A Better Reason to Fall in Love

by Marcia Lynn McClure

  Tabby shrugged, arching her eyebrows in an expression of nonchalance—even though Naomi was dead-on correct. “Maybe,” Tabby said. “But it’s still Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to me.”

  Naomi’s eyes narrowed. “Which reminds me—I think I can finally stump you on that little game you like to play.”

  Tabby smiled. “All right, go ahead.”

  “The Muppets,” Naomi said. “Link the Muppets to Kevin Bacon in six steps or fewer.”

  Tabby giggled. “Oh, please, Naomi! Give me a challenge. That’s too easy.”

  “Then do it,” Naomi playfully challenged. “Link the Muppets to Kevin Bacon.”

  Tabby smiled, delighted by Naomi’s dare. She loved to play the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. Naturally, it was rather embarrassing proof that she’d seen too many movies over the years, but still, she enjoyed astounding Naomi with her worthless knowledge.

  The gist of the game was easy enough—all she had to do was link the Muppets to Kevin Bacon through movies and other actors in six steps or fewer.

  Smiling, she looked to Naomi and said, “Michael Caine played Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol, right?”

  Naomi nodded and agreed, “Yes.”

  “Thus, we begin,” Tabby continued. “The Muppets were with Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol, Michael Caine was in Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock, Sandra Bullock was in While You Were Sleeping with Bill Pullman, Bill Pullman was in Sleepless in Seattle with Tom Hanks…and Tom Hanks was in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon.”

  Jocelyn and Emmy laughed as Naomi rolled her eyes.

  “And that’s in five moves…which is the long way around it,” Tabby teased Naomi. “If you want it in three then…the Muppets were in Muppet Treasure Island with Tim Curry…Tim Curry was in Legend with Tom Cruise…and Tom Cruise? Well, he just happened to be in A Few Good Men with Kevin Bacon.”

  Jocelyn and Emmy’s laughter increased, and even Naomi wasn’t immune from a session of the giggles.

  “Don’t mess with the expert,” Tabby teased. “I would’ve thought you’d have learned your lesson by now, Naomi.”

  “Apparently not,” Naomi giggled.

  Tabby smiled as she pushed her straw onto her right incisor and slurped the remaining root beer out of her cup. Naomi had never been able to stump Tabby when it came to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon—no one had. Though it wasn’t much to hang her hat on, Tabby enjoyed knowing she’d never been stumped.

  “So, in retrospect,” Emmy began, “Jocelyn is falling in love with a cliff-diving restaurant owner, who once worked with Tabby’s dreamboat, the Derrière-inator, who happened to be having lunch last week with Naomi’s heartthrob Professor Anthony Lowery…who just happens to teach at the college where my Luke studied before he enlisted.” Emmy shook her head, adding, “I swear, I couldn’t be more wigged out if Johnny Depp walked through the door right now.”

  “I guess it is pretty unfathomable,” Naomi said.

  “Oh, yeah…unfathomable. That’s exactly the word I would’ve used,” Jocelyn teased with playful sarcasm.

  “And I’m sorry, Emmy,” Tabby said, “but you would be a lot more wigged out if Johnny Depp walked through the door right now.”

  “True,” Emmy agreed.

  “So, Tabby,” Jocelyn said then, “all you have to do is find the nerve to ask out the Derrière-inator, and the circle of freakiness will be complete!”

  “Oh. Is that all?” Tabby asked, rolling her eyes. “You keep watching that door, Jocelyn,” she said, “and when Johnny Depp walks through it…then I’ll ask out Jagger Brodie.”

  “Oh, come on, Tabby!” Emmy whined. “You love him! You totally love the Derrière inator!”

  “I do not!” Tabby argued, though she felt her cheeks pink up with a blush borne of embarrassment. “You guys are ridiculous.”

  Though she hid it well—better than even she could’ve expected—her friends’ harmless teasing struck a tender nerve in her chest. She did like Jagger Brodie—and not just because he was hot. He was polite, smart, and well-mannered, and he was nice and respectful to everyone in the office. From the biggest CEO to the little teenage guy who delivered the pizza now and then, Jagger Brodie was always considerate. Tabby knew he was—because she watched him like a stalker. Nobody knew she watched him like a stalker, of course—not even her friends—but she did and simply because he so entirely intrigued her. She’d been crushing on the Derrière-inator since the day she’d first stepped into the office. Thus, she supposed she did love him in a way—loved to study him, if nothing else.

