Take This Man (18 page)

Adam
touched a velvet throw pillow by his elbow, noting its softness. “Cute place.”

She
turned and eyed him. “You’ve been here before.”

His
neck felt hot, and he cleared his throat. He was embarrassed he never before
noticed how much pride she took in her living space. “Well, I’m just saying…”

Kim
gave him a smirk. “Yeah, whatever.” She came and grabbed a beer, popping the
top. “You’ve always been in such a hurry to get to the bedroom, you never took
the time to notice anything about the place.” She perched on the arm of the
chair, where the cat sat glaring at him.

Adam
returned the cat’s glare. “Why don’t you chase him off? It’s your house.”

She
shrugged. “It’s his house, too. And he was there first.”

The
orange cat was a mangy thing with snaggled whiskers, a mangled left ear, and a
missing eye from too many fights during his former life on the streets. Those
days were over once Kim took in the stray, but all those battle scars had left
the cat with a permanently pissed-off expression, not unlike a sneer. Hence his
name—Groucho.

Kim
and Adam drank in silence for a few moments. Then she spoke. “So what’s going
on, Vostek?”

He
snorted. “My life is shit, is all.”

“Oh
yeah? Poor baby. Welcome to the club.”

Adam’s
eyebrows lifted, and he blinked at her in surprise.

She
frowned at him. “Look, I wasn’t kidding. If you rolled in here hoping to score
some nookie by getting me to feel all sorry for you, you’re shit out of luck.”

He
gulped down the rest of his beer, and reached for another. “You really think I’m
that low-class?”

“You’re
a guy, aren’t you?” Groucho stretched and hopped off the chair, allowing Kim to
slide onto the seat. “So what’s the real problem? You and your girl have a
falling out?”

He
shot her a look. “How’d you know about—”

“Duh,
Adam. I knew something was up the minute you said you wanted to take a break
.
And I’ve seen her picture.”

“You’ve
seen—”

“The
pretty blonde, right? Oh, keep your shorts on, I wasn’t snooping. I was looking
for rubbers one time, and I opened the wrong drawer. But shit. A guy keeps a
woman’s picture in his nightstand, it’s a pretty big fucking clue he’s still
hung up on her.” Kim paused, waiting for him to digest that. “So what’s her
name?” she asked, her voice low.

“Elyse.”
Adam leaned back on the futon. Maybe he was a prick, considering who he was
confiding in, but it felt good to finally talk to somebody. “She hates my guts,”
he grumbled, pounding his second beer.

“You
make it pretty easy for women to hate your guts, you know. You can be a real
dick sometimes.”

He
belched. “Thanks a lot.”

She
shrugged. “You always have to be a hard-ass. Put people off with snarky comments.
Afraid to show your feelings.”

“Oh,
that’s crap.”

“It’s
the truth. What is it about guys? You all act like you’re so tough and strong,
but when it comes to being honest about how you feel, you’re a bunch of scared
little babies.”

Adam
was now on his third beer. “Tell it to Oprah.”

“Asswipe.”

“Hey,
she was in bed with another man, all right? How am I supposed to act when I see
that?” he demanded.

Kim’s
brown eyes grew wide, and her mouth fell open. “In bed with—”

“Well,
they were
on
the bed,” he admitted grudgingly. “On top of the covers.
And okay, they were dressed, they only had their shoes off. But there were
liquor bottles everywhere—all right, just the little kind from a mini-bar, but—”

“What
the fuck are you talking about?” Kim looked at him as though he’d sprouted two
heads.

“And
I don’t care if Devereaux
is
gay, something’s going on there—ow!”

Groucho
the cat, perhaps tired of hearing Adam run off at the mouth, decided to shut
him up by using his leg for a scratching post. Adam winced as he tried to
disengage the cat’s claws from his thigh.

“Grouch,
that’s bad.” Kim made no move to get up and chase the cat away. “Quit it.”

