While I was busy studying Shelley studying Noah, he was busy explaining to his realtor that he was no longer interested in buying my house and would be retracting his offer. It didn’t take long for her to accept the situation and leave the house in a huff. Shelley, however, remained behind inexplicably, only prolonging the awkward situation we were already enduring for longer than we liked.
“So, I guess it’s back to the drawing board then Lucky,” she said clapping her hands together to show her motivation.
I shook my head.
“Oh, that won’t be necessary. I’ve decided not to sell the house after all.”
“But Lucky, are you sure that’s really the best thing? I mean, how are you going to manage this place all the way from Idaho?” Her eyes bored into me as though she was willing me to confirm that I was in fact planning on heading back to the potato state while she purposely arched her back and pushed up her chest just in case her double D’s had gone unnoticed until then. At the same time, I felt Noah’s eyes resting on me just as intensely as Shelley’s were while he waited to hear my answer as well. We hadn’t ever gotten around to officially settling the matter the night before.
“I’m not going to be living in Idaho. I’m moving back here, into this house.”
Disappointment shattered Shelley’s hopeful expression.
“Are you sure?”
I felt Noah’s hand reach out for mine as I nodded, “I’m sure.”
Seeing no reason to stick around after being rejected by both Noah and myself, Shelley turned and left the kitchen without saying much else. The second we heard the front door shut behind her, I flung my arms around Noah’s neck and kissed him. It didn’t take long for his pants to hit the floor again, followed up by the shirt I had been wearing.
When we finally came up for air again it was almost eleven o’clock already. The rumbling of my stomach broke the comfortable silence that had settled around us.
“Sounds like someone’s hungry,” said Noah.
“Can you blame me? I haven’t been this physically active in…in…well, maybe ever! I’m freaking starving!” I placed both hands over my tummy as it released a muffled wail of hunger.
Noah laughed out loud.
“We better do something about that before whatever is in there comes out and attacks us.” He pointed at my stomach still chuckling. Then he stood up and reached down to help me to my feet as well.
I watched as he gathered his clothes from the ground and began to get dressed. He was almost fully clothed when he noticed that I was still standing there completely lost in thought and staring blankly in his direction.
“Enjoying the show?” he asked grinning. “You know, it’s usually better when the clothes are going off instead of on.”
I playfully shoved him in the chest, laughing in spite of myself.
“You’re an idiot,” I muttered as he turned serious and pulled me back in to brush my lips with his. It wasn’t long before my stomach groaned again and Noah released me.
“Okay, we seriously need to get you some food. Those tummy terrors of yours are starting to scare me.”
“I’m all for that! There’s just one problem,” I said, still standing in front of him completely naked.
“What’s that?” he asked as he finished buttoning up his shirt. He was nearly all the way to the top when he struggled to find the next button. It wasn’t until he looked down and remembered the ripping incident resulting in the loss of three buttons that he gave up and left the rest of his shirt undone. A sly smile had come to rest on his mouth, no doubt due to the recent trip down ‘sex memory lane’. It only increased as his eyes traveled back to me and more dirty thoughts ensued.
As tempted as I was to engage them, images of pancakes and strawberry milkshakes had started to multiply in my mind, compliments of my hunger and so finding sustenance would have to take priority just this once.
“You can’t tell what the problem is? You haven’t noticed one teensy tiny difference between the two of us?”
He shrugged, “Just the part where you’re still naked, but I would hardly classify that as a problem.” I could literally hear his horny thoughts as they dragged my body through the gutter doing God knows what to it. Feeling myself turning red, I quickly looked away pretending to search for my clothes. Only thing was, they were nowhere in sight.
“I’m serious. Where are my clothes?” I asked, trying to bring him back on course.
“In times like these I find it’s best to retrace ones steps,” he said oozing with a faux sense of wisdom.
We both stopped momentarily and thought back. Then, simultaneously, we remembered. Both pointing toward the front of the house we said, “The foyer.”
