Seattle Girl (21 page)

“His name is Max. Maxamillion. Maximus. Mad Max. God, that’s such a sexy name.”

“And?” Diane urged.

“He’s been in some of my pre-med classes and I always thought he was hot. But since I wasn’t sure if he was gay I just crushed on him from afar. But then last night at the BoyZone I ran into him at the bar.”

“So I guess he’s gay then, huh?”

Seth nodded happily. “Oh yeah. Total homo. I bought him a drink and then next thing I knew we were dancing and then we were at his apartment in the hot tub.”

“The hot tub?” Diane and I exclaimed in perfect unison.

“Did I mention how hot he is?”

Diane picked this moment to drop my little bomb. “Georgia had sex last night.”

“Oh my god!” Seth clapped his hands over his mouth and his eyes bulged out as he gaped at me. “With who? How was it? Did you come? How many times?”

“Brian from freshman year.”

“The Heimlich guy?”

I nodded. “It was amazing. Yes I came, multiple times thank you very much. And that’s all I’m saying because I need to tell you that Diane is dating a construction worker as of last night.”

“Holy shit! Is the moon full or something?” he exclaimed with wonder.

And as Diane and Seth traded information about their new men, I sat back on the couch and marveled at how perfectly everything was coming together.

For all of us.

* * *

Everything about Brian seemed cute. He would draw me these little relationship charts, where [LOVE] was on the Y axis and [NUMBER OF KISSES] was on the X axis. Of course, every graph had an upwardly curving line. It was his own special way of showing me how much he cared.

After a couple of weeks of spending every night together he suggested we go get tested for VD, so that when we got the all clear, I could go on the pill, and he could throw out the rest of his condoms.

It sounded like a good idea to me, so we made an appointment at the student health center and headed over. A pretty red-head was sitting behind the check-in counter. We walked up and as soon as she saw us her face broke into a huge grin.

“Brian! Oh my god, it’s so great to see you again!”

“Hey Tammy.” He flashed her a grin.

“I didn’t know you were back in the country.” A small pout was forming on her pink lips. “Why didn’t you call me?” she asked, totally ignoring my presence at his side.

Brian cleared his throat, but didn’t look all that uncomfortable, truth be told. “I just got back, actually.” And then, as if he had just remembered that I was standing right next to him and was in fact the entire reason we were even in the student health center, he said, “Tammy, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend, Georgia.”

Tammy looked me up and down quickly once and then turned her attention back to Brian. “We’ve got a blood test scheduled for two o’clock,” he added smoothly.

Amazingly, Tammy had the nerve to giggle and shake her finger at Brian. “Go on in, but be sure to call me if you want to get together again, sometime.” She batted her eyelashes like an idiot at him the whole time.

“Will do,” Brian said, as he put his hand on my back to direct me through the door to the blood-work room.

“What the hell was that?” I hissed at him.

“Oh, her?” he said nonchalantly.

“Yeah, her. She was practically throating you back there!
 
I was about to leave ‘cause I didn’t want to get in the way of you getting some action.”

I was fully pissed off by what had just transpired between my boyfriend and the slut at the check-in desk.

Brian pulled me to a stop in the hall way. Holding both of my hands he looked deeply into my eye and focused all of his charm and powers of persuasion on me. “You know you’re the only person I want to be with, don’t you?”

“I guess so,” I said doubtfully, so he threaded his hands through my hair and kissed me so thoroughly that I practically forgot the whole daytime TV scene in the reception room. But I still wasn’t satisfied with the way he was blowing off the whole thing.

“Who is she?” I asked, vowing not to be so easily swayed by his kisses.

He sighed and let go of my hands. “Just some girl I met at a party a couple of years ago.”

He started to move off down the hall so I grabbed his arm. If he thought that bit of evasion was going to suffice, he was dead fucking wrong. After all, he had met me a party a few years ago and look what we were doing now.

“And?”

“And I slept with her a couple of times.” He looked at me imploringly. “Come on Georgia, you know I’d been with other girls before you.”

I chewed on my lip and thought about what he was saying. “I know that. It’s just a little shocking to meet one of your little fuck-buddies.”

