Page 34 of Reaching Gavin

If they thought I couldn’t think of ways to draw this out they were wrong.

“You texted us an hour ago. What did it say?” She looked to Jess.

“A very cryptic ‘Skee-Ball! Kiss! Love?’ What are we supposed to do with that?”

“And then you don’t respond to any of our texts,” Jillian jumped in.

“I was asleep!”

“Are you kissing Skee-Ball machines? Because if so we need to have a serious conversation. I know you swore off men, but…” Jillian trailed off.

Both of them were perched cross-legged on their respective beds like we were gathering around the campfire for stories.

“I kissed Gavin.” My announcement was met with silence.

“Your boss?” Jess finally asked.

“I thought you were keeping your distance,” Jillian added.

This wasn’t the response I had expected nor the one I had hoped for. “Don’t tell me you have a moral objection.”

“That’s not it,” Jess said, taking on the diplomatic tone I knew and loathed.

“Good, because you married a professor,” I reminded her. Where was the support? The squeals?

“We’re just surprised,” Jillian said. “What was the Skee-Ball thing about?”

I filled them in on the details of the night. By the end of my story, their attitude had softened toward Gavin, but I still felt like crap. I didn’t need them to be excited. Okay, that was a lie. I did need them to be excited. Instead, they’d gotten in my head and screwed everything up.

“Are you going to see him again this weekend?” Jess asked. The hits kept on coming.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Tonight wasn’t really planned.”

“Maybe he’ll call,” Jillian said in a soothing voice.

“And if he doesn’t it’s just because he’s busy with his sister,” Jess added.

But it was too little too late. It took a little effort to get them off the call. They seemed to sense that they’d screwed with my head. When I finally did, it took hours to fall back asleep where only nightmares waited.