Uninvolved (17 page)

"What are you doing?"
Becka
asked.

"I have to get going
,
"
Nate
replied.

Not again!
"Why don’t you stay?"
Becka
urged.

He shrugged
,
saying that he had to get up early the next day and that would be easier from his house
.
Becka
finished her beer and put on her robe
,
following him to the door.

"Thanks for the beer
,
kid
,
" he said
,
kissing her neck.

Becka
nodded
,
shutting the door behind him
.
She
really
might actually hate him
this time
.
How could someone who only seemed singularly focused on her when he was w
ith her make her feel so used?
Walking back to her room
,
she threw on an old t
-
shirt and some yoga pants
.
She wanted to go to sleep
,
but she couldn’t turn her brain off
.
She paced around her room
,
picking up her clothes from before and dropping them in her laundry hamper
,
thinking
it was like
fucking New Year's
all over again
.

She wandered out to the kitchen and got a bottle of flavored water
.
Still restless
,
she picked up her e
R
eader to continue a novel she was reading
.
Giving up after a chapter
,
she set it back on her bedside table and
lay
down, staring at her ceiling
.
Was there something wrong with her
,
she wondered
.

There was no other explanation she could think of. What confused her was why he came over at all. What was in it for him? What really frustrated her was he had somehow gotten her to like him. Here she was
,
finally liking someone, not that she's ever admit it
,
but he didn’t seem to be as interested in her as she was with him. Yes, it wasn’t like she called him or texted him, making him come to her
,
but how many times had it been? Three, counting the night they played cards. If he liked her
,
Nate should want to see her more often. The one guy that she could see herself spending time with
,
and it felt one
-
sided.

At some point
,
she must have nodded off because she woke with a start
,
almost unsure of where she was
.
Glancing about
,
she rolled her eyes at the thought seeing that she was in her own room
.
Then something caught her eye
.
It was
Nate
's beer from the night before
.
She went over and picked it up
.
It was empty
,
but she didn’t want to throw it away
.
This admission embarrassed her
.
Either way
,
Becka
took the empty bottle and put it on a shelf in her closet.

Dave was already home from work but must have gone straight to bed
.
She felt relief in the fact that she didn't see him
.
Becka
was feeling a bit guilty that
Nate
had been over last night
,
considering Kyle was coming over tonight
.
Dave had
incredible bullshit radar when it came to
Becka
.
She would never be able to fool him if he point blank asked her what she had done last night.

Her goal was to avoid him altogether or figure out a way to divert his attention to something else
.
Maybe she would invite Crystal over to watc
h a movie that afternoon
.
Becka
som
etimes felt like an evil genius
.
It was after ten
,
so
she was
sure it was not to
o
early
.
S
he sent Crystal a text seeing if she woul
d like to come over later
.
While
Becka
waited for her to reply
,
she toasted a bagel
and called Lilly
.
She didn’t answer
,
so Becka had to sum up the night prior in a very long voicemail
.
Crystal texted her back while she was eating her bagel.

Crystal wanted to go shopping instea
d
.
Thinking maybe she could buy
something cute to wear for her date
,
Becka
was game
.
Crystal swung by to pick her up an hour later
.
Crystal was shopping with a purpose
.
She
had a wedding to go to and wanted
Becka
's opinion on what to wear
.
After trying on countless dresses
,
she found one she really liked in the third store they went to.

Thank God,
Becka
thought
.
It was fun watching Crystal try on dresses for the first thirty minutes
,
but after that
Becka
's patience was wearing thin
,
and she was starving
.
After Crystal bought her dress
,
they popped over to the food court
.
While Crystal ordered a salad
,
Becka
dug into two slices of pizza.

"I am so jealous that you can eat like that and still stay thin
,
" Crystal grumbled.

"I think eating is the one thing I am really good at
,
"
Becka
joked.

"Hey
,
don’t say that about yourself
.
You
are good at lots of things."

