Stay With Me 3
Page 11
“Did you check your social media?” Karin asks him with a frown. She has just returned from her run, still in her workout clothes in his living room, like she has come straight to him.
“No,” he replies, muting the game that is on. “What about it?”
"Someone saw us at the hospital and they figured out that we went to see Karin and Declan and obviously that’s now proof that we’re together.”
“What?” he asks, instantly alarmed. “Why?”
“Because platonic friends don’t do that, it seems,” Karin groans and rounds the couch to flop down next to him with a frustrated grunt.
“You’d have come with me to see them anyway,” he huffs, turning to face her, hiking one leg onto the couch.
“That’s what I’m saying,” she mirrors his move, scooting closer, her hand landing on his thigh.
“But then again we weren’t that good at being platonic friends even when we were, right?” he smiles a little, annoyed but by the looks of it, not half as annoyed as her.
“I was terrible at it, to be quite honest,” she admits and it’s very distracting how little clothing she’s wearing and how close she is now, the exertion sweat clinging to her flushed body not the least bit disgusting, as it maybe should be.
“Me too,” he murmurs, rocking even closer to her, close enough that he could mouth at her shoulder, like he wants to.
“Anyway, I have an idea,” Karin continues, undeterred by him in her space - if you don’t count the goosebumps that have started to show on her arms. “About how to make this go away.”
“Pray tell,” he rasps, working his hand into the strands of hair that have fallen from her bun.
“We’re going to go on a double date,” Karin says, or at least he thinks she does, he’s not really paying attention. She does smell fantastic. “Very publicly, like we’ll post about it."
“Huh ... ” he asks, as soon as her words compute through the haze of his man brain clouding with want. Get your head in the game Shelton, at least a little.
“It’s the only thing we can do,” she shrugs, her muscles clenching under her skin, all enticing and unfairly alluring. “The only thing that’ll make people believe we’re not ....”
“Stupidly in love with each other?” he finishes for her and thinks he can self-reward his following her train of thought by dropping a kiss to her shoulder.
“Yes, that,” she agrees, a little out of breath. “So you agree?”
“Yes, whatever you say,” he murmurs, kisses her again, moving higher on her neck. “Let’s double date.”
“Declan, I mean it. I’ll find us people to ... ” she struggles against him and arches into his touch at the same time, which is funny, especially considering how her hand wanders from his thigh to where it’s pretty obvious she will lose him if she continues her trail. “..to take out and be seen with.”
“Sure thing,” he breathes and that’s that, her hand is on him. This conversation is over.
The next time he hears about double dating is when Karin hands him his phone after a good half hour scrolling to what she tells him are his direct messages on the Instagram app and shows him the picture of a blonde, model-like girl with sharp, small features and a smile even whiter than Karin’s. “This is Connie, she’s your date for next week,” she tells him merely as she gives his cell back.
“I can get a date on my own, you know?” he says bemusedly.
“I know,” Karin nods, touching her fingers to his neck and once again he’s distracted. Before she kisses him, he wonders briefly if she’s doing it on purpose. It’s hard to care though when she leans in to kiss him, turning his attention wholly away from the furniture store website he’s browsing to order some living room interior for his new house. After, she tells him her date will be some skier who’s actually sort of famous, whose actual agent reached out to Karin for setting up a date, which Declan thinks is hilarious and embarrassing because obviously this man can’t get a date on his own if he asks his agent to set it up for him. Pathetic.
Three days later, Declan and Karin walk down a busy downtown Tennessee street, two feet away from each other and dressed deliberately to not match. “I’m not sure I want to do this anymore,” he says, glancing over to her. Right now, her great plan seems more than a little insane.
“Declan,” she hisses, in time with the beat of her high heels clacking on the concrete. “You agreed.”
“Well, I wasn’t exactly at full mental capacity when you suggested it,” he argues and he can tell from her smirk that she very well remembers. "I don’t want to watch some asshole flirt with you all night.”
“I’m not too keen on witnessing some leggy blonde making heart eyes on you either,” she shrugs and walks just a bit closer to him.
“Rinny, you chose her,” he murmurs.
“Still,” and the way she sounds all prissy and jealous brightens his mood significantly.
“Oh, this is going to be fun, I can already tell,” he scoffs and then laughs genuinely, only barely resisting the urge to pull her in by the neck and walk the rest of the way to the restaurant with her head tucked under his arm. Platonic, he thinks to himself. It has got to look platonic.
The restaurant Karin picked for their double date is one of the finest in Tennessee, if not the finest. Actually, it’s about the only one you could consider high class, where usual people have to wait months for a reservation because it’s young and hip and what few ‘celebrities’ Tennessee has, here is where they eat. Karin marches straight up to the lady at the desk in front and they’re told that one of their dates, hers for that matter, is already waiting at the bar, and so they pick him up at the way over to their table.
