31. Face to FaceTime
thirty-one
Face to FaceTime
“ W e could have met for lunch. I’ve never known you to drive all the way home on your break.” Helen sits on my couch fumbling through her work email searching for an urgent attachment while I shave.
“I thought I had a change of clothes at work, but I didn’t, so I came home to shower.”
“You didn’t shower before work this morning? Dirty.”
“I was in a hurry.”
“Oh, I’m sure you were dribbling down to the last quarter if not overtime.”
“Why? What’d she say?” I peek my head around the corner so I can see Helen.
“Good God, Kourt. Who owns this many blankets?”
“It gets colder this high up on the mountain.” I towel my face and charge into the living room.
“Don’t you have a heater?”
“I like blankets.” My brow hikes as Helen looks up from her phone, clocking the fireplace and two pillows on the living room floor.
“Gross. Am I in it? Am I sitting in the sex den?” She jumps up and walks toward the window away from the living room.
“Oof! Not that chair! I wouldn’t!” I stop her with an over-the-top hand gesture and a coy smile.
“You’re disgusting. You have a bedroom.”
My mind wanders to my bedroom and all I see is Erika in it. I spin from Helen and continue picking up blankets before I have to explain a hard on like we’re back in junior high.
“Are you going to spill, or…”
“You were right. I’m sorry I’m a dick and fought you on it.”
“I’d ask you to say it again, but it was almost painful to hear. And right about what exactly?”
I toss a couch pillow into its rightful spot and tilt my head, giving her a death glare.
“You can say her name you know. I’m sure you said it plenty last night.”
I charge over to Helen with a throw pillow to beat her with.
“Okay, okay, okay. Uncle. God you’re your giddy. I mean, I knew it had been a minute, but it hasn’t been that long since you got laid.”
I’ve never been laid like that.
“So what’s going on?”
“Helen. It’s insatiable. I can’t get enough. I fucking want her. Like lose my mind level and I don’t know how we kept it at bay so long and now it scares the hell out of me.”
Helen puts her phone down and begins pacing the length of the window. “Okay. Woah. Woah. Just you two. Woah.”
“You two? What did she say?”
“Again. Woah. Normally when two people get together to have sex who aren’t sixteen, they wait. Wait for the other shoe to drop. Will the person call or text, does he live with his mother… you know. But this, I get that it’s different—”
“You have no idea.”
“Well tell me, Kourt. You got me up here on your mountain in the middle of a workday. Shoot.”
I extend my hand leading her to sit at my kitchen island, and I run my fingers through my hair trying to find the words.
“You know those incredibly happy in love people, who say things like, ‘it’s different when you find the one—you just know.’ They make it seem like they know some secret and have a better life than the rest of us because they found the one or their person . ”
“Yeah…”
“Helen. I don’t think even they have experienced what I have.”
“Oh. Shit.”
I shake my head and drop it into my hands. Helen pats my back and says it again, “Shit.”
The look in Helen’s eyes when she waves goodbye is the same knowing look she had at the funeral three years ago.
She knew I had shut down that day, and would blame myself, just like she knows today I have no clue what I’m doing.
But if it is serious enough for me to tell her—it’s real and I’ve got it bad.
Helen reads me like an open book no matter how closed off I get.
Did I jump the gun sharing that with her? No. She would’ve known the next time she saw Erika and me together. I have to be honest with my best friend because I might fucking need her.
I took a break last night from the holiday festivities and my personal pursuit.
Not to be standoffish at all—but to rest. I figured her body needed it and so did mine.
Christmas will be here before we all know it, and Erika has a lot on her plate.
Helen said she and Georgia were dragging her to a committee that offered to volunteer, and then it was the trial night of the ice rink, to determine who and how to man the station.
It was a full night that didn’t require my services.
Yeah, about that…
After my reveal to Helen, I want to be careful. I feel the need to make it clear to both of us. It’s not just the sex for me. It’s her.
Good luck with that. I can’t think of her without wanting to touch her.
Erika and I hadn’t really done the whole text thing yet, and I didn’t call last night, again, to respect her time.
Fuck if this isn’t the opposite of every other situation I’ve been in.
Forget three days before calling after a first date.
I would leave those women stewing for three weeks with just a one word text response or two, before I finally called and asked them out again. Dick.
Now I’m the one stewing, hoping I didn’t offend her or do something wrong by not calling or texting or showing up after the night we had together.
When I pull up to town square after work, it’s only around four, but the courthouse Christmas decorations are fully lit, and there are cars everywhere. June was right about the parking.
The poinsettia tree looks insane beside the ice rink. It’s a tour de force that would rival the entrance to a five-star luxury hotel at Christmas. Erika has it lit from the bottom around the entire base.
“Hey Coach.” A student calls from a small crowd of workers, and I wave back, nodding and mouthing hello to all who greet me as I get closer to the vendors.
“Thank you again, it’s perfect.” The voice that strains my dick against my zipper calls out to someone a few feet away. The young couple beside me waves goodbye to Erika, and her eyes shift to meet mine. We stay locked on each other for a moment.
My heart stalls. Then a smile raises her cheeks, and she takes a step toward me. I close the gap between us in four quick strides, then lift her into my arms.
Fuck it. I don’t care what these assholes I love think. I only care what she thinks. And she’s not mad at me, the way Quinn would’ve been for not calling. She respects the night we had and the night we needed apart.
Her face says it all. “Glad you could join us McShotty. Did you see June’s tree?” She’s smiling so brightly I want to take her right now. Happiness. It’s contagious.
“It’s the first thing I noticed. Hey, I have someone to introduce you to. Have all your vendors shown up?”
“Yes, but I haven’t made it around to greet all of them yet. I was headed that way now.”
“Good. I’ll go with you, because one of them is my doing.”
“I see. I’m intrigued. I have something to show you too.”
“Should I be intrigued?”
“Regardless, I think you might have to put me down first.” She clears her throat and smiles, dropping her eyes to the side of us to indicate we’ve drawn a crowd.
I look around at half my town starring at us and instead of putting her down…
“Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Erika Amherst.” This time I spin her around before I let her go.
She laughs a wicked laugh. “Nice one. Way to play that one off. Subtle, yet effective.”
“Anyone who doesn’t see the effect we have is blind.
Come with me.” I reach my hand out for hers and take her to one of the booths setting up.
“I want to introduce you to some very special people. They’re the fruit cake booth I got you.
They’re famous around Kentucky and Tennessee, and I got them to agree to set up every night through Christmas. ”
Erika pauses her steps as she stares up at the massive banner boasting Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake. “Wait. I thought we were done with the jokes and pranks since we…”
“You and I will never be done with that, not until I annihilate you in the sport.”
“It doesn’t involve a basketball, so I wouldn’t get my hopes up—”
“And… this is not a joke nor a prank, only the very best cake you will ever put in your mouth. They could sell enough of these alone for our small commission to pay for the fire truck.”
“Let me guess, they’re not that great, because no fruit cake is, but she’s some lovely old woman who saves babies, or you saved her cat from being stuck up a tree.”
“Savage. You really don’t like fruit cake.”
“No one from this century does.”
“You’re wrong. The woman’s wretched, she’s a horrible person, and a ruthless negotiator. It’s just incredible cake.”