It bothered Kennedy even though she had no right to be bothered.

  He also added a new song to his “Sunshine” playlist, a new, more bitter song dedicated to her with the same song name but it was sung by a different band. This time it was Simple Plan’s “Addicted.” It had been a long time since she had heard the song, so she took the time to listen to it all the way through.

  She could barely make it. She was in tears within the first minute of the song, but she still made herself listen to its entirety. She felt she deserved the punishment. If only she could post an apology to him; she truly was sorry. But the only thing that would accomplish would be to make her feel better. It would only give him false hope. He didn’t deserve that. Kennedy knew that she would have to maintain her silence, even if it destroyed her to do so.

  As soon as the song was over, she logged out and shut down her computer. So much for enjoying my day off. In a last ditch attempt to enjoy it, she drew herself a bubble bath. While the tub was filling, she moved all of her candles into the bathroom and lit them. She put a classical CD into the player she kept in the bathroom before getting into the tub. With any luck, she would be able to relax within the next hour or so and then head to bed and pass out.

  The Date

  After working at his father’s company for nearly a year, Emmerick found himself making visits to the bar more often than usual. He would occasionally go alone, but the majority of his outings were with his friends.

  There were benefits to going out with his group of friends. Not one of them was shy, and they seemed to have no problems getting the attention of a crowd of women. It was rare that any of his friends went home with one of the women, but it did happen. Either way, there was plenty of flirting for everyone.

  Unfortunately, all of the bar hopping made him drowsier at work, and despite resisting for many months, Emmerick eventually caved and gave into Stephanie’s relentless flirting. He was shocked the first time he found himself flirting back.

  Stephanie didn’t realize at first that he was flirting with her. He flirted ho
w he would with Kennedy. Once he noticed this, he quickly switched gears. Stephanie was no Kennedy. She wasn’t even close.

  One Friday, they were talking over their cubicle wall about their weekend plans and Emmerick decided to take his friendship up a notch with Stephanie.

  “Some buddies and I are going to check out this new bar on Saturday.”

  Stephanie’s eyes lit up. “Oh really? Which bar?”

  “I think it’s called Mac’s.”

  “That sounds like the makings of a pretty good weekend.” She could not have made it any easier for Emmerick to invite her without expectations.

  “Do you want to come?”

  “Oh, I don’t want to impose.” Yet her smile was the widest Emmerick had ever seen her wear.

  “No imposition. It’s a big group thing. I think most of the other guys are bringing a date.” As soon as the word left his lips, he regretted saying it. He had no intention of setting this up as a date. So much for no expectations.

  “Well, when you put it like that…”

  “Great. Well I think everyone’s showing up at the bar around nine.”

  She smiled. “Perfect. Pick me up at eight-thirty.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Did I not just make it clear that I wanted to meet her at the bar?

  She wrote her address down on a sticky note and passed it over the wall.

  Emmerick was grateful she didn’t continue on with the subject. He was still trying to fathom how he just planned a date without meaning to. He had not been on an intentional date in years. In fact, his most recent date-type encounter had been with Kennedy. Now he had to go on a date with a girl he didn’t really like in that way. He wasn’t even sure he liked her as a friend. That was the point in getting her to a bar in the first place—to decide if he could like her as a friend outside of work.

  Emmerick spent the rest of the day convincing himself that he would like her more outside of work. Surely she didn’t act the same way when she was out and about. She would be a different person outside of this building. She had to be.

  * * *

  He pulled up to Stephanie’s apartment at a quarter to nine. He figured she probably wouldn’t be ready on time anyway; women rarely were, in his opinion and experience.

  When she walked up to his car, Emmerick’s jaw dropped. He barely had enough time to get out and open the door for her; date or not, he still had manners.

  Stephanie didn’t leave much to the imagination. She wore a black mini skirt, a silver, glittery halter top, and silver strappy shoes with heels that looked like they would snap should she make one wrong step. She looked hot, but she also looked like a hooker.

  Emmerick felt a little embarrassed by how she was dressed. The bar they were going to was a bar, not a club. His friends would never let him live this down.

  When they pulled into the parking lot, Stephanie waited in the car for Emmerick to open the door. Normally he would have appreciated the fact that he was given the opportunity to open it for his “date,” but all it did this time was remind him how different Stephanie was from Kennedy.

  He led the way into the bar and to the table of his friends. All of the women with them were modestly dressed, mostly wearing tee shirts and jeans. Emmerick’s face went red pretty quickly. He saw the group give Stephanie the up and down as they approached and he tried to give a silent plea for them to give him a break.

  “Hey, Em, who’s this?” his buddy, Patrick, asked.

  Emmerick sighed slightly. “Everyone. This is Stephanie. Stephanie, this is everyone.”

  Stephanie gave a giant smile and waved.

