London Falling

by T. A. Foster

  Derek ignored him. “London, come on. Why don’t you watch the show with me? Leave this jackass.” His hand lunged for me.

  “No. She’s my date. We’ve both asked you to leave—nicely.” Beau stepped in front of me, blocking my view of Derek.

  “Then why did you leave her here?” Derek stood his ground.

  Beau leaned forward and I could hear the low murmur of his voice, but I couldn’t make out any of his words. I didn’t see what happened next, only Derek tunneling through the crowd and out of my line of sight.

  “You ok?” Beau looked worried—the kind of worried that made me melt.

  “I’m fine. I could handle him.” I had to shout over the instrumental bars. The band was starting up.

  “Good. I won’t leave again. Sorry.” He turned toward the stage and threw a fist in the air, then leaned toward my ear. “See? I knew he was a jerk.” I thought I saw a smile sneak across his face. He immediately focused on the stage. The Bayou Brothers were ready to start.

  I looked at Beau. I wasn’t sure if he was sorry he left me standing alone in a pit of guys, sorry that Derek was being an ass, or sorry we were broken up. The banjo sounds filled the room and one of the brothers with the longest beard I had seen, struck the strings on his fiddle. This was no place to think through anything.

  ***

  “Good concert?” Beau asked as we walked outside.

  I stood on the sidewalk, hugging my jacket tightly. “Yes. They were awesome.” They were so much better in person than on the radio. “Thanks for the date.” I waited, hoping he would ask me to get coffee or a drink. Almost all of our dates were two parts.

  “Cool. See you in class Tuesday?” His hands were in his front pockets and he was backing up.

  “Yes. See you Tuesday.” I waved. Shit. It was only a one-part date. I guess I would be spending the rest of the night with my roomies and zombies.

  ***

  I closed the front door behind me, expecting Nina and Candace to be waiting for me in the living room.

  “Hello?” I called out in the quiet house.

  “Oh, hey, babe. It’s just me.” Candace was in the kitchen retrieving a bag of popcorn from the microwave.

  “Where’s Nina?”

  “Derek texted her about thirty minutes ago. She went over to his place.” Candace dumped the popcorn in a bowl and threw a second bag in the microwave.

  “What? She’s with Derek?” My stomach flipped. I wasn’t prepared for how I was going to tell her what happened with him tonight, but I intended to let her know what a royal asshole he was. I couldn’t let my best friend waste another second on him. He was officially disgusting.

  “You look like something’s wrong, London. Was the date that bad?”

  “Yeah. I mean not the part with Beau. Something bad happened. Candace, there’s something I have to tell Nina.”

  “Let’s go in the living room. Here’s your popcorn. The zombies can wait.”

  I followed her to the couch, grabbed Ugly Quilt, and told her how Derek pounced on me at the Bayou Brothers concert. I didn’t want to think about how far it would have gone if Beau hadn’t shown up.

  “Holy shit. This is bad, London. And by the way, he is slime. Not even slime. What’s lower than slime?” Candace looked horrified.

  “I know. It makes me sick. But I have to tell Nina. And she’s over there with him right now—probably—you know.”

  “Ewww.” Candace had stopped eating her popcorn.

  “What should I do?” I realized it had been months since I had been alone with Candace. I couldn’t think of the last time she had helped me through a crisis. It was always Nina. This time Nina was involved in the crisis. Candace couldn’t have chosen a better time to reemerge.

  “We can’t call her now.” Candace made a face. “But first thing tomorrow, you have to tell her.”

  “She is going to freak out. She has been in love with Derek since our freshman year.”

  “He is such a loser. Maybe we should go over there right now. I don’t care what they’re doing.” Candace was getting worked up.

  “No. No. Tomorrow morning will have to be soon enough. Will you do it with me? You don’t have to tell her, of course. Just be here?”

  Candace smiled. “I will be here. For both of you.” She picked up a piece of popcorn and tossed it in her mouth. “Now, for the fun part. Tell me about Beau.”

  I sighed and launched into my recount of our fake date.

  ***

  The pancakes were on the table and Candace had already cleared the counter from our messy production line. Nina should be here any second.

  “Don’t worry, London. She’s going to be ok.” Candace tried to reassure me, but it wasn’t working.

  My palms were sweaty. When I heard the front door open, I shook my hands by my side like I did every time before the curtain went up. It usually calmed me. I pushed the syrup to the center of the table.

  “Hey, babe.” Candace greeted Nina.

  She glanced over the orange juice glasses and the pancakes on the table. “Derek told me you’d try something like this.”

  Candace and I exchanged puzzled looks.

  “What do you mean?” I was nervous to ask her.

  “London, I’m not mad. Derek told me what happened last night.”