Declan immediately wants to bolt and cancel the whole thing. Even more so when they reach Karin’s date, smartly dressed and leaning against the bar with a swagger Declan finds arrogant and cocky, and he realizes that the guy is a good head or two taller than him. He feels immediately emasculated, stunted and unattractive, and he knows it’s silly because Karin loves him and she doesn’t really want to date this other guy but that doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t change that the guy has a chiseled jaw, can actually grow a beard, and grins down at Karin easily in this self-satisfied, narcissist kind of way that always seems to work on so, so shamefully many women if the guy is even half-way good looking, and this one is more than even half-way good looking, too.
“Declan, this is Alban,” Karin says, introducing the two as they’re being led to their table. “He is an actor.”
“Stage actor,” Alban says, because apparently he thinks that needs further clarification and Declan tries his hardest not to scoff and occupies himself by pulling up a chair for Karin who gives him a dirty look he can’t understand until it dawns on him that it’s a very non-platonic thing to do, pulling up someone’s chair while their actual date is standing idly by. Not that this Alban person had made any move toward fixing her chair for her but still. Declan sits down appropriately sheepish, only to stand up again when Connie joins them who looks practically exactly as good in real life as she does on her social media and pulls out her chair. Karin doesn’t seem much happier with him for that either, though.
“So did you find it fine?” Karin asks across the table to Alban, he’s sitting opposite of hers, leaned back comfortably in his chair with Connie beside him. It’s unclear who is more attractive, him or her. Karin obviously takes the cake at the table, which means that Declan is the least handsome person in the round and he doesn’t like it much.
“Easy,” Alban answers evenly. “I got this sweet new ride with a prime navigation system.”
Declan’s throat is as dry as his tone. “Great.” So he’s got money, big deal, Declan has money too, now. Hell, Karin has money, she doesn’t need this clown. She doesn’t want him either, his voice of reason pipes up but the rest of him sings ‘Roxanne’ from the top of his lungs. He hates the way this guy looks at his girlfriend, like he could get it. To hell with that.
This is only the first of many questions Connie asks. She downright interviews him, keeps derailing the table conversation to ask him about his favorite dish or music or movies and whatever he answers, she says she likes too. Karin tries to open it up to the four of them a couple of times but Connie isn’t having it. Until they get their drinks, she exclusively plays Q&A with Declan, which Alban obviously takes as his cue to chat up Karin. Only that he doesn’t ask her about herself. He just tells her about his car and his flat, his extensive travelling and about his work. He’s been on Broadway, has he mentioned that? Declan occupies Connie with a question to tell him about her modeling and works his hand slyly under the tablecloth to land on Karin’s knee while she listens to Alban animatedly telling her about the legions of women that have propositioned him since he came back from his travels and how most of them don’t fit his high standards. Declan wishes he didn’t, but Alban explains exhaustively what those are.
“If a girl can't cook me something, I'm just not interested, you know?” he tells her conspiratorially and under the table, Karin’s hand finds Declan’s to squeeze. “I like a girl who's comfortable in the kitchen and someone who takes her appearance seriously. I don't know what the deal is with these girls who go out in public with no makeup, hair not done, and think that guys are going to go for that.” Declan has a hard time pretending to listen to Connie, what with how hard Karin is squeezing. “Not hot. Not hot at all."
Then he goes on a tangent about needy women, says the wonderful sentence: “I am only going to date a girl whose breasts fit perfectly in my hands when I cup them,” and makes some stupid jokes essentially designed to flatter Karin by talking down on other women and she giggles falsely. Declan wishes he could touch her again but their food has since arrived and it would look strange to eat with only just one arm. So he is left sitting there watching Connie pick apart a spinach salad as if she was deliberating the calories on each bite and listening to Alban entertain the girls with his insights into how the world works.
“Look, all I’m saying is that if women want to be equal, they have to take a punch, you know?” he declares, sawing at his steak - the most expensive item on the menu, of course. “Not in a bad way, like don’t get me wrong. But I can get beat up at the bar and nobody cares, like a woman slaps me across the face, it’s nothing, but if I’d do the same, I’d get arrested.” Alban actually says, with his own mouth. “It’s just a damn double standard.” Declan looks from Connie who looks only at him, like she isn’t even listening to Alban, or to Karin, whose left eye twitches just ever so slightly.
“Sorry, did you really just say that in order to be equal to men, women have to get beat up in bars?” Declan asks, putting his arm around the backrest of Karin’s chair without properly thinking about it.
“No, I just mean that if it happened, there shouldn’t be such a big deal made of it,” Alban shrugs, like he’s actually convinced that he solved the battle of the sexes.
“That’s complete and utter - ”
“Declan,” Karin says quickly, warningly. Don’t make a scene, her eyes stare back at his when he turns his head to look at her. Her eyes are huge but he’s heard enough for now.
“My phone is ringing,” he declares, out of thin air and produces an obviously dead phone from his pant pocket, extracting his arm from behind Karin. “It’s Letty, it might be important,” he continues, speaking just to her. “Because of the thing, Rinny. We better take this together.” And with that he gets up and starts walking away from the table. He doesn’t stop to see if she’s coming, he knows she will.
