Month: March 2021

Heather

Ultimately it was his repeated almost continuous glancing down to his lap that clued her in. At first she had thought he was nervous like her. After all, who wouldn’t be nervous about a first date set up by friends who swore that they were perfect for each other. That is a lot of pressure for a first date.

She couldn’t stand it anymore. “Are you getting texts from friends too? Mine are apparently dying to know if we have fallen in love yet.”

“No.” He didn’t even look up from whatever it was he was looking at on his phone.

“Is work bugging you after hours?” 

“No, Heather. Work is not bugging me. Why are you so curious about my phone all of the sudden?” As he was talking he slid his phone back into his pocket.

“Because, Parker. You’ve paid more attention to your phone than you have to me in the past few minutes. So I was wondering what could possibly be taking you away from our date.”

He folded his arms onto the table, eyes locked on hers. “Do you need every second of my attention in order for this date to turn into a relationship?”

“No.” She huffed. “Yes. If you ask me on a date I expect the majority of your attention to be on our date and not on your phone. I didn’t say yes to a date with the top of your head, yet I’ve seen more of it than your face.”

“What are you saying Heather? Do you want this date to be done?” He glanced around. “Has this lasted long enough that our friends will believe us now that we aren’t meant to be?”

Heather put her hand up. “Have you been counting minutes until you can end this without getting grief from our friends?”

“No.” Parker sat up straighter. “I wouldn’t do that.”

She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed. “I’m not convinced. And if you are done with the date then so am I. I don’t care how long it’s been or if I get grief from friends. Spending more time with someone who likes their phone more than me is someone I am not interested in.”

Parker pulled his phone back out. “Here.”

“I don’t want your phone.” She pushed it back across the table at him.

He wouldn’t take it back, leaving it on the table between them. “It’s my promise to not look at it again until you decide our date is done.”

“Why should I not just leave?”

“I’ve given you every reason.” He shrugged. “And now that I think of it from your perspective I realize how horrible I have been behaving. One more chance?”

Silence reigned between them as she weighed her options. 

“Fine.” She took his phone and put it in her purse. “Now will you tell me what you kept looking at?”

He shook his head. “I’ll make you a deal. If I can get you to laugh, a real genuine laugh, before I drop you off tonight then I will tell you what I was doing.”

“I could just laugh right now and you’d have to tell me.”

“I would be the one that decides if it’s a real laugh.” He chuckled. 

“How would you know what my real laugh is like then?” She leaned in. “I might have a horse laugh.”

His smile grew and a glint of ‘challenge accepted’ appeared in his eyes. “I plan on hearing you laugh so much tonight that by the end of the night I will know if I’ve managed to get a real laugh out of you.”

“Game on.” Heather laughed.

Immediately he shook his head. “Nope. That’s not it. Try again.”

That brought on more laughter from both of them.

“You know, based on our date so far, you aren’t going to hear a real laugh.” Heather started eating again.

His smile faded. “I am sorry.”

“If we do another date, I think I’ll start off by confiscating your phone right away. You are much more fun without it.”

“Hey!” His mock outrage had her giggling.

“The last minute with you actually engaged in conversation is so completely different. I’m actually enjoying myself now.”

He cocked his head to the side. “Maybe you should have blown up at me sooner. Because I like this version of you better too.”

“I haven’t changed.”

Parker cringed just a little. “I’m aware of that. It is more of a chastisement for myself. I didn’t take the time to talk to you. My opinion of you was marred by my phone.”

Heather smiled. “So what you are saying is you want to start our date over and try talking to each other to decide if we want to call this date a success…or failure.”

“Sounds good when you put it like that.” Parker looked down at his bread plate. “Maybe we can try a different place to eat.”

“Why?” Heather looked around. “This seems like a really nice place.”

He nodded, looked around and nodded again. “I don’t think that this is something that can really show you why I am a good person to date. And I am finding that I want you to say yes when I ask you on a date at the end of the night.”

“All because I called you out?” She laughed.

“No. Because you didn’t just sit there and take it.” He pointed at her purse. “And you gave me a second chance at proving to you that I’m a good guy.”

“Where to?” Heather stood with a smile.

