“After that, he was cured,” Greg said. “He never talked about you again.
“Oh, well, that’s good,” I said, not sure what else to say.
“I guess sex with a hot girl will do that to you,” Alex said. “I wish I could have gotten lucky that night. I went home to my computer.”
“Alex!” Ari chastised him. “There are women present. Keep it under control.”
“Dude, you go home to your computer every night,” Greg chimed in.
“Greg!” Ari admonished him, but she was smiling. Greg just shrugged sheepishly.
I could tell that Ari was used to being the only girl around a bunch of guys. I liked her immediately. I snuck a look at Julie. She looked uncomfortable. Obviously the combination of hearing that the guy she was dating had taken almost a year to get over the girl sitting next to her and then had casual sex with a hot girl who danced on tables had shaken her slightly. Not to mention the fact that Beckett’s friends were chatting with me like we’d known each other for years. She looked cautiously at Beckett who was working on getting the eight ball in one of the pockets. The game was almost over.
I watched as he missed the pocket he was aiming for. He leaned against a pole, as he waited for Tim to shoot. Tim focused on his shot, pushed his pool stick forward and tapped the cue ball. It rolled gently across the table, knocked against the eight ball and fell into the chosen pocket.
He calmly set his pool stick down, turned to Beckett and said, “You owe me a pitcher.”
Beckett rolled his eyes. “Whatever, man. Good game.” He put his hand up.
Tim smiled, then high-fived Beckett. They came to sit at our table filling in the seat next to Julie and the one directly across from me.
“Did you guys meet Courtney and Julie,” Beckett asked, sliding his arm around Julie. She stiffened slightly.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his hand where it rested around her waist. It was just inches from me. I could reach out and touch his fingers if I wanted to. It was tempting.
“Courtney?” Tim asked, appraising me from across the table. “The legend in the flesh. Nice.”
Beckett just rolled his eyes, his arm tightening around Julie slightly, and I could see her visibly relax.
“Yes, we all met,” Ari said, smiling at me. “Your boys were just embarrassing you with stories from college, Beck.”
“Oh yeah,” Beckett said, raising his eyebrows at Alex and Greg. “What did you guys say?”
“Nothing, man,” Alex said, focusing on his beer.
“Oh, yeah, nothing,” I said, smiling at Beckett. “How’s Brit Kennedy?”
I took a sip of my beer to hide my laughter, as I watched his face change from relaxed to grim, then to a smile.
“Man, you told them that story,” he said, shaking his head. “Remind me to kick your asses later.” He took a swig of his beer.
We all chatted easily for the next hour or so. I realized halfway through the night that Julie wasn’t speaking much. She was just listening to the conversation, as the rest of us traded stories about our common denominator – Beckett. It was all light-hearted, as I told them funny things he’d done and they reciprocated, filling me in on the two years I’d missed. The pitchers kept coming, but I stayed in control. I only let myself drink three beers.
“Hey, so Julie, has Beckett been boring you with his history lessons?” Greg asked.
“What do you mean?” Julie asked, and I secretly smirked at Beckett. At least I wasn’t the only one who made fun of his historical facts.
“Hey, did you know that we are currently in Beacon Hill, and years ago Beacon Hill was twice as tall, but then they cut half of it off to fill in Back Bay which was a swamp,” Tim said, mimicking Beckett and everyone started laughing.
Beckett just laughed and shook his head. “You guys suck.”
“I think your stories are interesting,” Julie said sweetly, as she kissed Beckett on the cheek.
“Thank you, Julie,” he said, loud enough for the whole group to hear.
It was then that I excused myself to go to the bathroom. As I did, Ari hopped off her chair, saying she would go with me. Beside me, I felt Julie move, as well and say she was going too. Alex muttered something about girls always going to bathroom together but never inviting him. Beckett was right. He was shameless.
Ari fell into step beside me and linked her arm through mine, but Julie stayed behind us. Ari talked the whole way to the bathroom. I could tell we were going to be friends. She was a lot of fun. Julie didn’t speak until after we were washing our hands and reapplying lip gloss in front of the mirror.
“Courtney?” she asked softly, all traces of bitterness gone. “Can I say something?”
“Sure,” I said, focusing on my lip gloss wand.
“I really like Beckett,” she said, “but if there’s something there between you two, I don’t want to stand in the way. I know you have a lot of history.”
I looked up in shock, and beside me, I could feel Ari do the same.
“Julie, what do you mean?” I asked, feigning ignorance.
“I can see the way he looks at you,” she said. “I know there are still feelings there.” She shrugged, her eyes wide with innocence. “And, after seeing you guys together last night, I’m just wondering if there’s any reason for me to stick around.”
Ari’s eyes went wide, and I could see the questions forming in her mind. Thankfully she didn’t say anything. If definitely would have made things worse.
“No, Julie,” I said. “Beckett and I are just friends. That was what last night was about. I know it was probably uncomfortable for you to hear all that stuff the guys were saying earlier, but you should know that it all happened a long time ago.”
“I want to believe you,” she said. “But I’m not so sure he feels the same way.”
“He does,” Ari chimed in, and I could tell Julie found her to be more credible than me.
