Imaginary Grace (12 page)

I slowly reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, staring at it for a minute. I’m gonna regret this, I thought as I scrolled through my contact list to find Grace’s number. I hesitated for another moment, then pressed send and waited for it to start ringing.

Chapter 15

Grace

I
woke to the sound of my phone ringing. Who would be calling me at this hour? Disoriented, I grabbed for the phone but accidentally knocked it off the nightstand and onto the floor. When I reached down for it I saw his name flashing on the small screen –
Tanner?!

I quickly fumbled with it in the dark and answered quietly, “Hello?”

“
Heeeeey
Babe,” Tanner said, so loudly that I pulled the phone from my ear, “Watcha doin?”
Was he drunk?

“Oh, just watching TV,” I lied. For some reason I didn’t want him to know that I’d been sleeping.

“I need a favor, babe.”

“Sure,” I said, now fully awake. “What do you
need?”

He proceeded to tell me a rather confusing story about Scott that involved the cops, adding that Scott was being held at the Suffern police station. “Anyway, the bottom line is that I’m stranded in an abandoned parking lot. Do you think you can give me a lift?”

“Sure! Of course!” I said, mentally chiding myself for sounding so excited. “Just tell me exactly where you are.” He only had to give me the name of the bar and I knew exactly where he was. I told him I’d leave right away.

“You’re the
best,
babe!” he said, then I heard a click. He was definitely drunk.

I sprang out of bed, pulling my hair back into a ponytail and grabbing a sweatshirt from my closet. There was no way I was waking my parents up, so I crept down the hall to Ryder’s room, quietly opened the door, and went over to her bed.

“Ryder,” I whispered, gently shaking her awake.

She woke up, startled. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?” she said as she sat up.

“Nothing’s wrong. Listen to me,” I whispered as I looked her straight in the eye. “Tanner had some car trouble, that’s all, and he needs me to go pick him up. I don’t want to wake Mom because she’ll insist Dad go with me because it’s so late.”

“Can I go? Will Scott be there too?” she asked, now wide awake.

“No, I need you here in case I’m not back before Mom gets up.”

She looked like she was about to argue, but she just asked, “Where should I say you went?”

“Just tell her the truth and make like it’s no big deal, but I’ll probably be back before she gets up.”

“Oh, Grace, this is so exciting!
Please
can I go?” she begged.

“No,” I said again, sternly, as I started to get up. “I gotta go. Just tell Mom what I said if I’m not here before she wakes up.”

“Okay, but I want details when you get back, and tell Scott I said hi.”

I rolled my eyes at her, then walked out of the room and into the hallway. Somehow I managed to get down the stairs without making any noise; then I pulled on my sneakers, grabbed my purse and the keys, and slipped out the front door. As I got into the car and turned the key in the ignition, I was sure my parents would coming running out after me, but they didn’t. I pulled out of the driveway and didn’t put the lights on until I was halfway down the block.

The bar Tanner was talking about wasn’t far, just a few miles down the road, but it seemed to take forever. I was so excited to see him again, and more than a little curious as to how he had ended up there, alone and from the sound of things, completely bombed.
What happened to the job he was supposed to be doing?
Scott’s truck was the only one in the lot so it was no problem finding Tanner. He was leaning against the driver’s side door. He looked cold. He was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

As I pulled up next to him, he hurried over to the passenger side, pulled open the door and slid in. “Hey, babe,” he said, smiling, then leaned his head back on the headrest.

Yep,
I thought and smiled,
he is definitely drunk.

“You must be freezing,” I said as I pulled out of the lot.

“Na, not really.”

“I know where the Suffern Police Station is, and it’s not far,” I said, then added, “What happened with Scott?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” he said. “All I know is that he got into a fight with some guy and the cops came and took them both away.”

“Oh, okay. We’ll have to get the whole story when we pick him up.” I was quiet for a moment, then asked, “How did the job go? Did you work on a lot of cars?”

He turned to me with a rather confused expression on his face. “What do you mean, ‘work on a lot of cars’? I wasn’t working on any cars.”

I felt my face getting red. “Oh, well, you said you were coming up here for work so I just assumed that since you work on cars at the gas station by school that that’s what you were coming up here to do.”

He seemed to think this was very funny and started to laugh. “You thought I came all the way up here to work on some cars? That’s crazy! No, a friend of mine has a band and I help him out sometimes with the sound system and stuff. Actually, I’ve been helping him out quite a bit lately and they were playing at the club where you picked me up. That’s why I came up here.” He made a snorting sound then started laughing again. “Cars…that’s so funny. You must’ve thought that I’m like some superman mechanic or something. That I travel from city to city fixing cars that no one else can fix.”

