by Karen Anne
I had just put the platter of meats and cheeses together when the doorbell rang. Feeling like a 1950s housewife, I wiped my hands on my apron and tucked away any stray hairs I had before answering the bell. I opened the door but couldn’t help but show my disappointment. In Harry’s arms was a picnic basket.
“Oh,” I said, sounding rather crestfallen. “I thought I made it clear I was making lunch today. You didn’t need to bring food.”
Harry laughed. “Hello to you to. I didn’t bring food, don’t worry.” I stepped aside so he could come in and closed the door behind him. “I brought a visitor.” Harry lifted the lid of the basket, and a little pink nose popped out.
“Beast!” I reached into the basket and pulled my kitten out, holding him close and feeling his little motor purr against my chest. “Oh! I’ve missed you!” I walked him over to the table where we kept the mail. “Look, I had made a basket of treats just for Harry to bring home to you.” I placed Beast on the table so he could sniff his new toys and snacks, knowing Summer would have a heart attack if she caught Beast on the oak table her mother had donated to the sorority house.
“I think he likes everything,” I said happily. I had never shopped for a cat before and probably went overboard.
“I usually just roll up some aluminum foil and toss it around the apartment. Don’t look so horrified, the little guy loves it.”
I laughed. “Shows how much I know about cats. Let me just get him settled in my room, and we can eat. There’s a cheese platter out on the kitchen table. Help yourself to a drink.” I scooped up Beast and his basket of treats and jogged up the stairs to my room. I made sure there was nothing tiny he might chew on and accidentally swallow before shutting the door and joining Harry in the kitchen. “Oh, I felt so bad closing the door. He started following me,” I explained to Harry. “After lunch I’ll bring him back down. I need to play with him and get more snuggles in.” Harry nodded in response.
“This is a great spread! Thanks, Kris.” Harry beamed a smile at me while helping himself to some provolone.
“It’s just a small thank you. I know I’ve been a lot to handle lately.”
“Are you serious?” He looked at me like I had six heads.
“Well, yeah. I’ve been moody and needy.”
“Your other half is an ocean away living a life that’s brand new and exciting while you’re waiting in the wings. I’d say you were justified in your actions.”
I smiled. “Anyway, I just wanted to show my appreciation and not give the impression that I only knocked on your door when I needed you.”
“Even if that were the case, I wouldn’t object.” He was looking at me intently, and I wondered how was this guy still alone. I didn’t have much time to ponder the question because there was a knock at the kitchen door.
“Expecting company?” Harry asked. But I wasn’t, and all the other sisters were out. That’s why I chose this afternoon to invite him over. I looked out the window and saw a flash of a red hat. It was Jaime. Opening the door, I let him in.
“Hey, Kris, what’s up?”
“Hey. Brit’s not here,” I said automatically.
“You know, I have other friends aside from Brit. Maybe I came by to see you.” I raised a brow skeptically. “I’m just kidding. I asked Brit if I could borrow her sleeping bag.”
“Oh, your fraternity finally kicked you out? Let me know if you need help making a cardboard sign.”
Jaime pinched my cheek, but I slapped his arm away. He turned to Harry, almost as if he was noticing him for the first time. “Isn’t she charming?”
Harry looked from Jaime back to me. “I’d say she has her shining moments.” He threw me a wink and rolled up a slice of salami.
Jaime pulled out a chair and took a seat— my seat. “This looks so good. Can I have some?”
“Sure,” Harry said while I simultaneously gave a firm no.
Jaime looked at me with his emerald eyes. “But I’m a growing boy, and I’m hungry.”
“That crap may work on Brit, but it doesn’t work on me. Go get what you came for and get out.”
“All right, all right,” Jaime muttered and got up but swiped a grilled chicken panini before exiting the kitchen.
“I’m sorry about that. Brit lets Jaime get away with murder, so he expects the same treatment from the other girls who live here.”
