by MJ Monroe
**
“Come with me to see how Aaron’s date goes tonight,” Ella encouraged me as we were walking out of work.
It was the last thing that I had wanted to do. Yet there was no way for me to get out of it because I had already admitted to her that I had nothing to do. “Hopefully him and Vicki hit it off and start dating. Do you know that she’s almost 35 and has never had a serious boyfriend?”
“It’s because she gets drunk and acts like a fool. You seen her at the office holiday party, she acted like a fool in front of everybody.” The sadness was evident in my voice and I didn’t care. Aaron was going out with one of the most beautiful women I had ever laid eyes on, there was no way that he wasn’t going to fall for her. “She tried to ride the copy machine like a mechanical bull. Every time she drinks, she acts like a fool.”
“I know but I think that Aaron will be a good influence on her, and I think that she will make him realize that this whole Navy Seal thing isn’t for him. Then they can make babies and I can be an Auntie.”
Even though I knew that Ella didn’t know how close I had come to being with Aaron, it still hurt that she was trying so hard to fix him up and marry him off. If she felt the need to do that, why couldn’t she set him and me up?
“I know it sounds selfish and all that but I really don’t care. I want nieces and nephews, I want my brother to stay alive and not have such a dangerous job.”
“Where are they going?” I needed to change the subject, the more I heard her talk, the worse my heart felt. What made things worse was the fact that Aaron hadn’t responded to any of my texts, according to the iMessage system, he read them but had chosen not to answer them. Maybe he was really done with me. I wasn’t OK with that, I know that his feelings were hurt but what did he expect to happen when he told me that he was going out with another woman? Did he expect me to throw a parade for him? “Do I need to change before we go?”
“No we should head right over there; they’re going to Chuck’s.” This was an encouraging sign, Chuck’s was famous for two things: brewing the best beer this side of the Mason/Dixon line and second for making the best chili dogs on the East Coast. Aaron had told me that he didn’t like it when girls got drunk with him and that he would never take a girl he was serious about to a bar for a date. “I’ll even treat you tonight, since you are going with me instead of out with Brandon like you were supposed to.”
I shot her a confused look; there had never been any plans with Brandon. Did she know something about my life that I didn’t? I supposed it was fair since I had been banging her brother behind her back. “I didn’t have any plans with Brandon; he hasn’t even bothered to contact me since Aaron’s homecoming party. It’s just as well though; I don’t think that he is the right guy for me.”
“He texted me and asked if I thought that he should surprise you tonight with a date. At first I said yes but then I thought about it and knew that I needed you to do some stalking with me, and told him that you had Black Yoga tonight. He acted like he had never heard of it before, maybe he is not so up to date about stuff after all.” Crap, if she found out that I lied, then the rest of it would come tumbling down. Then not only would Aaron not talk to me but I would lose Ella too. “I told him to Google it and quit being so obtuse. I swear some of these men need a lesson in what we do to keep our bodies looking so good for them.”
“Right? My ex never even noticed that I took spin classes to keep my butt in tip top shape for him, but he sure noticed my split ends right away,” We were in Ella’s car, speeding towards the bar. I didn’t want to be going to watch Aaron fall in love with some other woman, especially one who wasn’t able to hold her alcohol. It was one thing if things hadn’t worked out with him and I, and he eventually started dating someone else. It was another entirely for him to ignore my text messages and be going out with some woman that Ella thought he would be good with. That was like me eating candy from a stranger in a van. It just wasn’t something that one should do.
“Anyways what are you going to do if it doesn’t work out with Vicki and Aaron?”
Ella seemed to consider her answer, her eye brows furrowed in deep concentration. She swerved into another lane and finally thought that she had the answer, “Keep trying. He keeps sneaking off to be with some tramp, and I just can’t have some white trash woman getting her claws into him. I know I want him married but there has to be some kind of moral and societal decency.”
“That’s so judgmental Ella, I’m surprised at you. If he is in love with a girl or even if he just likes her, then you should accept that.” Yes it sounded defensive and I knew that if Ella knew that it was me he was sneaking off to be with, then she wouldn’t be saying such things, but her words still hurt me.
“Tam, think about it. This is the woman that he could end up spending the rest of his life with, and if I don’t save him from himself then we’ll end up with a branch of the tree that no one wants.” I found it hard to believe that I would not be able to see him, let alone spend the rest of my life with a man who couldn’t even respond to my text messages. “Aaron is crying out for me to help him find someone, just without the words or actually liking anyone that I set him up with.”
We pulled into the driveway of the bar, and my heart dropped to my feet. There was nothing that I could do now but hope that Vicki got drunk and embarrassed Aaron beyond belief. Then we could talk things out and he would apologize for ignoring me. “Ella, maybe he just doesn’t like the girls you choose for him. Have you actually ever asked him what type of woman he wants or likes?”
