Captured Secret (The Captured Series) (2 page)

“I need you.” Zoey rarely sounds panicked. She is always Mrs. Happy Go Lucky with not a care in the world.

“What happened, friend?” I ask quietly into the phone. My supervisor frowns on private phone conversations, and working out of a cubical, does not offer much privacy.

“You have to go with me! You cannot say no, Stella! It is your best friend duty, so there is NO getting out of this,” She says it as if I’ve already put my foot down, and declined.

“Anything, Zoey, what is it?” My heart starts to speed up.

“I need you to go to some going away party with me. I do not want to go alone. It’s time, Stella, this guy is different, everything feels different with him. I don’t know why I’m freaking, this is just not me, but I’m not ready to be introduced without my bestie for the restie. It’s on a weeknight and I know you’ll miss Brock’s soccer game, and you’ll just have to get by on limited sleep, and clothes…I need you to help pick my outfit. I’m meeting his boys, Stella, not to mention other people in his world. He is so ready to meet you and I’m ready for you to meet him. I’m not keeping you two apart any longer. He is amazing and you are going to fall in love with him, and by the way, I’m, like, totally talking crazy with my hands and you can’t see it over the damn phone.” She finally breathes from her never-ending run on sentence.
Were there any periods in that rant?
I pause and take in what she’s saying. Her urgency and the problem just don’t add up in my brain. I was expecting to hear a real dilemma, but this is Zoey, she’s my best friend, and she rarely sounds so frantic.

Pierce has been different. They have been inseparable for over a month, which is way more than her usual night or nights of casual sex. She met Pierce at work. He’s a paramedic. They both work on the same side of town, so most of his patients are taken to her hospital.

“Don’t freak, I’ll go with you. You will be just fine. But can we talk about this tonight at home?” I mutter into the phone.

“Yes, I just needed to know you would go. Okay, I can relax... I’ll let you go and see you soon.” She breathes an obvious sigh of relief.

“Zoey, please don’t freak me out like that again. I thought something terrible happened.” My heart is no longer pounding. Now, I’m just a little annoyed. It won’t last long, she can’t help that she’s a drama queen.

“See you at home, loves you...bye.” The phone disconnects and she hangs up with a smile in her voice. That girl, she doesn’t stay down long.

Zoey and I have been best friends since sixth grade when we met in middle school. We are the typical good fit; the whole opposites attract thing. She is smart, outgoing, beautiful and driven. I’ve always been the more shy and reserved type. I’m one of those girls you have to get to know, and then I come out of my shell. It’s then that you find out that I really am a nice and caring person. Zoey has always said I come off as a “snob.” That makes me laugh; it’s such a teenage term.

Zoey is definitely the beautiful one of the two of us. I’ll admit, I’m a pretty girl, but I wouldn’t go any further than that. My green eyes and straight long layered hair gets me compliments quite often.

My dad raised me from about age eight. He dated, but we didn’t have a woman full time in our house. It’s always left me wondering if I’m girly enough, considering clothes, shoes, and shopping, are not my three loves in life. Getting my light brown hair highlighted blonde, along with the occasional mani and pedi are the extent to me beautifying myself. I’m a pretty low maintenance girl.

Right after high school, Zoey and I enrolled in college to become registered nurses. She registered at UCF, here in Orlando, Florida. I had no choice but to choose a smaller school due to my limited finances and lack of scholarships. Zoey’s parents are in the medical field and our inspiration. They set her path, and she is now working as a registered nurse in a hospital in the downtown area. Me... I’m a medical coder. Obviously, I didn’t stay on the path.

“Stella?” Samantha calls quietly over the cubbies. We have a tendency just to assume the other person is always sitting at her desk. I can’t tell you the number of times that she and I told a long story and couldn’t figure out why the other one was being so quiet. That’s when you figure out that the other person left their desk. “If I leave here in the next couple minutes, can you answer my phone? I know the boss man will say yes if you’re covering me.”

It’s not like I have anything to do
tonight.
“Yeah, of course, Sam, you gotta date tonight?”

