Uninvolved

by Carey Heywood

  Back at her desk, Becka got to work. She spent most of her days on autopilot, depending on the type of document she was filing. Mid-morning, an icon popped up, informing her of a new email. Various corporate emails went out on a daily basis, so she wasn’t expecting anything interesting when she went to check it. The last thing she expected was an email from Nate Parker.

  Becka gasped, unable to open it right away. Questions raced through her mind. Was the email just to her or to the whole team? What did he write?

  Taking a deep breath, she opened it.

  Miss me yet?

  That was all the email said. It was one sentence of three words, just to her. Becka was thrilled, even though she thought his message was a bit snotty. Two can play at that game, she thought.

  Oh, you aren’t here?

  Ouch, that hurts. Have a fun weekend?

  Becka's mouth hurt, she was smiling so hard. He emailed her. That had to mean something.

  It was fun. Went out with the girls. You?

  Didn’t do much. I had a soccer game.

  They went back and forth like this the rest of the morning. Around lunchtime, he emailed.

  Heading to Quizno's for lunch. Want to come?

  Sure. Right now?

  In five. Meet you at the front entrance.

  Sounds good.

  Becka had brought lunch today but figured she could just eat it the next day. She pulled out her compact, checked her makeup, and then popped a stick of vanilla mint gum into her mouth. Becka was thrilled she hadn’t overslept and looked cute today. She was wearing a black and white chevron printed sheath dress with a coral cardigan. Becka texted Lucy an OMG Nate asked me out to lunch before she left. She met Nate at the main entrance of their building.

  Nate worked on the second floor while her office was on the first. He was already there waiting for her. She admired him as she approached. Nate was wearing khaki slacks with a light blue-striped dress shirt. All she could think was “don’t trip, don’t trip, don’t trip” as she approached him. He looked edible, and Becka would be inches away from him in his car in a minute.

  In his car! Becka was not sure why that thought excited her so much, but she was also thrilled to see there was no one else coming with them. She could pretend it was a date. Easy crazy person, she thought to herself. This is just lunch. Taking a deep breath, she slowly made her way over to him.

  "Hey, kid," he said once she reached him.

  "Kid?" she smirked.

  "Yep. Come on. Let's go." Nate laughed.

  Becka wasn’t sure how she felt about his nickname. She really wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing. Plus, she was pretty sure he could call her just about anything, and she would be cool with it. He drove a black Nissan SUV. Becka carefully climbed into her seat. The skirt of her dress was pencil style and, since the seat was higher than that of her Corolla, she had to back up to the seat and hoist herself up before swinging her legs around.

  "Got it?" Nate grinned once she was settled.

  Becka was blushing as she buckled her seat belt. Short of flashing a lot of leg, it had seemed sensible at the time. Checking herself out in the side mirror, Becka fluffed her hair and then turned to Nate with a grin as he started the car. His radio was tuned to a sports talk show. He turned it down as they left the parking lot. He reached into the center console and pulled out an iPod.

  "Linkin Park good?" he asked, scrolling through his playlist.

  "Are you brave enough to put it on shuffle and let me judge you?" Becka countered.

  "Alright, kid. You don’t scare me," he replied.

  "Seriously, why do you keep calling me kid? You know that's not my name, right? Besides, how old do you think I am?" Becka asked.

  They were at a red light, so Nate made a production of looking her over. Becka reddened under his gaze but saucily met his eyes and raised her brows. He nodded and then turned back to the road as the light had changed to green.

  "So…" Becka went on.

  "You are definitely a kid." He grinned, looking straight ahead.

  Becka hmphed and crossed her arms over her chest. Nate turned into the parking lot of the Quizno’s and parked.

  "Need a hand getting out?" he asked, doing a bad job of concealing his mirth.

  "I am perfectly capable of getting out of a car," Becka returned, daintily swinging her legs to the side and sliding onto her feet.

