Kevin had gone outside to the Durango to get his cell phone, leaving Angela alone with the others. They were mingling around whispering and laughing, intentionally leaving her out of the conversation. It made her uncomfortable and she started twisting her hair nervously and looking around as if she didn't notice. When her eyes fell on the stool and she saw that the paper was gone, she knew what the topic of conversation was. That's it, she thought to herself. I am DONE worrying about that damned piece of paper!
Angela singled out Brian, since he'd been insulted the most. "You know, Brian," she said. "I'm not the one who said you had big nostrils."
Brian looked at her, shocked she'd had the nerve to bring it up. "Then who did?" he asked, half-smiling.
Angela smiled because she could see he wasn't angry, and when she glanced up at Nick, who was standing behind Brian, she noticed he was grinning back at her, waiting for her reply. "Okay, here's what happened," she said to Brian while still looking at Nick. "I didn't know who you guys were. My friend, Sandra..." She looked at Brian and raised her eyebrows to emphasize Sandy's name before continuing, "is into that kind of stuff. She told me what you looked like over the phone so I would hopefully recognize you when I met you. That's it," she finished, shrugging nonchalantly.
"Did it work?" asked AJ.
"Well," Angela replied, looking at his tattoos. "Yes, it did." He smiled at her and she got her first good look at him. He didn't look so deviant as he had at first impression. In fact, he had beautiful brown eyes and a pleasant smile, not funky at all.
"So, you're saying that I'm adorable?" Nick asked, pulling her eyes away from AJ.
Angela's face grew hot and she replied calmly, "Sure, Nick. You're adorable."
Kevin came back into the room carrying the cell phone, unknowingly rescuing her from further elaborating on Nick's appearance.
"Okay, Angela," Kevin said as he handed her the phone. "Why don't you give Sandra a buzz and see if she can get a couple more people to come down with her." He then turned to Nick. "Nick, why don't you come out to the kitchen with me so I can get you started on the refrigerator." Then he turned to the other guys. "Howie, AJ, as soon as I figure out what needs to be done in the bathrooms, you guys can get to work on those. And Brian, you can help Angela finish the dry walling in here." Angela was impressed with his authority.
It had already been an hour and nothing had been worked on yet. That would really torque Kenneth off, but she didn't care. Kevin could handle Kenneth. He could never stand up to someone as forward as Kevin.
Howie and AJ followed Kevin and Nick into the kitchen, and Brian and Angela were alone. She sat down on floor and Brian followed suit. As he sat there looking at her, she was amazed how normal he looked. He's just a normal guy, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, here to help out. "Brian, why don't you dial?"
"Okay," he replied and took the phone. "Now, let me get this straight, THIS is the girl that said the big nostril thing, right?"
"Yup," she said. "But she really said a lot worse than that. I only wrote down the nicest thing she said about you." Angela knew that Sandra would kill her for this, but there weren't too many times in her life where she'd had the opportunity to wreak havoc in Sandy's perfect world.
"What do you mean she said worse?" asked Brian incredulously. "Like what?"
"Well….." She started laughing and looked away.
"Well?" he asked again.
"Well......she said you looked like a fag." Angela crinkled her nose as she said it, hoping he wouldn't be too mad.
Brian didn't have time to react, though, because a commotion in the kitchen disrupted their conversation. They could hear Nick's protests of "I'm NOT cleaning that! That's gross!" and Kevin's responses of "You ARE cleaning that, end of discussion!"
Brian and Angela looked at each other and cracked up. She crinkled her nose again and said, "It IS pretty gross. I didn't want to do it, either."
Brian laughed and yelled out to the others. "Hey! Keep it down in there! We're trying to make a phone call here!"
Kevin, AJ and Howie walked out of the kitchen and AJ shouted back to Nick as they headed up the stairs to the bathrooms. "Do you want a kleenex, you big pussy?!"
Nick ran out of the kitchen and flipped AJ off defiantly, but when he noticed that Angela was watching him, he pulled his hand down quickly and sulked back into the kitchen, quietly.
Brian noticed the concerned look on Angela's face and smiled at her. "He'll live, Angela."
She blushed, and said, "I know, but I feel bad. Maybe I should just clean the refrigerator and let him dry wall."
Brian shook his head. "No, let him do that. He's the one who arranged this whole thing and committed us to it. He needs to do his fair share. Don't let him sucker you."
"What do you mean, sucker me?" Angela asked curiously.
"Maybe I'm wrong here," replied Brian, cautiously, "but I think you like him. And I think he thinks you like him, too. And well, he'll use that to his advantage."
Angela was surprised. "Oh!" she exclaimed. She hadn't thought she'd been very obvious that she thought Nick was attractive, but if Brian had spotted it, who hadn't?
"Now," said Brian switching the subject back to Sandra. "What's Sandra's number?"
He dialed the number and he and Angela waited for Sandra to answer.
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