Love Undecided

by Denise Wells

  The more the liquid soaked in to the shirt the more it molded to the muscular yumminess of the chest. It made my vagina butterflies go all a twitter. I touched it again and belatedly realized the glasses were still in my hand and all I was doing was rubbing liquid into the shirt.

  “Ohmigod! I am so sorry!” I said. “Let me get a towel and I’ll clean that off for you.” I turned to set what was left of our drinks down and asked Nate the bartender for a towel.

  “I’m usually a beer guy, but hey, if you insist, I’ll try a pink drink instead,” the yummy chest said. That’s when I looked up and saw his face; chiseled, scruffy, tan, and showcasing the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen in real life. He was so good looking he made me nervous just being near him. His charm flew right over my head, my sole focus became not shriveling up and dying from embarrassment.

  I used the bar towel to start dabbing at his shirt, pretty certain I was just making it worse.

  “Ohmigod, I’m so sorry… I’m usually not this clumsy, well maybe I am, but it’s not intentional… I really didn’t mean to ruin your shirt. I promise to pay for it. Oh, and I’ll buy you a drink. Shit! This is so embarrassing.” I closed my eyes and just kind of stood there, shaking my head. My hands still resting on his chest while trying to figure out how to click my heels three times, whisper ‘there’s no place like home’, and get myself out of this situation.

  “I kind of like this new sticky pink effect. Plus, it’ll dry, no big deal, it’s just a t-shirt.” He puffed that yummy chest out and deepened his voice just a bit. “Now, if it had been my vintage Madonna tee from the ‘Like a Virgin’ tour we’d have a real problem.”

  I just stood there like a mute idiot, really just pretending to dab at this point so I could keep feeling his chest. He lifted my chin with his fingers so I was looking at him.

  “That was a joke. It was supposed to make you laugh,” he said. “You know, ‘cause she’s playing on the overheads right now.” Then he winked at me and grinned big.

  Winks get me every time, always throw me off my game and make me flustered. And I didn’t think I could get more flustered than I already was.

  “I really like Madonna,” I stammered. “Old school Madonna though, not the new stuff that she’s done. In fact, really nothing past the Erotica album. After that she just got weird. But her first five albums, I could listen to again and again and never get tired of her. Oh, I’m probably aging myself by saying albums, aren’t I? I didn’t really have albums but my parents did. I had CDs. But I donated them all a while back and now I just have an iPod.”

  “Okay… well, I guess we have that in common,” he said. I didn’t know if he meant his parents had albums, he’d donated CDs, that he had an iPod, or that he could listen to Madonna over and over again.

  But since I still had my hands on his chest, I just said, “You know you have a really nice chest… nice… and… um, built,” as I patted it with both hands.

  “You wanna see it without the pomegranate mojito?” he asked with an exaggerated, obviously comical, leer. Then he waggled his eyebrows at me.

  That’s all I needed to break the tension so I could resume being a normal person again. I threw my head back and laughed. He smiled at me.

  I motioned to Nate the bartender for three new mojitos, “And whatever he wants,” pointing to Brad.

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “I insist, it’s the least I can do.”

  When we got our drinks, he offered to help me carry everything back to the table, “just to save the other patrons from a potential mojito shower.” He said it so seriously I was almost offended. But then he laughed, so I did too.

  “My table is this way,” I said.

  “Doesn’t matter, beautiful, I’d follow you anywhere,” he said.

  I invited him and his buddy to join us since we had a table and they didn’t. He introduced himself as Brad and his friend was Ethan.

  Brad was an easy conversationalist, funny, quick-witted, and incredibly charming. And, he sat there all night in a stained and wet (which did eventually dry), t-shirt acting like he wasn’t bothered by it at all.

  He walked me to my car at the end of the night, we exchanged numbers and kissed goodnight. I was looking forward to the kiss most of the night, but I had not anticipated how it would affect me. Brad’s kiss left me shaking, literally. Like he rocked my world.

  I’d invited him home with me, and he said no.

