Unstuck (16 page)

“You know it won’t be,” I said while re-applying my lipstick “Do they do themed galas a lot?” I asked.

Patrick laughed out loud “Yes, it’s quite stupid but I’m sad to inform you that it’s pretty common,” Crap! I was sure that I was not going to have enough outfits for themed nights.

The rest of the ride was really easy. Patrick and I were the same as always, laughing, making jokes and talking about work like nothing happened. Maybe the bridge didn’t need to be burned.

“Hello, Lucy,” I turned around to Brian. Well, that was a bridge that I had to burn.

“Hey, Brian,” I said giving him a hug. Was I leading him on by giving him a hug? Was I going to have to live my life wondering how to act around Brian?

“How’s the hangover?” he asked laughing. He didn’t seem to feel the awkwardness I was feeling.

“It’s somewhere in the back of my mind after nursing it all day long,” I said smiling.

“What are you drinking?” He asked eyeing my empty glass.

“Oh! Just water for me, mister. I can’t even look at alcohol right now,” He laughed and took the glass from my hand.

“Water it’s,” He said leaving and I took that moment to take my seat on the table where I found my name. I recognized a few names: Patrick, Brian, Stacy and mine. I didn’t know who the other people were.

“All friends of ours,” said Brian handing me the glass.

“Thank you,” I said taking a sip and I watched how Brian switched his name tag with Stacy’s so he could sit next to me. “So, you also know Patrick since you were little,” He nodded while giving a sip to his drink. I hoped it was coke because if it was some alcoholic drink I was going to puke.

“Yeah, we’ve known each other for 30 years,” Wow. That was one long friendship.

The rest of the night went smoothly. Brian never brought up the incident and I got to meet all his friends. Although, there was more business than friendship on the table they could not stop themselves. I barely touched the food but I didn’t dwell on that; my stomach was still recovering.

I was thankful that I was not the only assistant on the table because I didn’t feel completely out of place every time Patrick muttered “Lucinda,” so I could take notes on the tablet. By the time the dessert was over the dancing was on full swing. I was just praying to God that Patrick would not want to stay for the dance and drinks and cigars.

“I could take you home, if you want,” I heard Brian say. I must have looked horrible and as much as I dreaded being alone with him I really wanted to go home.

“Ok. I will let Patrick know,” I said getting up.

“I’ll get the car.”

I went towards Patrick that was in deep conversation with a bunch of guys that had already taken out the cigars. I felt my stomach protest. I tapped Patrick on the shoulder.

“Lucinda,” he said smiling.

“I am going home, Patrick, It seems that my job here is done and I still feel like crap,” I said giving a small smile.

“I am about to leave, give me a second and...”

“No, Brian is taking me. You don’t have to interrupt your night,” I said feeling a bit intimidated by the look he had. He seemed to be looking for Brian because he was scanning the place as if his life depended on that.

“Ok,” he nodded and gave me a hug “see you at home,” I just nodded and left.

“Ready,” I said to Brian that was opening the car’s door for me “Let’s go,” I said getting in. Brian closed the door and walked to his side getting in.

“You barely ate anything,” he said once we were on our way.

“Ugh! No, I didn’t feel like it. I was praying for the dessert to be a sorbet or something because that was exactly what I felt I needed,” I said grabbing my stomach.

“Do you want a sorbet?  I know the place where I can get you an amaaaazing sorbet,” his eyes were shinning and he seemed like an excited little boy. I nodded with a stupid grin on my face I was as happy as little girl as well, and so we went for the most delicious passion fruit sorbet I had ever tasted.

“Oh my god, that was amazing,” I said as I finished the sorbet and Brian kept driving.

“Told you. Feel any better?” He asked putting his hand on my knee. I didn’t mind that at all. It was weird but for the past few hours I got a glimpse of what a relationship with Brian would be like and it didn’t seem so awful after all.

“Much,” I said nodding and putting my hand over his. I left it there for the rest of the drive home that was about 15 minutes. Holding someone’s hand for more than 5 minutes was a lot coming from me. We got to the manor and punched the code at the front gate. Brian drove all the way to the front door and stopped the car. He unbuckled his seat belt and turned to look at me. Oh no! Here it came.

“Lucy, last night was amazing but I was drunk,” he said shrugging “I wasn’t. Not one tiny bit,” I said and we both laughed. It helped us to relieve a bit of nerves.

“I like you, Lucy, a lot. But I don’t want last night to be the beginning of a relationship,” Wow… that was offensive. Was my kissing not good enough? Did I give a sloppy make out session?

“I want to start something but sober,” he said holding my hand. Oh, I thought I had dodged a bullet, offended and all but dodged it anyway.

“I know, too much alcohol,” I said while trying to think something to say.

“I like you too, Brian. But you just got to understand how confusing this is for me. We work together; your best friend is my boss,”

“And my boss,” he added and I laughed.

“I haven’t had time to think about what I want this to be,” I said smiling and Brian nodded “I understand. I just wanted you to know that I am not assuming that we have something going on because we had fun last night. It was amazing and I liked it a lot but that’s no way to start something,” Brian definitely was making me doubt myself.

“Thank you, Brian. You are amazing,” I said placing my hand on his cheek “So are you,” he said leaning over to kiss me. And I let him. What the fuck was wrong with me?? Was I sampling kissers or what? I don’t know what it was but I kissed him and, even though it was a proper kiss where tongue and lips equally took part of the action, I felt the same thing that I felt the night before. No fussy, warmth in me, just glad that I could have human interaction with someone I knew.

