Let Me Be the One (7 page)

“What did she say to you?”

I shook my head.  “Nothing.  I guess she has a thing for
Tommy
.  The way she said his name was vomit-inducing.”

Jenna made a face. “Probably does, even though she’s friends with Morgan.  Her friends are all bitches.  If we were the type of girls who fought other girls, I’d hit her for
you!”

The drink
s were definitely kicking in.

Liz did get in my head a little.  Not because of the blow job talk.  Didn’t like
that
, but it was the reference to Morgan.  The thought of Tom having feelings for someone else, even if it was in the past, just made me uneasy.

I couldn’t shake them.  Morgan, Liz, and two other girls were at the next party we went to at my friend Sean’s place.  Sean, his girlfriend, Grace, and I were all pre-med.  The three of us had been in most classes together since freshman year.  Grace and I were catching up when Sean walked over. “Is there any reason those girls over there are looking you up and down?  I’d say they’re looking for some hot girl-on-girl action but they look
more like they want you dead.”

I laughed it off. “I guess this is the downside of dating
someone with a colorful past.”

I looked back over there and Liz was staring right at me so I took a page from her book and gave her a big, fake smile.  Morgan watched the exchange and just looked—I don’t know—a little sad maybe.  I was ready to bail.  I found Beth, Caitlyn, and Jenna.  We left Rene making out with Tanner at the last party.  The four of us went back to our place and chatted in my room until we coul
d barely keep our eyes open.  

The next morning I couldn’t shake that uneasy feeling from the night before.  This was the first Sunday in a while
I had no desire to go running—tequila will do that to you.  I was still up at the crack of dawn, though.  I really never could sleep past seven.  I made my way from the bed down to the couch.  I was curled up on the couch thinking about last night and trying to force down some water to take care of my well-deserved headache.  I looked up when I heard people laughing and through the sliding glass door, I saw Rene and Tanner making their way towards our place.  He was holding her hand and they were both smiling. 
Way to go, Rene
.  I didn’t want to be a creeper but I did watch as he gave her a sweet kiss before she came in.  She collapsed on the couch next to me and smiled.

“Rene, that was some kiss!”

She looked happy. “You are not cooking today.  I’m treating us to take-out later to thank all of you for dragging my sorry ass back out into the world.  I had so much fun!  Tanner and I danced all night.  We talked for hours after everyone left and then we just curled up on the couch together and slept.”

I looked at her,
surprised. “Really? From the looks on your faces this morning, I thought there was some earth-shattering baby-making involved.”

I thought a pained look flashed
across her face and then she shook her head and laughed, “No!  I would never do that day-one with a guy I liked.  Seriously, I like him.  He’s sweet.  We’re going out Thursday night.  He’s taking me to dinner.”

“I’m so happy for you, Rene.  Tanner
is
a great guy.”

Not someone who gets blow jobs from dirty skanks.
I had to stop thinking like this.

As she made her way upstairs she said, dreamy-eyed, “Thanks, Darce.  Alright, I will see
you
in a few hours.  I’m going to go dream about Tanner Westerly.”

My phone buzzed
with an incoming text:

Did u miss me last nite?  I missed u.

I smiled. I was going to have to just get over it because
this
was reality, not what Liz said.  How was I letting this girl get in my head? I wrote back:

I missed u.  Beth makes me drink tekillya when

u r not around.

He wrote:

Hope I didn’t miss u dirty dancing or anything.

I wasn’t going to tell him what he’d missed.  I teased:

What happens in the village stays in the village.

A second later:

I’m coming over to interrogate. Coffee?

He had read my mind.

Hell yes.  Cream no sugar.

Tom was a little “under the weather” himself.  We both nursed our hangovers with coffee and then he rubbed my feet as we talked.  A foot rub? Seriously, I felt like I’d struck gold in the boyfriend department.  Tom gave me the game highlights and told me about the party.   His friend Marty apparently had gotten totally naked and was walking up to just about every girl at the party attempting to engage them in conversation with a straight face—pretty typical for a rugby party from what I
’d heard.  I’d
never
been allowed to go to rugby parties when my brothers played.  The big local tournaments were an exception, everyone goes, but even then Luke and Caleb made sure I was out of there before things got wild.  

When Tom asked about my night, I omitted the part about meeting Liz and my pa
thetic jealousy over Morgan.  I stuck to telling him about Rene hooking up with Tanner.  Tom thought that was a good match too.  After I got out of the shower, Tom and I spent a lazy morning on the couch, watching TV and talking.  We were laying on the couch side by side, my head resting in the crook of his arm.  Every once in a while he would take a handful of my hair and hold it up to his face or nuzzle against my neck.  “Do you know how good you smell?  I miss it when you’re not around me.” 

Everything he did, everything he said, made me ache.  I shifted to lay my body right on top of his.  “Well then, I’ll just have to let you
hang around me all the time.” 

I felt so attac
hed to this boy.  Nothing—not what that ratty-haired Liz said—nothing could change what I was feeling.  He hugged me in a tight bear hug and didn’t let go, kissing my neck and then flipping us over so that he was on top.  When he looked down at me he smiled and said, “Sometimes I think I’m one lucky bastard.”

Finally at noon, I got the call I was waiting for.  Luke and Kate were both on the line when they told me their wonderful news.  Tom looked worried at first because I had tears rolling down my face.  I had to give him a thumbs-up so he knew everything was good.  I just couldn’t believe it.  I was going to be an aunt in little over three months!  Because of Kate’s last miscarriage, which was at the end of the fourth month, they waited a long time to tell everyone this time.  I was so happy for them.  Tom seemed as excited as I was when I relayed the news.  I was going to be an aunt! I could not be happier.  This news, being wrapped up in Tom’s arms, everything was perfect.

