Virtually Mine: a love story (17 page)

Kate’s face went white. “Dustin...what?
Have you been reading my journals?!”

Dustin beamed, sure he was scoring major
points. “Yeah. I hardly even got bored, either.
 
And I thought it was really cute how you played around with
calling yourself by my last name.”

Suddenly, the color returned to Kate’s
cheeks. “Dustin, you don’t just...
 
That’s private!”

Dustin shrugged, completely confused.
“Not from me!”

“Yes, from you! From everybody!”

Dustin pointed a defensive finger at
Kate. “But you said you want me to know all your stuff!”

“Not all my stuff!” Kate protested. “Just
the parts I want you to know! How am I supposed to even look at you again,
knowing you know about—”

“—how you won a ten dollar bet with your
Dad by drinking a whole glass of milk through your nose?”

“Nooo!”

Dustin reeled back with laughter. “Dude!
Even I think that’s gross.”

“Auuuuggggh! Dustin, just go home. Go
away. Now!”

With more strength than Dustin thought
Kate had, she pushed him toward the door. He did his best to resist. “But I’m
wooing you!”

“I don’t want to be wooed,” she insisted.
“I want you to get lost, scram, vamoose!”

“No way!” he spouted.

“Every conceivable way!”

Before Dustin could stop her, Kate had
shoved him out the door and closed it behind him. Hearing the latch click into
place, Dustin yelled through the locked door. “I’m not leaving, you know! I can
hold out for hours, maybe days.”

Dustin fished into his pocket and pulled
out the only thing he found in there. “I’ve got plenty of floss and I am
staying right here!”

Suddenly feeling nature’s call, Dustin
muttered, kicking himself. “I
knew
I should have used the can.”

♥   
♥    ♥

A roaring fire crackled in the fireplace of Kate and M.J.’s apartment. Kate
stood beside it, paging through a journal, just one of many, chronicling the
ups and downs, the minutia that made up her days.

Why
she’d always felt compelled to write her thoughts down, to record the on-going
details of her life, she hadn’t known. Given what had happened, though, she was
highly motivated to transition to password-protected journaling on her
computer. Kate took a
last sentimental look at a hard cover journal then added it
to the blaze. There were a lot of journals, she realized. This fire would burn
for a long time.

M.J. unlocked the door and entered with
her fluffed and folded laundry. Kate wasn’t sure if it was the firelight or if
M.J. was actually glowing.

M.J. put her basket down. “Okay, guess
who has a date tonight? A real one.”

“Not me,” Kate rued. “Not I. Listen to
me. I’m losing all sense of syntax.”

M.J. motioned outside toward their
apartment building’s common area. “You do know that Dustin is in the pool?”

Kate rolled her eyes. “You must mean that
guy I am never letting near me again.”

M.J. grimaced. “Not so much on the
wooing?”

Kate resituated her journal with a fire
poker. “Not so much.”

♥   
♥    ♥

With Dustin lounging by the pool, Charlie was confident that Kate wouldn’t
venture outside, not after the spat he’d overheard. So, seeing as he still had
his management responsibilities to attend to, he decided it was as good a time
as any to do some maintenance on the pool.

At
first, Charlie thought his presence might encourage Dustin to leave, but Dustin
never budged. He just sat, sprawled on a lounge chair, his pants soaked waist
to cuff.

Charlie cleared his throat. “You done in
there?”

“Yeah.”

Charlie picked up a bucket of chlorine
crystals, just as a deliveryman rounded the corner of the building. The guy
headed up the stairs with a showy bouquet of flowers.

Dustin sat up. “What’s up with that?”

Charlie inched around Dustin’s lounge
chair, trying to get to the edge of the pool. “Excuse me...uh...just...”

Finally, Dustin scooted aside. “Might
want to give it an extra go, there, Bud. Some kid went swimming and I think he
might have marked his territory.”