  “We’re going to have a date first, Kat. At least one, and probably two, before we go home together. But when we do, it will be because you find me as irresistible as I find you.”

  “But—”

  “Not just sexually, beautiful girl. We are going to talk, and text, and go out, and get to know one another. And you’re going to like it. And when I get up to make you breakfast the next morning, you’re not going to want me to leave.”

  “Pfft. Awfully full of—”

  He put a finger to my lips to quiet me. Then he kissed me one more time. A soft and lingering kiss that stayed on my lips until long after I’d gotten home.

  Sure enough, he’d been right. We had three dates and countless conversations before he came home with me. Our night together was explosive. And the next morning, after he made me breakfast, I never wanted him to leave.

  “Earth to Cookie, you in there, girl?”

  My eyes come in to focus and I see Bauer waving his hand in front of me. I feel a ping of sadness for just a moment that it’s not Brad. And that my reality doesn’t include him making me breakfast any longer.

  “There you are,” he says. “I don’t know about you, but I’m about fried with all this.” He motions to everything strewn across the table between us. “You wanna wrap this up and grab something to eat?” He looks at me questioningly.

  “I’m meeting my girls for dinner in about a half hour, so I’ll just eat then,” I say.

  He looks disappointed. And I remember that he’s new to the area and doesn’t really know anyone and that the highlight of his evening will probably be going back to the hotel with fast food and watching pay-per-view. So, in an effort to be a charitable colleague, with no ulterior motive at all whatsoever, I ask, “Would you like to join us?”

  He smiles. “Are you asking me if I want to join three hot babes for happy hour?”

  “Considering I know what my girls look like, and you don’t, I guess I am.” I attempt an exaggerated wink, but based on the way Bauer looks at me, I’m pretty sure I just look like I’m trying to pop my ear on one side. I may be a sucker for a wink, but if I haven’t mentioned it before, I am not a good winker.

  He gathers his stuff together. “Show me the way.” He grins, stands, and motions me out the door.

  Remi, Lexie, and I have a standing dinner date once a week, and tonight is it. Even though we got to have dinner together last night, it was an anomaly, but we do try to see one another as often as we can during the week.

  Chapter 23

  Kat

  Bauer follows me on his motorcycle to The Crazy Burro. I try not to have crazy sex on a motorcycle fantasies each time I glimpse him in my rearview mirror. There’s just something about a guy on a motorcycle.

  Sigh.

  The Crazy Burro is in downtown San Soloman and is my favorite place to unwind with salty chips, spicy salsa, and the best margaritas in town.

  We arrive a bit before the girls. The hostess is different from one that I’ve seen before. She ignores me and smiles big at Bauer, asking him how many; he tells her four. She puts her hand on his arm and leads us to a table directly adjacent from the hostess station.

  Bauer goes to sit, but I stand and look toward our usual booth, which is empty, and ask if we can sit there instead. She huffs a bit, but when Bauer smiles at her, she leads us over there. I realize that if we sat in our usual booth, she would not be able to look at Bauer from her station which I am sure was her plan. The little tart.

  We settle into the booth.

  “You know
you drive like shit, right?” he asks.

  “Excuse me?”

  “That car of yours, she deserves to be driven. Hard. Fast. By a man who will treat her right.”

  “Oh really? A man, huh? You mean like you?” I scoff.

  He shrugs. “Just sayin’, it’s a suh-weet ride, Cookie, and I can treat a sweet ride right.”

  I don’t tell him that it was because I was trying to multi-task between watching him and texting the girls on my Bluetooth connection, to let them know that he was coming. But my phone kept searching the web for Bradley Cooper in The A-Team lookalikes, instead of texting them that I was bringing my own lookalike.

  So, finally I had to dig through my purse to find my phone and text them the old-fashioned way, with my fingers. All of which combined definitely distracted me and caused me to, as he said, drive like shit.

  Our regular waitress comes to take our order. “Well, well who’s the hottie and where are the rest of my girls?”

  I laugh and tell her, “The hottie is my colleague, Chance. Chance, this is the best waitress in the entire world, Maureen.”