Harry drank his soda and wiped his mouth. “You guys have a nice dynamic.”
“What do you mean?”
“You really know how to push each other’s buttons. It’s annoying, but at the end of the day I bet you would do anything for each other.”
I sat down and made a plate for myself. “Maybe. I guess you’re right. I mean, he’s just like an annoying brother, but he’s harmless.”
Just then, Jaime returned, sleeping bag under one arm, Beast dangling from his gripped hands. “I heard him scratching behind your door. Can I keep him as a mascot?” Jaime lifted his arm and dropped the sleeping bag, then held the kitten up in the air like he was the freaking Lion King.
“No, I take it back,” I said, rescuing Beast from Jaime. “He’s just plain annoying.”
TWENTY
“Hey, Kris, can you do me a favor? Enzo needs to borrow my car today. He’s dropping me off at my hair appointment, but would you be able to pick me up?” Natalie asked as I reached for a water. I had just returned from a jog. The snow had finally melted, meaning I didn’t have to run on a treadmill anymore.
“Who’s Enzo?” I asked. Had I been out of the loop so long that Natalie snagged a guy in the process?
“Oh, just a friend…” Her voice drifted off, and a smile curled across her face. Sure, he was just a friend.
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m going out anyway to get the St. Patrick’s Day decorations for our mixer. What time were you thinking?”
“How’s three-thirty?”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll be there.”
The party store was in the same town as the hair salon, so I was ten minutes early when I went in there to pick-up Natalie. She was in the chair getting her hair blown out. Her head was down, engrossed in some gossip column. Natalie had a thing for any celebrity trash. She truly was a Drama Queen. I walked over to her and poked her gently in the arm. Natalie’s head snapped up, and she slammed the magazine shut, placing a hand over her heart.
“You startled me,” she said a tad breathless.
“Sorry, hard to make my presence known with the hairdryer in your ear,” I said loud enough so she could hear me. “Hey, I’m going to go next door and get a coffee. Would you like one?”
“Uh, sure. A latte would be great.” Her cheeks were pink, and her big eyes looked nervous. “Thanks.” She forced a smile, her red lipstick wide across her face.
“You okay?”
“Mm-hmm. I’m fine.” Dismissing it as nothing, I went into the Starbucks next door and got a latte for Nat and a double espresso over ice for me. I contemplated a sweet treat but didn’t want to negate the run I had put in this morning. While waiting for the coffee, I ran into Beaver.
“Hey, Beave! What’s up?” He was sitting at a table studying. He looked up from his textbook and offered me a warm smile.
“Kristen!” he said, sounding surprised. “I didn’t expect to see you out and about.”
I laughed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
He looked like he was deciding what to say, but instead shook his head. “No… I just thought you were home. Anyway, looking forward to the mixer this weekend. You girls always do a great job.”
“Thanks. Jaime knows he’s in charge of the green beer, right?”
“Yeah, he’s on top of it, no need to worry over that. If you need us to do anything else, just feel free to ask.”
I nodded, wondering where this sudden bout of generosity stemmed from.
“Double espresso over ice and a grande latte for Kristen,” the barista said loudly.
“Oh, that’s me. I’ll catch you later, okay?” I sm
iled at Beaver and grabbed the drinks.
“Yeah, but seriously, if you need anything, just know all the guys in ZDP are here for you.”
Having literally no response to that, I simply blinked back at him and mouthed the word okay before pressing my back against the door to open it.
“That was so weird,” I said to Natalie as I handed her the warm cup. She had finished paying and was putting on her jacket.
“What was weird?”
“Beaver was in Starbucks. He seemed, I don’t know… concerned about me, I guess.”
“Oh, well, Beaver is sweet. He probably just wanted to check in.”
“Yeah, I don’t know. It was weird.” We walked out to my car and got inside, driving home chatting about the mixer and what games we should play. I pulled up in front of our house, but as soon as I switched gears from drive to park, Natalie put her hand over mine.