  Again, I looked at my other roommate. I was utterly confused.

  “What exactly did he tell you?” I shook my hands again, and slapped them against my leg to stop the calming ritual.

  “He told me you hit on him, but I knew it was probably just to make Beau jealous. Sounds like it worked.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Derek had twisted everything around and Nina bought every lying word. Why did he even care if Nina was mad? He was just using her and stringing her along. It didn’t matter anymore what his intentions were—I knew mine.

  “Nina, he’s lying.” That was as bluntly as I could state it.

  “What are you talking about? You didn’t hit on him at the concert to make Beau jealous?”

  “No. It was the other way around.”

  “What? Derek hit on you? That’s not how it happened. It can’t be.”

  I sighed. I knew I was breaking Nina’s heart, but it was far worse to let her end up with a conniving bastard. “It wasn’t the first time, Nina. He did it on opening night of Spoiled Hearts.”

  “And you’re just now telling me? This isn’t possible. You’re the one who is lying and twisting this all around.” Her eyes seethed with anger.

  “I should have said something then, but I just thought I misinterpreted the whole thing—until last night. There was no misinterpreting. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

  “I slept with him! Twice! Both times after he hit on you!” Her voice filled the kitchen. Candace stayed planted by the counter. “You couldn’t have told me before I did that? And it wasn’t even good the second time!”

  “I didn’t know what to do. Please believe me. I didn’t want him to be an asshole. I just thought it was creative moodiness or something. Nina, I’m sorry.”

  “You’ve said that. Thanks.” She grabbed the plate of pancakes and walked down the hall.

  “Nina?” Candace called.

  We heard her bedroom door close with a bang. She left us standing in the kitchen, pancake-less. I slouched into the closest chair.

  “What a disaster.”

  “She’s going to be ok, London. You had to tell her. Just give her some time. She’ll come around. I haven’t been here much this semester, but I do know you two are too close to let a guy come between your friendship. She just needs time.”

  “Thanks, Candace.”

  “I’m going to run over to Pearce’s now. He’s probably starving. I usually do his grocery shopping on Sunday.” She picked up her keys.

  “You do Pearce’s grocery shopping?”

  She winked. “I do anything he wants.”

  Ugh. I could only take one asshole a day. “Ok. See you later.”

&n
bsp; CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I had to get ready for date eight with Beau without Nina’s help. After an entire week, she still wasn’t talking to me. Dealing with a broken heart was enough for her to handle without me adding to her pile of problems. Our friendship could withstand this; we had been through too much over the past four years. I could wait until she was ready to open up even though all I wanted to do was sit on her bed and talk.

  It was finally April. That meant campus was budding with flowers, birds were chirping, the daylight hours were growing longer, and the days until graduation were growing shorter. Spring also meant baseball, at least that’s what Beau’s text said.

  Victoria had five remaining bachelors on the show. During this week’s episode, she had gone to a major league ballpark where she and one of the bachelors had private batting practice with the team’s best homerun hitter. After practice, they watched the game from a plush box, and then had a picnic in centerfield.

  Beau had taken charge of our fake dates and he didn’t mention anything to me other than going to the baseball game, but tonight was my first move to change that. I picked up the picnic basket I had packed with grapes, cheese, brownies, and champagne.

  ***

  Date Eight: Diamonds Are Forever

  Beau stood outside the gate of Boshamer Stadium, the ballpark where our date was planned. I was used to seeing him in T-shirts, but I missed his arms. Catching a glimpse of those muscles flexing made me miss them even more.

  “Hey.” He was smiling.

  “Hey.” Not running directly into his arms was taking restraint.

  “Do you have your ID?” He pulled his out of his wallet and proceeded to the gate. This was one event that we didn’t need tickets for admission.

  Luckily, Candace had given me a quick baseball synopsis when I found out what the date was going to be. She knew all things baseball after dating last year’s star pitcher. This was my first trip to “The Bosh.”

  “Yep. It’s right here.” I waved my student ID and followed him past the ticket takers.

  The sun was setting and the ballpark was slowly filling with fans. Beau pointed me in the direction of a block of student seats near first base. Candace told me to clap only when one of the Tar Heels made it to base. She thought that would keep me from making an embarrassing cheering mistake.

  We filed into an empty row and Beau stretched out, resting his feet on the chair in front of him.

  “Dude. What’s up?” Another T-shirt-wearing guy slapped Beau on the back and sat down behind us.

  “Just here for the game, man. What’s going on this weekend?” Beau turned toward his friend, isolating me from the conversation.

  “You going to Jamie’s party later? It’s going to be tight.” The friend was grinning from ear to ear.

  “Probably. See you later, man.”

  He walked away, leaving me to wonder if my two-part plan was getting ready to fall apart. More importantly, was Jamie a boy or a girl?