Parker rose and held out his arm. “Well, my fine lady. Allow me to show you my favorite Italian place in the city…Tuscan Valley.”

“I’ve never heard of it.” 

As they were walking out he peeked over at her as he spoke. “Not surprising. It’s a teeny little shop near my apartment. But we shall feast like kings… queens…king and queen.”

Heather burst out laughing.

Evette

“Derek, you don’t understand.” Evette pressed. “Sarah is using you.”

Her best friend since forever shook his head. “I promised her I wouldn’t ignore her just because we were breaking up. I was with her for over a year. You know I can’t just abandon her. I still care about her.”

Evette crossed her arms, leaning against the locker next to his. “Why did the two of you break up then?”

He didn’t answer. He never did. It had been a month and he still hadn’t shared why the two of them had broken up. That wasn’t like him. He told her everything.

There was no love lost between Evette and Sarah. In fact, Sarah had made it clear over the past year that she hated everything about Evette simply because she had known Derek first.

“I know why.” She finally admitted.

Derek’s head snapped up. “What?”

“I heard Sarah telling her friend.”

He slammed his locker shut and pulled her down the hall. “What did she say?”

“Her dad threatened you with something and you were furious. She thought you broke up with her the week prior to the actual break up because you were so distant. Then you caught her flirting with another guy and actually broke up with her then.”

Derek groaned. “This is how rumors get started.”

“What do you mean?”

“She was lying to make herself look good. In that story she is just the sweet innocent victim.”

At this point they were nearing the empty soccer fields. Derek slowed. Looking around to find no one else around, his shoulders relaxed and he sighed. “Evette, I probably should have told you this, of all people, but it was too embarrassing and I was trying to make sense of my feelings.”

“What?” She pressed when he stopped talking. 

Derek took off his backpack and threw it under a nearby bench. He began to pace, not saying a word.

Knowing him and how long it would take for him to find the words, Evette moved to the bench and sat down. He’d get out what he was trying to say eventually. She just needed to give him the time to walk it out and through his head first. So she waited.

“Evette.” He stopped right in front of her. “We’ve been friends for a really long time.”

She nodded, not sure where this was going.

He shook his head. “I don’t know if you ever noticed but Sarah was always very jealous of our friendship.”

“She hated me. I knew that.” Evette shrugged.

Her admission apparently surprised him as his eyes widened. “No.”

“Yes. Keep going.”

“I…ugh.” He paced for another minute, processing what she had just admitted. “Evette, I didn’t break up with Sarah.”

In shock, all she could do was blink. He started to pace again.

“Wait, so you two are still together? I don’t understand.”

“No.” He flopped onto the bench next to her and leaned over his knees, head in his hands. “She broke up with me.”

“What? Why?” Evette shook her head. “She still cries and goes the other way when she sees you. And she’s still using you for rides and stuff.”

Derek’s shoulders slumped further. “I know.”

“Did she give you a reason for breaking up at least?”

“You.” He spoke so softly and muffled that she almost didn’t hear him at all.

When she realized what he had said she jumped up. “Me?”

He sat up and looked at her with sad eyes. “Yeah.”

“Why me? That doesn’t make any sense at all. If anything we have been hanging out less and less since the two of you started dating.” Evette threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “I mean I’m not saying that I suddenly like her but I don’t want to be the reason the two of you broke up.”

“It’s not your fault.” Derek stood and caught her.

“Hey, I let you pace.” She snapped at him.

He chuckled and pulled her into a hug. “I don’t blame you for our relationship ending. And I like pacing, it helps me think. You hate pacing.”

She nodded into his shoulder.

“So she broke up with you because you are friends with me. I thought she liked you more than she hated me.”

“It wasn’t that we are friends.” He looked away, his hug loosening.

Evette stepped back. “Then why?”

Suddenly Derek wouldn’t look at her.

She stepped back in front of him, forcing him to face her. “Why?”

He still wouldn’t look at her.

“Derek. Look at me.”

When he wouldn’t she took his face in her hands and forced him to look straight at her. Laughing, he closed his eyes. So she poked him hard right in the stomach.

“Hey!” He grabbed her, softly throwing her over his shoulder. “You looking for a fight?”

“No!” She screamed as he tickled her.