We spent the next fifteen minutes on a treasure hunt of sorts as we searched the entire house for my remaining articles of clothing. My bra had been the hardest to locate. I had almost given up on it all together and prepared to just go without when Noah finally caught sight of it dangling from the shower head in the back bathroom. I won’t even go into how it wound up there…
Then, at last, we were ready to go and get some breakfast.
Chapter 3
Idaho? No…you da ho.
When it came to breakfast, the choice was obvious. There was only one diner for us and I didn’t even care that it would take a thirty minute drive to get there. The smell alone in that place would be worth it. Not wanting to deal with finding a parking spot downtown with lunch quickly approaching, Noah pulled his car into the nearly deserted parking lot of D.’s nightclub where he worked. From there it was just a few minutes on foot. Or at least, it would have been, if we hadn’t stopped five times for spontaneous make out sessions along the way.
Noah held the door open for me and I walked in, ducking my head as I went under his stretched out arm. He had made the gesture for me countless times over the years, but somehow it meant more now than it ever had before. We weren’t just two pals walking into the same diner we had walked into a thousand times before over the past seven years, we were a unit now. I was his. He was mine. I knew the moment the thoughts crossed my mind that I would have to say them out loud to myself later on in a more private setting, like alone in front of the bathroom mirror where I could look myself in the eyes while I said it. Maybe that way I would truly believe it.
Terry was just walking out of the kitchen when she spotted me and Noah. I wondered if she would notice that something was different about us. Then when Noah took my hand, intertwining our fingers as he did so, I figured there was nothing left to wonder about. I glanced down at our hands, smiling to myself and then looked up to greet the woman who had been our waitress since the first time we had walked into this place. Terry didn’t say a word as she grabbed two menus and turned to walk toward the back booths and our regular table. Automatically, we fell into step behind her. It wasn’t until we were away from the growing lunch crowd that I heard her say, “Took you two long enough.” Then she turned back and winked at us before setting the menus down on our table and taking off to grab us a couple of drinks. Noah and I both slid in at opposite ends of the crescent shaped booth the way we always had. Only this time, we kept scooting across the vinyl seats until we met again in the middle.
It wasn’t long before Terry showed up again with two sweet teas and a basket of fresh biscuits, along with some of their special honey butter.
“Here we go,” Terry said as set everything down on the table. “You kids know what you’re having yet?”
Noah looked over at me still up to my nose in the menu.
“Find anything in there you haven’t tried before?” he asked sarcastically.
I put the menu down triumphantly.
“As a matter of fact I have. Terry, I would love to try your Chocolate French Toast please.”
Noah raised his eye brows, clearly impressed with the new addition to the menu. When Terry turned to him, he reached for his closed menu and said, “Uh, maybe I better scan this just to be sure. Where di
d you find that chocolate French toast?”
I grinned and pointed to the back page.
There was an entirely new selection of French toast and pancake flavors, coming to a total of eleven new reasons to come by the diner more often. Noah quickly decided on the banana nut pancakes and handed Terry the menu. The moment he did, she flew back to the kitchen to put in our order. She had watched me inhale all of the biscuits in record time and had likely concluded it would be best to keep the food coming.
I had moved on to guzzling down my sweet tea when Noah suddenly asked, “So, this guy you mentioned in Idaho, how serious was that?”
The straw was still dangling from my lips when I replied, “What guy in Idaho?”
He looked at me probingly. Then, as the realization hit him, he slowly leaned into the back of his seat and said, “There was no guy in Idaho. You just made him up!”
I shrugged my shoulders and took another sip of tea.
“Yup. Sure did.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know…maybe I felt like I needed to just to be able to keep up with you and the merry go round of women you’re always riding.” I giggled at my own joke and watched as Noah rubbed his lip with his two fingers. He always did that when he was trying to hide something. My guess, this particular time, it was a smile he didn’t want me to have the satisfaction of seeing.
“I’m being serious. I was busy pouring my heart out to you and you made up some douchebag named Josh who doesn’t even exist?”
