How The Cookie Crumbles (10 page)

She turned to Liam, “I know that the water is your natural habitat, so if you want to swim first you might want to do that soon.” She motioned vaguely towards the large pool, where some exuberant kids were bopping each other with pool noodles. “We’ll be eating in about an hour.”

“Would you like to swim, Frances?” he asked.

“Sure, it’s pretty hot out.” And I hadn’t packed my cutest swimsuit and applied three coats of waterproof mascara for nothing. Seeing Liam in a bathing suit was one of my goals for the day.

As we walked up to the farmhouse to get changed, I wondered why the water was his natural habitat.

“Oh, I played water polo for years. National team,” he added casually. This explained that killer body. “Do you know anything about water polo?”

“Not really, although I’ve always wondered how the horses don’t drown,” I said smiling.

“There are no horses, Frances, it’s just people,” he explained with a kind, yet pitying, smile.

“Just a joke,” I said lamely. Chloë might think I was good at talking to strangers, but it all seemed to go out the window when the guy was a total hunk.

Once we got in the house, Liam took me upstairs and showed me a choice of bedrooms to get changed in. Each one looked like it was torn out of a country decor magazine. I stopped in the doorway of one that was decorated in fifty shades of taupe, and Liam stood close to me. He looked down at me with his gorgeous blue eyes. Then he asked, “Were you talking about me when I joined you out there?”

“Was it that obvious? Yes, Penny was asking if I was your girlfriend.”

He smiled broadly at me, gently brushed the hair back from my face, and leaned down to whisper in my ear, “Wouldn’t that be fun?” And then he kissed me, his lips warm and soft and demanding against mine. He seemed pretty expert as this, cradling my face in his hands in the best movie tradition.

At first he kissed me in the hall, with my back against the doorframe, but when we heard someone coming up the stairs, we broke apart. I turned and went into the bedroom to get changed, but when I went to close the door, Liam had followed me in and closed the door behind him.

“Liam, what are you doing?” I asked.

“Mmm, just picking up where we left off,” he said confidently, putting his arms around me again. I had enjoyed kissing him, but I felt like we were moving a little too fast here.

“Slow down,” I told him sternly. “Your whole family is here, and anyone could walk in on us.”

“Don’t worry, Frances. I locked the door,” he assured me, and started pushing me towards the bed! The fact he didn’t even know that most people called me Frankie made me realize how little we knew each other.

“Stop it, Liam! I’m serious. We don’t even know each other and you’re being way too aggressive.”

He smiled easily at me, and backed off. After he left, I locked the door behind him, then for good measure I went into the ensuite, and locked that door before I got undressed.

I changed into my one-piece bathing suit and then gave myself a careful once-over in the bathroom mirror. I looked at my thighs and sighed a little, then donned a sheer printed cover-up.

By the time I got out to the pool, Liam was already in the water, playing some kind of complicated game with his little cousins. He acted completely natural, like nothing had happened between us. In fact, he backed off the rest of the night. He sat beside me at dinner, charming me with tales of his year in Italy and his time at Queen’s. He was polite and interesting, and I was starting to like him again. But on the way home he dropped me off before Mrs. Fitzgerald. I felt a strange mixture of relief and pique.

14. Psychology Today

On Sunday morning I woke up first, and went down to make breakfast. I had to work the dinner shift at The Keg, but Sundays were my lazy day. Chloë and I usually spent it together. We might stroll down to the Kingston farmer’s market, search out garage sales, or shop along Princess Street. As I got out the eggs, Rex rubbed up against my legs, hoping for treats. He enjoyed having a whole house to prowl, but if I went in the kitchen he was there in a flash.

“Mornin’ Frank.” Chloë had only one eye open, and she was wearing cotton Hello Kitty pajamas.

“Good morning!” Today was my turn to be bright and chipper. She sat down at the kitchen table and I slipped a black coffee in front of her. Chloë had three sips, two yawns and then was awake.

“So, how did it go at the birthday party?”