He didn’t let go. It was several minutes of screaming, laughing, kicking, and poking before she managed to get her feet back on the ground.

She heaved a deep, long suffering sigh. “Now will you tell me?”

“Aww.” He shot her a devilish grin. “I thought I had distracted you.”

“Yes. But I didn’t forget. It’s hard to forget when I may have been the one to end a relationship without doing anything.” She paused with a grimace. “Did I do something and not even realize I was doing something?”

“No.” With a deep breath he repeated himself in a calmer voice. “No. You didn’t do anything. It was me.”

“Wait, now I’m confused. She broke up with you because of me but it was something you did?” She threw her hands up, ready to shake him.

He stepped back, shaking his head.

“Spit it out already before I go crazy.”

“Sarah was…is…convinced” He sighed. “She is convinced that I am in love with you.”

“What?” Evette stepped back. “But you aren’t.”

Derek’s gaze shot up to capture hers with a forcefulness that made her shiver. She couldn’t look away.

“I’m not?” He whispered.

Evette’s chest tightened. “You are?”

He nodded with a small chuckle. “I didn’t really think about it until Sarah threw it in my face. Now it’s all I can think about. It’s so obvious to me now. I don’t blame her for breaking up with me.”

“You…love me?” Evette stammered, a smile bursting across her face.

He nodded again and picked her up in a bear hug, her favorite kind of Derek hug. “That I do. And since I seem to be jumbling this whole thing up maybe now would be a good time to ask will you go on a date with me and be my girlfriend?”

Her laughter filled the air. “That sounds like a fantastic idea.”

Sammi

“Sammi, I just need to focus on passing my classes. And with you around, I can’t. You are a big distraction that I can’t afford to have.”

Those words coming out of Preston’s mouth were the last ones she ever thought would come out of his mouth. After dating for 3 years, she had thought that nothing could surprise her when it came to him.

“So what are you saying? We should end our relationship because I’m too distracting for you to pass your classes?” As the words came out she felt tears burning, ready to come falling out at the slightest hint of any more painful news. Instead of turning into a sobbing ball of mush in front of him she hurriedly stood. “You know what, I’m going to leave. If you ever cared about us and me then you will need to let me know because I’m not coming back over here.”

“Sammi. Let me explain.” He moved to grab her hand but she shuffled quickly out of the way. She snatched her heels by the doors and didn’t bother to put them on. Those tears were coming and she needed to get out before they crippled her.

As she was about to climb into her car she heard Preston yelling. “I wasn’t breaking up. I’m not. I’ll call you after my finals are over.”

Her head shot up. “That is almost 3 months away.”

“Sammi.” His ‘lets be reasonable’ tone suddenly grated on her distraught nerves.

She slammed her door and mumbled under her breath. “You don’t put a real relationship on hold to pass a stupid class or two. You can’t bow out of a relationship any time life gets hard. If you can’t handle it now, what’s going to happen when we get married and he can’t kick me out of the house for being too distracting? Or when kids happen and they are distracting? Is he just going to disappear?” She gave a little scream. 

Preston knocked on her window.

“I didn’t mean it.” He yelled through the closed window.

As tempted as she was to start her car and drive away, she didn’t. Cracking the window just enough so she wouldn’t have to yell she gave him a good glare. “You didn’t mean what exactly?”

He stopped and stood up straight as if that was the last question he expected to hear.

“Any of it.” He said in a rush.

“So this was a game or a test to see how I would react to being kicked out of your life so you could focus?” Sammi’s arms crossed. “I don’t see how that is any better.”

“It wasn’t a game.” His hands shot into his hair and pulled. “You don’t understand.”

“No I don’t.”

“Come back inside and let me explain.” He pointed up at his apartment as if she had forgotten where it was.

She shook her head. “Pres, I am on the verge of falling apart here. My boyfriend of 3 years just dropped me because he can’t deal with me being anywhere near him. I thought we were headed toward forever. So I’m trying to not break into a million pieces and you want to go into detail.”

“No.” He dropped his forehead onto her car door. “No.”

Sammi stayed silent, not trusting any of the words that may come out of her mouth in the next few minutes.

“Sammi, please.”

She couldn’t move and didn’t know what to say.

