by Heinzer, HB
Julia: Micah wants you to shoot. Can you?
This was exactly why Adam didn't want to keep hiding things from those around him. If they spent the evening at The Oasis drinking, there was no way he could guarantee the truth wasn't going to come out.
Adam: Hey, Peanut. I'll be home in about two hours. Micah wants me to shoot pool league tonight. Is that okay?
Part of him wanted to go home, curl up in bed with Carly and not come out until it was time for her to leave for the airport, but that would raise red flags. Yes, Micah knew the truth and would more than likely cover for them, but he couldn't bring himself to keep lying to Julia. They were just starting to get along again and he liked having his big sister in his life. If she found out that he hid the truth about something as crucial in his life as falling in love, he knew it would do irreparable damage.
Carly: Yeah, that's fine. Will we have time to talk before?
Adam: Not much, but some. And we'll talk after. Okay?
Carly: Sounds good. Are you hungry? I can head to your place and make dinner before you get home.
Adam: Good plan. See you soon.
Feeling slightly better about life at home, Adam turned off his phone as he handed over his boarding pass to the flight attendant. Somehow, they'd find a way to get through this.
Chapter Twelve
Before Adam reached the front door of his country home, he could smell dinner. The peace he felt knowing someone who cared about him was cooking was foreign. It was also something he could grow used to in a hurry, a fact that was more than a little terrifying given the fact that Carly would be going home in the morning. The couple of days he spent in California while she was in Wisconsin made him certain of what he wanted. The problem was he was starting to feel like Carly's dirty little secret with how adamant she was that they not tell anyone they were together.
If Adam had his way, one of them would relocate so they could be together all the time. It was something he'd been thinking about since before Carly had even left New York. He hated not knowing when he'd get to fall asleep with his arms wrapped around her again. He didn't like knowing she was alone in such a large city, worrying about whether or not she was walking out stage doors into dark alleys. She had told him she didn't, but on three separate occasions, he'd caught her doing just that. Sure, she made friends on any show she worked on and had a core group of people she hung out with, but she was still alone as far as he was concerned.
When she told him that Tatyana was moving out, it gave him one more reason to worry. With the show at the Schumann having closed two weeks ago, Carly was between jobs. With most of the winter shows already fully staffed, Carly would be in the position where she would be living off her savings, something that had her stressing out before she knew she would be responsible for the full rent until she found a new roommate. If she were here with him, that wouldn’t be an issue because he could easily afford the mortgage, but he knew she would never allow him to help her with her rent.
“Honey, I'm home!” Adam's voice echoed through the great room as he dropped his suitcase beside the door.
“I'm out here,” Carly called back from the deck. As if weren’t amazing enough that she was making him dinner, she was actually grilling. This woman was seriously going to kill him if she kept it up. He opened the sliding screen door and the most beautiful woman in the world met him, holding an open bottle of beer out to him. Yep, he was a goner for sure.
“Damn, woman. You keep that shit up, and I might tie you up in the guest room so you can't go home tomorrow.” Adam pulled Carly's back to his chest, holding her close. For the first time in his life, he had everything he needed to be happy: his girl, his house with an amazing view, a job he liked and was valued at, steak on the grill and a cold beer in his hand. Everything was perfect, but it wouldn't last for long.
Carly turned her head so that she was looking at him. “You'd really do that just so you didn't have to get your own beer?”
“You know me so well,” Adam chuckled. “It's a known fact that it always tastes better when someone else gets it.”
***
Carly smacked Adam's ass as he lifted the lid of the grill. It felt good being in his space with him. Scary good. The thing that worked for them was the times they were playful, not worrying about anything other than their time together.
“Come on, we need to hurry if you plan on making it down to The Oasis on time. I grabbed some potato salad to go with the steaks.” Carly ducked inside to get two place settings so they could eat on the deck. The evening was far too nice to be inside, and it was the last night she would be able to enjoy the clean air.
