Chapter 464: Dru X—Without Looking Back
Another game tonight, two in a row at home sometimes felt more strenuous than the same situation on the road. Basically, on the road they played their first game, slept on the bus or train, relaxed in the hotel and then played the next night. At home, if you had a girl, things got a little more complicated, and Drury didn’t even want to imagine a situation where there were kids in the household.
Not that he blamed Rory for a whole lot. She understood his job, and she had her own school to deal with, and her own busy schedule, and more often than not she seemed happy enough to be on her own studying or out with her friends. Still, even her presence, even her hanging around just a little bit, snuggling him and talking to him, or tossing her things around the apartment and making a mess, it just pissed him off. Not at her, but at the intrusion of his personal space, and mind.
Today he wanted to relax, he didn’t want to commit to anything, he didn’t want to think about when he could meet Rory for lunch, nor did he want to have dinner with her before the game, and listen to her apologies to him when she woke him from his nap calling during a break in classes. Something about college girls, they just talked so damn loud! Chris couldn’t figure out at what stage girls lost their bubbling flirtations and traded it in for nasal opinions.
Of course, Chris reasoned, he could just be grumpy about having to play tonight. So yes, he would be happy to meet her for lunch. After all, he thought as he drove to the campus, she did a lot for him, he liked her a whole bunch, it just was not her fault that he felt like an angry badger in between back to back games. Angry badger being her nick name for him, not his own creation.
Take it to the ice, boy; she would taunt him, badger em on the ice.
Meet her at that café near the campus they’d agreed, meet her at the… Chris squinted and shrugged his shoulders as he made a quick perusal of the place. Well where was she? A hostess asked if she could seat him, Chris waved her off feeling a surly mood coming on with his growling stomach. His cell phone rang just as he pulled it from his pocket to call. “Rory? Where are you I’m at the…”
“Chris, I’m sorry I had to get back to campus early, something came up, Denise caught up with me and she needed a ton of help on her calcu…”
Chris rolled his eyes and let her tell her piece, nasal, loud, he could hold the phone a foot away from his ear and still catch her entire message, in fact, he did. “Well hon, you coulda called me.” Chris replied not giving a shit who this Denise was.
Rory sighed loudly, “Chris I’m really sorry, I shoulda but we got to talking and then you know, that’s so bad of me, I know you could have kept on with your nap or something are you mad at me?”
Chris sighed and wrinkled his nose, feeling the ever present stare of the hostess. Maybe she recognized him, maybe she didn’t, either way, he didn’t appreciate being stared at. “No, you go on and have a good day. I’ll see you later.”
“Do you want to get something before the game?” she asked brightly, happy now that all was forgiven and she was off the hook.
“Sure,” Chris replied, “Catch you later, love ya.”
Barely did he hear her reply when he hung up the phone and then taking only one moment to think it over, he hit the speed dial. Catching the eye if the hostess he held up a finger and mouthed out the words, “One moment.” With an open mouth, she nodded and greeted another party who’d entered the café.
“Hello?” As if she hadn’t read her caller ID. He almost rolled his eyes, but he loved her accent that much.
Chris smiled as if she stood in front of him. “Hey there, you busy?”
He could just imagine her squint to match that exasperated tone of voice. She could fake being annoyed better than any woman he knew, either that or she calmed down disgustingly easy. “Too busy for you unless it is important, or you have Patrick with you eh?”
“Eh,” Chris said turning away from the people in the reception area and speaking in a softer voice. “Come on, you like a good simple lunch? Pasta, or a sandwich, a burger? Come on they have the best rosemary rolls here, just a little lunch? It’s on me, come on, I’m lonely here, just have lunch with me.”
Fake annoyance indeed, “Where are you?” Michele asked.
Chris closed his eyes and whispered, “Yes” after telling Michele where to go and then turning back to the hostess with a smile. “Two, please.”
Nothing wrong with a burger, one thing Chris really loved about Rory was that the girl could put down a burger and fries without a complaint. Whether she purged it out later or had a fast metabolism he didn’t know or care, but the fact that she enjoyed real god damn food never ceased to hearten him. He thought about that watching Michele pecking at her herb sauced, oddly filled ravioli which had been described in the menu with those all too precious exotic and dainty words that only chicks fell for. Words like infused, baby, light, and olive oil all in the same paragraph never ceased to snag in the snobby eater.
On the
bright side, she’d also ordered a glass of wine with her meal.
After butchering the ravioli into seven improbably small pieces, she nibbled one off her fork and then smiled. “Oh yes, want a bite?” Yeah he fell into that one alright.
“Um, sure,” Chris said slowly, at least it was only a tiny bite, he looked at the tiny pieces of the chopped up noodle… and then with her sadistic little humor she speared an entire fat noodle pocket with the fork and held it out to him. A clear, herb infused drop of the sauce dripped off a corner and onto the tablecloth. Damn that noodle looked huge, he imagined an army of herby flavors he never signed up for erasing the clean taste of his burger straight off his tongue.