“For the record, Josh is in fact real and I think it’s also worth mentioning that to the best of my knowledge he is not a douchebag…our relationship however was fake. Partially due to the fact that I was way too strung out on you to even think about any other guy and partially due to the fact that Josh is gay.” This newfound information seemed to appease Noah somewhat. I had a hunch it was the bit about me being super strung out on him that had him feeling particularly warm and fuzzy at that moment. I’m sure it also didn’t hurt that the guy I used as my decoy boy toy had a boy toy of his very own.
Nevertheless, I felt like I owed him an explanation. After all, honesty had always been our policy. Even when the truth wasn’t all that attractive and included a string of big boobed blondes named Stacie, or Bambi…or Candy, or – oh who am I kidding, this could go on for days – you get the point.
“Truthfully, the whole Josh thing just sort of flew out of my mouth before I could stop it. You were saying all this stuff and basically scaring the shit out of me. I panicked.”
Noah straightened himself up again and turned toward me as best as he could while sitting in the booth next to me.
“Okay, you have some severe commitment issues and I think it’s time we address them. You can’t just bolt or make up a guy every time you get freaked out. This is real now. You and me, we’re doing this and I’m not about to let you screw it up!”
I almost choked on my sweet tea.
“I’m the one with commitment issues?! Are you for real?”
“Yes!” Noah nodded in addition to the already overly exaggerated expression on his face. Then he went on, “I can’t believe you’re not owning up to it. You have to be aware of this.”
I shook my head, outraged by his accusations.
“What are you basing this on?” My straw nearly came flying out of my glass from the speed at which I yanked my mouth away from it. I casually tried to slide it back down into the ice as though it hadn’t just sent a slew of droplets zooming at Noah’s face. He in turn gave me a rather dirty look, which at that point could have just as easily been due to the ice tea shower as it could have been caused by my complete and utter denial.
“Well, let’s see. You haven’t had an actual relationship with a guy in years. And before you get started on blaming Andrew, don’t bother. Remember, I know all about what happened between the two of you and I get it. You were scared, but you’ve had ample time to recover and mend your broken heart. Plus, it doesn’t really account for the fact that in the six years that I’ve lived with you, you’ve painted the living room eight different times, in colors ranging from a mustard yellow to a bright violet. Or the fact that you trade in your car every chance you get, usually blaming it on something as stupid as needing new tires on the old one. And let’s not forget that you have at least five half- finished books flying around your bedroom at any given moment and you change cell phone carriers more often than most people change their underwear.”
I made a face.
“Ew, at some point we need to talk about the people you hang out with then.”
Noah scowled at me and declined to respond.
“Okay fine, I have commitment issues! But what about you?” I demanded.
He just shrugged.
“I’ve had the same cell phone carrier for years.”
I slugged him in the shoulder just as Terry was on her way back to our table with a tray full of food. She set it down on a table nearby and gave us a disapproving look.
“You two kids fighting already? Noah, you’re not giving your girl a hard time are you?” she asked placing both hands on her hip and tilting her head to the side.
“No ma’am,” said Noah. He was still rubbing the side of his arm and I had a feeling he’d be riding that one out for a while. Although he’d be hard-pressed to find any evidence of my assault since it hadn’t left so much as a mark.
“Are you sure?” Terry turned her attention to me and I grinned.
“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” I said.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that. If anyone can reign in this guy, it’s you,” said Terry. Then she went about placing our plates in front of us, along with multiple sides of extra syrup and butter. She had my number alright…as well as Noah’s.
“You two need anything else right now?” she asked with the empty tray tucked under her arm.
“I think we’re all set. Thanks Terry,” Noah answered. Since I hadn’t wasted any time stuffing a giant piece of chocolate French toast into my mouth and was unable to respond, I just smiled and gave her a thumbs up.
For a while the table was silent as Noah and I ate our food. It wasn’t long before I had devoured every last bite on my plate and moved on to Noah’s.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked as he pulled his banana nut pancakes out of my reach. Shock washed over my face as my fork dangled over the table in midair.