He was still laughing as I pulled the car into the police station parking lot and found a spot in the back. After I got over feeling like a huge dork, I started laughing, too. It
did
sound crazy now that I thought about it, but he had never mentioned a friend with a band.

He started to get out of the car, but I grabbed his arm. “Um, maybe I should go in myself. You seem like you’ve had a lot to drink. Just wait here.” Before he could say anything, I got out of the car and said, “I’ll be right back.”

For some reason, I was really nervous as I walked into the station. I didn’t know why; I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I hadn’t been drinking. I walked up to the desk and told the officer who I was there to pick up.

He shot me an annoyed look, then hoisted himself out of his seat and headed toward the back of the station. There were a few seedy-looking people sitting around, and I tried not to make eye contact with anyone while I waited. A few minutes later the cop returned, followed by a disheveled-looking Scott.

“Take him straight home,” the officer said sternly, “and I better not catch him driving.”

“Yes, officer, I’ll take him straight home. Thank you,” I said in the most polite manner I could muster up. We both turned and left the police station.

When we got outside, Scott said, “Grace, thank God you came. This has been like the longest night of my life.”

Tanner was passed out, his head lolling to the side. I opened the back door for Scott, then slid behind the wheel. I asked him what had happened.

“Um, let’s just say that I messed with the wrong girl and leave it at that,” he said.

“Okay…”

“You got anything to eat in here?” he asked.

“No…um…wait. I popped open the glove box and found a granola bar—Mom always kept one in case she didn’t have time to eat lunch. I handed the bar to Scott, then he gave me directions to the motel where they were staying. I pulled into the parking spot right in front of their room.

Scott leaned up front and said, “You wanna come in for a minute?”

Immediately, red flags went up all around me. It was safety 101— never go into a motel room with two drunken guys. Of course, they weren’t just any guys.

After a second’s hesitation, I said, “Yeah, sure, I’ll come in for a minute.”

I went around to the passenger side door and opened it. Scott came over and pulled Tanner out. He could hardly stand.

“Man, what were you drinking?” Scott said as Tanner mumbled something incoherent.

When we got him into the room, I quickly pulled down the covers before Scott dropped him into the middle of one of the beds. The room was so hot; it must have been close to ninety degrees. I looked around for the thermostat and turned it way down. Then I took off my sweatshirt.

It was then that I realized that I was still wearing my blue plaid flannel pajama pants.

“I gotta take a shower,” Scott said and began rifling through his bag. He grabbed a change of clothes and walked into the bathroom, leaving me alone with Tanner.

Not that he knew I was there; he was completely passed out. I looked at him lying there with his hair splayed out over the pillow, and I could have melted. He was just so handsome and so sweet. I went over, unlaced his boots, and pulled them off.

The sound of the shower, followed by Scott’s humming, brought me out of my daze. It really was time to leave. Then Tanner sighed softly in his sleep, and it was like he was calling me toward him—or at least that’s what I wanted to think. I slowly walked back to the bed and sat down gently next to him, suddenly dying to run my fingers through that gorgeous hair. He was passed out cold; he’d never know.

I leaned down, hand outstretched, and that’s when I saw the faint scar by his right eye
.
I traced it slowly, wondering how he had gotten it, then ran my hand through his silky mane. I closed my eyes for a
split second,
and when I opened them, he was staring up at me with furrowed brows.

I froze, suddenly aware of what this must look like. His brows un-furrowed and his eyes widened slightly as a drunken smile slowly spread across his face. His eyelids drooped again, but not before he ran his hand up my arm to my shoulder and pulled me down onto the bed next to him.

I tried to get up, but he grabbed my hips and pulled me back so that I was flush against his body. I lay there perfectly still for a moment. Then he suddenly pulled away and yanked his t-shirt off and pulled me into him again. My back felt so good pressed up against the bare skin of his muscular chest.

He inhaled deeply and mumbled quietly into my hair, “Mmm…you smell good…” Then he slipped his hands under my thin tank top and rested them on my stomach, his head tucked at the crook of my neck.

I waited a few minutes until I was sure that he was asleep, and then I lightly ran my hand across his forearm and up around his muscular bicep. I kept repeating the motion, thinking to myself that if I lived to be a hundred this would go down as the best night of my life.