Groucho
gave a low growl as Adam freed himself and then bounded to the floor to find
another way to amuse himself.

“Shit,”
Adam rubbed his thigh. “That stupid cat’s got razor blades.”

Kim
smirked and shook her head pityingly.

“What?”
he asked.

“You
really are a sad case, aren’t you, Vostek? You get in a fight with your Elyse,
and instead of talking it out with her, you drive your ass over here.”

Adam
felt the sting of embarrassment, but he tried to play it off. “What are you
talking about?”

“You’re
jealous of this guy friend of hers—this
gay
guy—and instead of admitting
it, telling her you’re scared to lose her, you come and pester my ass. Man, how
chickenshit.”

He
shifted uncomfortably, and then got mad. Where did Kim get off? Things were a
hell of a lot more complicated than she thought.

Weren’t
they?

“Well,
I’m sorry,” he rumbled as he tried to stand. His vision was fuzzy, his legs
heavy and awkward. “Sorry you think I’m such an asshole. I’ll leave, then, so
you don’t have to put up with me,” he added, highly insulted.

“Oh,
shut up and sit down,” Kim told him. “You’re not going anywhere after what,
four beers?” She took one more sip of beer and set the can on the glass coffee
table. “You need to sober up. There’s coffee in the cupboard, you know where it
is. Make it yourself, I’m not waiting on your ass. I’m going to repot my spider
plant, and then I’m heading to bed. You can crash on the futon tonight.”

“Okay,”
he said glumly, chastened.

“And
don’t be thinking you’re getting any sex off of me. The gravy train has left
the station, I don’t care how pathetic you look.” Kim looked fierce enough to
kick him in the nuts if he even suggested such a thing.

“Yeah,
yeah.”

She
kept her promise. She repotted her plant and went to bed without much more to
say to him. Well, what was there to say? She’d already called him on what a
prick he was. In spite of his embarrassment, he respected Kim for standing up
for herself.

He
nursed his fourth beer while Kim was still awake, but once she was asleep he
killed the rest of the six-pack and finished off most of the other.

The
more Adam drank, the more morose he became, and the gloomier his outlook.

He
was
a fucking loser. Kim was right to tear him a new one. She hated his
guts, and Elyse did, too. He had managed to fuck up everything even halfway
decent in his life. He was going to be a lonely miserable fuck for the rest of
his life.

To
distract himself from visions of his dismal future, he clicked on the
television remote. After a few minutes, he realized it was set on some channel
that featured women’s films. Kim probably watched it when she got tired of the Exploration
Network. To punish himself, Adam refused to switch stations, and forced himself
to watch hour after hour of women in jeopardy. By the time he was on his tenth
beer, he was actually starting to sniff back tears for the lady in the movie
whose baby was stolen by the evil nurse.

As
he sat hunched in the dark, Groucho glowered at him from the armchair, waiting
impatiently for Adam to fall asleep. Then the cat would turn him into
hamburger.

****

The
next thing Adam knew, broad daylight was stabbing him in the eyes and drool was
running down the side of his face.

He
blinked his gluey eyelids. The blurry form of a man stood above him, staring
down impassively. Adam levered himself up, trying not to groan as he rubbed his
scratchy chin. It felt as if an elephant was sitting on his head.

The
guy handed him something. “Looks like you could use this.”

Hot
coffee in a tall Daisy Donuts cup. Black. Ordinarily the smell would have
appealed to him, but last night’s beer was doing the cha-cha in his stomach,
and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold anything down. But thinking it might
help clear his head, he forced himself to swallow a few burning mouthfuls.

“Thanks,”
he muttered, blinking again to clear his vision and get a better look at the
guy. Tall, on the thin side, short sandy-colored hair. Adam wondered who he
was.

“You’re
welcome,” the guy answered in a tone neither friendly nor belligerent. His eyes
swept over Adam slowly, making him aware of how disreputable he must look.