Dinner was quiet. Both of them knew they needed to have a long talk, but neither was willing to say the first word. Adam grabbed the plates when they were finished eating, taking them inside and returning with two fresh beers.
“We really need to talk, Carly,” Adam said, slouching back in his seat. Carly could tell from the lack of eye contact that this wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation. “There's not much time before we have to leave, but I can't keep lying to Julia, and she's going to be there tonight.”
Carly pinned her arms across her stomach, praying the tightness she felt would ease. She didn't like being this way. She wanted, more than anything, to be a normal adult capable of having a normal relationship that might someday lead to living happily-ever-after. “I know, Adam. I know it's not fair.” The words seemed to be stuck in her throat. Was this going to be the end? “I don't like it either; I just can't tell her yet, any more than you can keep hiding it from her.”
Adam looked at the ground, scrubbing the back of his neck with one hand while gripping his chair tightly with the other. This conversation was going downhill fast. “Does this mean anything to you?” Adam finally asked, waving his hand between the two of them.
“You know it does, baby.” Carly sniffled, willing the tears to stay at bay.
“Really? I know we mean something in your eyes?” Adam's voice was strained, the look in his eyes pained. “I have no clue what we mean to you. I thought I did, but the way you want to keep me hidden makes me wonder. Why can't everyone know about us? Why can't I tell my sister that I finally found someone who makes me happy? That even with as fucked up as our parents were, I managed to find what, for the most part, was a stable, healthy relationship.”
Whether he knew it or not, Adam cut to the core of the issue. He was willing to take a chance on a relationship in spite of his upbringing while Carly couldn't take that chance because of hers. “Maybe when we get home and have more time, I can explain it to you. Just please, give me tonight?”
***
As much as he didn't want to, Adam, once again, gave in to Carly. He knew that, push come to shove, he always would cave to her, all because he finally had her and didn't want to lose the way he felt when she was happy. That meant he was now driving down the highway staring at Carly's taillights when he wanted to have her sitting in the seat next to him. If they weren't going to say anything about being together, they couldn't exactly drive into town in one car. Adam hoped they'd be able to finish off their games of pool quickly so he could get home and have a little more time with her.
“Hey man, didn't figure you'd make it,” Micah said, patting Adam's back as they walked into the bar. Micah nodded his head towards the bar, where Carly was ordering a drink and talking to Julia. “Figured you'd want to stay in.”
Adam sighed. “Nothing I want more, but she's still insisting that Julia not know about us. If I stayed home, my sister would have known something was off. It's pathetic enough that I'm lying to her; I'm not going to have you lying for me, too.”
When he looked to the bar again, Carly was looking in his direction nervously. In a twisted way, he liked seeing that she wasn't comfortable. Maybe putting her in the position where she had to face what she was demanding of him would make her see how unfair it was to everyone. He waved to her before turning his attention back to Micah.
&nbs
p; “This is going to explode in your face. You know that, right?” Micah asked, raising one judgmental eyebrow. If anyone knew the consequences of keeping things from Julia, he was the resident expert. Then again, Julia seemed to be working on forgiving him, maybe Adam would be so lucky when she found out about his secret.
“Believe me, I've told Carly that, more than once,” Adam sighed. “But what am I supposed to do? On one hand, I can put my foot down and insist that we come out of the closet, so to speak. That's going to cause an enormous fight that I seriously don't want to have. On the other hand, I keep lying to my sister, the same sister I'm just starting to get along with after your stupid ass essentially chased her out of town.”
Micah picked at the label on his beer bottle. “Glad I'm not in your shoes,” Micah laughed, patting Adam on the back before heading to the pool tables.
“Yeah, fuck you too,” Adam yelled playfully.
***
“So, are you looking forward to getting back to New York?” Julia asked as she and Carly watched their guys shoot pool.