“No, of course not. Why would I do something ridiculous like that? I mean if I stopped and asked every person what they looked for in a partner, then I would never have anytime to set anyone up. I just pair up two people who I think would look good together and watch the sparks fly.”
This made so much sense to me that it almost hurt my head. Now that I understood the logic of how she paired people up, I also understood why her pairings almost never worked out. It was all physical based. “God Tam, it’s almost like you want me to fail at matchmaking.”
I closed my eyes and prayed that this night would end relatively soon and that I could get back to my normal life. The life that I had before all of the lying and secret keeping started. “El, let’s go inside I could use a beer or two and chili dogs are sounding really good right now.”
“Plus Aaron’s car is right there, which means that they are already in there. I hope that they are falling in love as we speak.” Every word out of her mouth was another dagger to my heart. I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that she didn’t know that Aaron and I had bonded, that we had been so close to something very special. “I know that she wants two kids, a boy and a girl. Aaron doesn’t want kids right now, I just don’t get that. I mean what kind of man doesn’t want to have a family?”
A smart one. One who wants to make sure that there is enough money in his bank account to be able to support a family. These were the thoughts that floated into my head; these were the words that I had to stuff back into my throat so that I didn’t give myself away to Ella, I didn’t want her to know that I had been with her brother. “Maybe he just wants to wait for the right woman to come along. I mean think about it, you wouldn’t want him to just jump into something would you?”
Aaron and Vicki were sitting at one of the tables that were set in the middle of the room. Ella looked over at them and smiled at what she saw. Her brother was grinning like an idiot, and Vicki’s chest seemed to be busting out of her shirt. It was disgusting that Aaron was eating this up like it was tomato soup. Ella broke me out of my thoughts, “You don’t seem like you’re happy about this. Tam, Aaron has finally met a girl that he likes. Look at the body language!”
The body language was all that I was looking at. It became clear to me that I was all but a forgotten memory to him. When the waitress came over, I ordered a beer with a shot of whiskey. I decided to get as drunk as Vicki should have been getting. I
t was the only way that I would be able to get through this night.
My drinks came and I did the shot quickly. Ella didn’t notice because she was too busy watching Aaron and Vicki, giving me the whole rundown of what was happening. I tuned her out and focused on the haze that was slowly creeping in, it was going to take me to a land where nothing bad happens until morning. Our food arrived; I picked up my chili dog and bit into it. There was alarm in Ella’s voice, “Vicki just went to the bar! Why in the world did she go to the bar? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe she just needs some ice or something.” Finally it felt like things might shift back to my way. To be honest I had thought about taking Vicki by the hand and leading her to the bar and pouring alcohol down her throat but since Aaron seemed to be done with me altogether, I figured he could wallow in his misery with her. As I watched her at the bar, I noticed that her head went back three times, as if she were taking shots like I had. “I’m guessing that she doesn’t need ice. I think that she is getting drunk, this is not going to end nicely.”
“I should warn her that Aaron doesn’t like his girlfriends to get drunk, sloppy drunk. I mean what if she blows this? Everything will come crashing down around me, him. I meant him.” Ella had this thing about everything revolving around her, and it was only going to get worse, I knew that. Once she was pregnant, all bets would be off.
She went to get up but I held on to her and pulled her back to her seat. “Tam, if I don’t warn her then she’s going to make a fool of herself.”
“You’ll also reveal that we followed them here, and it may make Aaron angry. He might not be able to enjoy his time with Vicki,” Damn the lies were coming way too easy for me. The truth was, I wanted her to get drunk as a skunk and make a fool of herself and Aaron. That way he would realize that he made a mistake writing me off so easily. “Be cool about this. If it gets too bad then we can ride to Aaron’s rescue.”
“You’re right. I just don’t know how to make this work for him if she messes it up.” There was so much worry in Ella’s voice that I was able to push my own feelings aside and truly concentrate on my friend.
I sucked in a deep breath and tried to find the right words to help her but Ella seemed to work it out herself, “You know what, I can’t control what happens. I have done my best to help my brother find true happiness and if Vicki isn’t the girl that makes him happy then I will find the one who is.”
“I’m here with a Navy Seal, and he is f—ing hot!” Vicki squealed as she climbed onto the bar and began to gyrate wildly. Everyone turned their attention to her, everyone except for Aaron and I. He slumped in his chair and all I could do was wish that I could run over to him and comfort him, save him.
Instead of doing that, I looked at Ella. She had a panic in her eyes that I had never seen before and I knew that I needed to save her more than I needed to save Aaron. I threw 2 $20’s on the table and grabbed my friend by the hand. As soon as we were outside of the bar we both started laughing uncontrollably. “OK so Aaron and Vicki weren’t my best match. I should have listened to you about them.”
It was all I needed to hear to have the smile put back on my face.
****
The knocking on my door was persistent. I had fallen asleep watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians and eating some rocky road ice cream. Even though I had been happy about Aaron’s date going bust, it made me even more depressed that he hadn’t text me.