Brian broke out into a huge laugh which reverberated down the all-white, shiny hospital hallway. “Fuck-buddies. Have I mentioned how much I love you?” he asked me and I finally broke out into a smile.

“I don’t think I’m the one who needs to hear it,” I said mockingly. “Maybe you should go back out there and tell ol’ carrot top, though. It might keep her from sticking her tongue down your throat next time she sees you.”

Brian nodded and gave me a mock-serious look. “Only for you, Georgia. Only for you.”

* * *

Later that day Diane and I were hanging at Café Café, soaking up some sun on the sidewalk when Seth plopped down in the empty chair, all excited.

“Dang girl,” he said to me. “You have the best boyfriend in the entire fuckin’ world!”
 

He grabbed Diane’s lime Italian soda off of the café table and took a huge gulp from the glass.

“Hey! Gimme that.” Diane slid the glass closer to her edge of the table.

I ignored Diane and turned to Seth. “You’re totally right, but what are you referring to specifically?”

“I was walking across campus, and he says, ‘Seth?’ and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, hey Brian.’”

“Wow, this is riveting so far,” Diane said in a less than impressed manner.

“Zip it blondie,” Seth said with a grin. “Anyway,” he said, turning back to me, “He was like, ‘Hey what’s been going on?’ and you know how excited I am about Max, right?”

“Yeah.” Diane and I both nodded.

“So, for some reason I just started babbling about Max and how happy I was and how I was thinking that now would be a good time to finally come out to my parents but I was still really worried about how they’d react, instead of freaking out about me being gay or acting bored, your boyfriend asked me if I wanted to go sit down by the fountain and talk about it.”

“He did?” I smiled, thinking about how sweet Brian was.

“Yup.” Seth nodded happily. “And you know what?
 
He actually helped me feel a whole lot better about how long it’s taking me to tell my parents.”

I have to admit that for a moment, I was jealous of Brian. Wasn’t Seth my friend? Hadn’t I tried to help him already? But then I told myself to stop being stupid. I had picked a great guy who really appreciated my friends. Score one for me.

Diane didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know,” she said slowly. “I’m still not so sure that Brian’s all that wonderful.”

I took off my sunglasses and put my drink down. “What are you talking about?” I was surprised by Diane’s attitude towards Brian. “I thought you were really gung-ho about him?”

She grimaced. “Shit. I should just keep my mouth shut, you know?
 
But I can’t help myself because I love you too damn much.”

“Keep your mouth shut about what?” A small seed of fear had deposited itself in the pit of my stomach.

“It’s probably nothing.”

“Spill it,” I said.

First Diane sighed in a really big, over-exaggerated way. “You know how you were at a meeting for the radio station last Friday night?”

I nodded and she continued. “I was hanging out at that restaurant on Melrose–the one with the big purple cow out in front–and I saw Brian walk in with his arm around some girl.”

I searched Diane’s face for additional clues she was leaving out. “It was probably just some friend of his that he’s catching up with.” I was trying to be calm about everything and not jump to conclusions.

“Probably,” she agreed.

“But?” Seth had a worried look on his face.

Diane’s perfect features looked slightly pained. “Well, I’m not sure what he normally acts like with his friends, but he seemed really friendly with this girl.”

“How friendly?”

She took off her sunglasses and looked me in the eye. “Really friendly.”

“He’s never given me any reason not to trust him.”

I was upset about the fact that I had to defend my boyfriend against her accusations. But I was also upset about the fact that I didn’t trust Brian. Not really. Ever since our run in with Tiffany, or whatever the red-head bitch’s name was, I’d felt like something wasn’t quite right.

Diane leaned over in a rare show of outward emotion and gave me a one-armed hug. “I know and that’s why I didn’t know if I should even bring it up. Do you hate me now?” She was clearly worried that I was going to hold her report against her.

“Of course not.”

I gave her the biggest smile I could muster up in the circumstances. Of course, I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but what she told me was bringing some of my doubts up to the surface.

Brian seemed pretty damn perfect. But what if Brian wasn’t nearly as perfect as he seemed to be?