“It’s the same guy from Saturday night. He wants to do drinks and dinner.” She doesn’t sound too sure of the plans.

“Who knows where you’re going, just me?”

“No, Mom.” The sarcasm drips off her words. “My roomie knows too.” She pauses and I wait for her to speak. “You know, he was a nice guy. I’m just not sure he really does it for me. I had on some serious beer goggles Saturday night, so I’m limiting myself to one drink an hour for this date. Does that make sense?”

I giggle at her limits. “It does. Now, go and have fun. I’ve got you covered, woman.”

“Thanks, Stella. See you tomorrow.” I can hear her getting her things together, and then she leaves.

Sam and I are like two peas in a pod. We’re together all day, five days a week. She’s only about one year older than me, and goes on way more dates than I do. I can totally appreciate wanting to feel an attraction to a man and not just dating him because your friend, mom, or co-worker set you up. Sexual attraction is not all there is to a relationship, but you have to admit , if you don’t want the guy to kiss you or touch you, should one really keep trying? The guy might have a kick ass personality, a great career, a nice steady life and be a flippin’ millionaire, but if you can’t fathom him touching you...it ends there for me.

I’ve put in about twelve hours when 6:00 pm hits. I’m so ready to call it quits. We aren’t required to work such long days, but I do…I like the overtime money. As long as you are being productive, you can work as much as you want. We are a busy company, and considering I’ve been at Medipoint for two and a half years, I know these codes like the back of my hand.

I’ve been trying to make good decisions. All the credit card debt I got myself into has been paid off.
So now, I move onto replacing my junker of a car. I shouldn’t complain, she gets me to work, home and some places in between, but she is forcing my hand and making the decision for me. Per my mechanic, the issues that need to be addressed are more than the damn car is worth, so working my ass off is what I do. It sometimes feels like it’s all I do.

The thought of Italian food, with a big glass of wine has my tummy growling as I get my shit together to leave. I’ll make dinner and get some details out of my desperate best friend.
Whose going away party is it anyway?
As I walk out, I say good-bye to the last two remaining co-workers who obviously have no life like me. That’s an awful generalization. Those two probably partied like rock stars and wound up in a fucking ménage a trios’ this weekend. Unlike my crazy fun weekend filled with doing laundry, and lying by the pool.
Don’t assume everyone is like your lame ass, Stella.

Zoey and I live in the historical district in Downtown Orlando. All the homes are small, since most of them were built in the 1930s. They’ve all been renovated and now are cute, stylish and expensive. Someone bought two homes, demolished them, and built an eight unit condo community. We live in one of those. It has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The spare bedroom has a futon for overnight guest and doubles as an office. Although, most sleep overs are in my roommate’s bed.
It’s weird to think that I wasn’t always such a damn prude.

I push open the door to our place and feel instant relaxation. I walk into the kitchen, which is right off the foyer, and dump my stuff on the breakfast bar.

Zoey doesn’t do well in the kitchen. She does well drinking a glass of wine while I do all the cooking. Looking at the sectional on the way to my bedroom makes me want to sink down, and lose myself in a really good book. I change into some comfy fleece pants and tank top and off to the kitchen I go. Zoey will be home in about a half an hour, so I put a bottle of Shiraz in the fridge. Don’t judge on the chilled red wine...it’s how we like it.

Forty-five minutes later, I hear the front door open. “Honey, I’m home!” Zoey loudly announces, walking in the door. I’m just getting the wine out of the fridge when I’m met with her bright smile. Funny, how it sometimes feels like we are an old married couple, without the sex and attraction.

“Just in time, honey... dinner is almost ready,” I reply in my best southern accent. Not sure why I chose that one.

“I’ve missed you. I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.” She grabs me by the shoulders and looks me over as if it’s been years and not only three nights. “You got your hair done, and your tan. You lived by the pool this weekend, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, she cut about three inches off, but it needed it. Hell yeah, I was by the pool all weekend. It was therapeutic after working fifty plus hours last week.”

“You always work fifty plus hours a week, Stella.” Zoey raises an eyebrow and scolds me with her eyes.

