That’s when I approached her and her little dance partner. It had taken everything in me not to beat this guy’s ass. But the look on Emilyn’s face when she finally opened her eyes and saw me told me that the man behind her no longer mattered. God she took my breath away with her blue eyes.
As I sat there in the kitchen still sipping on my coffee I smiled, remembering her mouth hanging open as she’d stared at me. At least she still seemed to find me attractive. When our eyes met I’d felt it; that spark, that connection I’d always felt with her. We were always great together. From the time I first saw her I had to know more about her….
Junior year, high school, I was just getting out of my second period class when I saw small little blonde head walking down the hallway. Who was that? I considered myself a pretty popular person and was fairly knowledgeable about the female population in this school but this was a head I didn’t recognize. How in the hell did I not recognize this girl? Was she new? I decided to follow after this unknown blonde head and see if maybe I was mistaken.
As I got closer, I noticed she was walking next to Harper Graham. I’d known Harper most of my life, but we didn’t really hang out in the same social crowds. I played football and baseball, so naturally I was always with my teammates and the cheerleaders. She played softball but aside from a few of her teammates, she didn’t hang out with the sports crowd. I didn’t care for all of the people in my crowd either and I didn’t actually like to party like most of them did. I went because I was expected too, plus Ky liked getting drunk and so I stuck around to keep him out of trouble and make sure he had a ride home.
Her beautiful soft sweet laughter filtered through to my ears and I stopped dead. The sound hit me like a freight train. I watched her walking and her head turned to the side to look up at Harper. I saw her profile and she was beautiful. But not in the way of the typical tall, gorgeous model types. She was small and her laugh sounded so innocent and sweet. I didn’t understand how I didn’t know who she was. But I decided right then and there that I would ask around and try to find out anything I possibly could about this girl. Somebody with that kind of smile had got to be worth knowing…
I grumbled as I stood up to dump the rest of my coffee in the sink, and got some gym clothes on to work out. I was feeling frustrated. Thinking back to the first time I saw Em always opened up a slew of other memories about our relationship. That laugh of hers and her eyes when she looked at me always melted me. But last night, there was something not right. There was no spark in her eyes. It was there briefly when she first saw me, but it had gone as just as quickly. I’d never seen her look like that; withdrawn and empty. Her fire was still there but I didn’t doubt for a second that it had only emerged because I pissed her off about her little dance partner. Why in the hell did she let him rub all over her? I was pretty sure her preppy-boy husband wouldn’t approve of his wife dancing that closely with another man. Hell, I didn’t approve of it and she wasn’t even mine. It fucking pissed me off. There was definitely something going on with her because the Em I knew never acted like that.
Before she’d almost fallen down on the dance floor I’d already planned to hall her ass out of there, but she made it easy when she allowed me to pick her up. Touching her and being that near to her had done things to me. Then she had to go and get all cuddly on me; drunkenly telling me she’d missed me when I carried her out to the car. I’d wanted to tell her I missed her too, but that was just a line I couldn’t cross. Although I was determined to find out tonight at the reunion what the deal was with her. I needed to know why she seemed so… ‘off’.
“Hey man, what the hell are you so broody about?” Ky asked as he came down the hall. His hair was spiked in all different directions, probably from having his head buried under his pillow all night. “You going to the gym?”
Even though he was my best friend, I didn’t feel like spilling my guts to him, “I’m good, and yes I’m heading out to run and punch a bag for a bit. Wanna ride?”
“Yeah sure, give me a second to go brush my teeth.”
“I’ll be out in the car.” I grabbed the keys to my rental and got in the car. When I opened the door and got in I inhaled deeply. No fucking way! It smelled like her in here. Just the smell of her was making me achy and hard. Jesus, I was in some serious trouble!
Slowly peeling my eyes open I saw that the sun shining through my window. Blinking rapidly against the bright light I tried to sit up. Jesus, my head was pounding! I threw my hand up to my forehead and gave it a rub. My head was hanging down towards my chest and I saw that I was wearing a pale pink camisole and a pair of white, girl boxer shorts. What the hell? How did I get home, and who the hell had changed me? I was racking my brain to try and recall what happened the night before when my bedroom door opened. Harper came walking in a pair of blue boxers and a grey ribbed tank top.
“Good morning sunshine! How are we feeling today?” She was smiling down at me as she handed me a glass of water and a couple of aspirin.
“Don’t you think you’re a little too chipper? It’s early, and my head is throbbing. By the way, did I drink out of the toilet at the bar last night? My mouth tastes like ass!” I tossed back the aspirin and drink the whole glass of water and set it down on the bedside table.
She threw her head back and laughed. “First of all, it’s not early, it’s one in the afternoon. You’ve been sleeping all morning, but now you need to get up so we can go shopping. And second, I hope you didn’t try to drink out of those toilets because you tried to make out with me when we got home, and you were moaning Finn and Vance’s name.”
“Oh my god Finn! What happened last night? You’re the one that got me dressed right? Holy crap I made a fool of myself didn’t I? Did Bubbles, come out?” Harper and I had made up a name for my drunken personality. She apparently liked to act like a stripper. I groaned, rubbing a hand over my face, “Oh no, I’m a married woman who acts like a hooker. Please tell me that’s not what this awful taste in my mouth is?”
Harper was now in hysterics on the floor. I glowered at her. “Stop it! I’m dying here.” She was holding her stomach trying to calm down. “Yes, Bubbles did make an appearance last night but she wasn’t as bad as I’ve seen her before. And no that’s not what that taste in your mouth is, unless you and Kyler did something in the bathroom while I was waiting for Finn”? Her eyebrows rose, “Oh shit, please tell me you weren’t drunk enough to do that? If you did, I think I’m going to get sick Em.”
I threw my pillow at her and screeched “Nooo! Of course not! But don’t act like Ky is that bad. He may act like a douchebag, but he is extremely attractive and he can be really sweet. In fact I don’t know why you never went after him while we were in high school. I have it on good authority that he had a crush on you.”
“Yeah well, I just can’t see it. I’m a realtor and he’s a song writing, surfer boy. Those two things don’t really equate to a match made in heaven Em. Kyler is cute but he just isn’t my type.”
“What is your type? I don’t think I’ve even been able to nail down what you like in a man besides them being emotionally unavailable. And there is nothing wrong with him being a songwriter.” I threw in for good measure, a hint of resentment in my voice.
Finley and Kyler were both song writers for big time musicians in the Los Angeles area and—from what I’d heard—they were on the fast track to possibly winning some awards for their work. Finn had been playing the guitar since he was a young kid and his parents passed away in a car accident. That’s when he moved in with Kyler, and the two of them became inseparable. Writing was more of Finn’s thing but Kyler started writing with him and he turned out to be pretty good at it.