  Becka was a step or so ahead of Nate. At the door of the restaurant, a handsome man who was walking out held the door for Becka. She smiled up at him, thanking him as she walked in. Nate stopped, putting his hand on the door to imply that he could hold his own door. The cute stranger checked out Becka one more time before leaving. Becka felt Nate's eyes on her back. Betcha that guy didn’t think she was a kid. Becka kept her back to him as she giggled to herself. Her dress might be a pain to climb stairs or get into cars, but it did make her ass look amazing.

  She ordered first, and, once she got her food, she turned and asked, "Where do you want to sit?"

  "Anywhere is good," he said.

  Becka picked a small bistro table, thrilling in the prospect of close contact. She had to admit in that moment that she did feel a little guilty knowing he had a girlfriend. All of this was just harmless flirting, she repeated to herself. Though she had to admit when he turned to come sit with her that that wasn’t true. If he were to make a move, she would be all over him. When he sat down, his knee hit Becka's.

  "Oh, sorry," he said, reaching down and patting her knee.

  Her breath caught at the contact, and he raised his eyes to hers.

  "Um, yeah," he said, resting both of his hands on the table and looking down at them. "Let's eat."

  Becka bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing. At least he hadn’t called her a kid again. That was really annoying. What was he, like maybe three years older than her?

  "You eat more than most girls I know," Nate said, studying her.

  Her mouth would have dropped open if it wasn’t full.

  "Hmpxcuse me?" she mumbled, doing her best to swallow her mouthful.

  "Really, where do you put it all?" Nate was flat out laughing at the horrified expression on her face.

  "Um, maybe it's genetic. My mom and dad have both always been really thin."

  Nate was full on clutching his gut laughing at this point.

  "What?" she huffed.

  "I didn’t expect an actual family history. You are pretty funny, kid."

  Nate concluded his statement by patting her on the head. This time her mouth did drop as she ducked her head away from him and glared at him. He put his hands under his chin and smiled at her innocently. Ugh. He is so frustrating, she thought to herself. She could not wrap her brain around the fact that, two weeks ago, she didn’t even know him and yet here he was. So big and annoying and gorgeous in her life. Once they had finished eating, Nate piled her trash on top of his and tossed it out before opening the door for her.

  "Thanks," Becka whispered, looking up through her lashes at him as she passed in front of him.

  Becka dug around in her purse for her sunglasses. Her purse felt like a black hole sometimes. Nate waited with her on the curb until she found them then they made their way to his car. Feeling a bit daring, she hitched her skirt up indecently high and climbed into his SUV. Nate sat frozen, seat belt pulled halfway across his chest, staring at her.

  "Need help with that?" Becka asked. She reached across the console and took the clasp from his hand, pulling it the rest of the way and clicking it into place, trying to ignore how warm his hand had been.

  Becka then shimmied in her seat, doing her best to pull her dress back towards her knees before buckling her own belt. When she turned to look at him, she was surprised by how intensely he was looking at her. His gaze was smoldering. It made her feel warm all over. Nate cleared his throat then started the car. They drove back in an awkward silence. She glanced at Nate more than once, only to see him quickly look away.

  After he park
ed, neither of them moved to get out of his car right away. Becka flipped down the passenger sun visor and reapplied her lip gloss. She took more time than normally needed to do this and exaggeratedly rubbed her lips together once they were coated in gloss. She then grinned in the mirror to double check that there wasn’t anything in her teeth.

  "All set?" Nate asked, moving to unbuckle himself.

  "Ready as I'll ever be."

  As they walked back towards the building, their hands brushed on accident a couple times. Each time Becka’s breath caught in excitement.

  After he opened the main door for her, Nate playfully punched her shoulder and said, "We should do this again sometime, kid" before heading towards his office.

  Becka stood there for a moment before turning in the opposite direction towards her office. As she slowly made her way back downstairs to her office, she replayed their lunch outing in her mind, focusing on moments like when he touched her knee or the look in his hazel eyes in the car. When she got back to her desk, she called Lilly.