I do not want to get into a conversation about my overwhelming schedule, so I push the wine bottle toward Zoey, “Just do your job and pour.”.

The spaghetti sauce is ready and so are the noodles. “So, drama queen, tell me about you freaking out on the phone today. And who the hell is going away?” I ask while making her a bowl of spaghetti.

“Honestly, I don’t know why I freaked. It’s not like I have a problem being social or meeting new people. It’s just these guys are his best friends, you know? I told you I’ve met Jaxon once before. He’s a paramedic like Pierce. He works on the east side of town, so all of his patients go to a different hospital. Pierce talks about his friend Ty, as well. They are best friends like you and me.” Zoey’s stirring her pasta and loading it up with parmesan cheese. “I really like Pierce. I know it’s obvious that he’s different. He’s so effing sexy and smart and my body literally almost bursts into flames when he’s near. The attraction is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. He just feels really good on so many levels. Maybe I’m a little scared that it’s all happening so fast,” Zoey takes a couple gulps of wine.

“I feel like they could really influence him, Stella. What if one is like, ‘dude, you do not want to be tied down to only screwing the nurse.’ And it’s not just those two. Everything we have done together really has been just the two of us. We weren’t sure this was going anywhere, so there was no need to bring our friends into us just sleeping together. I mean shit; we aren’t even friends on Facebook. When I stalk his page, all I see are a couple of profile pictures he has open to the public. But with this invite, I feel like he’s bringing me into his world.” She looks up at me seriously worried.
Don’t laugh, Stella. Don’t be so jealous, Stella.
My face always says everything I’m thinking or feeling. I’m getting better at schooling it, so I don’t say anything and busy myself making my own bowl.

I go around the bar, take a seat and look at her. She looks at me, expecting me to make everything okay. I don’t want to disappoint. “Friend, this is a hard one for me. You are never insecure. So let me assure you, Zoey Martin, those guys, and anyone else you meet, are going to love you. Just go in there and be yourself. You will look beautiful on the outside, and not long after meeting you, they will love you for what’s inside too. And honestly, Zoey...your boobs are the size of cantaloupes. At the first meeting, that’s all his boys are going to see.” My face lights up and I can’t contain my laughter. I so crack myself up. We both do that a lot. I grab her arm and find she is dying, laughing with me. That’s me, when things get tough, laugh about it and avoid. That is the story of my life. But, honestly, they are guys...her boobs will be winning them over.

“I needed to giggle with you. I’ve missed you these last three days.” She’s digging into her pasta and informs me, “I’m excited that you’re going. I really want you to meet him, Stella. He wants to meet you, too, considering everything is, ‘Stella this and Stella that’. He told me he secretly stalked my Facebook page, so he knows what you look like. Oh, and my big bro is going to make a showing. I told him he couldn’t stay long, but he wants to give off that whole don’t-fuck-with-my-little-sister-or-I’m-gonna-kick-your-ass vibe. I wish he would realize I’m his twenty-three year old baby sister.” Now that makes me smile. While Zoey is hanging all over Pierce, I’ll know someone other than my roomie. I’ve watched Maxem grow up to be a very successful man. He feels like a the brother I never had. I have one sister who is older than I am. Now, she got the lady genes from our mom. Clothes, shopping, and shoes, are her three favorite things in life. She always has herself totally put together 100% of the time. Her loves are her hubby, son, and anything fashionable. We can be very opposite, but just like with Zoey, opposite is good.

We shoot the shit and eat. Then we throw the bowls into the dishwasher and head to Zoey’s room for a session of her picking out the perfect outfit. Sometimes, I feel like this is a form of torture, because she already has an idea of what she is going to wear, and really isn’t listening to my opinion.

We head into the kitchen and I’m given a couple of details about our Wednesday night out. It’s at The Wall Street Bar and Grill in downtown Orlando. They have a great outside section, amazing drink selections and very tasty food. I still have no damn idea who we are wishing a farewell to.

Finally, I plop down on the couch and engross myself in a book. I never work out on Mondays. It’s a hard enough day to get through without incorporating exercise. Tomorrow, I’ll take a walk down to the gym and do cardio until I nearly drop.