Carly shrugged. “You know, I thought I would be suffering some serious withdrawals, being away from civilization and all, but there are things I'll miss about being home.” She carefully glanced in Adam's direction. It was harder than she thought it would be to keep her feelings hidden, and three Limon and Cokes weren't making it any easier. She was used to city bars, where watered down drinks were normal. At The Oasis, they took their jobs seriously, and that apparently included making sure their patrons got their money's worth from the drinks.
Julia's back stiffened. “Really? Name three things,” she challenged. Carly and Julia, as girls, seemed to be in a race to see who could get out of town quickest.
Carly tapped her fingernails on the Formica tabletop. “Let's see... I'm going to miss Gran. She's getting older and I hate the thought of her being out there all alone.”
Julia laughed. “That doesn't count. Even if you were back in Wisconsin, do you mean to tell me you'd move in with her so that she wasn't alone?”
“Maybe,” Carly admitted. Gran had been so generous to her that she felt guilty that she wasn't home to return the favor. “Anyway, you wanted three things. I'll miss the quiet nights. I don't know if you know this, but it's never quiet in New York. Just about the time the city starts getting quiet, people are waking up for the day. And there aren't any stars at night there. It was nice to be able to sit outside and find constellations.”
“Are you still obsessed with Orion?” Julia asked, poking Carly's arm. When they were younger, Carly would rush outside every night to find her favorite constellation. Sometimes, she would sit on Gran's front porch, talking to Orion as if he could hear her.
“Shut up,” Carly laughed, tossing back the rest of her drink. “Just because my first love was a true Greek god doesn't mean you need to pick on me.”
Julia shook her finger in Carly's face. “Actually, Orion was a mortal, not a god. Nice try, though.” The two girls laughed as they weaved their way to the bar.
Carly held up two fingers to the bartender, pointing at both of their glasses. She knew it wasn't a smart decision, but she wanted to get so obliterated she forgot about the fact that she was sitting across the table from the woman who had been her best friend for over twenty years and lying to her every minute.
“So, what about you,” Carly shouted as they turned back to head downstairs where they guys were finishing with pool league. “You think you're back to stay?”
Julia shook her head, almost violently. “No, I don't. I mean, it’s fantastic being back, but I don't think it's permanent. It was never supposed to be,” Julia said sadly. She'd been through so much, between the divorce, moving home and then rekindling her relationship with Micah; Carly couldn't blame her for being a bit confused.
“What about Micah?” Carly asked, looking over her shoulder to where the men were filling out the post-match paperwork. “You two seem to be pretty hot and heavy now. Is he going to up and move with you when you go?”
Julia's entire body stiffened. “Hell no,” she said adamantly. “That's the thing, Carly. I've done everything in life for other people. I stayed in state for college because of Micah and we all know how well that turned out. I didn't get a job in my field when I graduated college because Josh didn't know where he was going to get a job and then, when he did, he was never contracted for long enough for me to establish myself, so I played the pretty little housewife.”
Carly snorted, immediately covering her face in embarrassment at the crude noise. “You, a housewife? Yeah, I don't see that working out. So then what?” Although they had spent some time together since Carly came back to town, this was the first time they were one-on-one. The more she heard, the more she hated the fact that she was getting on an airplane in less than twelve hours.
“Then he decided I wasn't exciting enough for him. He was screwing a co-worker for over a year before we split up.” Carly would have been pissed if that were her, but Julia sounded eerily okay with how things ended. “And then, I moved here to regroup. Annie's parents are renting me the house for cheap. If I didn't know better, I'd think Annie planned all of it, trying to get Micah and me together again.”
“Okay, so again, what happens with you and Micah when you leave?” It was a dirty trick, but keeping Julia's focus on her relationship with Micah kept Carly from having a chance to slip up about her own love life. “If you say he's not going with you, are you going to do the long distance thing?”