“Well, the place was nice and the food was incredible. The cottage turned out to be this gorgeous old farmhouse, completely redone in modern country, not my style, but it worked. The food was catered, with all these incredible hot and cold entrées. And a beautiful, multi-tiered, vanilla birthday cake. I think Mrs. Fitz enjoyed it all immensely.”

I popped the buttermilk waffles out of the waffle maker I had bought at a garage sale last weekend and scoured thoroughly. The fresh fruit salad, maple syrup and bacon were already on the table. I sat down across from Chloë.

“Hmm, you haven’t mentioned anything about Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome.”

“Well, he works for this big investment firm in Toronto. He did his undergrad degree here at Queen’s, his MBA in Toronto, and he’s already a vice-president. He spent a year studying in Italy, and he actually knows a lot about art history too. But I think he might be a little too confident, too pushy.”

“Really?” Chloë blinked, then ate some waffle and chewed for a moment. “So what happened?”

“He made a pass at me five minutes into the party! He behaved himself afterwards, but I don’t know. I don’t feel completely comfortable with him. Maybe I’m snake bit.”

“Gosh,” said Chloë. “So, he’s out?”

I sighed, it wasn’t like nice-looking guys were growing on trees around here. “I might give him one more chance. But he lives in Toronto, so it wasn’t really going to work anyway.”

“It’s probably for the best anyway,” she replied, smiling happily. “You should play the field, and date different guys.”

“Hmmm. Does this have to do with the whole ‘two best friends dating two best friends’ thing again?”

“Noooo. But I went out with Andrew and his friends last night, and I thought that Jake was really nice. And he was alone, so that girl you saw with him was only a date and not a girlfriend or anything.”

“Chlo, it’s very sweet that you think we could all double date and have a wonderful life together, but it’s not going to happen. I have a checklist, and Jake is not hitting anything on the list.”

“A list? You still have that checklist for the perfect man? Oh Frankie, not really!”

“Yes, he has to have a university education, be really good at something, and be very attractive.” Liam actually met all the criteria, which made me more certain I should go on another date with him.

Chloë wasn’t giving up. “Okay, maybe Jake hasn’t gone to university, but I’m sure he’s a smart guy. And he plays in the NHL, you can’t be better at stuff than that. And he’s cute.”

“Cute, really? Were you wearing your contacts?” Was Chloë on commission here? “Plus he’s unreliable, he didn’t pick up his cupcakes when he was supposed to.”

“You’re the one who told me all guys are unreliable. At least Jake lives in Kingston. And I think he’s very popular, lots of girls seem to like him, but he’s nice to everyone.”

“Wow, did he pay you to say all this? Anyway, I’m sure there are other great guys in Kingston,” I said, then hesitated. I hadn’t met them yet, but I figured there must be some hidden somewhere, hopefully not in one of the penitentiaries here.

Chloë shook her head, “It’s a pretty small town when all the Queen’s students leave. Look, at least give Jake a try….”

“Maybe we can all do something as friends, but I’m not dating him.”

She wasn’t the only one who was stubborn around here.

That night, I was working at The Keg again when Jake walked in, this time with a tall, slim blonde. What was he trying to prove here? I got that he was in demand, due no doubt to his NHL status, but there’s a line between player and man-slut. The hostess seated them at a large booth in my area, and then his date went to the washroom. I walked over to the table.

“Good evening, Jake.”

“Hey Frankie, how’s it going?” Jake grinned innocently up at me.

“I’m fine, but you’re a busy boy aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“A redhead Friday, a blonde Sunday, I didn’t work last night, so was that brunette night?”

“Brunette night is when you agree to go out with me,” Jake suggested smoothly.

“Yeah right, I prefer my dates a little less….” Was the word promiscuous too long for him? “…popular.”

The blonde came back, slid into the booth and smiled at me.

“Oh Frankie, I’d like you to meet my sister, Angela.”