  “Just ask him out,” Emmy suggested again. “Or at least start talking to him more often. I swear, every time he says something to you, you clam up like a…like a…”

  “Like a clam?” Naomi finished teasingly.

  Emmy giggled. “Yeah. Exactly.”

  “I do not!” Tabby defended herself. “I talked to him Friday, didn’t I? Have you guys forgotten who it was that walked past the table he was eating lunch at? Have you forgotten who it was that found out about Jagger and Armando having been cliff divers together? Who it was that discovered it was the dashing Professor Lowery sitting with them?”

  “Even so,” Emmy said, “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: chitchat like that won’t find you making out with him in the break room.”

  Jocelyn giggled, but Naomi sighed with annoyance.

  “Emmy,” Naomi began, “there’s a whole lot more to relationships than making out in the break room.”

  “Like what?” Emmy teased, winking at Jocelyn.

  “You’re impossible,” Naomi sighed.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Tabby offered. She took hold of Jocelyn’s hand, checking the time on Jocelyn’s watch. “We have…oh…about three minutes before we need to start heading back. If Johnny Depp walks through that door…” Tabby paused, pointing to the door leading to the aquarium viewing room in which they sat. “If Johnny Depp walks through that door in the next three minutes…then I’ll go straight back to the office and throw myself at Jagger Brodie.”

  Emmy made a tsk sound with her tongue as she rolled her eyes.

  “Chicken,” she said to Tabby. “Only chickens make deals like that.”

  “Anything is possible,” Tabby said, shrugging.

  Naomi nodded toward the door. “And Johnny Depp has three minutes to prove it.”

  The girls were silent. Not one of Tabby’s friends said a word as they each continued to stare at the door leading into the shark tank viewing room of the aquarium.

  Tabby wondered what her friends were thinking—though her own thoughts were not as cheerful as her forced expression of amusement would leave her comrades to think. Emmy had Luke—or at least she would have him when his tour of duty was over. Luke would come home and officially propose (he’d somewhat proposed before he’d left but hadn’t had the chance to buy Emmy a ring), and they would be married by the end of the summer. It was obvious Armando was sweeping Jocelyn off her feet or that Jocelyn had swept Armando off his feet—or both. Tabby guessed it wouldn’t be long before Jocelyn would be lost in the bliss of true love. Even Naomi was having more romantic moments than Tabby was—and Naomi was the cynic of the crew! Tabby could not believe how gaga Naomi was over some college professor she’d only met once. Yep, even Naomi was living a life speckled with crushing that led to romance. Tabby, on the other hand, was little more than a stalker. She smiled to herself, thinking she was more the psycho in some teenage prom slasher movie—the way she watched Jagger Brodie without his knowing it, the way she hung on every word she heard him utter to anyone. Yep—she was an idiot.

  In truth, Tabby’s outward nonchalance about the whole thing was exactly that—outward. There were times when she felt so alone—almost hopeless—as if her dreams of finding the man who would love her the way she was capable of loving in return would never appear. Tabby wanted the fairy tale, after all. Not the knight-in-shining-armor-who-saves-the-princess-and-they-live-happily-eve
r-after fairy tale, but the real one—a husband she could love and laugh with, children she could cuddle and delight over. She wasn’t ignorant enough to think life was easy—all picket fences and a little yellow house with shiny windows perfect. But she’d seen how happy her parents were—still saw it—and that’s what she wanted. Tabby wanted life—love, children, companionship—and yes, romance!

  Still, sometimes it seemed she spent more time connecting actors to Kevin Bacon in her head than she did living life. She glanced to Emmy. Emmy was resplendent with the joy Luke’s love gave her. She looked to Jocelyn and could’ve sworn her eyes were shooting beams of light with the residual bliss still lingering in them thanks to Armando’s attentions. Even Naomi had had a wonderful romantic event over the weekend. And then there was Tabby—the redheaded, silent stalker of Jagger Brodie.

