Just Good Friends (4 page)

“I do understand how you feel,” she went on seriously. “Of
course it’s hard for you to trust in men’s good intentions. But you know, that
predatory behavior is an aberration, way out past the edge of normal
masculinity. Most men aren’t like that. You hadn’t met anyone like that before
Paul, had you?”

“No. You’re right, of course. It’s just that now, I’m always
looking for it.”

“I’m sure that’s normal for someone in your situation. But I
do hope you’ll meet enough good men here that your view can start shifting a
little.”

“It’s not just that,” Kate admitted. “That I think all men are
potential stalkers. I know that isn’t true. At least I know it logically. But I
don’t trust my own judgment any more either. I mean, let’s face it, I went out
with Paul. It’s not like he was forced on me. I was attracted to him, in the
beginning. And looking back, I didn’t pick up on those signals—the
possessiveness especially—nearly quickly enough. Not until he was flashing them
loud and clear for everyone to see.”

“How did he do that? When did you realize there was
something wrong with him?” Hannah wondered. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

“I don’t mind. I’ve been kicking myself for so long about it,
it might be good to tell you, get your perspective. It was after we’d been
dating for five or six months. Things hadn’t been going that great, and I was
starting to have second thoughts about the whole thing. I went out to dinner
one night with two of my girlfriends. Just having a good time, you know. Till he
showed up. And then it all went south, really fast.”

She pulled her sweater more tightly around her as she began
to tell Hannah the story, the shock and fear she’d felt that night coming back
to her, chilling her.

“What’s he doing here?” her friend Molly had asked with a
frown as their meals were being delivered.

“Who?” Kate turned around to see the tall man approaching
them, looking as cool and polished as always in a white dress shirt and dark
slacks. “Oh, no.”

“What’s going on?” she asked as Paul stopped at their table.
“Is something wrong?”

He shrugged, his eyes darting around the group. Laura and
Molly stared back at him, unsmiling. “Nothing’s wrong. I was out myself,
thought I’d stop by and say hello.”

Kate sighed. “I need to talk to you. Let’s go outside for a
minute.”

Once in the parking lot, she turned to face him. “Look, Paul.
I explained this. That I needed some time with my friends. I’ve hardly seen
them since we started dating. This is my one night to be with them. I don’t
understand why you have a problem with that. Or why you’re here.”

“I don’t think they’re good for you,” he told her, a scowl
contorting his handsome features. “Laura especially. She doesn’t like me, I can
tell.”

Kate took a deep breath. “She has some issues with you,
you’re right. She thinks you’re too possessive. And a little controlling. Frankly,
I’m starting to think so too. I don’t like you coming here tonight to check up
on me. Because that’s what you’re doing, isn’t it? Checking that I’m really
with my friends, not out with another guy. And I don’t appreciate it.”

He flushed and took a step closer, looming over her. “You’re
lucky I did find you with them. And you don’t appreciate it? Well, I don’t
appreciate you turning down an invitation to dinner with me in order to spend
the evening with a bitch like that. Who’s probably been sitting in there
telling you to leave me.”

Kate stepped back in shock. “I won’t let you talk about my
friends that way. And I’m not sure she’s wrong. Because having you get in the
middle of my friendships, or checking up on me, isn’t going to work for me. It’s
time we rethink this.”

“No.” He reached for her arm. “We don’t need to rethink
anything except your choice of friends. We’re right together. We belong
together. You know we do.” 

“Let go of me, please.” She made her voice as level and calm
as she could, although inside her, annoyance was turning to something else. There
was too much intensity in his face. She was beginning to feel uneasy, alone
with him in the dark lot. “I’m in the middle of my evening. I’m having dinner
with my friends. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

“No. We’ll talk about it now. You’re coming home with me now.”
His hold on her arm tightened as he began to pull her towards his car.

“Stop it.” She tried without success to pull her arm from
his grip. “Let go of me, Paul. I’m not going anywhere with you.”

His only response was to pull harder, dragging her along
beside him. Truly angry now, and beginning to be frightened as well, Kate pulled
her arm back again as she swung her purse around with the other hand and hit
him with it. The movement overbalanced her, causing her to stumble over her
heels, but had no effect on him. He tightened his grip and gave her arm a
vicious yank, making her cry out at the sudden pain.