  "Guess who I just went to lunch with?" she began and then proceeded to tell her about their excursion.

  Nate emailed her each day, and they would go back and forth until it was time for either lunch or it was the end of the day, only to pick back up the next day from where they had left off. She was thrilled but annoyed that he hadn’t invited her out to lunch again. As they emailed on Friday afternoon, they discussed any plans for the weekend. Becka told him that since her roommate wasn’t working, she would probably be going out to a bar with him.

  Him? Your roommate is a dude?

  Yeah, his name is Dave.

  Interesting.

  He's cool. We’ve known each other forever.

  He didn’t reply after that. Becka pouted and shut down her computer. For the first time ever, Becka was bummed about leaving work on a Friday. She had just grown to enjoy their emails so much. Nate was smart and snarky in a fun way. When she talked to him over email, they joked, and she felt a feeling of excitement in their verbal sparring. She was used to flirting with guys she was attracted to, but this was different. They talked about anything and everything. It was fun that he had the same weird sense of humor that she had.

  When she got home, Dave was playing some single shooter Xbox game. He was so serious with his headset on. It always made her laugh when she heard him say stuff like “cover me” or “someone take out that sniper.” Seeing her walk in, Dave nodded in her direction. Grabbing a bottle of flavored water, she came and sat down by him, kicking her shoes off then pushing them under the coffee table.

  Becka called Lucy but only got her voicemail. She left her a quick message about Nate asking her to lunch and all of the emails back and forth. Afterward, Becka picked up her eReader from the coffee table and started reading. Getting up an hour or so later to grab some food, she motioned for Dave to pause his game.

  "What's up? How's Lilly?"

  "I got her voicemail. Hey, did you want to go out tonight or stay in?" she asked, walking towards the kitchen.

  "I'm down with going out," Dave said. "Let me just finish this up and we'll talk."

  Becka zapped a microwave dinner and ate it at their breakfast bar. Dave came around and made himself a sandwich.

  "Where did you want to go?" Becka asked.

  With Dave, there were only three possible answers. There was a hole-in-the-wall bar around the corner from their place that they could stumble home from, an Irish pub where he could drink some obscure dark beer on tap, or a beach-style bar that usually had a good live band and open pool tables.

  "Let's go to O'Malley's. You get to buy tonight to pay me back for my beer you and your friends drank last weekend." Dave pulled her ponytail.

  "Whatever," Becka grumbled, readjusting her elastic.

  Becka took a shower before getting ready to go out. The easiest way to get the bump from the rubber band out of her hair was to wash it. Waste of water, maybe, but definitely worth it. She and Dave ended up having a great time. They had their wingman/woman relationship down to a science. He would act like her boyfriend whenever someone she wasn’t interested in approached. Although she rarely had to pretend to be his girlfriend because Dave was almost always interested. Otherwise, Becka would point out the easy targets for Dave. She needed less help being hit on herself.

  The one thing that always made Becka nervous about this bar was the band that played. Their music was great: fun, loud Irish drinking songs. What made her paranoid was the lead singer would stop mid-song and randomly point to someone in the crowd. Whoever got pointed at was expected to slam whatever they were drinking. She stuck to cocktails in the smaller glasses just to be safe. It was Dave, not Becka, that had to slam a drink that night. An almost-full Guinness that he threw down like a pro. Someone at a table next to them asked if he was Irish, he drank so well. He also caught the attention of the red-headed bar tender he had been lusting after for months and scored her number.

  "Don’t screw her over. I like that place and would like to keep going there." Becka said once their cab dropped them off at home.

  "My interest in her is purely scientific," Dave mumbled drunkenly.

  "Huh?" Becka turned back him.

  "Gotta find out if the carpet matches the drapes." He licked his lips suggestively.

  "God, I am so sorry I asked. Night, Dave. I'm going to go barf now." Becka continued on to her room.

