I smiled when I saw Gina start to eat her salad. Some things never change. She always ordered her salad dressing on the side and dipped her fork into the dressing and then stabbed the lettuce. She said you didn’t use as much salad dressing that way. Me, I’d pour the whole cup over the salad and then mixed it with my fork.
I leaned over to Gina. “Still take the dressing on the side, eh?”
Gina smiled. “There are some things that never change.”
And she dipped her fork into the dressing and stabbed a cherry tomato. I watched as she bit the cherry tomato and sucked it before taking it in her mouth.
Christ. Watching her eat gave me a hard-on. God, I had it bad for this woman.
****
Gina
I was a little nervous when Mike pulled out the chair for me. I mean, it wasn’t like we were a couple or anything. But I guess pulling out the chair doesn’t mean we are a couple, I just wouldn’t want anyone to think we were. I know I’m not making sense, but that’s what he does to me. I get flustered.
I can stand in front of a jury and judge and be confident and cool and commanding. But when it comes to Mike, just being next to him makes me wobbly and weak in the knees. And horny as hell. No guy has ever made me feel the way he does. It’s like my insides are being tickled.
“So, Gina,” Jeremy said. “Sue tells us you’re one hell of a prosecutor.”
I looked at Sue. “I guess I’m not bad.”
“Not bad,” said Sue, her voice rising. “Gina’s being modest. She’s one of the best there is. And she’s also going to make the best mommy.”
I glared at Sue. She still blabs when she drinks.
Sue put her hand to her lips. “Oops! I wasn’t supposed to say that.”
“Do you have something to tell us?” Jeremy asked. “Does this call for a toast?”
“No,” I said. “I think what Sue meant was that I would like a child. I’m exploring options.”
“Like adoption?” Teresa asked.
“Perhaps.”
“Artificial insemination?” Teresa asked.
“Teresa,” Jeremy said. “I don’t think Gina wants to talk about it.”
“It’s OK. Really. I’ve always wanted to be a mother so, you know, I might just do it a different way than you all have.”
I didn’t even want to look at Mike. My face felt hot so I knew it was probably fire-engine red. I wondered what he was thinking. He had a son. He got to be the dad he always wanted to be. In a way, I guess that made me mad. Stupid, I know. But that’s how I felt.
Sue changed the topic before it went any further. “Hey, did you hear about the new wing they’re building onto the high school? I can’t believe how this area has grown.”
“Yeah,” said Tom, trying to keep the conversation going and away from me and baby talk. “And our taxes keep going up. Unlike some school districts, we have very little industry to support us.”
Thank God the school expansion became the topic of conversation. I excused myself and went to the bathroom. My face felt like it was on fire and I needed to splash some cool water on my cheeks.
I was standing at the sink when Sue walked in. “Me and my big mouth. I’m sorry, Gina. It just came out.”
“Don’t worry about it. It was bound to sooner or later. I just wish it had been later after I was pregnant. What if it doesn’t take?”
Sue hugged me. “It will. You just have to believe. And you’ll be the best mommy ever.”
****
Mike
I choked on my steak when Sue spit out the news about Gina having a baby. It didn’t surprise me that Gina wanted a baby. She always wanted kids. And Gina wasn’t the type of girl who’d let not being married stop her from becoming a mother. When Gina made up her mind to do something, she usually did it. But I wondered about the whole sperm thing. Like how it all worked. Did she get to pick the sperm? Or did she get what she got? I made a mental note to research the process online. I had never thought about it before, but now I was curious.
When we were in high school, we talked about what we thought our lives would be like. If things would have rolled the way we both had planned, our kids would be in junior high by now. I couldn’t imagine having a newborn at my age. When Lisa and I split, I figured that Jack would be my only kid. He’s a great kid and all that I’ve ever wanted so I’m cool with that. I had thought about having a vasectomy, especially after someone I hooked up with for a while thought she was pregnant. I was so relieved that it turned out to be a false alarm. She broke it off soon afterward. Guess she figured that if she ended up pregnant, she didn’t want it to be to me. I was fine with that. It wasn’t like the sex was great anyway. We were both just lonely.
When Gina and Sue returned from the bathroom, Gina’s face didn’t look as red.
“Everything OK?” Tom asked.
The girls nodded.
“Here comes dessert,” Jeremy said. “And it looks delicious.”
The waitress set a plate of bananas foster in front of each of us.
Sue licked her lips. “One of my favorites.”
“I don’t even want to know how many calories are in this,” Gina said.
“You look great,” Tom said. “A little bit of ice cream, brown sugar, butter, rum and banana liqueur won’t hurt you at all.”
“It really has all that in it?” Gina asked.
Sue waved her hand. “Oh, who cares? This is one night when we’re not going to worry about our figures. Eat up, girlfriend.”
“Do you remember the time, Mike,” Jeremy laughed, “that you put a banana down your pants and walked up to the Palma-nator. It looked like you had one hell of a hard-on.”
Everyone laughed.
I nodded. “It was one of my finer moments. Especially when she suggested that I should perhaps go to the bathroom and I reached down and pulled out the banana, peeled it and took a bite.”