“Have you spoken to David today?”
“We texted our usual messages when we each woke up, but that’s all.”
“Did he mention anything out of the ordinary?”
Something was up. I could sense it. “Natalie, what’s going on? You were jumpy back at the salon, and then Beaver looked like he wanted to pull me into a hug. What does everyone know that I don’t?”
Her gaze dropped to her hands. “I honestly don’t know why Beaver was acting that way, but I have an inkling as to what could have triggered it.” She swallowed as if to gather her courage. “I saw something today, and I think you really need to know.”
I felt funny. She asked me if I had spoken to David. And Beaver said all the frat guys were here for me if I needed them. Was David hurt? Did something happen and they all knew? Maybe he was on the news over some tragic accident. My mind raced with a thousand different possibilities. None of them good. “What is it?” I asked softly, afraid to know.
“A picture of David…” Her voice trailed off, and for a split second, I was relieved. He was safe. Then the anxious flutter returned in my belly. So they had published it after all. I took a deep breath. I realized she must have been reading the magazine when I walked in. That explained her jumpiness and Beaver’s concern. I guessed everyone was on suicide watch.
“Was he kissing another girl?” I asked, sounding more confident and self-assured than I thought I was capable of.
“So you know?” Natalie said with a genuine look of surprise.
“Yeah, David told me last month. It was a publicity stunt, that’s all. He’s doing a duet with that singer. Her name is Danielle. Danny Blue, I think, is her stage name.”
Natalie fluffed one of her freshly blown out cinnamon red curls, shaking her head in surprise. “Wow! Kris, you are a stronger woman than I am. If I saw Enzo in a picture like this, I’d freak out—and we’re only talking, not dating.” She pulled the issue of Rocker! out of her bag and flipped the pages until she found the image, then turned it, forcing me to face reality. “I mean, the image was so hot! It seriously looked like they had crazy chemistry. I had no idea David was such a good actor.” She wasn’t being sarcastic, she was actually, in her own twisted way, trying to pay him a compliment.
As soon as I laid eyes on the one image I didn’t want to see, I understood her words. With shaky fingers, I took the magazine out of her hands and faced my fear.
David was on a stool, ripped jeans and leather vest as he had told me. The vest was open, showing his beautiful chest and strong tattooed arms in full display. One of those arms was bent, his hand pressed firmly against Danny’s thigh. Her knee was resting between his legs on the stool, her hand was on the side of his neck, conveniently hiding my lip marks, her fingers just grazing his ear. Their eyes were both delicately closed, their lips crushed against one another in a clear moment of passion.
This was not the picture David had described. The picture he had described was chaste and friendly. A peck. That’s what he had referred to it as… a peck. No this… this looked like it required a few takes. The other pictures were almost harmless. One had them both on their own stool with guitars, and they were laughing together. Another had Danny at the mic and David with his head down, playing his guitar to accompany her. The last one had Danny behind David, her arms draped over his chest, her hands inside his vest, getting a feel of his bare skin. David’s head was down in submission, but Danny’s eyes were peering out at the reader. She looked like a snake about to strike.
“Kris?” Natalie’s voice was timid as she realized that although I knew about the pictures, this was the first time I was viewing them. “Like you said, it’s all an act.”
The tears threatened, and before I could respond, I was out of the car and taking the stairs to the house two at a time. I didn’t slow down until I was in my room with the door shut. I sat at the edge of my bed and read the article, waiting for the part that said David Archer was in a serious relationship with Kristin Forte. But instead, the words by the writer only dug the knife deeper into my heart.
Two stars to watch out for this year are David Archer and Danny Blue. Although the two have very different styles, it would appear that opposites attract. When the two sexy singers appeared for this interview not only did we get a glimpse of their duet “Tangled Lies,” but the attraction was clear as they naturally interacted with each other on screen and off.