“Sammi, I am not breaking up with you.” He tried to open the door but it was locked. “Open the door. Come back inside and let me try to say it right.”

“2 minutes.” She squeezed the tears back into her heart. “If after two minutes I’m still hurting, I am leaving and I will not come back here ever. You’ll get the space and distance you need. And so will I.”

“Come inside.” Preston pleaded

She opened the door slowly and when he moved to help her out of the car like he always would, Sammi held up her hand to stop him. “I’m fine.”

He paused before reluctantly stepping back. As they walked back up to his apartment she was careful to leave at least a foot between them. Getting any closer hurt too much.

Once they were back inside she took a seat on the one chair in the room making it impossible for him to get too close. He sighed as he went back to the couch where they had been sitting and snuggling while he studied only minutes ago.

“Sammi.” He began. “I realize what I said may have sounded harsh.”

She nodded.

“Sammi, I don’t ever want to lose you.”

“But…” She supplied, knowing it was coming.

“I can’t fail these classes. I’m under a lot of pressure. You know that.”

Again, she nodded.

“I’m not saying we should never see each other until finals. I didn’t mean it that way. That was the stress talking.”

“I think this whole conversation is the stress talking.” She folded her arms tighter as if she could physically hold herself together.

He shook his head. “I’m saying that I need study time by myself. I’ll probably be at the library.”

“Ok.”

“So I won’t be around as much.”

She waited.

“I don’t want you hanging around here waiting for me to get home and getting mad when I’m not.” He shrugged.

“So when you said you didn’t want me around? And that I’m a distraction you can’t afford to have?”

“I meant it in the way of ‘I am not going to be studying here in order to focus better’. And you have to admit, with how gorgeous you are every day, you are very distracting. I keep thinking about kissing you instead of studying. I’m hoping with me being alone in the library I will be thinking less about kissing you and more about the algorithms I have to memorize.”

“You could have just said that you were going to study in the library for a few hours each day so you would be home later than usual.” She shrugged, still struggling to move past the aching hurt.

He laughed. “I could have. I should have. Now that you put it that way I’m kicking myself for not thinking of that. Instead I almost lost you because I couldn’t get the words out right.”

“I can try to be less distracting.” She muttered.

“No!” His vehement tone surprised her. “No. I want you to be you. I love you for who you are, not a dulled down version of you just so that I can concentrate.”

“You love me?” She gasped, eyes wide.

He gulped. “I meant for the first time I said it for the setting to be a little more romantic.” He shook his head. “Too late for that. Yes, Sammi. I love you.”

The tears she had been holding in came gushing out with wild abandon. “You jerk!”

Tabitha

“I dare you to go up to the tower on the next full moon.” Tyler’s mocking voice rang through her thoughts. Those words haunted her; almost as much as the rumors and stories she’d heard for years about the tower.

Yet here she was, standing outside it. She had brought her phone and started the video as soon as she got close, to prove she had gone. She flipped the angle to show her face. “I’m going in.”

It took a minute to get around to opening the door. It was so heavy she almost dropped her phone as she pushed.

Once inside, the dark was oppressive and she would have ran back outside if the video wasn’t streaming. She was going to get massive cool points for actually doing this. No one had believed she really would. Even her best friend Heidi had laughed, saying that she would never go.

A few deep breaths later she was heading for a flight of stone stairs that spiraled the wall of the tower. Whatever building had been attached was long gone but somehow the tower itself had not crumbled at all. Sure it looked old but it wasn’t falling apart. The stairs stayed sturdy under her feet as she climbed.

The further she went, the colder she became. Rubbing her arms she groaned. “If I’d known that it would be winter in here I would have brought a warmer coat.”

Immediately after saying it out loud she regretted it…for two reasons. One, everyone watching her video was going to hear her grumbling and two, it instantly grew colder.

Shaking her head, she kept walking.

“A tower full of endless stairs. Not so scary.” She flipped the camera to talk to her viewers. “All of you were too scared to climb a tower of really cold stairs.”

Two steps later she encountered black ice coating a full step. She slid dangerously close to falling down those same stairs. 

“Ice on the stairs.” She spoke into the camera. “I don’t know how but somehow it is cold enough in here to have ice on the stairs. If I fall and die I want everyone to know that I blame Tyler and will haunt him forever.”