I pulled apart and said “I should go inside,” Brian nodded and got out of the car to open the door.

“I’ll see you on Monday,” he said hugging me and I nodded. I was in deeper shit than before.

I opened the door and wave him as he left. I closed and bumped my forehead against the door twice. There were some things that were very clear and some other’s that I could not even begin to understand. That I wanted to go to bed was very clear at that moment and so I walked towards the pool house just to find Patrick swimming.

“What are you doing?” I said laughing.

“I was a bit restless. Thought that some laps could remedy that,” I smiled, took my shoes off and crouched in front of him on the pool “What took you so long?” He asked crossing his arms on the border of the pool.

“Brian took me for some sorbet because it seemed that my stomach was demanding some,” I shrugged.

“What kind of sorbet?” he asked

“Passion fruit,” I said smiling

“Was it delicious?” he asked and I nodded vehemently “It was,” I said.

“Did you talk?” he finally asked

“Yes,”

“What did you say?” It didn’t escape my attention that he wanted to know what I had said.

“I need time to think. This is a confusing and complicated situation,” I said and Patrick just nodded.

“I guess I am going to sleep. I am sooo tired,” I said getting ready to go but Patrick grabbed my hand and pulled me into the water with him.

“Oh. Mother fucker,” I said coming out for air and getting the hair out of my face “It’s freezing,” I could hear Patrick laughing his ass off at the opposite side of the pool

“You little shit. This is Stacy’s dress,” I screamed trying to climb out of the pool.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure she won’t ever wear it again,” I could hear him laughing again.

“Good night, Patrick,” I said walking to the pool house.

“Good night, Lucinda,” He screamed and kept on laughing.

Nine

The sun was shining right on my face and I opened my eyes little by little, I was afraid I would wake up to my second day of hangover. I was relieved to see that I was fine and the light in my eyes was quite welcomed. I took a look at my phone and realized two great things 1 Patrick had not asked for midnight snacks and 2 it was 9 in the morning. I had a full night’s sleep. I jumped from bed feeling great; I had turned 30 and the world had not come to an end. I was there, in my room with a beautiful day ahead and I was going to make it count… by working my ass off.

I opened the window to enjoy the warmth of the sun and … “Sweet Baby Jesus,” I said closing the window. It was freezing. Winter was upon us all. It had happened overnight. I was not a winter person, or a summer person, or a spring person as a matter of fact (I had allergies). If I had to be a season person it would be fall and it clearly was giving its last few breaths. At least golfing would not be in the schedule for a while.

I took a shower, dried my hair and put it up in my favorite nest. I grabbed my lazy jeans and a big gray sweater. I was going to be busy but would not leave the property so I’d decided that I was going to dress comfortable. I put on my snickers and off I went to the house.

“Morning girls,” I said to Miranda and Sarah that were on the kitchen putting containers with food on the fridge.

“Good morning, Lucy,” said Miranda “I made several dishes in case you want something for lunch and dinner,”

“Thank you, Miranda,” I said grabbing an apple “did Patrick have breakfast?” “Yes, he is in his office now. What can I offer you?” She asked. I noticed she was ready to leave. Her hair was down and she had pants on as oppose to her eternal work pencil skirts.

“Don’t worry, Miranda. I’ll have cereal just go, have fun, see you tomorrow,” I said jumping down from the stool and grabbing a bowl.

“Are you sure?” she asked worried. She’s such a mom.

“I am sure. Go. You too Sarah,” I told the shy girl and she smiled and left. Miranda gave me a hug and left.

It was the first Sunday of the month, Update Sunday, and yeah, I made up the name. I had to go around the house checking every mini bar and filling it with whatever it was missing. I had to update the movie collection and the book collection. So there I was with my trolley, yes I had to use a trolley to go from room to room with everything I needed; it was much better than carrying everything in my arms and running upstairs, then downstairs, then upstairs again. Till this day I think that the trolley has been my best idea yet, and believe me, I’ve had ideas that have given May, Inc. a couple of extra billions.

I began with the T.V room; the snack bar was in serious need of pretzels, juice boxes and bubble gum. The sodas and strawberry flavored milk was ok, only a few missing. I spent about an hour updating the movie collection because, really, how many movies come out in a month??? Seriously.

After the T.V room I went to Patrick’s room to re-stock the mini bar that seemed to be low in pretzels, little bottles of liquor, and bottles of water and juice boxes. I could definitely tell his mood in the last month by the state of his mini bar. If only the damn fridge could speak. He’d been stressed, he ate too many pretzels when he was; he had a lot of company, girls, in his room, there were too many booze and water bottles missing. He had been waking up with a slight hangover; he drank juice first thing in the morning after he had been drinking. I am sad to inform that I had to re-stock his condom drawer. Yes he had a drawer for them and lately I had to re-stock every two weeks.

I stopped for a second sitting down on the bed, it was impressive, or stupidly amazing, the amount of facts that I knew about Patrick. If there was somewhere out there a site dedicated to Patrick Maynard trivia, and I could bet my money on it there was, I could become their “source,”

I shook my head and went on re-stocking the sauna, the gym, the solarium, leaving to the end the office and library. Updating the library always took me half a day, around 4 hours. The amount of books published in a month for every genre Patrick was interested was insane! So, me and my trolley went to his office and knocked.

“Come in,” I heard and there I went.

“Good Morning,” I said smiling

“I still can’t get over the sight of you,” he said laughing and resting his head on the leather chair.

“It’s easier than running around the house,” I said going to the mini bar. Pretzels, waters and soda, this was a place for work.