His sister? Was this a joke, because if there were ever two people who looked less alike it was these two? She was slim, blonde and pretty. Just then three more people came to the table: two women with dark hair who looked like Jake except pretty, one older and one younger; and a middle-aged man with graying hair. Obviously Jake’s family, and obviously I was a total idiot. Why did I always end up embarrassed when Jake was around? He was smirking as he introduced me to his parents as well as his other sister, Nicola. I managed to stop blushing long enough to welcome them properly and take their drink orders. After some small talk, I escaped to get their drinks.

Jake

“So, who’s this Frankie?” my mom asked as soon as Frankie had gone to put our dinner orders in.

“She’s a friend, I met her at the gym,” I replied.

“When you say friend, is that a special “friend”?” My mom made air quotes and gave me an eager look.

“No, Mom, I don’t know her very well.”

My mom sighed, it was one of her pet peeves that she never got to meet any of my girlfriends. To be honest, I hadn’t really had a steady girlfriend since junior, and I was pretty sure that my mom didn’t want to meet one of my hook-ups. There were just too many possibilities out there, and I didn’t want to get tied down. But that didn’t stop my mom from wondering if there were any “nice girls” in L.A., if there were I hadn’t met them when I hit the bars. And now that I was home, she was even more interested in my personal life, constantly mentioning the daughters of her friends or girls she met that might be possibilities. I was pretty sure that what I wanted in a girlfriend and what she wanted were completely different. For starters, I didn’t think that cup size was one of her prerequisites.

“Relax Mom, I’d be more shocked if there was an attractive girl in Kingston that Jake didn’t already know.” Angela shook her head and winked at me.

“Our waitress is cute,” Nicola commented, watching Frankie at the bar. “You should go for it. Certainly a step up from Bitcheny.” No surprise that she already knew who I had taken out on Friday, and that she didn’t like it. Nicola was two years older than me, and had been in Brittany’s class.

Nicola was home for the summer from college, and Angela was visiting for the May long weekend from her job in Toronto. We had spent most of the day at a big family get-together at my grandparent’s place, and then decided to go out for dinner afterwards. I didn’t intend to show up at The Keg again, but my mom knew it was one of my favourite places to eat. The food was good and seeing Frankie was just a bonus. Her friend, Chloë, had hinted that Frankie needed help to get over some jerk. That might explain why she was so touchy. She acted like a tiger, and that made me think she’d be a tiger in the sack too.

Angela snorted. “Oh Nic, you’re as big a sap as Mom. Jake’s not the commitment type. I’m not expecting to see a real girlfriend until he’s 30.”

I wasn’t getting involved in this conversation, having two older sisters was like having three moms. Frankie came up to the table at that moment and passed out our drinks with a big smile. She took our dinner orders and then sashayed away with her usual efficiency. Man, she had a great ass.

Once I got home from the Keg, Tolly and Andrew came over to hang. We were in our basement, playing some throwback NHL ‘94. That is, Tolly and I were gaming and Andrew was mooning over Chloë.

“She’s into
Firefly
. And she likes anime and manga too. Plus she’s so cute. It’s like she was put on this planet to be my soul mate.”

“You know, you guys have only gone out twice. Maybe you should hold off planning the wedding until the third date,” Tolly suggested.

“I don’t know, she’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a girl.” Andrew had this dumb smile on his face. In fact, he seemed to have it all the time lately.

Tolly snorted, “Yeah, number one, she said yes to going out with you. Are you sure it’s not all part of this bet she’s got going with her friend? Oh shit!” Tolly had lost focus while talking and I put one in over Belfour’s shoulder.

“You mean Frankie? No I don’t think so. Chloë told me it was all part of her idea that they needed to date new and different people. But that was only the first date, the second was all her choice.” Andrew looked over at me.

It still bugged me that I had missed the short window of time that Frankie had to say yes to going out with me. I seemed to have asked her out right before and right after their big bet. Well, her loss. “Y’know, I just don’t get why you’d want to tie yourself down to one girl when there are so many hot chicks out there.”