by Devon Ashley
This Sunday, we laid out in the park absorbing every single ray of sun the thin cloud coverage would allow, and we weren’t the only ones that had that idea, as you couldn’t go ten feet without coming across someone else doing the exact same thing.
I pitched another M&M at Evan, but it hit his forehead. “Ouch!” he playfully cried, then tossed the stray morsel into his mouth. His aim was a hell of a lot better than mine, and his toss hit within an inch of my mouth. Unfortunately, that didn’t help with my lack of eye-M&M coordination, and it bounced off my cheek and onto the blanket.
I watched as yet another couple strolled by hand in hand, happily in love and lost in their own world, searching for their own spot in the lush grass. The park was filled with them today. I looked at my own boyfriend, who looked all sexy resting on his side, already back to reading his novel, and I lightly nudged my foot against his arm.
“Mmm-hmm?” he murmured.
“So why do you think our relationship works?” His eyes rolled my way and made this what the fuck? expression. “I’m serious,” I said, tapping him again. “We have nothing in common, so why the hell do we get along so well?”
“What do you mean we have nothing in common? We both like sex.”
I kicked him this time and he playfully batted me away. “I’m serious!”
“So am I.” He chuckled, so it was hard to believe. “Is this one of those questions you women use to entrap men? Where no matter what we say, it’s going to be the wrong answer? Because we have plenty in common.”
Ignoring him, I began ticking off my fingers. “We like different kinds of movies.”
“We both like to watch TV,” he countered.
“We can’t stand the other’s tastes in books.”
“We both like to read.”
I chucked another M&M at his chest. “You like sports, I hate sports.”
“But you like to watch me play sports.”
I shook my head and gritted my teeth. That playful smile was irresistible, but it was also pissing me off that he was twisting everything in his favor. I glared as he stuck the tip of his tongue out, lay the M&M atop, and slowly flick it into his mouth, cocking his eyes suggestively. I instinctively licked my lips.
“Aaaand we’re back to sex. See? It’s the backbone of any healthy relationship.”
“What?”
“Admit it. What I just did there, had you thinking something dirty. Didn’t it?” I rolled my eyes dramatically, but yeah, he totally had me. “What does it matter how much we have in common? Ever heard of the expression opposites attract?”
I chucked my Harlequin paperback at him. “Oh, yeah? That’s an opposite. You find that attractive?”
A wicked smile spread across his face as he flipped through the pages. “Well, maybe. Anything in here you’d like to reenact in the bedroom later?”
Quite a few, actually, but that was neither here nor there. Instead, I kicked the book in his hand. “Are you capable of having a conversation without thinking or talking about sex?”
“Not when you’re throwing pornography at me, no.”
“It’s erotica.”
“Women’s speak for porn. Give me five minutes and I’ll find something comparable to a scene in a porn movie.”
My cheeks flushed when I realized he was seriously flipping through the pages looking for one. I sat up and yanked it from his grasp, terrified of what he’d find. I was already horrified that he might suggest we read it together tonight. “Don’t you have a Frisbee game to get in on or something?” I evaded.
He checked the time on his phone, then reached to pull his shirt on. “Can’t. If we’re going to squeeze in a dinner, we need to get going. I have to work tonight.”
“Tonight?” On a Sunday? He never worked on Sundays. I sat up, pulling my tank on over my bikini top. “I wanna come.”
“Jenna, what I do is incredibly boring. I sit in a car for what could be hours at a time and I may not even see who I’m looking for.” I stuffed our things into my old book bag as Evan lazily folded the Mexican blanket.
“I don’t care. Just let me come with?”
“Yeah, sure. Just don’t expect anything exciting.”
After dinner at our favorite bistro, we took his mother’s car ‘cause it was apparently less conspicuous than his old, red truck, and most people would hardly think twice about seeing a silver Taurus, since it was a common car in the area. Adulterers must be paranoid about their surroundings if Evan and his father had to rearrange their cars just to avoid being recognized.
“So what are we doing here?” I asked when he pulled to a stop on a residential street and cut the engine.
“One of my dad’s clients thinks her husband is cheating, and he’s apparently going to the office tonight to work on some big presentation he has this week.”
“And she doesn’t believe him.” Good girl. “But isn’t Sunday a weird night to be going on a date?”
“No more than going to work. And look. Right now, we’re doing both work and a date,” he added, reaching over to squeeze my knee. Touché.
“So what happens next?”
He pointed down the lane. “See that two-story red brick house with the swing on the front porch? That’s where the guy lives. His wife says he’ll leave sometime around seven, so we’ll just follow him and see if he actually goes to work like he says.”
I looked to the dash. Six-thirty. “I wonder what made her think he was cheating?”
I was really just thinking aloud, but Evan replied, “Maybe the guy was stupid enough to put cologne on for one of his late-night work sessions. Or maybe, for someone forced to spend part of their weekend at the office, he was a little too cheerful going out the door. Who knows? All I know is that the majority of jobs my father does are for suspected adultery. It’s sad that kind of job pays the bills, but I guess someone’s got to do it.”