When I stood up, the empty carton of ice cream fell to the floor. I didn’t bother to pick it up; I wanted to know who was bothering me at this ungodly hour. I glanced at the clock on the wall and it read 9:15 pm. I looked out the peep hole, to my surprise it was Aaron. I opened the door without a word he pulled me into his arms and planted a kiss on me. When we pulled away he looked at me and said, “I’m so sorry that I didn’t text you. I had hurt feelings because you said we were just casual but I realized that I never really told you how I felt about you. When I’m with you, my whole world is right. I cannot express how much I like you, how much I want to see where this thing between us goes.”
“I shouldn’t have said that we were just casual, but it was my stupid jealousy that got in the way.” He didn’t need to know that Ella had told me that she was setting him up with Drunky McGee. I wondered briefly if he would tell me about his date and how everything played out. I didn’t want to know but on the other hand I did. “Can we start over?”
“No.” My heat dropped to my feet. Hadn’t he just told me that he wanted to see where our relationship went? Now he was telling me that he wouldn’t see what happened with our relationship, we couldn’t start over. “I think we should just pick up right where we left off. Everything was going so well before Ella started messing in my life again.”
I opened my mouth to agree with him but he stopped me by giving me a crushing kiss. Even though I looked like a train wreck, I felt his manhood pressing against me and soon my clothes joined the forgotten ice cream carton on the floor. His clothes came off and he laid me gently on the couch.
His tongue explored all areas of my body, while I encouraged him with wails of pleasure and “Oh my God’s.” Every time he got one, he repeated his performance to make sure that every part of my body felt what he had to offer me.
Soon our bodies intertwined and became one. Everything felt so perfect and my body was beginning to react in a way that he wanted it too. His body was also coming to the conclusion of our sex, and as if by magic we finished together.
He held me in his arms for a while, telling me all about his date with Vicki and how she had done a strip tease on the bar. She hadn’t even noticed that he had left her. He kissed me again and then said, “As much as I would love to lay here with you in my arms I have to go before Ella starts to ask questions that I’m not ready to answer.”
Chapter8
The week had flown by in a haze.
Aaron and I had stolen a number of hours to be together but we had agreed that Saturday would be a real date, and then we recruited Eric to keep Ella busy. We had done so under the guise that we were working on a surprise party for Ella. He seemed skeptical but agreed that he needed to spend the weekend with her anyway.
“Coming to get you for our romantic date” popped up on my notifications as a text message from a number I did not have saved. Aaron must have another cell, I reasoned. Since we were trying to keep things on the down low until we found a way to break the news to Ella, neither of us wanted to let the cat out of the bag just yet.
I started getting ready for the date, wondering what I should wear. It was too bad that I couldn’t call my best friend to ask her what I should wear; it made me a little sad. There was a part of me that just wanted to come clean and tell her so that I could ask for her advice. My phone rang, and the caller ID read Ella. It was as if she knew that I needed her.
I answered, “Hey what’s up?”
“I’m done setting Aaron up with girls. He’s seeing someone and doesn’t think that I know about it. Its OK, I guess as long as he is happy then I’ll find a way to be happy for him. Now though I will focus all of my attention on finding you somebody.” Ella apparently didn’t believe in saying hello anymore, she just launched into her diatribe. The fact that she wanted to set me up with someone was bad, the fact that she knew that Aaron was seeing someone was even worse. How long would it take her to put two and two together?
“What are you up to tonight? I’m trying to decide on what to wear for my date night with Eric.”
“I have a date tonight too. I was just thinking about calling you but you ended up calling first.”
“Soul sisters!” Ella exclaimed and we discussed the various outfits that we wanted to wear. Ella decided on a red siren dress that showed off her perfect legs. I decided on a white dress that accented my skin perfectly and really made my teeth pop.
***
“What are you doing here?” I asked when Brandon knocked on my door. The horror must have been written across my face
because he seemed genuinely surprised by my reaction. His mouth pulled tightly into a frown and his face seemed to indicate that he was really upset with me not being happy to see him. “How did you know where I lived?”
“Oh, you know I just looked you up on the internet. It was not easy to find you but I was persistent and diligent about finding you. Didn’t you get the text that I sent you letting you know that I was coming to pick you up for our date?” Panic was setting in, not only was this guy a video game nerd but he was also clearly a stalker. I needed to find a way out of this but there didn’t seem to anything that I could do, unless Aaron showed up to save me. I picked up my phone, and sent him a quick message begging him to get to my apartment as soon as possible. “I have the perfect night planned for you.”
“Great.” I sighed. My phone didn’t vibrate and Aaron didn’t show up on a white horse like I had hoped that he would. Since my makeup and everything was already done, I couldn’t buy more time like that. I didn’t want to invite him into my apartment anyway. There was nothing I could do but leave with him, and have Aaron rescue me. I sent him another text explaining what I could in a few words about the situation.