Julie nodded. “I guess.” She started toward the door. “I’ll see you guys out there, okay?”
We both nodded.
As soon as she was out the door, Ari turned to me. “Just so you know,” she said. “I’m not so sure I was telling the truth just now.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” she hesitated, “Beckett didn’t talk about you for a while, but lately, you’ve come up a lot. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Well, we’ve been hanging out some, so that make sense. Trust me, we’re just friends,” I said, almost saying it at that point to convince myself it was true.
“Okay,” she said. “I just thought you should know.”
“Thanks, Ari,” I said, as I put my lip gloss back into my purse.
She nodded.
I followed her back to the table and settled into my seat armed with this new information. It took me a full minute before I realized Julie and Beckett were gone.
“Where are Julie and Beckett?” I asked no one in particular.
“Julie didn’t feel well, so she called a cab. Beck went outside to wait with her. He said he’d be back in a few minutes,” Greg said.
I nodded. So she didn’t believe me. I twirled my ring nervously as I waited for Beckett to come back. He didn’t say anything when he did. He just smiled at me as he sat down. Then the conversation returned to normal. He didn’t mention Julie or why she’d left, so if she’d given him a different reason than illness, he wasn’t sharing it.
I ended up staying out much later than I’d planned to, drinking more than my three beer limit after Julie left and laughing with Beckett and his friends. I was having so much fun I didn’t realize that when Alex took off around one in the morning, Beckett and I were the only ones left.
“I guess I should get going,” I said, after Alex had left, saying something about pants and the computer. I was pretty sure I was glad I didn’t hear the full comment.
“You don’t have to,” Beckett said.
“I should,” I sa
id, standing up from my stool and stumbling slightly.
The room spun around me for a minute before I steadied myself. I put my arms out to keep from falling down. Beckett laughed at me as he jumped up to stand next to me, putting his arm around my waist.
“Okay, so I guess I’m a little drunker than I thought,” I said, laughing as I threaded my arm behind Beckett’s back.
“Come on,” he said. “I’m not comfortable sending you home alone like this. We’ll go to my apartment.”
As we walked, arms around each other, me leaning on him for support, my radar suddenly went off. I stopped in my tracks. “I can’t go to your apartment,” I said.
“Why not?” he asked, looking down at me.
“Because it would be bad,” I said, not able to come up with anymore details than that.
He just laughed. “Nothing’s going to happen, Court. I’ll make you some coffee, let you sober up, and then I’ll take you home.”
“You promise nothing’s going to happen?” I asked, not convinced.
He just laughed, and sang a line from a song about being paranoid and everyone coming to get me. I couldn’t decide in that moment if it was annoying or endearing that he seemed to have a song for every situation. I decided the jury was still out on that one.
Fifteen
When I opened my eyes the next morning, I recognized nothing around me. Of course I panicked, sitting up at once, trying to clear my eyes as I took in my surroundings. Living room. I was on someone’s couch. There was a glass of water on the table next to me. I grabbed it and took a sip, realizing my mouth felt pasty. I downed half of it in three gulps.
Copies of Sports Illustrated and Maxim on the coffee table. Picture of Yankee Stadium on the wall – eww – where the hell was I? I took another sip of water. It was obviously a guy’s apartment. Panic set in as it definitely wasn’t Ryan’s apartment.
I set my water back on the table when my eyes focused in on a framed picture of three people I knew. It took my fuzzy brain a minute to realize they were Beckett and his older sisters Katie and Jill. I then noticed the exorbitant number of historical biographies on the bookshelf and realized I was at Beckett’s apartment. Then my eyes went wide as I repeated that to myself again. I looked down in a panic and then relaxed when I realized I was still fully clothed.
My memory flickered back to the night before. Flashes of Beckett and me at the Beacon Hill Pub with his friends, us walking back to his apartment together, him making coffee for me at two in the morning and him sitting across from me in the arm chair in his living room as I sat on his couch. We’d talked for hours.
I realized then that I must have fallen asleep at some point. Did something happen before then, though? The panic returned to me fast and furious. A quick glance at my watch told me it was almost noon. I didn’t hear or see Beckett anywhere. I figured he must still be sleeping, so I got up slowly, tossing aside the blanket that he’d apparently laid on top of me. I needed to get out of there, but before I did that, I needed to locate the bathroom. I tiptoed slowly across the hardwood floors, being as quiet as possible. I didn’t want Beckett to wake up.
Inside the bathroom, I quickly rinsed my pasty mouth with mouthwash and did a pitiful brush job with my finger and some toothpaste. A quick glance in the mirror told me I didn’t look as bad as I thought I would. I scraped my long hair into a ponytail and opened the door as quietly as possible. Sneaking back down the hallway toward the living room, I located my bag and shoes, slipped them on and was about the head out the front door when it opened to reveal Beckett with coffee and bagels.
“Sneaking out,” he said, a grin spreading over his face.
My face turned bright red. “Guilty.”
“I have breakfast – and caffeine. Are you sure you have to go right now?”
I looked at the carrier in his hands. Coffee actually sounded really good. What could a few more minute hurt?