Julia was quiet for a long time. They had talked at lunch about her fears surrounding Micah and Carly knew those weren't going to be easy to get past. At the same time, after seeing Micah and Julia together, anyone could see they were still just as in love as they had been in high school. The difference was they now had a ton of baggage following them around.
“I really don't know,” she finally admitted. “Sure, the sex is fantastic, and he's still one of my best friends, but there's so much history there, I'm not sure if I can ever get past it. And Caleb's a terrific kid and all, but tying myself to Micah means tying myself to Caleb, and that means tying myself to that psycho-bitch mother of his.”
“I'm sure you'll figure it out,” Carly assured her. If ever two people were meant to be together, it was Micah and Julia.
“If I tell you something, can you keep it between us?” Julia asked, leaning in so Carly could hear her whispering.
“You know you can trust me.” Carly felt like a huge pile of crap as soon as the words came out of her mouth. Sure, Julia could trust her to keep a secret, but Carly didn't deserve that trust. Briefly, she debated coming clean once and for all.
Julia stared into her mixed drink as if it held the answers to all of life's questions. “I had a job offer right before I moved here and I'm thinking about calling her.”
It seemed everyone in Brooklyn was intent on keeping ridiculous secrets from one another. How had they ever had functional relationships on any level when they guarded the skeletons in their closets like they did?
“Okay, and that's a big secret for what reason?”
Julia lifted her gaze to look at Carly. “Because it's in New York.”
Carly's mouth dropped open just a bit. Of all the things Julia had to say, that wasn't something she expected. If only life wasn't so complicated, this could be the answer to all of her problems. She could have a true friend living in New York, possibly even moving in to Tatyana's bedroom, and she wouldn't be lonely. But that would mean telling Julia the truth. No way would she be able to sneak Adam in and out of the apartment without his sister noticing.
***
Adam was having a terrific time. He and Micah won all but one of their games, he'd had dinner with the woman he knew he was falling in love with and his sister was becoming a friend, not just someone with whom he shared DNA. All told, not many things could make it any better. Of course, he knew the three pitchers of beer he and Micah split fueled his merry mood.
As they walked ba
ck over to the table where the girls were sitting, Adam felt his good mood slipping away. More than anything, he wanted to pull Carly from her bar stool, spin her around and kiss the hell out of her face. But he couldn't do that. He had to pretend as if they were just friends if he had any hope of getting lucky a couple more times before she boarded the plane.
“Dude, it feels like someone just put a match to your fuse,” Micah laughed, noticing Adam's soured mood. “I feel an explosion in the very near future.”
Adam flipped him off and turned towards the bar. He needed to get his shit together before he sat down at the table with everyone. Micah was right; if Adam couldn't pull it together, Julia would put the pieces together before last call, and it wouldn't be pretty. He glanced over his shoulder to see Carly trying to watch him without the others noticing. He cocked his head to the side, silently asking her to join him at the bar. Rather than going to the open area closest to their table, he walked around to the end of the bar where the drunken crowd would obscure them.
“Hey, stranger,” Carly said as she casually slipped her hand around Adam's waist. She couldn't know it, but touching him just then was one of the worst things she could do. He wanted to go home and strip her out of her denim shorts and babydoll t-shirt. She'd never believe it, but her body was his temple and he wanted to worship her for as long as he could.
The corner of Adam's mouth turned up in a half-smile. “Hey, yourself. I've missed you tonight.” He groaned, realizing how cheesy he sounded.
Carly laughed, bumping her body against his side. “I've been right there,” she said, pointing to their table. “How could you miss me?”
Adam leaned in closer to her. “Because all night, I've had to look at you sitting there, thinking about how badly I wanted to slide my hands under your shirt, taking those gorgeous tits in my hands.”
When he saw her chest freeze as she tried to catch her breath, he continued. “I've been thinking about how easy it would be for me to sit down on the stool next to you and slide my fingers up the leg of those short fucking shorts so I could run them over your clit. If I did that now, I bet you'd be wet for me, wouldn't you?”