“I want to see how big that mouth of yours can be when you’re not mumbling,” she grinned.
Just knowing where those mean little eyes of hers were focusing, on his lips, warmed his entire body and shot through his veins and he took that entire ravioli in his mouth, not caring that the basil, rosemary, sage mixed with the pungent tang of the portabella mushroom and the slippery lemony olive oil did indeed assault his tongue and horrified his throat as it slipped down his throat after being bruised by his teeth and into his belly. All that mattered was her mean little smile. “It’s horrible!” Chris gasped after the final swallow, and taking a long drink of his soda.
Mean little smile remained and she took another dainty bite of her food, and merely rolled it under her lip before swallowing it. She followed that with some wine. “What you’re drinking is terrible, food colors, chemicals and corn syrup.”
Chris rolled his eyes and smiled. “I took the whole thing though.”
Michele nodded. “Mm, yes you do have a big mouth. You should use it more.”
Could she be leading him? He leaned forward, “Hey you never complained how I used it before. Not once.”
Her cheeks did turn pink and she giggled. “No I never did complain. Your hands are big too, I like that. Amongst other things, but this is just lunch hm? Chubby puppy.”
Right there in the gut, it boiled and slammed his brain with weak lust. “You’re teasing me, babe, you have to be so mean all the time?”
Her forehead crinkled slightly and she sniffed. “You’re the one who invited me to lunch, inviting your own torture. Where is your sweetheart, Chris eh? Is she neglecting you? I am not a pacifier, I don’t have time.” And so primly she started on a new noodle, cutting it into tiny pieces, even though she hadn’t eaten anymore of the last one, but she did take the time to glance up and sort of half grin.
God damn her! “You have time enough for Danny what’s wrong with me?”
She set her fork down and looked at him with her chin tilted up. “Be polite, I came here for lunch and friendly company, I thought we were friends and you’re pouting. I’m not in the mood for pouty, if I wanted that I would join my children for lunch.”
Of course she was right. Drury even yelled inside his own brain to just shut up and let it go, he couldn’t expect her to just jump back into the past when she obviously had her own life. All he’d expected coming into this damn café was a friendly lunch with somebody, why should he spoil it? But the taste in his mouth. “Baby I’ve seen Danny, and he’s not that special, you probably have to break him in too don’t ya? Why are you wasting your time breaking him in, you could have a lot more fun with me.”
Michele shook her head, “Chris, is this a sales meeting? Really, I just want to eat. Leave it alone, please.”
Thrown over for Hinote! Might as well be Heidi or Snow White for all that was worth. A private humiliation to be sure but one he didn’t think he’d ever be able to handle. “He’s that good?”
Michele sighed and looked at him plainly, with slightly sad eyes. “Chris, I don’t have time. How else can I explain this to you eh?”
Chris shrugged and decided not to shut up. “Well why should your husband have all the fun? I thought your motto was to have all the fun the guys did?”
“Patrick does what works for him,” Michele replied, “I don’t mind. We’re not competing; we’re very open with each other too. I do what works for me, and right now, Dan works for me. He doesn’t require a lot, he’s an obedient puppy.”
For her it could be as cold and simple as that, what works and what doesn’t and she could just cut things out of her life. That part irked him the most, being cut out. “He really tells you everything he does?”
Michele squinted, and paused, oh she recovered herself quickly but he saw that initial start. Perhaps she’d been wondering lately what he was up to? “Hell just yesterday he banged Katrina in the parking lot. I saw them slinking out of that new car.”
For an instant, Michele froze, pale and tight, and he really felt like a shit, but he’d wanted to see if anything could make her hurt. “He… did?” She whispered. “Katrina? Why her?”
Chris looked at his plate, and he felt his cheeks warm. “Shit I’m sorry. I was just making shit up to be mean.”
“Oh he’s an asshole anyway,” Michele replied, blinking rapidly and taking a long drink of her wine. She pressed her hand over her breast and cringed. “Forget about it, Chris. It is nothing, yes?” And really it would have been easy to believe that nothing did bother her at all looking at her in that instant. Oh but she seethed inside, he could tell by now, the way the skin around her lips blanched, how tight they were.
“Come on angry kitty cat, let’s have our own fun. Patrick hates my guts anyway sometimes,” He grinned, imagining her angry body just pinned underneath him.
Michele raised her eyebrows and slowly stood up. “I need to pick up the children soon.” She crumpled her cloth napkin and tossed it on top of her food plate, swiftly walking away, no doubt without looking back.
And he didn’t look behind him either. He watched the oil from the pasta sauce soaking into the cloth napkin, staining it. Well he’d pissed her off. Congratulations, what had he won?
“Like some more water, Sir?” the waitress said as she poured more water into his empty glass. Chris looked at it, and then he looked at her.
She caught his eye for a moment before reddening, “She’s too old for you anyway,” the waitress said and she skittered away.
Chris smiled and glanced over his shoulder, imagined Michele fuming in her car right now. “Naw, I’d say she’s just right.”