  “Nice to meet ya, handsome. What can I getcha?” she asks him with a big smile.

  “I’ll take whatever you want to bring me that is icy cold and from a tap, gorgeous,” he returns, with a wink.

  She turns to look at me. “Usual, baby girl?”

  “Yes, please…and make it three since Remi and Lexie will be here any second.”

  I turn to Bauer. “So, my girlfriend Lexie owns a winery here in town called Lovestone. She makes killer wines and names them all after iconic old Hollywood characters and lines from romance movies. My girlfriend Remi is a chemical engineer who is going to change the world. And, they are both gorgeous.”

  “I knew a Remi in college, that’s an unusual name.”

  “Did you date her?” I ask, only half teasing.

  “No, well almost. She was roommates with a girl I was hooking up with. Killer looks, but a stone-cold bitch.”

  “Well, my Remi is not a bitch. She definitely has killer looks though.”

  “Well, then I think I’m going to enjoy this evening, Cookie.” He looks at me with a wicked grin on his face.

  Lexie comes running up to the table, blue eyes dancing, pink ponytail askew atop her head, stopping only to bounce up and down before the table in her jeans, stained white tee, and purple Docs. “Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?”

  She doesn’t wait for us to answer. “I got a call from The Wine Educator and they are reviewing We’ll Always Have Paris and As You Wish in the next issue! Aaahh! I can’t stand it!”

  I jump up and hug her. “Lexie, that’s amazing! I’m so proud of you!”

  While Lexie has received a lot of recognition for her wines locally and throughout the state, she’s yet to receive much recognition nationally, and this could take her business to a whole other level.

  The waitress brings our drinks. “What are we dancing for, Pinkie?”

  “The Wine Educator is reviewing two of my wines in their next issue!”

  “Oh! Congratulations, hon, I’m so proud of you!”

  Lexie sits down and drinks half her margarita in one straw pull.

  I count to five in my head, waiting…

  “Ack! Brain freeze!” She grabs her head with both hands and shakes it slightly. Bauer and I both laugh. He breaks the moment by reaching a hand out to her across the table. “Chance Bauer,” he says, by way of introduction.

  “Oh my God, I’m so sorry! Chance Bauer, this is Lexie Harrison. Lexie, this is Chance.”

  Lexie giggles and bats her eyelashes at him. “Well, hello there. You might have to be my next dashing leading man blend.”

  He grins widely at her. “I’m not sure what that means, but I’m pretty sure I’ll like it.”

  I can’t decide if I’m jealous or intrigued.

  I see Remi approach from over Bauer’s head. Today she is dressed “casually” in tight high-waisted black cigarette pants with two rows of buttons up the front, bright red scoop neck tee, slim fit black blazer with white trim, and black platform peep-toe Mary Janes. Her hair is twisted in victory rolls and her make-up is flawless. She looks amazing, as usual.

  Remi slides into the booth. “Sorry I’m late. OH, and hello handsome!”

  Then she narrows her eyes at him. “Wait a minute… “

  And at the same time that she says, “Chance?” he says, “Remi?” and I realize that my Remi must be the Remi he knew in college.

  Oops.

  “You guys know each other?” I ask, a master at stating the obvious.

  “Unfortunately,” Remi says, a dour look on her face.

  “Hey.” Bauer puts a hand over his heart. “That hurts. Not that I would expect anything less coming from you. It is Ice Queen? Right?”

  “That’s so original, Neanderthal.”

  “And cue the frostbite,” he says, leaning back in his chair. Remi just glares at him.

  Lexie and I look back and forth between them.

  “Uh, so hey, Rem, I ordered you a margarita already,” I say, gesturing to the table.

  She turns to me and smiles, her expression at once warming. “Thanks, sweetie.”

  “And, I’m guessing there is no real need to introduce the two of you.”

  “No,” Bauer says. “We know each other quite well already.”

  “I know everything I need to know about this guy,” Remi says. Bauer just looks at her with one eyebrow raised and an expression that can only be described as sardonic. I’m sensing there is a story here that Remi will tell Lexie and I about later.