“I just wanted a little taste,” I said as I puckered my lips into what I hoped was a charmingly pathetic pout.
Noah gave a half smile and pushed his plate back in my direction ever so slightly. While it wasn’t ideally located, at least it was back within my grasp. I managed to have two bites before Noah folded the remaining pancake over, opened his mouth as wide as it would go and placed it inside, syrup dripping down his chin and all.
It was just as well really, since my speed eating had begun to catch up with me already. Any more of the sweet fluffy goodness and I probably wouldn’t have been able to move. As it was, I was struggling to stay upright. Nothing sounded better after a satisfying meal than a nice long nap and right then, I wasn’t feeling too picky. The booth would have done just fine.
“You alright there?” Noah asked, grinning as he took notice of my glazed over eyes and contented expression.
“Ohhhh yeahhh,” I sighed as I leaned my head onto his shoulder.
“You don’t plan on falling asleep here do you?” he asked. I could tell by his tone that he was on the verge of laughing at me, but I didn’t care.
“Maybe,” I said.
Noah nodded and leaned back to get more comfortable.
“Oh, good. I was afraid you’d want to continue our earlier conversation. I was already prepared to hear you call me everything short of a male prostitute, but if you’re too tired that’s fine. Better actually.”
I had totally forgotten. I mean, I was certain it would have crept back into my conscience sooner or later, but between the French toast and pancakes and the incre
dible sugar high I was sailing at the time, all memories of conversations regarding commitment issues and promiscuity had been pushed aside for far more pleasant insights; like the brilliance of making breakfast with chocolate cake batter and dowsing it in sweet strawberry syrup and powdered sugar.
Reluctantly, I sat back up in my seat and broke contact between my face and Noah’s surprisingly comfy shoulder.
“Alright, let’s just get this done and over with. You had your say, now I guess I have to have mine.”
“Not necessarily,” said Noah.
“How do you figure?”
Noah reached his arm around my waist and pulled me over close beside him and said, “Well, are you actually going to say anything I haven’t already heard from you a thousand times over?”
I thought about it for a second. The man had a point. While his declaration regarding my inability to commit had been a first, I had certainly taken shots at his infidelity more times than I could remember over the years. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I began to remember, and inevitably I had to start to wonder if I hadn’t had a really valid point the entire time. I mean, hadn’t I made the argument a million times against getting involved with Noah? And hadn’t he all but verbally agreed with me every single time? What the hell was I doing?
As if he could read the words scrolling across my eye balls, he leaned in and whispered, “Stop. You look like you’re on the verge of making up a fake gay boyfriend again.”
I looked up at him, gnawing at my lower lip as I analyzed the situation and silently made my case against myself. It was no use. Noah was going to have to come to his own defense and be the tiebreaker.
“I’m sorry. I’m on the brink of totally spazzing…I think the real question is, are you going to say anything that I haven’t already heard you say a thousand times over…to a thousand other girls?”
Noah exhaled loudly and followed it up with the longest ‘pause for effect’ in the history of conversations before he finally said, “The truth is, it doesn’t matter what I say to you. I already told you that I loved you – something we both know I have only ever said to one other girl- and that wasn’t enough to ease your mind. I could tell you that I was wrong to sleep around and that I regret it, but we also both know I’d be lying because I don’t. Did I ever strive to be my father’s son and have ten children with three different women, neglecting and dismissing every other woman who cared for me along the way? No…did I think that maybe it was a given, that I would end up just like him? Yes, after what happened with Natasha, I guess my father’s ways were pretty appealing to me. But am I telling you anything you don’t already know? I’m not. I can’t. There’s nothing left within me that you haven’t been privy to at one point or another over the years. I can’t hide from you; I’ve never been able to. You’ve always seen exactly who I am and after I got over the fact that it scared the crap out of me, I accepted it…and eventually even appreciated it. So, am I the world’s worst boyfriend? Yes. We both know that I am. I can’t make any argument to prove otherwise.”
Getting Lucky (A Lucky Novella) Page 2