Just then I heard the shower turn off, followed by the sound of Scott opening the bathroom door. It didn’t even seem to register with him that I was lying in the opposite bed with a shirtless Tanner. He just turned out the light and climbed into bed.

Now what?
I thought. I didn’t want to fall asleep and miss even a minute of the way his arms felt wrapped around me. I also knew that I should probably get back home before my parents noticed that I was missing.

Heck, who was I kidding? There was no way I was leaving. I’d deal with the fallout from my parents later. Try as I did to stay awake, sleep eventually overtook me. I woke the next morning still wrapped in Tanner’s arms, the sun peeking through the slits between the heavy dark curtains.

I looked over at the small digital clock on the night stand: 9:22.
Holy shit!
I slipped out of Tanner’s arms and gathered my things, sliding my sweatshirt over my head and slipping on my sneakers.

I nudged Scott awake and asked him if he wanted me to drop him off at his truck on my way home.

For a second he just stared at me groggily, like he didn’t know who I was. Then he said, “Yeah, sure, okay, thanks,” and crawled out of bed. He moved slowly, pulling his jeans on over his boxers and throwing on a sweatshirt. Then he grabbed his keys and put on his boots, and we quietly slipped out the door.

We didn’t say much on the way to the parking lot, and I figured Scott was too hung over for conversation. But as I pulled up next to the truck he turned to me and said, “Grace, I really appreciate you helping us out.”

“No problem,” I said, smiling, and I meant it. Lying next to Tanner all night more than made up for it.

He was about to get out of the car when he turned to me and said, “Tanner doesn’t know how lucky he is.” Then he gave me a half-smile and opened the door to get out. As soon as he was in his truck, I pulled out of the lot and headed for home. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t dwell on the night before. My parents were going to be furious with me when I got home. Although, now that I thought about it, it was kind of odd that no one had called me, not even Ryder.

I grabbed my phone from my purse and dialed Ryder’s cell. She picked up on the first ring. “Grace! Is everything okay? Tell me everything!”

“Yeah, Ryder, everything’s fine. What happened with Mom? Does she know I was out all night?”

“No,” she answered proudly, “she doesn’t know a thing. She didn’t even notice you were gone until about eight thirty, and when she asked me about it I told her that you were meeting Tanner and Scott for breakfast before they headed home. Quick thinking on my part, right sis?”

“Yeah, that
was
quick thinking, thanks. I’m on my way home so I’ll see you in a little while,” I said, and then I hung up and put my phone back in my purse.

That had been close. My parents would have freaked out if they noticed me missing during the night, if only because it was so uncharacteristic of me. I felt bad that Ryder had lied for me. I’d never lied to either of my parents before, probably because I’d never done anything to lie about. I had been a bona fide goody-two-shoes since birth. Was this the start of something? Was this the beginning of my slow decent down a very slippery slope?

Chapter 16

Tanner

I
woke up to the sound of the door opening. When I glanced up, Scott was coming in.
That’s weird
, I thought,
he’s never up before me.
What time was it, anyway?

The clock on the nightstand read 10:12 – that couldn’t be right. I hadn’t slept past seven in years. There was a dull ache in my head, but aside from that I felt refreshingly well-rested.

I slowly sat up and swung my legs out of the bed. Rubbing my forehead, I said to Scott, “Where are you coming from? Did you just get in?”

“Just get
in
? No, Grace drove me to pick up my truck,” he answered.

“
Grace?
You called Grace this morning to take you to pick up your truck? Wait a minute…where
was
your truck? Did it break down? How did we get home?” I shot him question after question.

Smiling like the cat that had swallowed the canary, he sat down at the small round table and started taking off his boots. “Sooo many questions,” he said. “Where, oh where, do I begin? Let’s see, why don’t we start by you telling me the last thing you remember about last night?”

“Well…” I began, trying to make sense of the disjointed series of images flashing through my mind. “After the show ended, I was at the bar with some girl. The bartender gave me a bottle of Jack, and I was downing shots with her. Then she said something about giving great head.” I shook my head and laughed. “We walked out to the parking lot, and that’s when things get fuzzy.”

“Dude,” he said, “how much did you drink? I’ve never seen you that shit-faced.”

“A lot,” I answered, “but I was on such a high after the show.”

“Well, do you remember that I ended up at the police station? We had no way to get home and when you called me, I told you to call Grace to come and get us?”

I sat for a minute, rubbing my temple as if it would make the memory surface. It was all starting to come together. “Yeah, I remember now. Grace came to pick me up,” I said, “but that’s
all
I remember. You mean to tell me that you actually called her
again
this morning to take you to your truck! I’m sure we could have found a way there ourselves.”