Like what
,
Becka
thought to herself
,
and proceeded to fess up to Crystal about
Nate
coming over the night before
.
Crystal was her least judgmental friend and could keep a secret
.
After telling her everything
,
Becka waited for Crystal's verdict.

"It's obvious that he
likes you or he wouldn’t always
come to you
.
Could he be religious?
Like
one of those
‘
saving himself for marriage
’
people
?
" Crystal wondered.

"God, I hope not
.
I have no interest in waiting another day
,
let alone
until
marriage
. Besides, if he liked me
,
wouldn’t he want to see me more often?
" Becka grumbled.

"Well
,
maybe you should ask him about it
,
" Crystal offered.

"
And give him the chance to
tell me the reason is he just does not
like me like that and has no
intere
st in sleeping with me?
No, tha
nk you
.
"

After lunch
,
they wandered around the mall some more
.
Becka
bought a pair of dangly earrings that were little flying swallow birds and
a
pair of grey leather ankle boots
.
Instead of just dropping
Becka
off
,
Crystal went ahead
and came in to hang for a bit.

Hanging out in her room
,
Becka
showed Crystal all of her possible outfits for her date with Kyle that night
.
She really wanted to wear her new shoes so
,
with Crystal's help
,
she settled on a pale yellow dress with a grey cardigan
.
She still had hours to kill before she needed to get ready
,
so she talked Crystal into staying to watch a movie after all.

Becka
ordered a romantic comedy
on the TV
in the living room that
neither of them had seen on pay per view
.
Given the lack of sleep from the night before
,
Becka
fell
asleep
thirty
minutes into it
.
She woke to Crystal gently shaking her shoulder to let her know she should probably start getting ready
.
Bec
k
a blinked at the time on the cable box.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Like three hours
.
"

"The movie must have ended two hours ago
.
What have you
—
?"

Just then
,
Dave walked into the room
,
and Crystal began to blush furiously
.
Becka
gave her a look and
went to take a shower
.
S
he was curious about what Dave and Crystal had been up to while she was asleep
,
but
she was grateful for the nap
.
How embarrassing would that have been if she just fell asleep on her date with Kyle?
She
blow-dried
her hair and then changed into her dress
.
She kept her makeup very light, a dusting of foundation, eye shadow
,
mascara, a touch of blush
,
and lip gloss
.
She twisted her hair into a knot at her nape and put on a
spritz
of perfume.

Chapter
6

Kyle was prompt for their date
.
Dave answered
the
door and teased him when he saw
Kyle was somewhat dressed up
.
He wore grey slacks and a royal blue dress shirt that really showed off his eyes
.
Greeting
Becka
with a hug and kiss on the cheek
,
he smacked Dave lightly on the back of the head
,
and they were off
.
Becka
mentally noted
that Crystal had made no move
to leave when she did.

Kyle took her to a nice steak food restaurant
.
They had not done much talking the last time they saw each other so
they
spent most of the meal getting to know each other better. Becka told him about her family back in Virginia and how she had met Dave in
m
iddle
s
chool. Dave's family moved o
ut to Arizona before
h
igh
s
chool
,
but h
e and Becka had stayed tight. Dave
talked her into going to college in A
rizona. The school they went to allowed co-ed dorm sharing
,
so they had been roommates since then.

So she was n
ot from Arizona but really who was?
Born and raised out East,
she
missed green stuff, disliked desert stuff, move
d out here for
school,
and
stayed for
work
. She had
one big sister
,
and her
mom and dad
were
still together
.
She also got to learn similar stuff about Kyle
.
He was
born in Colorado and
moved to Arizona
while he was in
h
igh
s
chool. Kyle
was
also
a big hockey fan
.
He followed the Phoenix Coyotes
,
who were surprisingly good given their hometown climate
.
That
is
,
when they actually got to play
.
Kyle also
had
one younger sister who was still in college.