“Then she sent you to the principal’s office,” Gina said. “I remember that because you were grounded and we couldn’t go out.”
Gina bit her bottom lip. I had forgotten that quirk of hers and how sexy I thought she looked when she did it. I asked her about it once and she had no idea what I was talking about. She never realized that she did it.
For a few minutes, it seemed like old times. Like we were back in high school, just kids flexing our muscles and ready to take on the world. Not nearly 40-year-olds with mortgages and a slew of bills that come faster than the income to pay them. How does it happen? One day you look in the mirror and you’re a pimply-faced teen with braces and the next day you’re an adult with gray hair, wrinkles and a crown or two. It’s a bitch getting older. My back tells me that every day. I know that I’m not as young as I used to be, but I don’t feel old. I still feel like that pimply 17-year-old who couldn’t put a condom on gracefully if it killed me. Thank God I had Gina. She took care of that.
Chapter 11
Gina
“While you’re finishing your dessert, we have some prizes we’d like to give out,” Lynn announced. “The first one goes to the classmate with the oldest child. And the winner is Karen Hollinger.”
Woots and applause echoed throughout the ballroom. “It just so happens,” Cookie continued, “that Karen also has the youngest child, a 14-month-old. So this prize is for both.”
Karen walked up to get the black bag with orange tissue paper peeking out of the top.
“And the award for the most kids goes to Keith Oberlander. Keith has five kids, two sets of twin girls and a boy.”
The crowd roared.
“I can’t imagine five kids,” Sue said. “I couldn’t handle five Chloes!”
“The next award,” Lynn said, “Goes to the classmate who traveled the farthest. And it goes to Gina McKenzie.”
Jeremy started pumping his arms. “Woot! Woot! Woot! Woot!”
I bowed my head, trying to avoid the stares. “This is sooo embarrassing.”
“Go get your bag,” Sue said. “May
be there’s something good in it. Like a chocolate bar or something.”
I pushed out my chair and walked up and got the bag from Lynn.
Lynn gave out some more prizes and then the DJ started playing songs.
First up was Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”
“Come on, Gina,” Sue said. “Let’s dance.”
I shook my head. “Not me. I haven’t danced in years.”
“You two always had the moves in high school,” Jeremy said. “I’m sure you still got them. Teresa will come with you.”
Teresa elbowed him in his side.
“Yeah,” Mike said. “We’ll watch.”
I looked at Teresa.“I’ll come if Teresa will.”
Teresa waved her hand. “I can’t dance.”
“Sure you can,” Jeremy said. “You dance at home.”
“That’s different.”
“True, there’s no pole here,” Jeremy teased. “And you guys should see what she can do with a pole.”
Teresa hit him again and the guys laughed.
Sue came over and pulled me up off my chair and then walked over to Teresa and pulled her off her chair. We took off for the crowded dance floor and shuffled into the sea of people.
I leaned over to Teresa. “Do you really have a pole?”
She nodded. “It’s in our bedroom. I use it to exercise, although I have to admit that exercising on the pole usually ends with us exercising on the floor.”
I laughed. One guy I dated wanted me to pole dance. I opted for a chair. It was a little easier. I watched Sue as she took command of her space. Sue was always more confident on the dance floor than I was and twenty years hadn’t made any difference. Like Jeremy said, she still had the moves.
“Loosen up, girls,” Sue yelled to Teresa and me. Her arms flew every which way. “Close your eyes and feel the music.”
I tried closing my eyes, but it just made me dizzy. Thank God the song ended and I made a beeline for the table. Sue and Teresa stayed on the dance floor for the next song.
****
Mike
“Man, guys,” Jeremy said. “Are Sue and Gina still hot or what?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Hot. Very hot. But you’re a lucky guy. Teresa’s hot and she pole dances.”
Jeremy smiled. “Yeah, and it makes me want to fuck her hard every time.”
Jeremy looked at Tom. “What about you, Tom? You and Sue would make a good couple. You ought to ask her out. She’s not seeing anyone.”
“I’d like to, but not sure she’d go out with me.”
“Won’t know if you don’t ask,” Jeremy said. “And you, Mike. You’ve been pining after Gina for twenty years. Christ, you finally end up sitting next to her. If you don’t ask her out I’m going to nail you. This is the chance you’ve been waiting for.”
Jeremy was right. I never shook Gina. She was like a tattoo that you can never totally get rid up. The memories might fade and the lines might blur, but my love for her was inked in my soul forever.
Sometimes, I wonder if my memories of Gina and me are too good, if I’m remembering things how I want to remember them, and not how they really were.
I looked toward the dance floor. From the way Sue’s body twisted, she looked like she was having a great time. Gina and Teresa? Not so much so. It didn’t surprise me that when the music stopped Gina sprinted back to the table.
“Back so soon?” Tom asked.
“I’m too old to move like that.”
“You looked like you were moving just fine,” Tom said.
“I agree. You held your own out there.”
Gina looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Thanks.”