  “Who was that?”

  “A friend of mine from class.” Beau’s eyes were focused straight ahead at first base. I think this was the part where Candace said they warmed up.

  “Ahh. Right. Friend from class guy. Cool name.”

  Beau chuckled. “His name is Drew.”

  “Are you going to the party after the game?” I was hesitant to ask.

  “Hey, look. They are throwing out the first pitch.” He switched topics..

  There appeared to be some kind of ceremony taking place on the pitcher’s mound. I watched as a young girl hurled the ball toward home plate. The crowd cheered. We stood for the national anthem, and then the first batter took his place, swinging the game into action.

  Beau whistled every time one of our players hit the ball. He was intensely focused on the field. He got up a few times to run to the concession stand between innings. We had pretzels, a bag of peanuts, hotdogs, and nachos. It seemed like the ultimate guy dinner.

  It was finally the bottom of the ninth and we had the bases loaded. Candace hadn’t prepared me for this scenario, but I was on the edge of my seat. If we didn’t hit someone home, we were going to lose. I didn’t need a baseball manual to realize this was crucial.

  “Come on, Heels!” I yelled at the top of my voice.

  “You’ve turned into quite the fan.” Beau smiled at me, then pierced the night with his fan whistle.

  I blushed.

  Number seven was at bat. This was it. The first pitch whizzed past him. The umpire called it a strike. The crowd around us booed wildly. He shuffled his feet in the batter’s box then steadied himself to face the pitcher. The ball sailed through the air, and I heard his bat hit it with the crystal clear sound of a solid whack. The stands erupted with cheering. Seven had done it. The runners ran across home plate—we won. The people next to me were going crazy.

  Before I knew what was happening, Beau picked me up by the waist and smothered me in a hug. His chest was warm and hard. I didn’t even care that he was holding me so tightly I couldn’t breathe. As quickly as I was in his arms, he dumped me back on my feet.

  “Sorry.” He quickly hopped over the stadium seating and headed for the exit.

  I hesitated for a second. I wanted to rewind that moment, but I remembered the picnic basket in my trunk. Maybe it could happen again.

  “London, you coming?” Beau hollered from the top of the concourse.

  “On my way.” I took the stairs two at a time, dodging the slow pokes.

  Beau waited at the top of the staircase. “Thanks for going to the game with me. It was a good win. I’ll get my date recap posted on the blog tomorrow sometime.”

  “Wait. I don’t think the date should be over.” I pulled him over to the side of the line of traffic so everyone could walk around us.

  “What are you talking about? We only have one date this week. We’re right on schedule with the show.”

  “Victoria had more than one part to each of her dates. It’s not the first time we’ve had a doubleheader.” I hoped he appreciated I had worked in a baseball reference. “I brought a part two.”

  I could see him moving backward. “I don’t think that’s such a great idea. We have enough to blog about after this date.”

  “Beau, just give it a chance. It’s in my trunk.”

  “The date is in your trunk?” He paused. “Ok. Well, now I’m curious. Let’s take a look.”

  I led him out of the ballpark and down the block to where I had parked my car. The parking lights flashed when I pressed the unlock button on my remote, and popped the trunk. Beau followed me to the back of the car.

  “What’s that?” He pointed at the picnic basket.

  “Uh, it’s a picnic basket.”

  “I know what it is. I mean, why is there a picnic basket?”

  “Look inside.”

  He sighed before reaching into the trunk and flipping open the lid of the basket. I watched as he rifled through the contents. I waited for him to register the significance of the menu.

  “And you think this is a good idea?” He looked at me with one raised eyebrow and tucked his hands in his pockets.

  “In the spirit of the show, I think we have to have a second part to this date. And one where we guarantee not to torch the food. I didn’t bring a single candle. Promise.”

  I could almost feel his resolve thawing. “And where do you propose we have this part two picnic date?” He looked toward the ballpark. It was still crawling with fans and workers.

  “How about the arboretum? I know it’s on your bucket list and I’ve never been there at night.”

  Beau scuffed his shoe against the sidewalk. A few heavy seconds lapsed before he finally answered. “Ok. But just one drink.”

  “One drink.” I smiled. One drink was all I needed.

  Beau pulled the basket out of the car and slammed the trunk. It was a long walk to the arboretum from the ballpark, but it was undoubtedly one of the prettiest spring nights I had ever seen. The gardens were in the he
art of campus. I had walked the gravel paths many times on my way to the theater, but I avoided the trails at night.

  We entered the grapevine wrapped trellis walkway and turned into the botanical refuge. The garden was quiet and still.

  “Where do you want to sit?”

  I pointed under a tree that was just off the gravel path. “How about here?”