“Are you OK?” Paul turned angrily at Laura’s voice as she
and Molly approached. “Because your dinner’s getting cold,” Laura said
prosaically, her eyes moving between the two of them. “And we’re getting tired
of waiting for you.”

“Go on back,” Paul told them abruptly. “Kate’s going home
with me. We’re just leaving.”

“No, we’re not.” Kate tried to pull away again. “I’m going
back in and finishing my dinner. Let go of me, Paul. Right now.” 

“Sounds like she means it,” Laura told him. She took a step
closer. “I think you’d better leave.”

“Why don’t you mind your own business, bitch,” he spat.
“This is between us.”

“All right. That’s it,” Laura decided. “Kate, you need to
dump this asshole.”

“You’re right.” Kate made her voice as firm and strong as
she could manage, even though she was shaking inside. “Paul, you and I are
done. And you need to leave now.”

“What?” He stared down at her. “You can’t break up with me.”

“I just did. So let go of me right now, or Laura’s going to
call 911.”

“I’m already doing it,” Laura told her, pulling out her
phone.

Paul shoved Kate from him, causing her to stumble over her
heels again. She fell awkwardly, her bare knees hitting the rough asphalt with
a bruising impact. As she scrambled to her feet, she saw him grabbing Laura’s
phone out of her hand, hurling it across the parking lot to land with a crash. He
turned on Laura herself then, putting his hand into her face and giving her a hard
shove that sent her sprawling in her turn.

Kate ran to Laura, pulled her up with Molly’s help. A noisy
group heading for their cars gave the women the opportunity they needed.
Ducking behind the exiting customers, they ran for the safety of the tiny
vestibule. With trembling hands, Kate pulled her own cell phone from her purse
and dialed 911.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Molly asked nervously.
“Won’t it just make him madder?”

“I don’t care if it does,” Kate snapped as Laura brushed off
the muddied knees of her slacks. “He hurt us out there. And I’m reporting it.”

“So you see,” Kate told Hannah as she finished her story, “I
was an idiot to get involved with someone like that in the first place. He’d
started to seem too needy, but I never had a clue he could be violent. And then
once I’d dumped him, I thought it was over. That I’d made a mistake, but I
could move on. Obviously, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I had no idea how
twisted he was. Something must be wrong with my antennae, don’t you think, that
I didn’t see that coming?”

 Hannah looked at her thoughtfully. “I’m not a psychologist,
but I think some people are good at that, at covering up their true selves, at
least at first. Surely you aren’t the first woman to be taken in by a bad guy.
Have you talked to anyone about this?”

“No,” Kate admitted. “I was pretty much in lockdown. In
survival mode at the time.”

“How about doing it now?”  

“You think I need help, huh? Maybe you’re right. I thought
once I moved away, it would stop. But I’m still having bad dreams, and I’m so
edgy all the time. I can’t seem to move past it.”

“You’ve had a horrible experience. Anyone would need help
after that. It might not be a bad idea to check it out. But we’d better finish
up here and get to the stadium. So you can watch men being aggressive. Maybe
not the best plan for tonight, now that I think about it. But the good news is,
they all know the rules, and once the game’s over, so is the aggression.”

 “And this is us, the WAG section,” Hannah announced an hour
later as they found their seats near midfield in Eden Park, the Blues’ large
stadium in the center of Auckland.

“The what?”

“Wives and Girlfriends. And I know,” she laughed as Kate
made a face, “it sounds terrible. I still hate it. But here’s Reka.” Hannah got
up to give the striking dark-haired woman approaching them a hug, then
introduced her to Kate.

 “How ya goin’, Kate,” Reka smiled, shaking hands. “Come to
see what you’ve let yourself in for, eh, working for the Blues?”

“I figure I’d better learn something about the game,” Kate
agreed, trying to shake off her unsettled mood and focus on the evening ahead.
“I heard this should be a good one tonight.”

“Should be, against the Brumbies,” Reka confirmed.

“From Australia, right?” Kate asked. “Five teams each from
Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. I’ve figured that much out. And they
all play each other. That must be a lot of travel.”