“So I take it you don’t wanna do this forever?”
“God, no. It’s something I would consider on the side for extra cash, but I hate sitting on my ass in the car all night.” He turned his attention from the road to me. “But I’m glad you came. It’s nice to have someone to talk to for once.”
“Eh. Least I can do. You always show up at my job, and it makes the day go by a little quicker.” I leaned over and kissed him softly, letting the tip of my tongue dance around with his.
At six-forty-five, a black car left the residence and headed in the opposite direction. Evan started the car and began trailing behind at a safe distance. A few minutes later we pulled off across the street of a six-story office building. “Oh, well,” I said, watching the guy park next to several other cars in the lot. “Guess he actually is working tonight.” I leaned back and dug through my bag in search of gum.
“Oh, yeah? Then why’s he getting into another car?” I heard the quick snap-snap-snap of Evan’s camera.
“Huh?” I asked, leaning forward again. Sure enough, the guy was actually getting into the driver’s side of another vehicle, and in a few seconds was pulling out of the lot again. “Sneaky little shit. If his wife ever got suspicious and came to check, she’d find his car in the parking lot, feel guilty for thinking badly of him, and probably turn around and go home again without going inside.”
“People suck.” Evan pulled out amongst the traffic and continued following, this time a four-door silver sedan with a personalized license plate that read PRM-4.
“Company car?”
“Yep.”
“Awesome. Not only is he probably screwing around behind his wife’s back, but he’s screwing the company by using their car to do it.”
“Like I said. People suck.”
A few minutes later we were heading west out of town on US-4, a long stretch of nothing but trees. “Great. So is it time to play twenty questions yet?”
“I have one for you. Isn’t Sophie’s wedding this summer?”
“Uh, yeah, it’s next month.” I didn’t like the way he nodded knowingly.
I heard the internal groan, as it was particularly loud in my ears. Thankfully, I thought the noise from the road kept him from hearing it too. “Well…here’s the thing about that. Robert is her fiancé’s best friend…and the best man in the wedding.”
“Best man,” he repeated. “As in the guy you’ll be paired with for all the wedding shit.”
“Yeah,” I answered uncomfortably.
“Well, that’s just…fucking fantastic. No wonder you haven’t been talking any wedding shit around me. When were you going to tell me?” He kept looking between me and the road, waiting for the answer I was slow to give.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay. I just wanna get in, get out, drama-free. And I’m afraid if I take you, it’ll cause unnecessary tension.”
“So you’re leaving me behind?”
“It’s nothing personal, Evan. You’re still the one I’m coming home to at the end of the weekend. Robert and I have to be there. You don’t. And it’s better for all concerned if the two of you aren’t within striking range. I’m not gonna let our fucked up problem become Sophie and Jhett’s problem, too. Not at their wedding.”
It took him several seconds, but he finally muttered something to the effect of, “Whatever.”
We sat in silence for another ten minutes before rolling into a town called New Haven. The silver sedan pulled into the parking lot of a small Japanese restaurant. Evan quickly pulled into a parallel spot on the main road and hit the button to roll my window down automatically. From his seat, he zoomed his camera, snapping shots as the man met a woman in the parking lot and kissed her before going in. Evan reviewed the pics, a beep going off for each one as it passed across the screen. He shook his head at what he saw.
Guess I was feeling a little bitter over our previous conversation, ‘cause I said, “Don’t you love how I’m not rubbing it in your face how you did something similar by kissing me when I belonged to someone else at the time?”
He released a long breath before turning his body to face me, putting the camera on the floor behind us, and leaving his arm behind my head rest. It was starting to get dark out, and it was really hard to read his eyes. “First off, I never meant to do that. I had every intention of just talking to you that night. I wanted you to leave him and be with me because that’s what you wanted. And yes, I feel like a shit for how it went down.” A car in the lot turned on their headlights, and I saw his features soften as his hand reached out to brush a stray wisp of hair off my forehead. “But you’re mine now, and I don’t regret that for a second.”
His lips leaned in and gently kissed mine for a good minute before he put the car into drive again. Guess he had all he needed for the job ‘cause we were back on US-4 headed east in no time. Five minutes down the road, he said, “So I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier. About why our relationship works even though the only thing we seem to have in common are favorite pizza toppings.”
“Oh, yeah? Did you come up with something?”
“I don’t know why I’m attracted to you, if I’m being honest.” Um…thanks? “I just feel this magnetic pull towards you. Just like when we met in that limbo place. I think most people would be concerned with why they’re there, where to go or what to do.” I nodded my head in agreement. “I may have too, for about five seconds. But then I felt this need to move in one particular direction, and I soon came across you. I didn’t care where I was or why I was there. I just wanted to be beside you.
“Maybe you were right about our spirits connecting in that place, because I went in search for you in your dreams, and when my memory returned last winter, I felt this urge to find you again.” His shoulders shrugged softly. “So maybe it’s our spirits that are so determined to be together, our differences be damned.”
I held my smile long after he caught it. “I like that idea.”