Before Tom left, he reminded me to get a good night’s sleep.  “Remem
ber, tomorrow’s your big day.”

In all the excitement I’d forgotten all about my road test.  The lessons had been going on twice a week for three weeks now.  It was a total ruse on my part; Caleb and Luke took me driving often.  I was used to mane
uvering around the streets of New York City, dodging speeding bike messengers and reckless cabbies.  In comparison, these Boston suburb roads were a cinch.  I was holding out on Tom because I liked the lessons; they were like a sweet, flirty game.  

The next day he was waiting for me in the parking lot after my class.  Sometimes I felt a searing pain when I looked at him, liked I cared about him so much—wanted this so much—that it hurt.  Tom looked like a dream, leaning against his truck with his legs crossed at the ankles and arms crossed across his broad chest.  He was wearing his baseball cap backwards with a mischievous grin on his face.  “What’s that look for, Tom?  You’re not bett
ing against me today, are you?”

“You can’t read my mind, sugar.  You have no
idea
what I was just thinking.  And for the record, I would never bet against my pupil.  That would make me a bad teacher and,” he pushed off the truck and came within an inch of me, holding me by my hips and leaning down to whisper in my ear, “I’m a very, very
good
teacher.”

I kissed at the skin below his ear and whispered back, “So if I can’t read your mind then tell me, what
were
you just thinking?”

“I was thinking that the guy at
motor vehicles is going to have a hard time concentrating once he gets a look at you.”

“Don’t be so sexist.  Maybe he’ll be daz
zled by my driving.”

He chuckled.
“Maybe.”

The test was a breeze.  It was over within ten minutes and then I was filling out the paperwork for my license.  I jumped into Tom’s arms dramatically afterwards and showered him with kisses as I gushed, “You are the
best
driving instructor on the planet, Tom Farrell!” 

He laughed, “I think I’ve been played.  You parallel parked the
car better than I could have.”

I winked.  “I’m
an excellent parallel parker.”

He kissed me slow and then purred in my ear, “Rea
lly? I thought that was my line.”

I pulled away, teasing.  “I wouldn’t know, I don’t know about y
our old parallel parking days.”

As we hopped back into the truck, me in the driver’s seat, he nodded his head and looked at me
knowingly.  “So you
do
want to know after all, huh?  Sure you can handle it?”

That playful feeling left me then. “No, Tom, I probably can’t.  But you can tell me about just o
ne.  Tell me about your first.”

He took my hand and kissed my palm tenderly.  “Come on, let me take you to lunch.  This story is pretty entertaining but I don’t think I ca
n tell it on an empty stomach.”

We sat in a diner not far from campus and Tom o
rdered enough food to feed five people.  My brothers were the same—they could eat mountains of food but it never showed.  He ate and ate.  “Are you stalling, Tom?”

“Nope,” he said as he popped another french fry in his mouth.  When he caught my doubtful look he asserted, “I’m not!  But I’ve only told this story once before so if I tell you it stays in the vault, ok?  It’s a little embarras
sing.”

I motioned to cross my heart and couldn’t help the g
rin spreading across my face. 

“So after Charlie, you know all that, I really wasn’t into the whole high school social scene until the begi
nning of my junior year.  Then it was like all of a sudden a light turned on; I noticed the girls and I noticed that the girls were into me.  And I can empathize with your boy, Matt, I kind of felt like I was going to die if I didn’t get me some soon.  So there was the making out, groping and all, but I only knew ‘good girls’ like Darcy Donovan,” he smiled as he leaned over and fed me a french fry.  “No one was giving it up.  So my junior prom is coming up and I decide to ask this girl, Amy Price.  You know why I asked her, right?”

“Easy?”

He smiled and cringed, “Yeah.  She had just broken up with her boyfriend who was a freshman in
college
,” he raised his eyebrows and nodded knowingly. “Figured she was definitely putting out.”

“And did she?”

“
Oh
yeah, and I got a little more than I bargained for.”

He was laughing then and didn’t go on until I gently kicked his shin under the ta
ble.  “Come on, spill it, Tom!”

“Okay, okay. 
So after the dance, Dylan is throwing this crazy house party.  You’ll meet him soon.  He’s great.  He’s the guy in school who has the tricked-out house with every bell and whistle—hot tubs, pool table, you name it.  And his parents always seem to be out of town at these very opportune times.  So he’s having this party, everyone’s there.  All I want to do, though, is get Amy upstairs.”

“What a dog.”

“I know.  I’m not proud of myself but hey, I was a horny, nearly seventeen year-old boy.”

“So?”

“So she’s willing and able.  She was my age but you know those people who just seem light years older and wiser than you?  Amy was like that; I was a boy, she was a woman.  So basically, I’m doing everything I can to concentrate and not…,” he paused and smiled wide as he looked at me, “shoot my load before things even get started.”

I couldn’t help but laugh and squeeze his hand for moral support.  I could imagine him as a scared, ner
vous, fumbling kid with this worldly chick.  I knew a few girls in high school that sounded like Amy.  “So how was it?  Everything you dreamed of and more?”

“Hard to describe.  It felt incredible on the one hand, just incredibl
e, but then, a little stressful.  Like I said, it was taking an awful lot of mental effort for me to last.  I didn’t want Amy laughing at me; I knew I was being compared to a
college
guy and Amy didn’t know she was my first.”  He looked like he was smiling wistfully, fully back in that memory.  “So just when I think I have this great rhythm going—yeah, I’m feeling great—Amy goes and…,” he closes his eyes shut tight and shakes his head. “I can’t.”