* * *

That night, Brian and I were having dinner together at his apartment and I couldn’t stop myself from asking about the girl he’d had dinner with on Friday night.

“Hey, did you see Diane last Friday night?”

I watched him carefully to see if he looked worried or shocked at the mention of Friday night.

He looked up from the wok where he was stir frying up some vegetables, his expression clear and blameless. “No. Where’d I miss her?”

“I think it’s called The Flying Cow.”

Again, I waited for his reaction.

“Oh yeah. Did I tell you I was meeting my old friend Cindy for dinner last week?”

I tamped down on my budding jealousy. “No. You hadn’t mentioned it.”

He continued to sauté the vegetables as if there was nothing more to the discussion.

“Who’s Cindy?”

He looked up at me surprised. “I thought for sure I’d told you about her. We dated for, let’s see, almost three years.”

“You did?” I was shocked by this revelation.

“From freshman year through junior year.”

While he was telling me this, I was sitting on a bar-stool watching Brian cook. I was trying not to freak out. After all, if something was up with his ex-girlfriend, he would have told me about it, right?

“Why’d you break up?”

He shrugged. “You know. The usual reasons. We were from different backgrounds and I think she thought she could fix me, or something.”

“Hmmm,” I said, and figured I’d drop the ex-girlfriend angle for now, and head into the issue of backgrounds–something Brian had been pretty closed mouthed about until now. I mustered up my nerve. “So, um, do you want to tell me about your background?”

Brian pinned me with an unreadable look from his clear blue eyes and raised an eyebrow. “Taste?”

He held out a hot slice of carrot. I took a bite and said, “Still kind of hard,” so he turned the heat up a little and continued to stir.

“What do you want to know?”

I gave him a little smile. “Let’s see,” I said, as if I was just thinking about it for the first time. “What was your childhood like?”

 
A shadow darkened Brian’s face. “Fine.” Then he sighed and admitted, “My childhood sucked.”

He turned off the grill. “I need a drink. You want a Corona?”

I nodded and he grabbed one from out of the fridge. I figured the best plan was for me to keep my mouth shut and just let him talk about what was obviously a difficult subject.

In one long swig, he downed half the bottle. “My mom and dad never really got along. You know, I remember growing up and they were always yelling at each other. And then one day, when she found out my dad was cheating on her, she blew a fuse and went to his office and made a huge scene, breaking things, and threatening him with law-suits and stuff. My dad pretty much shut down after that, but he got custody of me, ‘cause he made all the money. Life was a bitch with him–he used to be in the military and couldn’t deal with the real world-so I would sneak out a lot just to get away from the bastard.”

“How old were you when they split up?”

“Around twelve, I guess. I don’t know, really. I try not to think about it.”

I put my hand on his arm and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for telling me.”

The corner of his mouth turned up about a millimeter and then fell back down again. “One night in the middle of winter, I remember my dad had one of his sluts over and they were making noise so I went outside and took an ice-pick to the frozen swimming pool.” He took another long drink and then shook his head. “Man, was he pissed at me.”

I tried to smile but my face wouldn’t do what I was telling it to and I’m afraid it came out more like a painful grimace.

“I got him back,” he said.

“How?”

“When I was fourteen I slept with one of the women he had been dating.” As he said this he had a look of utter satisfaction on his face.

“You what?” I was totally shocked by this revelation.

Brian leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. “You sweet, innocent girl,” he said, with a grin. “She was barely older than me. Probably only eighteen or so. Trust me, she had more business doing it with me than with my dad. And besides, she came on to me.”

Frankly, although I was glad Brian felt comfortable enough with me to tell me about his past, I had already heard more than I wanted to know.

“Now, tell me about your past,” he said, deftly turning the topic to me and my love life.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Not much to tell really. Given that you were my first and all…” I let my sentence drift off.

All I could think was, okay, so I’ve been with one guy and almost been with three others. But how many women had Brian slept with?
 
Ten, twenty? More?

But right when I was on the verge of a serious melt-down, Brian took my hand and pulled me close to him, giving me soft kisses all over my face and neck.