“Oh, my God,” I whined. “We’re not going to have this conversation again, are we?” It had become an absolute broken record as of late. He really wanted to take me to Sophie’s wedding and I just couldn’t get it through his thick head what a bad idea that was. Girls may think they want two guys fighting over them, but they sure as hell don’t want them screwing up their best friend’s biggest day in the process.
“I keep hoping you’re going to come to your senses and take me with you.”
“Evan, stop,” I said, zipping up the garment bag that hung on the backside of my bathroom door. When I stepped up and placed my hands on his chest, he sighed and reluctantly grabbed my waist, dreading the words he’d already heard a couple of times now. “This weekend isn’t about you, or me, or Robert. It’s about Sophie and Jhett, okay? Tonight’s rehearsal dinner, tomorrow’s parties and Saturday’s wedding. Sophie. Jhett. That’s all I wanna focus on. You and Robert in the same place…we all know it’s gonna get ugly and I’m not gonna let that explosion happen during Sophie’s wedding.”
Evan’s face was still filled with disappointment. “So you’re not trying to hide me?”
“No.”
“And if it comes up this weekend, you’re okay admitting that we’re together now?”
“Yes.” Though I had zero intentions of discussing that around Robert.
“Fine,” he muttered. “But for the record, I don’t like the thought of you going alone.” He released me and grabbed my garment bag, heading for the door. “Finish up. I’ll wait in the truck.”
It was my turn to sigh. I really wished I could take him. If I had any faith they’d both behave and wouldn’t make Sophie and Jhett uncomfortable, I totally would.
I stuffed the remainder of my essentials into the bag and followed Evan down a few minutes later. He was quiet all the way to the station, and when we got there, he pulled into a parking spot instead of dropping me off up front. He shifted the truck into park, released his seatbelt and turned to face me, leaving the engine running.
“Are you mad?” I asked.
“Not mad. Just frustrated, about being left behind.”
“If it were any other wedding in the world I’d be taking you.”
“I know,” he said, his elbow propped up on the steering wheel and his thumb and forefinger stroking his chin. “I just don’t want you anywhere near him.”
“Why?”
He leaned on the console between us. “You forget, I know what it’s like to lose you, and how far I went to get you back. I’m not proud of what I did, but in the end, it worked. And he knows that. So what’s to keep him from trying something in return?”
I leaned toward him, our mouths just inches apart. “And you forget; I didn’t really kiss you back that day. The reason Robert lost me was ‘cause he refused to believe I wasn’t cheating on him. I don’t think you’d make that mistake even if Robert did try something similar.”
“I still hate not being there. And it doesn’t all have to do with him. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I want to be there because this weekend is important to you?”
I smiled and brought my lips to his. He obliged with a few sweet kisses, but then his hand clasped the back of my neck as he began sucking and biting the skin beneath my ear. His cologne was intoxicating, and filled my nostrils with a warm burn that released an internal sigh. I let him nibble for a minute, then broke the daze and forced myself to pull away. Otherwise, I was never gonna leave this truck. And by the wicked grin on his face, I believed that may have been his intention.
“That’s just evil.” I flashed him a playful scowl and opened the door, grabbing my bag and reaching for the garment bag he passed my way.
“Just giving you something to remember me by.”
“Evil,” I repeated. I smacked a kiss into the air as I bumped the door closed behind me and waved goodbye. The scent of his cologne lingered
on my skin, as did the upward curve to my lips.
It sucked spending the majority of the day on a bus. Not just ‘cause some of them tended to reek of body odor as the day progressed, or their sometimes uncleanly interior, or the questionable people who lacked manners and stared indefinitely, but ‘cause it gave me all day to worry about seeing Robert again. I’d done really well not to focus on him these past several months, and Evan was the perfect distraction to help get me over him. My only concern was whether or not I’d still feel anything when I saw him again. And for mine and Evan’s sake, I truly hoped to make it through this weekend unscathed.
Color me surprised when I saw Jhett instead of Sophie at the station in Philadelphia, since she was the one who planned on coming to get me.
“Hey,” I said cheerfully as he took my garment bag and pulled me in for a side hug. “Long time no see.”
“How’s it been going for you? You’re still in Vermont, right?”
“For now,” I replied, following him through the exit doors to the parking lot. “I got into Rutgers for the fall. Now I just need to figure out how to go about paying for it.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out. You always do.”
We chit-chatted all the way to the hotel where we were staying and having the wedding on Saturday. Robert, of course, remained an elusive topic, neither of us daring to bring him up. I asked why Sophie didn’t pick me up, and he told me she and Mom were meeting last minute with the wedding planner to make sure everything was going as planned. Sophie’s father had already checked me in, so Jhett took me straight up. I rolled my bag to the luggage rack and threw it on top. Jhett hung my garment bag on the back of the closet door.
“Alright, Jenna. I’ve got to know. Why do you smell like a dude?”
My jaw dropped. “You can smell that?” I frantically rubbed my neck and smelled my fingertips. I was sure Evan’s scent was still there, I just couldn’t smell it anymore.