Scott’s face split into what I called his ball-busting grin. “Well,
loverboy
, that’s only a mere portion of the events that unfolded last night.”

“Cut the shit, Scott, and tell me exactly what happened,” I growled warily.

“Well,” he began again, “I didn’t have to call Grace this morning because she spent the night right here.” He pointed to the bed I was sitting on. “Next to you…all snuggled up together.”

I looked down at myself. My shirt was off, but my jeans were still on so I figured it was safe to assume that nothing had happened. “Oh, man,” I said with my elbows on my knees, rocking back and forth and rubbing my hands across my forehead.

“Yeah, keep rubbing your head like that. That’ll turn back time,” he joked.

“Oh, shit, this is
not
good,” I mumbled, more to myself than to him. “I’m gonna take a shower, and then let’s get out of here.”

“Sure thing,” Scott said, as he moved over to his bag and started throwing things into it.

I grabbed a change of clothes and headed into the bathroom. I turned the water on and stood under the warm stream, hoping that some piece of what had happened last night would come back to me, but nothing did.

I had absolutely no memory of Grace being there last night. By the time I came out of the bathroom, Scott was all packed up and ready to go.

“I gotta get something to eat before we hit the road.”

Scott nodded, still grinning, but wisely said nothing. We drove the couple of miles to the diner in silence. When we got there I ordered the biggest, blackest cup of coffee they had, then I sat back and looked at Scott. “You had to have seen something or heard something. How did she end up in bed with me? Was it my idea or hers?”

“All I know is that before I went into the shower she was standing in the middle of the room, and when I came out she was in bed with you.” He took a sip of his water and added, “I didn’t feel like analyzing the situation at the time.”

I needed another coffee. I looked around for the waitress, but she was nowhere to be found so I got up to get my own. When I was walking back to the table I saw Scott grab my phone. As I sat down, he said, “Incoming text from Jan Brady.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Grace, a.k.a. Jan Brady from
The Brady Bunch
,” he said, laughing as he handed me my phone.

I looked down at the text:
what time r u heading back?,
then typed:
now,
and pressed send. I looked at Scott and said, “I’m just gonna pretend I don’t remember anything, because I don’t. End of story.”

“You’re crazy,” he said, “When you’re done with this charade, I’m swoopin’ in!” He looked like he was joking, but I wasn’t sure. “Then it’ll be homemade sandwiches, lemonade and Xbox all summer long, with Grace sitting right there on my lap.”

“All right, enough, are we done?” I said, as the waitress returned to take our food order. “’Cause I’d like to just eat and get out of here.”

We didn’t speak much while we ate, probably because we were too busy shoveling the food into our mouths like two starving men. I thought about ordering another short stack, but my desire to leave this town overshadowed my appetite. We just got our bill, hit the bathroom, and headed out to the parking lot. As we walked to the truck Scott pointed to the passenger side, indicating he wanted me to drive so he could smoke up again. Half an hour later, he was passed out and I was once again alone with my thoughts.

I did call my mom to see when my cousin’s wedding was – the sooner the better – and she said that it was sometime in January. I figured I should probably mention it to Grace.

The drive home seemed to take forever. I spent most of it racking my brain about how I’d ended up in bed with Grace, but still came up with nothing.
Could have been worse
, I reminded myself,
you could have screwed her.
Nearly four hours later, we arrived back at our apartment. After unpacking the car I went straight into my bedroom, shut the shades, and crashed for a few hours.

When I woke up, I was still slightly hung over and not in the mood to go partying, but Scott was already getting dressed. I sat on the couch with my feet up and a beer in my hand, watching him. The last time I had gotten laid seemed like ages ago.

“So come with me to J.D.’s,” he said, when I told him my dilemma.

“Nah, man, just can’t do it.”

Scott grinned. “We all get old sometime.” He ducked out of the path of the pillow I’d flung his way, then slid out the door.

After a few more beers, I got the idea that maybe I would call Amber and ask her to come over and ‘hang out’. Nobody would find out, and Grace wouldn’t be home until tomorrow afternoon. Maybe I wouldn’t even tell Scott about it.

To say that Amber was shocked to hear from me was an understatement because, after all, I’d never called her before.

“To what do I owe
this
little surprise?” she said in a snippy tone.