♥   
♥    ♥

Absently stroking her stuffed polar bear, Bubba, Kate slumped on her bed,
watching M.J. sort through her clothes. It wasn’t so very often that M.J. had
an actual date, much less went out shopping for one, so the pickings in M.J.’s
own closet were understandingly slim.

M.J.
pulled a cute top out of Kate’s things. She held it up against herself, the tag
still dangling from the sleeve. “
Oooh-la-lah. You sure you don’t mind? You
haven’t even worn this.”

Kate set the polar bear aside. “Go ahead.
It’s not like I’ve got anyplace to go tonight.”

“Don’t pout,” M.J. replied. “How many
billions, correction, zillions of nights have I stayed at home while you went
out with Dustin?”

Kate knew M.J. was right. “Sorry. But
couldn’t you have warned me how hideous it feels?”

“Not adequately.” The look on M.J.’s face
conveyed that she well recalled what it was like. She wandered over to the bed
and took a seat by Kate. “You gonna be okay?”

As she looked at the polar bear beside
her, Kate could only sigh. It was what it was, and she’d just have to get
through it. She only perked up a little when the doorbell rang. “Probably
Charlie.”

Kate scooted off the bed and went to
answer the door. Talking to Charlie wouldn’t be easy, and she still didn’t know
exactly what to say, just that she needed to say something. On the other hand,
if it were Dustin, there was no way she’d let him in, no matter how long he
waited.

Kate peered out the peephole.
Surprisingly, Kate found it was neither Charlie nor Dustin outside. Instead, she
opened the door to a stunning floral arrangement.

The deliveryman smiled congenially. “Kate
Valentine?”

Kate glanced at her watch. “Yeah, that’s
right. Isn’t it kind of late for deliveries?”

The deliveryman affirmed it with a nod.
“Guy paid me triple. Must be crazy about you.”

M.J. wandered out just as Kate brought
the arrangement inside, shut the door, and opened the card. “Aloud please.”

A bit taken aback, Kate read:

Congrats on booking the commercial. Guess what? I did, too! Let’s grab
dinner tonight and celebrate.
 

Eric
 
(310) 555-5763

“
Who’s Eric?” M.J. inquired.

Kate’s
attention lingered on the card. “Eric is Brad, only really Brad isn’t Eric,
he’s Charlie who’s pretending to be Brad, who supposedly looks like Eric.”

M.J. waived her arms in confusion. “Wait,
wait. Charlie? As in our apartment manager, Charlie?! He’s your Imaginary
Boyfriend?”

“Not the face,” Kate explained. “That’s
Eric. The real person behind the face is Charlie, who isn’t, by the way,
speaking to me right now, but... Oh, M.J.
 
What am I going to do?”

Mustering her resolve, Kate marched down
the apartment building steps and approached Dustin where he slept by the pool.
She cleared her throat. Nothing. She nudged his chair.

Finally, Dustin’s eyes popped open. An
impish expression quickly unfurled. “I knew you’d come down.”

Kate stood her ground. “Dustin, you have
to leave.”

Dustin sat up. “Okay, maybe I shouldn’t
have read your journals.”

Incredulous, Kate shook her head.
“Maybe?”

“Probably,” Dustin conceded. “Okay,
definitely. But come on, now, Kate. You gotta know I was just trying.”

“Trying to what?” Kate blustered. “To
mortify me beyond words, to wholly and categorically creep me out?”

By then, Dustin lumbered to his feet. He
stood a respectful distance away. “I was... I’m trying to say I’m sorry, that’s
all. I want you back.”

Kate expelled a deep sigh. As clueless as
Dustin was, this time, she knew at least his heart was in the right place.
Completely embarrassed, she hid her face in her hands. Through the cracks in
her fingers, she could see him coming closer, bending down from his taller
frame to look at her eye to eye. Playfully, he peeled her fingers away from her
cheeks.

Her anger subsiding, Kate still put up
resistance. “Cut it out.”

“Not till you smile for me,” Dustin insisted.
“Gimme a little snicker.”

