Be Good A New Adult Romance (RE12)(6)

Brett: Again?

Me: Yup. I think I get invited to be in so many weddings because I look good in hideous dresses and shine in wedding photos.

Brett: You did make that horrible dress look hot last night.

That made me smile.

Me: I’ll take that as a compliment.

Brett: You should.

He never said if he was going to Olivia and Zach’s wedding. It was in Tucson, so he would have to fly out for it.

Me: How do you know Olivia and Zach?

Brett: I tutored Zach in math. That’s how I know most of the people in your crowd.

I vaguely remembered some of the kids talking about their awesome math tutor. I didn’t pay too much attention. Even though I barely passed math, I didn’t care about it enough to even bother with a tutor.

Me: I guess you do have to be good in math to be an Aeronautical Engineer.

Brett: So, you’ve already checked out my profile. Good to know.

I cringed. I hadn’t meant to be that obvious.

Me: You caught me.

Brett: I’m flattered. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I already checked out yours, too. I love that photo of you on the beach in San Diego with your friends. Nice bikini. I already have a copy of it saved to my desktop.

I wondered if he was teasing me or if he really had downloaded the photo.

Me: Do you really have my photo on your desktop?

There was a pause.

Brett: I guess you’ll just have to come to Palo Alto to find out.

Now I was the one who was trying to think of a response. Did he really just invite me to visit him in Palo Alto?

Brett: You can also bring back my Pearl Jam T-shirt.

Me: If you looked at my Profile, you know that I’m a paralegal. I can’t afford to fly to the coast on my meager salary.

I waited. And waited. I hadn’t meant to scare him off. I just wanted to see if he was serious about wanting to see me again.

I was starting to think he had blown me off when he popped back on line.

Brett: I bought a plane ticket for you. It’s open, so you can book any date you want.

I read the line several times to make sure I was reading it correctly. He actually booked a flight for me. Just like that. But why? Was he really that eager to see me again? It didn’t seem possible.

Me: Really?

Brett: Check your email.

Me: But why?

Brett: Maybe I want to see you again.

I could feel my heart racing again. The thought of seeing Brett again excited me and scared the shit out of me at the same time.

Next weekend was Memorial Day weekend, a three-day weekend.

Me: What about next weekend? Do you have Memorial Day off? Do you already have plans?

Brett: Yes, yes and no.

Me: I’ll see if I can leave early from work on Friday.

Brett: Just let me know the flight number and when to pick you up.

Me: Thank you.

Brett: See you soon.



***



A few hours later, my roommate walked in with some funky herbs and a burner of some kind. Great! Another one of her crazy rituals. She loved to invoke gods and goddess (okay, mostly goddesses) by burning all kinds of crazy shit.

“Please tell me that’s pot,” I said as I put down the People magazine I was reading.

She rolled her eyes at me. I knew it wasn’t pot. My roommate never polluted (her word not mine) her body with drugs. She didn’t even drink alcohol. I just liked giving her a hard time.

She plopped down on the couch next to me. “Don’t you have anything better to do than read celebrity gossip?”

“I like celebrity gossip.”

“I have a bookshelf filled with novels and non-fiction books. Help yourself.”

I sighed. “Books take too much of a commitment. You know how I am about making commitments.”

Winter tossed her long dark bangs away from her eyes. It was a habit she had for as long as I’d known her, which wasn’t very long. We’d only lived together a few months. I had been struggling to pay my rent for several months and finally got kicked out of my apartment. My parents didn’t want me moving back in with them. (Not that I could blame them.) They had turned my bedroom into a hobby room when I left for college. They wouldn’t welcome me back even if they still had a spare bedroom. My parents and I didn’t see eye to eye on anything, especially all the ways in which they thought I was ruining my life (Flaw 62).

When my brother found out I was going to be homeless, he told me about Winter Raven, his law partner’s sister. She had been looking for a roommate and hadn’t been able to find the right person. Truth be told, she probably scared most of the prospects away with her dark clothing, make-up and hair. She looked like she was dressed in a Halloween witch costume every day of the year.

When we met, Winter said she remembered me from high school. I was two years older, and had quite a reputation. It would be shocking if she didn’t know who I was. I had no clue who she was but I had a feeling she probably didn’t dress like a witch back then. That, I would have remembered.

“I should probably tell you that I’m going away for the weekend.” I said casually. “I didn’t want you to worry when you didn’t see me around.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“It’s not a big deal. I’m going to see this guy in Palo Alto.”

Winter’s face couldn’t have looked more shocked if I had slapped her. “You’re going to spend the entire weekend with a guy. One guy?”

I nodded.

“How well do you know this guy? Actually, how well does he know you?”

“Not very.”

“Obviously.”

Winter’s evil cat made his way over to her and jumped in her lap. He turned and hissed at me.

“Onyx,” Winter said as she petted the evil animal. “Be nice to Anna.”

The cat purred as Winter stroked him.

“So, who’s the guy you’re spending the weekend with?”

I shrugged, trying to act casual about the whole thing, even though I was already scared shitless. I didn’t know how to be in a relationship because I had never actually had one. I didn’t even know if that’s what Brett wanted. For all I knew, he just wanted to get laid again and figured I was a sure bet. The more I thought about it, the more I figured that was probably the reason he wanted to see me again. I was actually a little disappointed even though I knew I shouldn’t be. I was easy. I had already slept with him. There was no reason for him to think I wouldn’t do it again.

Winter pushed on. “How’d you meet him?”

“The wedding. We went to college together.”

She nodded as if that explained it all when it really didn’t explain anything.



***



It was another ho-hum week at my brother’s boring law firm. He did contract law, which may be one of the least interesting things in the entire world. Even though most of the time I felt like beating my head against the desk (it would be less painful than the work I had to do), at least I had a job. And it wasn’t waiting tables. Or scrubbing toilets.

Friday morning, I knew I had to ask my brother if I could leave early to get to the airport. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to reveal about what I was doing. My brother, Jake, had a tendency to judge everything I did, which is kind of funny considering he always wanted to be a judge and that was the main reason he went to law school. He ended up in contract law because he realized he loved making money more. Contract lawyers apparently made a lot of money because my brother loved what he did.

I poked my head into Jake’s office. “Hey, Bro,” I said. He hated when I called him that, especially in the office. I had a tendency to intentionally do things like that to annoy people and try to get a rise out of them (Flaw 7: Instigator).

Jake looked up from the mass of paperwork on his desk. I guess the technology age hadn’t quite made its way completely to the Law Offices of Miller and Hart.

“What do you want, Anna,” Jake uttered in his typical clipped tone. Jake was perfect in every way. He was his high school Valedictorian. He got a scholarship to Yale and then went to Yale law school. When he came back to Arizona, he married his high school sweetheart, a Prom Queen, who is now the perfect housewife and mother to their two perfect children. They made me want to barf.

“I need to leave early today,” I stated.

That made him look up from paperwork. I never asked to leave early. I never asked for time off. I had a pile of sick and vacation days I never used. As much as I hated my job, I needed the money and it was a last-chance kind of a thing. I had gotten fired from several jobs since I graduated college (I extended the college party mentality a little too long, which didn’t make me a very good employee). To say my resume was bleak would have been a compliment and I had no references. Working for my brother was really my only option and not one I wanted to lose.

“Okay,” Jake agreed. I could tell he wanted to ask me why but we really didn’t have a close relationship.