Hmm…so she was gonna play hardball and make me work for it.
I was up for it, so I said, “I don’t know. I guess I’ve just been thinking about you. I was on the road with the band last night, and didn’t feel like partying again tonight. So anyway, I said to myself, ‘Why not invite Amber over and we could hang out on my couch and watch a movie or something?’ Maybe I’m just getting tired of the singles scene and going out all the time…” –
I knew that last line would win her over
.

There was silence on her end for a moment as she debated whether to believe me. Finally, she said, “Okay, Tanner, I’ll come over and ‘hang with you’.”

She sounded like she was on to me, but who cared?
Score!

“Great, I’ll see you soon,” I said as I hung up. I didn’t even bother changing, just left on the sweats and t-shirt I’d been wearing all day. They’d be coming off soon after she arrived anyway.

By the time I heard her knock at the door I had a decent buzz going. I realized that I had never been with this girl straight and tonight would be no different. I got up to let her in. When I opened the door, she immediately snaked her arms around my waist.

“What movie did you get?” she asked, all chipper.

“Movie? Oh, yeah, well I just figured you can pick from one of the ones we have lying around,” I said. “Do you want a beer?”

“Sure,” she said as she started looking through the DVDs we had stored underneath the television.

I grabbed her a beer from the fridge and another one for myself, then hopped back on the couch. I caught a nice view of her ass as she popped the DVD into the player. I had to hand it to Amber, she always looked totally hot. She had on a pair of jeans that looked like they were painted on, boots with heels at least three inches high, and a very low cut, very sheer, tan and red top.

She took the beer from my outstretched hand, then tipped her head back for a long drink before sitting down next to me. As the movie (some chick flick one of Scott’s girls had left behind) began to play she moved in real close, leaned her head on my shoulder, and put her hand on my stomach. I put my arm around her and wondered to myself how long I’d have to do this before I got her into bed. Ten minutes? Possibly fifteen?

I waited eighteen, just to be on the safe side, before I turned to her and slowly pushed her back onto the couch. When she didn’t resist I lowered my lips to her neck. And I gave it another five minutes before I stood up, put my hand out to her, and led her into my room.

I stripped off my t-shirt and lay down on the bed, my arms resting behind my neck. This was my favorite part—well, one of my favorites—watching a girl strip down to her underwear, which, in Amber’s case, were always a perfectly matched set. I idly wondered whether she matched them every day or just when she thought she might have an audience. Now only in her bra and thong, she crawled on all fours to the middle of the bed, straddled me, and then ran her hands along my shoulders, up the back of my neck and through my hair. I smiled and closed my eyes for a moment…
feels so fucking good…

Suddenly I gasped and my eyes flew open as the memories of the night before came crashing in. In that moment it wasn’t Amber looking down at me, it was
Grace
. Grace dressed in the blue plaid flannels and the thin white spaghetti strap tank top as she ran her fingers through my hair.

I felt a powerful rush of relief that my temporary amnesia was over. Even better was the realization that I hadn’t done anything to lure Grace into my bed. She had come to me. I laughed to myself, or so I thought.

“What’s so funny?” Amber was looking down at me with a combination of annoyance and insecurity.

“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head, and then I reached up, grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down next to me.

As I did, I remembered pulling Grace down next to me, her trying (not very hard) to get away and me pulling her back. I also remembered it being really hot in the room and me taking my shirt off, and then I think I grabbed her again and wrapped my arms around her before she could get away again.
Oh shit, this was not good.

“What’s wrong with you?” Amber said, poking me, “you seem like you’re somewhere else.”

“No way, baby, I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”

I slipped out of my sweats, then grabbed a condom from the drawer of my nightstand and handed it to her. She ripped it open with her teeth and once again worked it like a pro.

She climbed back on top of me and even though I was very distracted with the events of the previous evening, it didn’t seem to hinder my performance. But afterward, my thoughts returned to Grace and trying to figure out what my next move should be.

Grace was definitely going to think we were like
together
now, which I guessed was supposed to have been the plan anyway, but I hadn’t planned to take it
this
far. I didn’t want to actually have sex with her. I’m not a
total
douchebag.

Just then I felt Amber start to sidle up next to me, wanting to cuddle or something. I decided I’d let her stay for a while and then go for round two before I kicked her out. I guessed I’d just have to play it cool with Grace, but try not to end up alone with her anywhere. Yeah, that should work. It wouldn’t be too much longer anyway.

Well, now that that’s settled...
I reached over to grab another condom from the nightstand drawer, then gently shook Amber’s shoulder. She wouldn’t know what hit her.