When I heard the first few chords of the next song, a lump formed in my throat. It was Willie Nelson’s “You Were Always on my Mind.” The song came out in the spring of our senior year and, while country wasn’t my thing, Gina loved this song. We always slow danced to it.
I glanced over at Gina and her head was bent down. I wondered if she wanted to dance and if I should ask her. My palms felt sweaty. Jeremy went to the dance floor to get Teresa and Tom stood, ready to ask Sue to dance when she returned to the table.
****
Gina
Damn, I love this Willie Nelson song. When we were in high school, I always made Mike dance to this song, even though he hated country. I wondered if he remembered. I didn’t want to look at him so I looked down at the table. It’s weird how you hear a song that speaks to you at that moment. Sort of like being in church and feeling like the pastor’s sermon is just for you.
I felt Mike lean over.
“Would you like to dance?” he asked.
I looked into his dark eyes, and I’m not sure what came over me. Maybe it was the booze or the sweet memories that flooded my mind and filled me with a desire I hadn’t felt in years. But I nodded. I wanted to dance.
Mike pulled out my chair and followed me to the dance floor. So many nights I dreamed about being in his arms once again, and here I was. I went to put my hands on his shoulders and pulled them back. I think he could sense I was nervous. He reached down and took my hands and placed them on his shoulders, never taking his eyes off of mine. Then he put his hands on my hips. Still looking into my eyes. I jumped slightly and a smile slid onto his face. Back in the day, my head would have rested on his broad shoulder and his arms would have been wrapped tightly around me.
I smelled his familiar, earthy aftershave. I picked up my foot and stepped on his. “Sorry,” I whispered. “Out of practice.”
We started to move and I felt the cold fortress I had built to protect myself over the years beginning to melt. It was as if Mike was the sun and I was the earth during the hottest part of the day. Until that moment, I never realized how craved I had been for his touch, how much I longed to bathe in his rays. I didn’t want this sun to set – ever. But I knew that the darkness would come – it always does.
I caught Sue and Tom dancing out of the corner of my eye. They seemed to be getting along. Jeremy and Teresa were in front of us. They danced so closely that it was almost obscene. I was glad I wasn’t that close to Mike because I’m sure he would have felt my pounding heart. It had been beating on overdrive since he leaned over and asked me to dance. I couldn’t believe he still made me feel this way, and I realized that part of the reason I never found anyone is that I had always compared them to Mike. No one ever made me feel the way he had.
I know I was only seventeen, and I’ve asked myself time and again how someone so young could love so deeply. But I did. And because I did, I broke it off. I loved Mike too much to hurt him and not give him what he needed. And, at that time, I was too broken to do that. It would take years of therapy before I would be able to overcome that.
When the song ended, the DJ played another slow song.
“Wanna stay out here?” Mike asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m game if you are, unless you want to dance with someone else.”
The song was Foreigner’s “I’ve Been Waiting for a Girl Like You.”
Oh, great. Another perfect song moment.
****
Mike
When Foreigner came on, I thought, “Oh Christ. This song says exactly how I feel.” Creepy how that happens. Only I’ve been waiting for Gina to come back into my life. As we danced, Gina’s hair caught the ballroom lights in such a way that it looked like dancing fireflies. So beautiful.
I started to get a pain in my crotch. A grown man getting a hard-on while dancing. God, I’m pitiful. Reminded me of the time in junior high I slow danced for the first time and felt my cock pop. This girl and I were dancing so close that I’m pretty sure she felt it, too. I saw her and her friends giggling afterward so I was pretty sure she had told them. I didn’t dance the rest of the night.
I’m sure not having sex for a while wasn’t helping things now. The last time was probably a year ago and I came so fast the woman called me “Minute Man.” She was pissed, and I think it was the last time w
e hooked up.
I was glad when the song ended and the tempo picked up with John Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane.”
We were the last ones to get back to the table. After I sat down, I reached under the tablecloth and repositioned my penis through my pants. I felt like such a kid.
“Who’s ready for another round?” Tom asked.
I stood. “I’ll come with you. Gina, want another glass of wine?”
She shook her head. “This time, a Miller Lite.”
The guys headed to the bar and Teresa excused herself to go to the rest room.
****
Gina
Sue shook her hands. “Oh. My. God. Tom is such a good dancer.
I smiled. “You guys looked great. So, are you going to go out with him?”
“He hasn’t asked me out.”
“Yet,” I said.
“Did he say anything else about me when you talked?” Sue asked.
“No, most of our conversation was actually about the rape.”
Sue’s eyes popped. “What? Tom knew what that bastard did and didn’t tell anyone?”
“Calm down,” I whispered and quickly explained to Sue about what happened that night between Tom and Smith after I left.
“So that’s how Coach Smith got the black eye?” Sue asked.
I nodded.
“I remember we teased him in class about his wife giving it to him,” Sue said.”Turns out it was Tom.”
“Yeah, Tom said he nailed him good. Said he told Smith that if he ever laid another hand on me, he would kill him.”
Sue’s eyes flicked up and down. “Oh. I’m liking Tom more and more. Manly man.”
Gina & Mike (The Yearbook Series Book 1) Page 10