Wednesday Romance

In case you don't remember what happened in our last installment, here's Chapter 10. Happy reading!

Chapter 11
I had no sooner closed the door to the booth when it came crashing open. I turned to see Wes, red faced and breathing deeply. It looked like he was ready to tear something apart. I hoped it wasn’t me.
“Andy, what do you think you’re doing?”
“Getting ready for tomorrow?” My voice sounded squeaky.
He closed his eyes and inhaled. I knew from experience that he was counting in order to calm down. When his eyes opened, I was shocked by the seething emotion still burning in them.
“With Vernaun,” he growled through clenched teeth.
I sighed and sat down. “Wes I really don’t want to get into this with you right now.” I turned my back on him and hoped he’d go away.
“Why would you let him kiss you in front of the booth where anyone could happen by and see?”
I shook my head. “No one ever comes by unless they have to.”
“I do.”
“You’re my friend. If I wasn’t here, you would never come either.”
“I’m you’re friend, and that’s why I don’t want to walk over to see you and watch you make out with The Wall.”
I turned to face him. “I wasn’t making out with him.”
“Well it wasn’t a short little peck either.”
I stood, irritation flooding my veins. “Of course it wasn’t a peck. I like him, and he likes me. Couples kiss. That’s what they do, Wes. So I suggest you get used to it, because whether you like it or not, I want to be with Vernaun.”
He closed his eyes, and his entire body shook for a minute. When his eyes opened again, I could see the fight had drained out of him. He nodded and turned.
I sat back down and turned to the soundboard. I heard the door open and struggled to keep the tears in my eyes. Originally I had planned to not let Vernaun take the place of my friends. I would have chosen Wes, but ever since Vernaun came along, Wes and I couldn’t seem to get along. I had to make a choice. Wes was always encouraging me to date and broaden my horizons, so I didn’t understand his current behavior. I sighed and turned to my files.
I jumped when he spoke. “I just want to see you happy, and he only thinks of his happiness.”
Slowly, I turned. “If you want me to be happy, why don’t you help me win him instead of jumping down my throat all the time? I’m tired of fighting with you.”
He hung his head for a minute then lifted his eyes and held his arms out to the side. “What do you want me to help with?”
I shrugged. “Stacie says I don’t know how to flirt.”
“You don’t.”
“I tried today.”
One of his brows lifted, and I know he didn’t believe me. “Show me.”
“I don’t know.” I went and stood beside him. “We were walking along, just talking.”
He smiled down at me as though he found the situation humorous.
I slugged him in the side. “It’s not funny.”
His smile only broadened. “And that’s not flirting.”
My rolling eyes answered him. “I did not hit him. I told him I could teach him to play cribbage.”
A pained look crossed his face. I had taught Wes how to play, and we often retreated to a quiet corner on a rainy day with our cards. The message was loud and clear; he felt replaced. Fortunately, he didn’t say anything about that. I’m not sure how I would have answered him anyway.
“How did you ask him?”
“I think I said it like this.” I cleared my throat and latched onto his arm. I tried to bat my lashes, too and envision Vernaun. “I could teach you to play.”
The twinkle in his eyes set me on the defense.
“What did I do wrong?”
He folded in half, laughing.
I placed my hands on my hips and frowned as he placed his on his thighs.
“Did you really say it just like that?” he asked between bursts of hysteria.
“As close as I can remember, yes.”
He shook his head and wiped the tears from his eyes. Then he did something he hadn’t done since Vernaun started coming around. Wes wrapped his arms around me and squeezed. “Oh, Andy! You are so precious.”
Now before you go thinking this was a tender moment, it wasn’t. Remember what I just said? About his laughing at me? His mirth carried over to this moment, and it was anything but tender. It made me feel more like a hopeless case than a beloved friend.
I pushed away from him. “If that wasn’t flirting, how am I supposed to do it?”
He wiped more moisture from his eyes. “I don’t know, sweetheart, but that wasn’t it.”
“Hmph.” I walked back over to my chair and slouched.