“Ow!”
Out of nowhere Groucho had appeared, latching onto Adam’s ankle and sinking his
teeth in. Adam tried shaking the cat loose.

“Stop
that.” The guy took firm hold of the cat and pulled him away. Groucho went
still at the man’s touch and sauntered off without a care in the world when the
guy plunked him unceremoniously onto the floor.

How’d
he do that?
Adam wondered. Kim came in with a white bakery box. “Charlie brought donuts.”

She
slid the box onto the coffee table, and grabbed a coconut donut while gesturing
with her free hand. “Charlie, this is Adam. Adam, Charlie.”

Charlie
nodded, unsmiling. Adam eyed him and nodded back. He was not so hung over he
couldn’t recognize the situation for what it was.
Awkward
.

Even
he, clueless as he so often was, recognized Kim’s casual air was a put-on. She
had not expected this Charlie guy to show up at her door, nor had Charlie
expected to find some drunk sprawled on her futon. The two of them shot looks
at each other that Adam pretended not to notice.

If
he’d been more sober, Adam would have gladly left them alone to air their
grievances. But at the moment he wasn’t sure he was capable of standing without
falling on his face. Or barfing his guts out. So he sat there pretending he was
as dumb as dirt.

Kim
pushed the donut box toward him. “Have one.”

Just
looking at the pastries made his stomach turn over. “No, thanks.”

An
evil glint appeared in her eye. “Aw, come on. You don’t know what you’re
missing.” She nudged the box closer.

Charlie
cleared his throat. “I’ll be leaving.” He gave Kim a meaningful look. “Think
you can walk me to the door?”

Kim
rose from her chair and followed him. Since the door was only a few yards from
where Adam sat, they stepped into the hallway to talk. Still, he couldn’t help
catching bits of the “discussion,” mostly from Kim, who wasn’t afraid to raise
her voice.

“Well,
who told you to come?”

“I
didn’t know he was going to show up here—”

“What
makes you think it’s any of your business, Charlie?”

Charlie’s
responses were spoken quietly enough to be unintelligible. Moments later Kim
stormed back inside, slammed the door, and flung herself into her chair. She
snatched up her half-eaten donut and took an especially vicious bite out of it.

“Who
was that?” Adam asked.

“Nobody.
None of your business,” she answered through a mouthful of fried cake.

When
she calmed a bit she added, “My nosy-ass neighbor.”

“Seems
like he wants to be more than that.”

Kim
snorted and rolled her eyes. “He pisses me off. Thinks he knows it all. Got the
answer to everybody’s problems. Yeah, right.”

“Looks
like I fucked things up, being here,” Adam observed.

She
gave him a scornful look. “Get over yourself and drink your coffee. You need to
get out of here.”

He
took a few more sips of the coffee Charlie had probably meant for himself.

“Better?”
Kim asked.

Adam
nodded. “Yeah.” He pushed himself to his feet, and his gorge rose at the same
time. The room started to swim. “Uh, maybe not.” He sank back down onto the
futon, closing his eyes.

“Oh,
shit,” Kim said.

Chapter
Fourteen

The
following afternoon, while Jason was visiting his family, Elyse took a taxi to
pick up the things she’d left at Adam’s. She wasn't surprised when Adam's
brother came to the door. When she’d called the house a short time ago, it was
Matthew who answered and told her to come on over.

Her
stomach was in a twist. She hadn’t spoken to Adam since their blow-up the day
before. Had he asked Matthew to run interference for him? Was he avoiding her
completely?

If
so, maybe it was for the best. What was left to say? Better she simply pick up
her things and head out. Jason would be waiting.

Matthew
stepped aside, ushering her into the house. “Hey, Elyse.”

“Hey,”
she stammered, feeling awkward. She’d always liked Matthew. Would it be wrong
to hug him now? She wasn’t sure how much he knew about the situation between
her and Adam. Maybe under the circumstances—