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“That he wants to talk to you.”
Katrina threw back her wine, taking down half a glass in one swallow. “Yeah, but why? I mean, what is there to say?” Other than that she was a fuckup? That was a fact; it didn’t need to be discussed.
“Maybe he wants to talk about his magnificent penis. Maybe he wants to show you his magnificent penis.”
“What should I say?”
Samantha looked at her as if she was first idiot on the command bridge of the USS Moron. “That you’ll meet him. Look, we’re buzzed, you’ve been pining over him for years, I say you go for it. It can’t possibly be even more embarrassing than it already is.”
That remained to be seen, but she was just masochistic enough to want to know what Drew would say to her. “Okay, but I’m cutting myself off from wine then. No more alcohol or somehow I’ll end up crying in front of him. You know I’m a teary drunk.”
“Oh, yes, I do know that.” Samantha studied her. “What is it about Drew anyway? I mean, he’s cute and all, and I can see why he makes your lady parts flutter, but you wanted to legit date him, didn’t you?”
She had. For a minute, she reflected, thinking back to her years as an undergrad, new to the big city, feeling very pedestrian next to fellow students from Hong Kong and Hollywood and Istanbul. Students who were valedictorians, overachievers, with awesome style and raging confidence. She’d just been Trina, an A-minus student from the burbs with no particular skill but a drive to make something happen for herself. Drew was one of the first classmates she had felt completely comfortable around. He wasn’t pretentious, or arrogant, and he had listened to her.
Many late nights had been spent in her dorm room on her bed, their legs stretched out, listening to music and talking about everything from childhood memories to how to pull off the ultimate catfish. It was a lot of little things and it was one big thing.
“When my father had a heart attack, everyone was all ‘oh, I’m sorry,’” she told Samantha, whom she’d actually met the semester after that. “But Drew skipped class and went home with me on the train. He let me cry until I fell asleep on his shoulder, and he went to the hospital with me.” She swirled the wine remaining in her glass and stared at it, a lump in her throat. “That’s why I always feel like he’s the one who got away. He’s a good guy and we had a deep friendship.”
“Then you definitely need to see him. Even if it never becomes a relationship, you should try to reclaim your friendship.”
“You’re right.” Katrina tapped out a response. Sure. Be there around eleven.
Cool. :)
The smiley made her feel better. He couldn’t be super pissed if he was using positive emoticons. What it meant beyond that, she had no clue, but she was only going to allow herself one minute to think it was that he wanted to repeat that magnificent penis performance.
She set the timer on her phone.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m giving myself exactly sixty seconds to fantasize that Drew wants to be with me.” She closed her eyes and remembered the sensation of his mouth on hers, kissing her with passion and intensity. By the time she got to his lips trailing down over her breasts and to her girl bits, the phone alarm squawked.
She opened her eyes. “Okay, I’m good.”
Samantha pushed up her glasses. “You’re a freak.”
“Truth.”
Chapter Two
Katrina stood outside the Plaid Kimono, yet another of Brooklyn’s fusion hipster bars that sprung up like weeds, and took a deep breath. She’d never been inside because she’d known since it opened about nine months earlier that Drew was a bartender there, and she hadn’t wanted to run into him. She and Samantha followed a group of guys in skinny jeans and cardigans inside and paused to look around.
Yep. It was exactly what she was expecting. Pub atmosphere, a dark and dim interior, expensive modern decor with a slight hint of Asian influence. There was a band playing at the very far end of the room and there was a plethora of flannel and beanies everywhere she looked. The servers were wearing kilts.
The thought of Drew in a kilt made her secretly just a little bit aroused. Okay, that was a lie. A lot aroused.
“There he is,” Samantha said, pointing. “He’s at the far end of the bar.”
“Don’t point!” she hissed at her friend, grabbing her finger. “That’s so obvious. Just be casual.” The wine was wearing off and she was nervous as hell.
“This isn’t like an accidental meeting. He knows you’re coming.” Samantha rolled her eyes and started toward the bar, weaving through the crowd.
There were no stools free, of course, because there were never any tables or chairs available anywhere. New York was crowded. It was something that still surprised Katrina sometimes even after six years of living there. So she tried to artfully lean on the three inches of bar top accessible between two groups of friends. Watching Drew move around behind the bar, shaking and mixing and washing, she fought the urge to sigh.