Nodding as if to confirm it to herself she was more careful as she continued forward. It was a lot slower going after that but somehow she missed the fact that the end of the stairs was coming. In fact, she was so occupied with making sure she didn’t fall to her death that she almost ran into the large wood door.

“Alright. Door. If it is locked I’m leaving. No one said they expected me to break down doors or go ice-skating on death stairs.”

Trying the door, she didn’t know whether to cry or sigh when the door opened with ease.

“I guess I’m going in.”

As she spoke an odd noise, kind of like a thump, was followed by what she thought might be a metallic clang.

“Noises and no wind. Now I’m a little creeped out.”

It took more than a few slow deep breaths to convince herself to go any further. If she wasn’t holding the phone doing a stupid live stream she would have been down those stairs and gone already.

“In. Go in.” She tried to keep as quiet as possible, on the off chance that it would be picked up in the video. And again she mentally chastised herself for feeling like she had to record it all in the first place. Stupid Tyler.

Once inside she slumped with relief. There was no scary anything. It was an empty room. Nothing that would cause a thump, bump, or rattle.

“There’s nothing in here. It’s empty.” Her voice echoed, filling the space.

After scanning the whole room with the camera she pointed it back to her. “I guess I am going to turn this off now since there’s nowhere else to go and nothing else to see.”

With a click she slid her phone into her back pocket and gave out a relieved sigh. “Well that’s done.” 

With nothing to sit on she plopped down on the floor against the cold wall. Ice stairs were not easy to manage and her legs were shaky. She closed her eyes and sighed. The trip back down was not something she was looking forward to.

Seconds later a thump startled her, her eyes popping open.

“Where did you come from?” She screeched.

Standing just a few feet away from her was a man dressed in well-worn leather with one arm chained to a post.

As she jumped up and put her fists up to defend herself, he rippled out of existence.

“Hello?”

She took another slower step forward. She could hear the rattle of his chain but couldn’t see him.

As the seconds passed she started to laugh. “I must be more tired than I thought.” Still laughing she headed for the door, only to be stopped by a really real hand grabbing her by the elbow.

She screamed and turned in the direction of whoever or whatever had touched her. And the man was back. As soon as she turned he let go and put his hands up.

“You…you can see me?” His voice was scratchy and deep. “You felt me?”

“I…well, yes?” Tabitha backed up a few more steps toward the door and he didn’t move to stop her. “What are you? Are you real?”

“I’m real. Just stuck in a curse.” He lifted his arm and dropped it. “And in this chain.”

“Curse?”

He nodded. Somehow the room grew even colder. Shadows darkened. She shivered, rubbing her hands on her thighs.

“And how do you break your curse?” She folded her arms as a gust of cold wind shot around her.

He held out a hand to her. “I can’t. But maybe you can.”

“Me?” Her head was shaking as she fought to make sense of it all.

The man didn’t move. “The curse can only be broken by a woman willing to release me from my chain.”

“Why would that be hard?” She took a step forward.

His hand went up quickly. “Stop. I must warn you. If you approach with the intent to release me from this chain, when you get within a few feet of me I transform into a strange large cat.” He took a deep breath.

“Really?” She took several steps forward, watching him closely, and he instantly  dissolved into a large white Siberian tiger.

Jumping back with a scream she clung to the wall until he reappeared.

“Are you alright? Did I hurt you?”

“No.” She sucked in an icy breath. “Not hurt. Freaked out of my mind? Yes.”

The man’s shoulders slumped. “”It is alright that you leave. I understand.”

Tabitha stood there debating. “I’ll be back.”

He didn’t move, didn’t acknowledge her.

“I will.” She turned and quickly stumbled out the door.

Grace

Last night I dreamt I was baking cookies again…or attempting to. It was the same as always. I am in my mother’s white and blue tiled kitchen surrounded by all the ingredients I would need to make my favorite butterscotch cookies. Except the sugar. I can never find the sugar.

I look and look and look, usually making a thorough mess of the place in the process. Yet it is never in the same place. At first I thought it was my brain telling me that my mother calls on me to save her from all the times she eagerly volunteers to make and bring cookies to events before she belatedly recalls, typically on the day of, that she can’t bake.