“Half the games at home, half away, in the Super 15,” Reka
said. “The games in En Zed and the Boomerang Coast, in Oz—they aren’t so bad. But
it’s a long way to Perth, and a full day to fly to Safa. Can’t be too dependent
if you’re married to a rugby player. Because you’re spending a fair bit of the
season alone.”

“Here’s what I really don’t understand, though,” Kate told
her. “I keep hearing about the All Blacks. Where’s that team? Because some of
the guys on the Blues are also All Blacks. How can that be?”

“Easy,” Hannah said. “Think All-Star team. All the countries
that play Rugby Union—as opposed to Rugby League, you understand—have a
national team, made up of the best players from their top-tier rugby teams. And
those teams play each other, in addition to the guys on them playing with their
home teams during the regular season. It makes for a lot of games. And a short
off-season,” she added as Reka nodded agreement.

“Top-tier as opposed to their lower-tier rugby teams? And
whatever Rugby League is?” Kate asked.

Reka laughed. “Right. Too much rugby, you reckon? No worries.
Just remember that if someone says “rugby,” they’re talking about Union. The
rest of it you can ignore for now.”

“Except that the All Blacks are important,” Kate pointed
out.

Both women had a chuckle over that. “Yeh,” Reka agreed. “Go
the Mighty All Blacks. Probably good to remember that as well. Especially
around Hannah and me.”

“You don’t wait for the guys?” Kate asked as Hannah and Reka
got up to leave after the game.

“It’d be a long wait,” Hannah answered. “Trust me, it’ll be
awhile, by the time they’re changed and have their injuries seen to. But I
wanted to tell you both while we’re here that we’re planning a barbecue at our
place next Sunday afternoon. Can you make it?”

“Will
he
be there?” Kate asked cautiously, as they
made their way through their gate and down the stadium’s ramp.

“Afraid so,” Hannah told her sympathetically.

“Koti,” she explained at Reka’s inquisitive look. “They
didn’t hit it off, I’m afraid.”

“With
Koti?
You’re in a minority of one, then.
Appealing to women is his special gift.”

“Huh,” Kate shrugged. “I guess that was lost on me. He seems
like kind of a jerk, I have to say.”

“He can be a bit of a tall poppy,” Reka agreed. “But a good
boy all the same. Not that much to him, maybe, but no real harm either.
Beauty’s only skin-deep, they say. But what a skin, eh.”

“A tall poppy?” Kate asked wonderingly.

“That one took me a while,” Hannah told her. “The basic meaning’s
simple enough. The tall poppy gets cut down. If you stick your neck out too
far, think too much of yourself, you’ll be put in your place. Arrogance is the
cardinal sin here. It’s all about modesty. No matter how good you are at what
you do, you’re not supposed to stand out too much. And I must say, after
watching the athletes posturing and bragging back home, it’s nice to watch
football without all that celebrating.”

“A tall poppy,” Kate smiled. “That sounds just about right.
Because I think Koti James needs cutting down to size.”

“Good luck with that,” Reka laughed. “The Kiwi clobbering
machine hasn’t managed it yet, and there’ve been a fair few attempts. You’d
have a job.”

“You live near us, in Takapuna, don’t you?” she went on. “Can
we give you a lift, Sunday? We won’t stay too late. Three kids. But if you
don’t mind that, it’ll save you driving all that way, let you have a drink or
two as well. I’ll be the designated driver.”

“Thanks,” Kate agreed with surprise. “That’s awfully nice of
you.”

“No worries,” Reka assured her. “Sweet as. Give us a chance
to chat.”

Kate dressed with care for the barbecue the next Sunday. If
the truth were known, her pride had been a little stung when Koti had told her
she wasn’t his type. She didn’t want to attract him, and she wasn’t looking
anyway. She was taking a serious sabbatical where men were concerned. But she’d
still make sure she looked good.

“Why are so many of the women wearing black?” she whispered
to Hannah once she was inside the beautiful terraced house overlooking St.
Heliers Bay and the sparkling waters of Waitemata Harbour beyond. “Did somebody
die?”

Hannah laughed. “For some reason, they always wear a lot of
black here. And not just to support the team. All Black, all the time. It is
kind of mournful, isn’t it? Especially in such a rainy country. You’d think
they’d want to liven things up a bit more.”