“Maybe Stacie could give you some pointers.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
One last chuckled erupted from his chest, and he held his hand out for me. “Now come here, and we’ll do some more work.”
I stood, hesitantly. “Like what?”
“Like your conversation. First of all, you never go on and on about yourself.”
“I don’t.”
He nodded. “Good. But since you’re dating Vernaun, you can’t let him go on and on either. Even though that’s all he does.”
My eyes narrowed, but I chose to ignore his last jibe. “If I’m not talking about me and he’s not talking about him, then how is that conversation?”
“You can talk about yourself, just don’t forget to talk about him. Let’s practice.” He straightened his shoulders. “I hear that math is your favorite subject. Why do you like it so much?”
It was my turn to laugh. “That is so fake! You can’t talk like that. Vernaun would never talk like that.”
He shrugged and mumbled something under his breath. “Well, assuming he did, how would you respond?”
I shook my head. “I can’t do this, Wes. You know everything about me. It’s just not real. And it’s not real standing here like this forcing the conversation.”
“How will you learn to be yourself and converse without practice?”
“I don’t know. But this won’t teach me.”
He sighed.
My heart warmed as I considered what he was trying to do for me. And I really do think he was trying. But we had been friends forever. Our conversation came naturally. There was no way I would ever feel as comfortable with anyone as I did with Wes. He was like the brother I never had. He knew everything about me. For that reason, I didn’t see how this was supposed to work.
“I’m sorry. I really need to get these scripts and things put back together.” I smiled. “Thanks for the lesson.”
“Do you need some help?”
“You don’t have anything else to do?”
“Nope. I got everything done while you were tripping over The Wall.”
I turned and thrust my finger into his chest. “Don’t start or I will eject you from this room.”
A smile snaked across his face. “Just how do you propose on doing that?”
I growled, knowing he was far stronger than I was. “Don’t push me and you won’t have to find out.”
He chuckled and reached for a stack of papers. “So what did you do with Mr. Wonderful?” I glared at him, but he held up his hands in surrender. “I was just trying to be nice.”
I sighed. “It was fine.”
“Nope. See, there, you should have told me what you did, but not with so much detail to make me bored. Just enough so that I know you had fun, and I know what you did. You can leave out the kissing and hand holding stuff. Save that for a more appreciative audience.”
“Like Stacie?”
“Exactly. Stacie would love those kinds of details. I, on the other hand, would not.”
I took his advice and filed it away in my brain to examine later. “Okay. We went to the creek to eat lunch. The water is very cold, by the way.”
“How long did you last before you ran for shore?”
“That’s not very funny, you know. Maybe I stayed in there for a very long time.”
“Did you?”
I considered making something up, but he knew me too well. “I only made it about five minutes.”
He laughed. “You must really like him. Stacie made it a whole minute before she high tailed it out of there.”
I couldn’t help but laugh with him. “Do you think that will ever wear off?”
“What?”
“You know, feeling like I have to do something I wouldn’t normally do.”
He set the stack of papers back on the desk. “Do you feel that way when you’re with him?”
“Usually.”
He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it. When he opened his mouth again, I knew he’d altered what he had originally planned to say. “Maybe you’ll feel more comfortable with time.”
I smiled. “Thank you. You really are my very best friend.”
The look in his eyes made my heart flutter. In all the years I’d known him, he’d never looked at me like that. It was a look that made me feel like a stuffed turkey on Thanksgiving Day or an ancient crown on a pedestal in some museum.
Within a handful of seconds, the intensity of his gaze altered and he smiled his good natured grin. He again picked up the stack of papers he’d been holding. “What do you want me to do with these?”
For the next hour, I worked side by side with Wes, organizing the little booth. We laughed and talked about nothing serious, but occasionally, my mind couldn’t help but drift back to the charged moment when he had looked at me so intently. I shook it off and refused to let my mind dwell on it. Perhaps he was melancholy about losing his friend to another guy. Whatever had caused that look, I wouldn’t think on it. We were getting along, and that was what mattered most.