And every time I find the disappearing sugar, my dream ends. Once I found it under the sink. Another time it was already in the oven. Also the freezer, the pantry where it should be, inside the flour bin. And last night after I had looked everywhere I could possibly think of, guess where it turned up? In the outstretched hands of a man whose face I never got to see because I woke up before I could.

And trust me, I tried to go back to sleep, to get that dream back. I tried the rest of the night and it didn’t work. So instead I lay there remembering what I did see.

Whoever my dream hero was, he was tall and had very lean muscular arms. I know this because he was holding out the large bucket of sugar like it was nothing. They were tan too, so he spent plenty of time out in the sun. His shoulders were broad and he had been standing there waiting to help me make cookies. The perfect start to a dream relationship.

…And infinitely better than searching a kitchen for sugar all by myself.

When the phone rang and I saw my mom was calling I didn’t answer. She was sure to have some emergency that she would need me to rush over and solve. And I was busy trying to see who my subconscious was trying to tell me to date.

When she called a second time only a minute later I heaved a sigh and grabbed my phone off of my cluttered nightstand.

“Hi mom. What’s wrong?”

“Oh! Thank goodness you answered.” There was a slight pause. “Why should anything be wrong for me to call you?” My mother’s harried voice immediately went pouty.

I shook my head as I sat up in my bed and leaned back on the padded headrest. “Because you called me twice in less than a minute. At 7 in the morning on a Saturday. If this isn’t an emergency you have made me wake up early for no good reason and I’ll hang up on you. So what’s up?”

“Grace, I need you to come over immediately. Absolutely immediately. Everything is a mess and your father was called in to work so he can’t help me and everyone is expecting me to have these done and pretty and ready by noon today.”

“That seems a little last minute mom.” I pulled myself out of bed and went to get on my comfy cooking clothes. If this was something she needed my help with it would mean I’d be cooking or baking like crazy to help her be ready for some sort of event going on tonight.

“Just come save me.” She huffed.

Pulling on my shoes I glanced around for my keys. “I’m already heading out the door. I’ll be there in 20 minutes.”

“Oh good.”

As I pulled the door shut I smiled. “Mom, you never did say. What am I helping with?”

“I didn’t say?” Her mom’s voice trailed off. “Oh.”

“You only said they needed to look impressive.” I tried to prompt her.

She laughed. “Of course they do. Nancy Derrigan down the street always makes these angel sugar cookies that look divine and sparkly and perfect and pretty. I just want mine to not look like the poor neglected kid on the block.”

“So we are making cookies?”

“Oh heavens. Yes! Get down here!” I could hear her doing something that sounded suspiciously like shushing someone. “And don’t you worry. I already found you some help. You know how useless I am in the kitchen.”

“Help?” I stumbled on my way to the car. “Who?”

“You remember Nolan Strausen right?” Mom’s voice faded again. “Oh just get down here. You can reintroduce yourselves once you get here.”

“You are setting me up mom. Right? Tell me straight that you are not trying to set me up with someone using a cookie emergency as an excuse.”

She huffed loudly. “Grace Lorelai Woodman. I just thought you could use help and I found some. He can’t help it if he is gorgeously handsome and already approved by your father and I. Sorry if I don’t have a resume to send you of his cookie helping capabilities.”

“Mom. I am not doubting whether or not he can bake. I can work around that. However, I am doubtful whether this is a real emergency or if you made sure it would become an emergency so you could call me in and just so happen to have handsome manly single help nearby.”

I waited for an answer as I started the car.

“Mom?”

Pulling my phone back to look at the screen I growled a little when I saw that she had hung up on me. It definitely answered one question of mine. This was most definitely a setup.

But hey after my dream last night with my mystery stranger I had cookies, sugar, and a handsome dreamy man in my kitchen on my mind already.

“Might as well go meet this one.” I said to myself, sort of like a mini personal pep talk. “Maybe meeting a suitably parental approved man in my mom’s kitchen is the way my brain is telling me to find my one true love, though for now I’d simply settle for a devoted boyfriend.”

I pulled out of my driveway with a derisive chuckle.

“Either way. Today will be an adventure.”