Despite Kate’s best efforts, she could
feel the beginnings of a smile as it curled on the corners of her lips.

Dustin lit up, encouraged. “Ooh, I saw
that!”

Deliberately, Kate pouted. “I’m not
smiling. That was a twitch. I hear twitches are quirky.”

For once, Dustin seemed to get her joke.
He shuffled his feet sheepishly on the concrete. “Kate, see, the good news is,
I retain very little.”

“Who knew that would be such a plus?”
Kate quipped.

“Except the nose-drinking part. That’s
probably going to stick.”

Kate shrugged self-effacingly. “Yeah, I
figured. With the visual.”

Dustin moved even closer. “So...”

Kate put her hands up, stopping him. It
felt good to be back on friendly terms, but she knew that friendly was all they
would ever be. As cute as he was and as much as she’d tried to convince herself
otherwise, he was not the one for her. “Dustin, I...
 
Okay, here it is: I have a date.”

Dustin’s face fell. “With who?”

twelve

♥

C
harlie edged the blinds open to peer outside of his window.
He had seen the bouquet arrive earlier. He had heard Eric’s confident knock on
Kate’s door and put two and two together. He listened to the ease with which
Eric greeted her. Now, he watched as Eric took Kate’s arm and led her down the
stairs to leave. Even Charlie had to admit that they made a sensational looking
couple.

It wasn’t about conceding defeat for
Charlie. Defeat would have meant there was ever some semblance of a
competition, and it was plain enough for Charlie to see that if this had been a
race, he hadn’t even made it to the starting blocks. Charlie did his best to
face up to the facts. As much as he wished it could have been otherwise,
Samantha had been right. Kate was entirely out of his league.

Though he always did his best not to
judge, deep down, he’d never thought Dustin had been anywhere near worthy of
Kate. However, in fairness, he had to admit that Eric could be an entirely
different matter. As pretty as Kate was, she deserved a guy as handsome and
personable as Eric appeared to be, a guy who seemed poised for success.

Charlie didn’t know exactly why Eric
had resigned from
Virtually Mine
, just when he’d rocketed to the top of
their stable of Imaginaries. But whatever the reason, something in Charlie
respected that Eric had suddenly opted to leave their roster. A year of
witnessing the dynamic between his boss and the models that she hired left
plenty of room for supposition. Somehow, Charlie had a feeling about Eric’s
sudden departure. He wanted to believe the best about him, especially if he was
going to be seeing Kate.

Quitting
Virtually Mine
on
principle was more than Charlie had yet brought himself to do, he realized.
Maybe there was some substance beneath that eye-candy face of Eric’s. Maybe he
was a smart, stand-up guy. Maybe he would treat Kate the way she deserved to be
treated
.
For her sake, Charlie hoped so.

As he watched Kate and Eric disappear
down the sidewalk toward the Promenade, Charlie coaxed himself to hope they’d
have a good time. They’d go to dinner, maybe a movie, he supposed. They’d trade
tales of what brought them to L.A. They’d revel in the amazing way they had
met, how it seemed so meant to be. They’d stroll past street musicians,
soulfully singing of romance in the city of dreams.

It
wasn’t long before he heard Rob arrive to pick up M.J. for their date. From the
confines of his bachelor apartment, Charlie watched as they headed off toward
the beach with a picnic basket.

Though
Charlie had never liked being alone, he’d long ago accepted it as his lot. It
hadn’t ever been easy, but on this particular occasion, it ached like never
before.

♥   
♥    ♥

Kate thanked Eric for a lovely evening out, and then entered her darkened
apartment. He had been a true gentleman, she reflected. It was a rarity that
she greatly appreciated.

Altogether, it had been quite a day.

As Kate’s eyes adjusted to the moonlight,
spilling in from the front windows, she stopped, stunned. There, in the middle
of the living room, was the Victorian chair she’d sold to Charlie, the one with
the scratch on the leg from her childhood ice skates.