“Excuse us for a second,” he can hear her tell their dates behind him and then her chair scrapes over the expensive hardwood floor. “It’s business.”
Declan ducks down the stairs to where the ‘Restroom’ signs point, but passes right by as soon as they come upon them, Karin following a few paces behind. Instead, he takes another left into a secluded hallway. It’s empty, at the end of it is just the staff room, and there is no light coming from behind the door. They’re alone.
“Are you kidding me?” Declan whispers as soon as they round the corner. “What an asshole. What a joke.”
“I know,” Karin whispers back.
“But you’re flirting with him anyway,” Declan reminds her, shooting her a look that makes her raise an eyebrow.
“No, I’m not,” she says.
“He keeps touching you and you keep giggling,” he insists. “He isn’t even nice. He’s an idiot, Rinny. A sexist idiot.”
“You’re a little jealous, aren’t you?” she challenges and catches his hand in hers.
“No,” he says, far too quickly.
“I think it would be cute if you were,” she confesses and their eyes lock as she starts smirking. She’s serious.
“Well then, I am very jealous,” he tells her and watches her grin. He’s not really jealous, not completely anyway, but if she gets something out of it, alright, she can know. She blinks up at him and wets her lips, like she wants him to kiss her and he checks over his shoulder briefly to make sure the coast is clear to oblige her, happily. She kisses him back, just for a moment, with a smile on her mouth.
“I want to get out of here,” he says against her lips before he pulls away. Get out of the restaurant, back home with her, out of their clothes and into bed and never think about having to sit through a date with someone else and watch her do the same ever again.
“Just dessert and then we’ll go,” she promises, squeezes his hand one more time and then lets him go.
“I hate this guy,” Declan tells her, unnecessarily, but it still wanted out.
“It’s just for the night, baby,” she reassures him, pecks him quickly just on the corner of his lips and then charges ahead, back out, back to their dates. He sends a prayer up to the sky that dessert gets there quickly, so he can just take the right girl home and ditch the others.
About an hour later, after his prayers have been answered and they’re finally through with that strange dinner, Declan is already under the covers in her bedroom when Karin exits from her en suite, her hair undone and dressed in tiny little sleep shorts and a skimpy top he thinks is just for his benefit.
“She just texted me,” he tells her as she burrows in next to him, nodding to his phone on the nightstand where Connie’s last row of texts sits seen and unanswered.
“Why does she have your number?” Karin asks, sort of piqued-sounding and draws the blanket up so only her head is still visible. Her forehead is in testy wrinkles.
“Because she asked,” Declan shrugs. “I couldn’t say no, I’m supposed to be single, right?”
“Well, you could have also been turned off by her self-absorbed prattle and shot her down because of that,” Karin says, pouting.
“Who’s jealous now?” Declan can’t help but grin because she’s adorable and he loves her. “Come on, Rinny, she was completely ditzy.”
“Oh, but she wasn’t. She just wants you to think she is,” his girlfriend grumbles, making him reach over and pull her onto his chest. “What does she want?”
“To go out, just the two of us,” he replies to a displeased and rather unforgiving grunt from Karin. “I’m not going to.”
“You better not,” she grumbles.
“Come on, babe. That’s not even a question,” he promises and it’s silly that he has to.
“I know, I trust you,” she murmurs, thank God. “Anyway, I don’t like decoy dating. If we go on Ellen next week and deny this, people will leave us alone about it anyway.”
They do deny it on the numerous talk shows they attend. When a host asks them if they’re a cou
ple, Karin says no, but Declan, for some incomprehensible reason, nods. Nobody realizes it as it happens and he hadn’t even noticed that he’d done it but their fans have a field day with it later. They pour over the whole interview, Karin reads him a couple of tweets about it later. It’s a circus.
The articles, they continue to come out. He reads one interview Karin gives on the matter himself, mostly because she’s out showing off her first cover to everyone in town she knows, her face on a fashion magazine, all casual like she’s always been a model, and Declan guesses it’s alright. She denies they’re together again in the article, somewhat at least. It’s all good, they have done good at Ellen, at least they got the words out, established the party line: “It’s a compliment that people believed us!”
They’ll be fine, he knows they will be. Eventually, surely, people will move on.
***
People don’t move on. At least not immediately.
The speculation goes on for weeks, and both Karin and Declan are tired of people coming up to them on the street and grilling them on whether they’re really not a couple. The only reprieve they have is when Declan sneaks over to her apartment making sure not to be noticed.
They have sex more often now. They make their way through boxes of condoms, laying in each other’s arms until it’s time for Declan to leave. Karin doesn’t have to work at the café anymore and with all her debts paid off, there is a feeling of aimlessness that is slowly creeping up on her. She knows that Declan feels the same way too.
After taxes, their winnings were almost halved but they still had more than enough left over to do anything they wanted. Karin thought long and hard about it before deciding to launch a fashion line. She had always been interested in it but she had never had the time nor the resources to pursue it. But now she did!