Back in the day, before the sex, she had spent a lot of time with Drew, hanging out in her dorm room or his, going to concerts, lying in the sun in Washington Square, and studying in the coffee shop. Seeing him, his head bent over as he rinsed glassware, made her realize how much she had missed him. Her heart squeezed.
Then she saw he was wearing a kilt, his muscular calves showing, and it was her vagina doing the squeezing. Holy amazeballs.
Was she drooling? She wiped the corner of her mouth, sure there was going to be saliva there.
Which was precisely when he looked up and saw her.
Their eyes met and held and he gave her a grin and a nod of acknowledgment. Moving down the bar toward her, he leaned forward and said, “Hi, Trina. Thanks for coming.”
Coming? She wished.
“Sure. Listen, Drew, I’m really sorry about the whole post. God, it was just so stupid and awful and this day has been hell. Just hell.” She felt her cheeks heat with an embarrassed blush.
He gave her a rueful look. “How does that even happen? Seriously.”
“I have no idea. All I know is that I single-handedly pissed off every guy I’ve ever dated and my mother has called me six times and left me a message suggesting I get STD testing.” She propped her head up with her palm and shook her head. “My mother thinks I’m a whore, I probably just ruined my business, and it’s possible than an actual sex tape would have been less mortifying.”
“Next weekend you can make a sex tape. You should have goals, you know.”
She gave him a long look. “Really? Thanks.”
He cracked a laugh. “Come on, it’s funny, you have to admit. But then again, you gave me a high ranking, so I have no complaints. You basically gave me an endorsement. Think of how much action I can get now.”
Lovely. Just what she didn’t want to imagine—him with a bevy of women wanting to test-drive his penis. “Excellent. I should charge you an advertising fee.”
Drew grinned. “How about I just get you a drink. What do you want?”
Him. “Pinot grigio.” One glass wouldn’t kill her.
He nodded and looked behind her. “Hey, Samantha. What can I get you?”
“I’ll have the same thing.”
“Coming right up.” He moved away and Katrina watched his plaid ass saunter off.
She didn’t feel better. Granted, she was relieved he wasn’t mad at her, but shouldn’t he be more...something? More curious? Instead he was just Mr. Casual. As if they hadn’t basically stopped speaking to each other for a year.
“He seems quite pleased with himself,” Samantha commented. “He just got the ego stroke of a lifetime.”
“It would seem.” She wasn’t exactly happy about it, either. He thought it was funny. Entertaining. She’d said she was in love with him and that seemed to have had zero effect on him. Fabulous.
When he came back with their wine, she was wondering why the hell she was in the noisy bar, getting pressed from all sides by purses and bodies angling for more space. Feeling exhausted and suddenly angry, she asked, “So, what did you want to talk about?”
“I don’t want to get into it here. I’m done in half an hour. Can you hang out? We can go to my place.”
Was that a trick question? She searched his face for clues as to what that meant, but he just looked serious. There was no telling if it was a good serious or a bad serious. Taking a sip of her wine to stall, she swallowed and licked her lips. “I’m with Samantha.”
For a second she thought he looked disappointed, but maybe that was a delusion.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m going to grab a cab home soon. I have to work tomorrow.” Samantha gave her a smile. “Have fun.”
“Cool. Okay, let me get back to work.”
Katrina made a face at his retreating back. “What the hell does he want?” she asked Samantha. “I feel super stressed out. I’m sweating.”
But Samantha was looking at her cell screen. “OMG, look at this. I just got sent a suggestion to like a page called Drew’s Magnificent Penis Fan Page.” She showed Katrina the request.
“Oh, shit.” She groaned. “He’s going to kill me.”
“Maybe he started it.”
Now that would be ridiculous. They both burst out laughing.
“I’m sending you this,” Samantha said. “Look at the profile pic. It’s a cartoon penis. This is awesome.”
Katrina studied it, not nearly as amused as Samantha was. But even she had to admit that someone was creative. “The ‘About Me’ section says, ‘Looking for a lady locker to store my valuables. Have a license to kill memories of bad sex.’ Favorite song ‘Up All Night.’ Inspirational quote is ‘To handle yourself, use your head...,’ Eleanor Roosevelt.” Katrina looked up at Samantha. “Oh my God. Who do you think did this?”
“It had to be Jason. That has him written all over it.”