  When the waitress came over, Emmerick ordered a shot and a beer and Stephanie ordered a Fuzzy Navel. The waitress carded Stephanie.

  As Emmerick saw Stephanie’s drink set on the table, he smiled to himself remembering how he had thought Kennedy would order one on her first bar visit. But she wasn’t into fruity drinks; she wasn’t a fruity girl.

  Stephanie looked bored as she glanced around the small bar. Emmerick ignored it and jumped into the group’s conversation.

  “No, Kyle, chicks dig motorcycles, not crotch-rockets.” Emmerick flashed his devastating grin. “I would know.”

  “Bullshit. I can’t even tell you how many chicks I’ve picked up on my bike.”

  “Yeah, because the women attracted to your ‘bike’ are a bunch of whores.”

  “Dude!” Kyle sounded bewildered.

  “Well?” Emmerick knew that if Kyle thought about it, he’d realize it was true.

  “Yeah, ok.”

  Emmerick laughed.

  “Um, where’s the dance floor?” Stephanie’s voice cut into the laughter.

  “There isn’t one.” Emmerick responded. She looked confused, so he added, “Bars don’t have dance floors.”

  “Yes they do,” Stephanie argued.

  Emmerick laughed, and it annoyed Stephanie.

  “No, Steph, clubs have dance floors, bars,” he said while gesturing to the room, “have tables.”

  The group tried to contain their laughter. Suddenly her wardrobe choice was obvious, but they were baffled by how she didn’t know the difference.

  “So, Em,” Patrick practically yelled over all the voices, “any good stories?”

  Over the years, Emmerick had managed to become known for his crazy stories. It helped that he was usually the most sober amongst his friends, so he could tell them what idiots they were the last time they had gone out.

  “Only the one where your mom invited me over when you weren’t home.”

  Patrick rolled his eyes. “In your dreams.”

  Stephanie let out a huff and sucked down the rest of her drink.

  In an attempt to be a good date, even though he never intended to be hers, he asked if she wanted another one.

  “I guess, I mean, they aren’t that great.”

  Emmerick was annoyed with her attitude. “How about I get you something else and you can see if you like it better?”

  “I guess.”

  Emmerick disappeared to the bar. He had another shot and ordered himself another beer and a Long Island for her. He felt guilty for offering Kennedy’s drink to this other woman, but he felt like he had to have her try it.

  When he returned to the table, she asked him what it was.

  “Just try it.”

  Stephanie did as he said and made a face shortly after. “Oh my God, that’s nasty. Why would anyone ever drink that?!”

  Emmerick apologized, “I’ve heard that women like it, sorry. I can go get you something else if you’d like.”

  Stephanie saw the waitress about to walk by. “Don’t worry about it,” she said to Emmerick before snapping at the waitress to get her attention.

  Emmerick was horrified. Who does that?!

  After ordering herself a margarita, she asked Emmerick if they could leave after this round and go somewhere more private.

  He agreed thinking it would be a good time to tell her that he would never want to do this again. After finishing his beer, he went up to the bar to close his tab and had one more shot for the road, just for good measure.

  They said goodbye to Emmerick’s friends and left.

  As he drove down the road, Stephanie undid her seatbelt and leaned toward him. He had no idea what she was doing until her lips made contact with his neck.

  “Steph, I’m trying to drive,” he said while trying to push her off.

  She pulled away and whispered, “Then pull over,” before returning to his neck.

  She found her way to his ear, and he decided he should take her advice before he got into an accident. Between her blocking his view and the number of drinks swimming through his system, it just seemed safer to stop driving.

  As soon as he put the car in park, she was straddling him and kissing him. He couldn’t help but respond; it was the most contact he’d had with a woman in over a year.

  She tore off her shirt and started working on his. Once she finally got it off, she felt his body. She
must have liked what she felt because shortly after she was pushing his face into her chest.

  He pulled away rather quickly. Doing that reminded him of his night with Kennedy, and he didn’t want memories of her tainted with Stephanie.

  “What’s wrong?” Stephanie breathed into his ear; she was still kissing him all over.

  “It’s kind of late, and I’m pretty drunk. I should get you home.” It was the most honest he could be without hurting her feelings.

  Stephanie sat up further and bumped her head on the roof. “Are you kidding me? It’s late? You can’t be serious!”

  Emmerick pulled his shirt back on. Even though Stephanie’s chest was at eye level for him, he found that he wasn’t even distracted by it.

  She sighed heavily before dismounting him, careful to press herself against him in a last ditch effort to entice him.

  It didn’t work.

  She sat in the passenger seat as he readjusted the rearview mirror. He glanced over at her and noticed that she was still shirtless. He turned to the back of the car and saw her shirt behind his seat.

  He practically threw it at her as he put the car in drive.