  Tabby sighed, put her straw on her right incisor once more, and slurped the water left by the melting ice in her cup.

  “Thirty seconds,” Naomi said, checking her watch.

  “Oh, come on, Johnny!” Jocelyn said. “We want Tabby to ask out the Derrière-inator!”

  Smiling—for her friends were nothing if not amusing—Tabby stared at the door in front of them.

  “Ten, nine, eight,” Naomi began.

  “Come on, Johnny,” Emmy whispered.

  “No way!” Jocelyn breathed then.

  Tabby’s breathing had stopped—for the door leading into the room began to open.

  “Three, two, one,” Naomi whispered.

  And then—the door leading to the shark tank viewing room opened.

  “No way!” Emmy gasped.

  “You have got to be kidding me!” Naomi added as Jocelyn began quietly humming the theme to The Twilight Zone again.

  “What are the odds?” Emmy asked as Tabby watched Jagger Brodie step into the room.

  “The Derrière-inator himself,” Jocelyn whispered. She looked to Tabby, smiling. “Well, it ain’t Johnny Depp…but I think it should count!”

  “What?” Tabby gasped, frowning.

  “Yeah! It should totally count,” Emmy agreed. “I mean…it’s like he’s being handed to you, Tabs. It’s meant to be!”

  “And the girl that’s with him…I suppose she’s meant to be too,” Tabby said. Indeed, a girl had entered the room just behind Jagger Brodie and now stood next to him as he studied the sharks behind the large glass wall.

  “Oh, that’s just Keira Asner,” Naomi whispered. “She works in accounting…and she’s always panting after Jagger like a puppy.”

  “Well, the fact remains that Johnny Depp did not walk through that door,” Tabby said. “So I guess I get to go on crushing on the Derrière-inator from afar.”

  “Okay…okay,” Emmy whispered. “So Johnny Depp didn’t walk through the door. So you won the bet and you don’t have to ask Jagger Brodie out. It doesn’t mean you can’t make a concerted effort to talk to him more.” Emmy placed a hand on Tabby’s arm. Tabby looked to her friend to find her eyes filled with emotion—encouragement—almost pleading encouragement.

  “You gotta do it, Tabby,” she said. “The days are gone when a girl can just sit back and expect a guy to go for it without giving him any signals that she won’t shoot him down if he does.”

  “I know,” Tabby said.

  “And you’re a redhead,” Jocelyn unnecessarily pointed out. “Aren’t you supposed to be all hot-blooded and confident?”

  “Hot-blooded?” Tabby asked, almost giggling at the suggestion.

  “Come on, Tabs,” Emmy pleaded. “Just promise us you’ll try to talk to him more.” Emmy smiled, and it was a knowing smile that entirely unnerved Tabby. “I mean, really, how long can you watch his every move, hang on his every word, and still resist not trying to grab his attention once in a while?”

  “Okay,” Tabby agreed, though her heart was hammering so hard in her chest with anticipatory anxiety that she thought the entire building could hear it. “Okay…I’ll try. Next time he walks past my desk, I’ll say hi.”

  “Promise?” Naomi asked. Tabby smiled, unable to hide her amusement that even Naomi was involved in the prodding.

  “I promise,” Tabby agreed.

  “Well, hello, ladies.”

  Tabby felt her eyes widen—felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle with delicious understanding at the realization that Jagger Brodie stood behind her.

  “Hi, Jagger,” Naomi greeted.

  They’d been sitting at a small table in one corner of the room. Tabby watched as smiles spread across Emmy’s and Jocelyn’s faces as they looked beyond Tabby and simultaneously greeted hello.

  Tabby felt Emmy step on her foot in urging her to turn around. Mustering every ounce of redheaded courage she could, Tabby swiveled around in her seat to see Jagger Brodie standing behind her. He was grinning and looking at her—rather expectantly.

  “Hi,” she managed.

  “You girls eat lunch together every day, don’t you?” the girl Naomi knew from accounting asked. She was pretty—really pretty. Tabby’s stomach began to burn with a thick stew of jealousy.

  “We do,” Naomi said.