Katrina jumped when a hand slid across her lower back. Turning, prepared to tell off a douchebag, she closed her mouth when she realized it was Drew. “Oh, you scared me.”
“What are you two giggling about? Funny animal pics?”
“No.” Samantha held her phone up for him to see.
Drew’s lips moved and Katrina’s heart sank.
He didn’t look furious. He looked irritated, but not bust-up-furniture angry. “Who the hell did this?”
“I have no idea. It was a suggested page for me.”
Drew pulled out his own phone and he snorted. “Jason is a dick.”
“Ironic choice of slurs,” Samantha said.
Drew shot her a look. “He sent me a text taking credit.” He shook his head. “Let’s head out. And thanks, Trina, for making my Thursday a little more interesting.”
“You’re welcome. I think mine would be classified more as suck than interesting, but glad to be of service.”
Drew waited for them to go in front of him, his hand once again resting on Katrina’s back and staying there the whole way to the front door. She wondered what that was all about, and tried to remember if he had touched her like that BS. Before Sex. She couldn’t think of any time he had, but she felt like a neurotic 420 smoker yelling “What does it mean?” at a double rainbow. She was overthinking the hell out of everything.
Samantha gave her a wink as she hopped in a cab out on the street. Katrina waved, breathing in the warm night air. “God, it’s gorgeous out. It was so hot today.”
“I see the advantage of wearing a skirt,” Drew said as they started down the sidewalk. “I thought I would hate this kilt, but I dig the circulation.”
“It’s a good look for you.”
He smiled at her and something about the look on his face made her suck in a breath.
“Trina, I never meant for us to stop being friends. You know that, right?”
She nodded, a lump lodging in her throat. “Yeah, I know. I didn’t mean for that to happen either. Or I never would have...” But she stopped talking, because she wondered if she had the option of giving back that one night, would she. Because even though she missed Drew’s friendship, the truth was, it had been becoming painful to be around him, knowing her feelings went way beyond friendship. Not knowing how to tell him. At least the sex had kept her from endlessly hoping they could be a couple. That dream had been shattered instantly in the aftermath of sex.
“You never would have had sex with me?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest as they walked.
Awkward. “It obviously wasn’t planned, and I know I didn’t handle things well.”
“Sex happens. But it doesn’t mean we should let it ruin our friendship. I miss you.”
Oh, God, oh, God, he missed her and she was going to melt. Just puddle right at his feet. “I’ve missed you, too. I know we can’t go backward, but I want what we had before we got naked.”
“You mean, before my magnificent penis?”
Katrina made a sound of disgust. “You don’t have to sound so smug about it. You should be just a little embarrassed that everyone we know now knows we had sex.”
“Why would I be embarrassed? It’s not like you’re a troll.”
Huh. This conversation was not going the way she’d hoped. “Don’t flatter me so.”
But then he surprised her by taking her hand and pulling her to a stop. He pulled her in close to him. “Hey, come here.”
“What?” She could feel the blush starting in her cheeks again and she wondered when she was finally going to be old enough to stop blushing. It was like acne—it just shouldn’t happen past middle school.
“It was a great night, you have to admit.”
“I think I did. Quite publicly.” It was distracting to be so close to him, his kilt brushing against her, his fingers entwined with hers. But it was good to hear him say he’d enjoyed it, too.
“And you’re beautiful.” He tucked her hair behind her ear.
The love she felt for him, that she’d been attempting to suppress with mixed success, came rushing back to the surface. “Thanks,” she whispered.
“Now can you please tell me why I only got a five out of ten for the good dresser category? That was brutal. I may need therapy.”
Way to ruin the moment. She rolled her eyes. “You have exactly two pairs of jeans and enough plaid to represent every clan in Scotland. I had to ding you somewhere or the app would have recommended I see you again.”
She wasn’t trying to be suggestive. She really wasn’t. But the words just sort of hung in the air between them for a long, painful pause and she refused to be the one to speak first, because she would apologize or embarrass herself by sounding needy.
Finally, Drew said, “But an eight out of ten for kissing? I don’t know. I thought we had a ten going on.”
Interesting. And arousing. Katrina tried to play it cool, which was hard to do when her entire sexual history had been posted online and when he was wearing a kilt. But she gave it her best shot. “You misread. It was definitely listed as a ten.”
“Let’s find out for sure,” he said.