“Love some,” I said, setting my bag back down and kicking off my shoes.
I settled back on the couch as he handed me my coffee. “Extra strong, non-fat vanilla latte,” he said.
I took a sip, savoring the first taste of my favorite drink. Beckett took the same seat he’d taken the night before. We stared at each other for a few minutes.
“Nothing happened,” he said, as if reading my mind.
“Good,” I said.
“You tried,” he said, “but I was a good boy. I told you ‘no, Courtney, I will not have sex with you on a park bench in the middle of Boston Common’. But, you were insistent. You took all your clothes off and demanded that I streak with you. Finally I had to give you a tranquilizer, and you passed out.”
I realized halfway through his little story that he was joking. “Ha, ha,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee. “Let me guess what really happened. I passed out on your couch, and I was so dead to the world that you couldn’t move me. So you kindly covered me with a blanket and went to sleep in your own bed.”
He smiled. “That’s a little more accurate.”
I just raised my eyebrows at him and wondered if it was just me who could feel the sexual tension in the room. It was then that my cell phone chirped to alert me that I had a text message. I walked across the room, wondering if it was Ryan and how I might explain this little situation I’d gotten myself into.
It was from my mom. ‘Parking now. Will be there in 10 min.’ it said. What the hell was she talking about?
“Oh, shit!” I said, slapping my hand to my forehead. I had completely forgotten that I had made plans to meet my mother for lunch. She was in the city shooting a wedding later that afternoon, so we’d agreed to meet up at Charlie’s on Newbury Street.
“What?” Beckett asked, his face full of concern.
I looked up at him. “I’m supposed to be having lunch with my mom in ten minutes,” I said.
I looked down at my rumpled outfit. I would never have time to go home and change. I would just have to go like that.
“I’d love to come,” Beckett said then, and I looked up at him.
“What?”
“I’m going to come to lunch with you,” he said. “I haven’t seen your mom in a few weeks, so I’m going to come.”
“Did I invite you?” I asked, as he walked past me into his room.
“No,” he called back, “but you know she’ll be happy to see me. She loves me. Once she finds out that you look wrinkled because you crashed on my couch, she’ll be upset that you didn’t bring me to lunch. I’m just making it easy on you.”
He had a point. Unless I wanted to lie about where I’d spent the night, but I was too tired to lie and nothing had happened anyway. I wasn’t ashamed. Unless Ryan was asking, and then I might have to fudge the truth just a bit.
“Fine, you get to come,” I said to his closed bedroom door.
“Here,” he said, tossing out a piece of clothing to me. “It’s Katie’s. She left it here last month. It’s clean.”
I held up a new ‘vintage’ t-shirt with the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA album on the front. Perfect, I thought, as I swapped it with my wrinkled white tee. A minute later Beckett emerged wearing fresh clothes and a Yankee hat.
“Ugh, don’t wear that thing around me,” I said.
I am a die-hard Red Sox fan, and yes, I dated a Yankee fan. I know I should be kicked out of The Nation for that, but I couldn’t help it. He was way too charming back then. My dad still won’t let me live it down. He still teases me mercilessly about dating a Yankee fan. He much prefers Ryan’s allegiance to the Sox.
“Fine,” he said amiably, tossing it back in his room and selecting a Boston College hat from a hook by the front door.
I stared at him in awe. It was the first time he’d ever acquiesced his Yankee hat for me. Maybe we were making progress.
On the way I put in a quick call to Summer to see if she could take Gryffin out. I felt horrible for my poor dog who hadn’t used the bathroom since nine o’clock the night before. Thankfu
lly Summer was home and had already taken him out, but I had to lie to her and tell her I was at Ryan’s apartment so she didn’t get suspicious. I could decide later if I wanted to tell her that I spent the night on Beckett’s couch. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to share that little tidbit of information.
Beckett and I walked into Charlie’s ten minutes late, but not in trouble, because Beckett was with me. I swear that boy could do no wrong in my mom’s eyes.
“Beckett!” she said, hugging him first. “Well, isn’t this a nice surprise.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, as we took our seats. “Beckett’s here. All is right with the world.”
“Courtney,” my mother admonished, but she was smiling as she said it.
“What?” I asked. “He’s perfect according to you.”
“He is,” she said. “He’s so handsome. No one makes an omelet like him. And who else knows that much about history.”
I rolled my eyes, and Beckett just beamed. My mother was one of the only people, besides Julie, who found Beckett’s penchant for sharing little known historical facts fascinating. She used to sit captivated by his stories of this war or that battle or this important person, letting him talk for as long as he wanted.
Across the table, Beckett smirked at me. “See, some people appreciate my extensive historical knowledge.”
“One person,” I said. “One person appreciates your useless facts.”
“I have it on good authority that there are two classes full of students at BC that would disagree with you. I’m quite fascinating, you know.”
I kicked him teasingly under the table. “I don’t believe you,” I said, raising my eyebrows at him.
“Well, you’ll just have to come see me teach one of these days, won’t you,” he said, raising his eyebrows back at me.
I leaned forward on the table on my elbows. “I just might have to do that,” I said back.
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