  “Yeah,” Jagger said. “I saw them at the Acapulco the other day,” he said as he continued to look at Tabby.

  “We brown bag it most of the time,” Emmy said. “But every Friday we pick a restaurant to try.”

  “So I’ve heard,” Keira from accounting said. “You know the guys in accounting call you the Foxy Four.”

  “Really?” Jocelyn giggled. Her flattered smile was as wide as the Mississippi.

  “It’s true,” Keira said, though Tabby couldn’t tell if she was amused by the fact or insanely jealous. “Isn’t it, Jagger?”

  Jagger’s grin broadened to a smile as he nodded. He was still looking at Tabby, and she suddenly felt overly warm. His smile had the same effect on her that the noonday sun in Tombstone had had when she’d visited the old western town as a kid: she felt fiery hot and wondered whether she might faint. It had been heatstroke that had overwhelmed her in Tombstone, and now she knew that Jagger Brodie–stroke could be just as threatening.

  As Jagger continued to stare at her, Tabby managed to stammer, “Well…I suppose everyone at the office has some sort of nickname.” She blushed as the endless variety of nicknames assigned to Jagger Brodie by the women in the office began to roll through her head like long movie credits.

  “Maybe so,” he said.

  “Come on, Jagger,” Keira from accounting said. “You’ll make us late getting back.”

  “Oh!” Jocelyn gasped. “Me too. I’ve got a meeting in fifteen minutes!”

  “Good afternoon then, ladies,” Jagger said. He offered them a smile and a friendly nod and then turned to follow Keira toward the exit.

  Tabby watched him go—watched the way he sauntered—smiled as he opened the door for Keira.

  “Anything can happen,” Emmy said, drawing her attention back to her friends.

  “Nothing is impossible,” Jocelyn echoed as they all stood.

  Naomi even smiled. “I suppose making out in the break room wouldn’t be so bad…if it were Jagger Brodie you were making out with.”

  “Shut up, you guys,” Tabby said as she tossed her empty cup and brown paper bag into the nearby trash receptacle. Her friends giggled, and she knew more teasing was in store. Thus, before they could begin, she preempted their tormenting her by saying, “I’ve decided where I want us to go for lunch on Friday.”

  “Oh, yeah? Where?” Jocelyn asked.

  “It’s a new place,” Tabby answered. “It’s only been open a couple of weeks, but I’ve heard it’s really cool. It’s called Sweet Genevieve’s, and there’s live entertainment at lunch.”

  “What? More cliff divers?” Naomi rather whined.

  “No,” Tabby said as Jocelyn rammed an elbow into Naomi’s ribs. “It’s like a blues and jazz thing. They supposedly have really good food too.”

  “Sounds fun,” Emmy exclaimed.

  “Kind o
f,” Naomi said. She shrugged and added, “If we can’t have poetry recitation…then at least we can have some music. Hopefully good music.”

  “Yeah,” Tabby said. “It’s really supposed to be good. Chloe’s boyfriend told me about it. He knows I like blues and jazz, and he says it’s a really cool place.”

  “When is Chloe supposed to be back from Chicago?” Jocelyn asked. “I mean, how much more training are they going to make her do?”

  “Three more weeks, I think,” Tabby said. Suddenly, she missed her sister even more than she had a moment before. Chloe had already been gone a week. Tabby wondered how Chloe would be able to stand staying in a hotel for three more weeks.

  “Did she have to do that?” Naomi asked.

  Tabby nodded. “Yeah. If she wants to make a higher pay grade, she has to.”

  “Well, if you get too lonely, maybe the Derrière-inator will come over and keep you company,” Emmy teased.

  “Maybe you’re going to find your derrière in a sling if you don’t quit teasing me,” Tabby playfully threatened.

  “I’ll quit teasing you the day I walk in the break room and find you making out with Jagger Brodie,” Emmy giggled.

  “In a sling, Emmy…I swear it,” Tabby teased.

  “Hold on!” Naomi exclaimed as they left the aquarium. “Joss…you never told us how your night with Armando the Cliff Diver ended.”

  “Oh my heck, that’s right!” Emmy added. “Joss…did he kiss you goodnight or what?”