  Becka was pretty hung over the next day, but Dave seemed to be in worse shape. Maybe slamming that drink had been his downfall. After taking some Advil and drinking a couple bottles of water, Becka felt better. Dave stumbled out of his room at mid-day and headed straight to the back porch for a smoke. She followed him.

  "When do you want to go pick up your car?" She asked since they had left it at the bar the night before.

  "Not in any hurry," he said, shading his eyes from the sun. “I don’t work tonight. Did you want to go out again?"

  "I better not. I'm feeling pretty poor and don’t get paid again until next week. Besides, I do not need to be drinking again after last night." Becka admitted.

  "Did you get sick last night?"

  "Nope. I thought I was in trouble for a sec there when I laid down, and my room started spinning. I had to fall asleep with one foot on the ground," Becka admitted, laughing.

  "Dork! I'm cool with staying in. I might play some COD if that’s cool with you."

  "Sure, as long as you have your headset on. I'll probably just read my book and go to bed early," Becka replied.

  Becka ran a hot bath and took her eReader in with her to read. She often read while taking a bath, and one of her biggest fears in life was the possibility she could die by electrocution if she dropped her eReader in the tub, or, worse, that she might break it. She hadn’t ever taken the time to actually Google if death by eReader tub submersion was possible. She was just extra careful with it while it the tub instead.

  Becka took a lot of baths in general. She just loved to soak. Plus, she hated shaving her legs standing up, so she would shave while sitting on the rim of the tub once her soak was complete. She was walking into her bedroom wrapped in a towel when she heard her phone buzzing. She didn’t recognize the number but answered anyway.

  "Hello?"

  "Hey, Becka."

  It was a guy, but she couldn’t place the voice.

  "Who is this?" Becka asked, curious.

  "It's Nate."

  Oh my God, she thought to herself, sinking onto her bed. Be cool. Just be cool, she thought to herself.

  "Oh. Hey, Nate. How are you?"

  "I'm good. Hey, you live over by Arrowhead Mall, right?"

  "Um, yeah. I'm a few streets south of the mall. Why do you ask?”

  "Oh, well, if you're not doing anything I thought I would swing by and say hey since I'm near there. Did you have any plans tonight?"

  Becka was stunned. She would love to see him but how pathetic would it be to admit she had nothing going on. Plus, what was the deal with hi
m calling all last minute just wanting to drop by?

  "Um, Becka, are you still there?" he asked.

  "I'm here. I was just surprised. I went out last night, so I had planned on staying in tonight. I guess you could come over. I just have to put on some clothes first. When were you thinking of coming?"

  Becka grinned at herself. She felt very flirty for mentioning her lack of clothing. It had its intended effect, though.

  "You're not wearing any clothes?"

  "I, um, just got out of the bath. I'm sitting here in a towel."

  "Well, um, I'm actually in my car right now. Depending on what your address is, I can probably be there in like five minutes. Is that too soon? Besides, you really don’t have to get dressed on my account."

  "Really funny. I guess we'll find out," Becka said and then gave him her address.

  How flirty was that! He just told her she didn’t have to put on clothes. Becka was sure he was joking but, still, it made her stomach flip. She raced around her room shoving all of the clothes that were just randomly laying on her dresser and floor into her closet. She pulled on a cute matched underwear set and a pair of short running shorts and a tank top. She then hurried into the living room, causing Dave to jump up.

  "Christ, Becks, you scared the shit out of me. What's up? See a spider?" he asked, pausing his game.

  "Nate, that guy I told you about, is coming over right now. Help me clean up and then go to your room," Becka ordered as she folded a throw blanket and laid it across the back of their sofa.

  "Screw that. I want to see this guy," Dave said mischievously.

  "I will chop off your balls if you embarrass me," Becka threatened.

  Dave grudgingly helped her pick up by taking out their kitchen and bathroom trash while Becka lit a couple of candles. Then she threw on some make up and ran a brush through her wet hair. Becka left her hair down to air dry and rubbed her legs and arms with lotion. Lastly, she misted herself with vanilla body-spray just as she heard a knock at their door.