Love In Between(8)

I looked at him again and shook my head as I put my hands up in front of him.

“Wait–wait–wait. Why do you want Gretchen’s phone number?”

Sam twisted his face. “I want to ask her out on a date,” he replied.

“A date?” I asked totally confused.

“Do you have a problem if I go out on a date with your best friend?” he asked while giving me a weird look.

“You’re gay; why would you want to date Gretchen? What about Luke? I don’t think he’d appreciate his boyfriend going on a date with a woman.”

Sam took a step back. “Whoa, wait a minute; you think I’m gay?!” He laughed.

A horrified look swept across my face. “Aren’t you?” I asked carefully.

“You thought Luke and I were a couple?!” he said still laughing.

“Oh my god,” I said as I turned away in humiliation.

Sam grabbed me and hugged me. “You’re so cute, Lily. I haven’t had a good laugh in a long time.”

I stood there with my nose pressed against his chest. I patted him on the back. “I’m glad I could amuse you.”

“Now, about that phone number.” He smiled.

“Hand me your phone,” I said as I held out my hand. I keyed in the numbers of my phone, Gretchen’s phone, and Giselle’s phone. “Just in case you ever need to get a hold of me when I’m not home.”

Sam smiled as he took his phone from me. A few moments later, my phone went off. I walked over to the counter, picked it up, and saw that I had a text message.

“Now you have my number if you ever just want to talk.”

I looked at him and smiled. “Get out of here, and go call Gretchen. She thinks you’re hot, but don’t tell her I said that.”

Sam winked at me and laughed as he left my apartment.





3

––––––––

Luke



––––––––

I was sitting on the couch when Sam came through the door and started in on me. “What the hell’s your problem, Luke?”

I looked at him as I took a sip of my coffee. “What the hell are you talking about, Sam?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Why do you have to be such an * to Lily?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said as I got up and walked to my bedroom.

Sam followed behind me. “Bullshit! You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“Leave me alone, Sam,” I warned.

He walked out of my room and went into the bathroom, mumbling under his breath. I opened my drawer and noticed it was almost empty. Looking over to the corner of my bedroom, I noticed my laundry basket was heaping with dirty clothes. I can’t even remember the last time I did laundry. I picked up some clothes that were lying on the floor and shoved them into the basket. I picked up the basket and set it by the front door while I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. Sam came out of the bathroom just as I was walking out the door.

“By the way, Lily thought you were gay!” he shouted.

I stopped and put the laundry basket down. I turned around and looked at Sam. “What do you mean she thought I was gay?”

“What part of ‘she thought you were gay’ did you not understand?” He smirked.

I rolled my eyes, shut the door, picked up the laundry basket, and I headed down the hall to the laundry room. As I approached the doorway, I saw Lily putting clothes into the washer. She saw me and stopped what she was doing.

“Hi, do you need to use this?” she asked while pointing to the washer.

“Yeah, but it’s fine, I can do laundry another time,” I replied.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how I was an * to her this morning and how she must have mentioned it to Sam, otherwise he wouldn’t have went off on me like he did.

“You can throw some of your clothes in with mine. We can split the cost.” she offered.

“Didn’t you just move in yesterday?” I asked.

“A couple of days of ago,” she replied.

“If you just moved here, why are you already doing laundry?”

She looked at me with anger in her eyes. “I didn’t do—hell, just forget it. It’s all yours,” she said as she took her things out of the washer and stormed out of the laundry room.

I didn’t say anything wrong, so I don’t know why she got so upset, but it didn’t matter anyway; I didn’t care. I threw my clothes into the washer, started it, and headed back to my apartment. As I opened the door, Charley came running to me.

“Uncle Luke, look what my mom bought me!” she said as she showed me her silver butterfly bracelet.

“Wow, that’s beautiful.” I smiled and gave her a kiss on her head.

“She bought it for me as a present for my first day of school tomorrow.”

“That’s really pretty, peanut,” I said as I put her down. “Where’s your mom, Charley?” I asked as I didn’t see her around the apartment.

“She went to the store. She asked Uncle Sammy if he could keep an eye on me until you came back from doing laundry.”

My sister, Maddie, is a single mom, and Charlene, or Charley as we call her, is her nine-year-old daughter. They live in one of the apartments upstairs. Her so-called dad, who denied he was the father from the start, until a paternity test proved Charley was his, comes around every couple of years. He doesn’t pay child support; he doesn’t call her on her birthday, Christmas, or Easter. He’s nothing but a dead beat dad, and I wish my sister would get him to sign over his parental rights. He’s not a good influence for Charley, and I won’t stand by and let him ruin her life.