My emotions went from zero to sixty in about two seconds. I pulled out my phone and dialed David to FaceTime. I needed to see his eyes and know what the truth was. I didn’t fully expect him to answer, but he did.
“Hey, kitten!” David said cheerfully, but when he saw my face and the tears sliding down my cheeks, he knew I had seen. I watched as he swallowed hard and squirmed in his chair.
“You said it was innocent.” My words were spoken through gritted teeth.
“It was, I swear!”
“Tell me! What is innocent about this?” I held up the magazine so he could see for himself. “You look quite comfortable with your hand on her thigh and your tongue in her mouth.”
“My tongue was not in her mouth, Kris.”
“Not at that moment, but I’m sure you know what it’s like.”
“Kris, this is why I told you.” He was speaking gently, like I was a bomb he was trying to diffuse. “I prepared you for this. You can’t attack me now that it’s out in the wild.”
“Excuse me? Prepared me? You prepared me for an innocent virginal peck. A fish kiss. This is not innocent, David. How come everyone can see it but you?”
“Who’s everyone? Your sisters? Come on, Kris, we’re stronger than this gossip.”
I looked at the image again, how easily he was defending this betrayal of our relationship. In the short time he had been away, he had tried to keep Danny a secret, down played a kiss, and been too busy to even see how the most important audition of my life went. It was just the beginning. I realized now it would only get worse. There would be tours and more recordings. Fans and a million other Danny’s trying to wrap their claws around him. I wasn’t strong enough for that life. I couldn’t just smile while I waited on the sidelines. And David was too wrapped up in his new fame to resist the temptation that was brought with it.
“This isn’t working,” I said softly as I realized the truth.
“Baby, I know it was hard to see, but it was just an act. I told you this.”
“David, you allowed this image to be published. You knew it would crush me, and you still went through with it. This picture will not sell your records. If you only believed in yourself the way I’ve believed in you all these years you would see that.”
David leaned back in his chair, his face crestfallen. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I think we need to realize that this thing is bigger than both of us.”
David turned pale. “Kris, I know you’re mad…”
“Mad? I’m not mad, David. I’m completely shattered. All I ever wanted was for your dreams to come true. All I ever wanted was for you to record your songs and sing on a real stage and tour a
nd have everything you always wanted. But you’ve forgotten who you are. And you’ve forgotten me and my feelings. And I can’t feel this hurt anymore. I can’t be afraid to turn on the TV or read a magazine or scroll through my Facebook page and see some scandal you’re involved in.”
“This isn’t a scandal!” David roared as he punched the desk. “Fuck!” He rubbed his eyes and shook his head before trying to talk himself out of the picture that was destined to haunt us. “Love, I know you’re hurt, but if you were there you would have seen it was just a picture.”
“What if it were me?” I demanded, my anger starting to rise as he refused to take responsibility for his actions. “What if I were the one lying about a male roommate, and then posing for pictures where I was all tangled up with the same guy? David, what if I was the one in that picture? Lips against another man, hands on his body. How would you feel?”
He was quiet. His gaze dropped to his hands as he allowed my words to sink in. “It would probably kill me. I’m sorry, I didn’t think…”
“That’s just it. You stopped thinking about us the day you signed your name.” The tears were back, glazing over my eyes, my hurt present for him to see.
“Kitten, please…” His voice cracked as he realized what was happening. David raised his gaze and looked at me, his hazel eyes pleading as they glazed over with his own tears. “I can’t do this without you.”
“But you have, David. You’ve done it all without me.” Saying that out loud was daunting. It wasn’t just the miles that separated us, it was our choices. “Let’s not drag this out longer than we have to. You’ve made choices, well, now I’m making one.”
David’s eyes widened in horror. I wanted him to tell me I was crazy, that it was all in my head. That I was overreacting.
But instead, he just looked out through the screen like he could see right through me. And knowing he wasn’t going to fight for me hurt more than that damn picture.