  “I will tell you guys all about it later,” Remi says, smiling at Lexie and me.

  Ha! Told you I was the master of the obvious.

  “What’s your wait, Ice Queen?” he all but sneers at her. “You may as well tell them now. I mean, I for one am dying to hear this.” He settles back in his chair, stretching his legs out and crossing his arms over his chest. The move makes all his muscles bulge in all the right places.

  Mmmm yummy!

  “The village idiot and I knew each other in college. He was on the rugby team—“

  Bauer clears his throat. “Uh, that’s captain of the rugby team, Ice Q. Not to mention collegiate all-American, three years running.”

  Remi waves her hand at him dismissively. “I made the mistake of going to some rugby party—“

  “Division One All Collegiate Championship Celebration,” Bauer interrupts.

  Remi glares at him again. “Division one all collegiate championship celebration,” she mimics. “And I was chosen to be the Rugby Queen.” She lowers her forehead to one hand, hiding her face as if embarrassed.

  “Is that like Homecoming Queen?” Lexie asks.

  Bauer chuckles. “Not exactly.”

  Remi shakes her head slowly. “It’s someone—“

  “A chick,” Bauer says.

  She turns to him. “Do you want to tell this story?”

  “No. But I do want to make sure you get all the facts straight when you tell it.” He motions for her to continue.

  She rolls her eyes at him then looks back at Lexie and me. “It’s a woman,” she says, then purposefully looks at him as if getting permission.

  He smiles, then interjects, “A beautiful one, usually the most gorgeous chick there.”

  Remi smiles. I’m pretty sure she’s flattered.

  She continues, “Who gets carried around on different guy’s shoulders all night and gets to tell everyone else what to do and they all give her drinks.”

  “So, she’s usually pretty drunk by the end of the night,” Bauer says.

  Remi rolls her eyes again and takes a deep drink of her margarita. Somehow Remi never gets brain freeze like Lexie and I do when she takes big sips of icy drinks. I laugh to myself thinking maybe it’s because she really is the Ice Queen.

  “And… ” Bauer leans forward on his elbows and looks at her expectantly.

  Remi closes her e
yes and shakes her head. “So, at the end of the night, the captain of the winning team and the Rugby Queen share a public kiss and are then escorted to a private room for the Neanderthal collegiate version of fifteen minutes in heaven.”

  Bauer sits back in his chair again, looking very pleased with himself.

  “So, you guys kissed?” I ask to clarify.

  Bauer chuckles.

  “We did,” Remi confirms.

  “So, what am I not getting? What’s the big deal?” Lexie asks, confused.

  Remi looks at Bauer and he gestures to her to continue. “I, ah, liked the kiss,” she says blushing slightly.

  I look at them both, still not really seeing the problem, except for the fact that I am totally jealous that Remi has kissed Bauer.

  “I’ll say you did! Tell ‘em how much,” Bauer says.

  Remi rolls her eyes at him. If she keeps it up, I’m going to have to start counting the number of times she does. This could be a new world’s record.

  “I told him I think I loved him, asked him to never stop kissing me, and then,” Remi says, hesitating. “Crawled my way up his body, wrapped my legs around his waist and pretty much started to dry hump him in front of everyone.”

  “Couldn’t get enough,” Bauer says, leaning back in his chair and stretching, all cocky-like.

  I’m not sure how a stretch can be cocky, but he manages to pull it off. His shirt rides up just enough to show some skin and just a hint of six-pack abs.

  All I can think about is running my nose across those abs as I work my mouth down to his…

  Remi laughs suddenly, breaking me out of my fantasy. She looks down at the table shaking her head, then, amazingly, she looks up at Bauer and smiles at him. He smiles back, this smile seeming almost tender. She takes a deep breath before she continues, “So after a while, they pull me off of him, literally, and carry us into the room for our fifteen minutes of heaven, and we are still kissing—”

  “Totally going at it,” Bauer says. “It was hot.”