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EIGHT
Matthew
She was upset. And drunk. I could tell that much from the back of the bar where I sat in a booth with Bryan, his wife Elizabeth, Cole, Tanner, and the blonde twins they had been going out with for the last two months. Kelly and Kaitlin, or something like that. They were bubbly and had way too much energy for my liking, but the guys seemed really into them, so I kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t my place to say anything about who they were dating when I had snubbed every attempt of theirs to set me up with someone over the last eight years.
When they had invited me out to the bar tonight, I really couldn’t find a good excuse not to come, so there I was, sitting at the bar with an IPA in hand, watching Noelle Hastings stumble onto a stool, drink in hand, laughing with her friends. Her little dress and those little knee-high boots, damn. Of course, my friends had picked a bar off campus to go to, and of course, it had been the same freaking one that Noelle and her friends chose to come to. Was this a form of torture designed specifically for me?
“So, Matt,” Elizabeth distracted me as I stared towards the bar while sipping my beer. “Any updates in the romance department? Are you going to bring a girl to one of these get-togethers any time soon?” A glass of water sat in front of her, and she rested one hand on her stomach, while one of Bryan’s arms was draped around her and rested on her shoulder. The way they leaned into each other, drawing from each other’s warmth, reveling in each other’s presence… Yes, okay, it made me want that too.
“Still looking for the right girl, I’m afraid,” I said, giving her a small smile and willing myself not to look back towards Noelle in her little black dress.
Fuck, I couldn’t help it. She was giggling and pushing at her blonde friend’s shoulder, while the guy behind her was looking a little too closely at her ass. Nope. Not okay, dude. And if he touched her without permission… Woah. I scowled. That thought came out of nowhere.
“Well, if you’re looking, I have a friend who might be interested. I could set you up?” Liz sounded hopeful, and I could see Bryan nodding along with her. I knew he wanted me to get married and settle down soon as he had. He had a nice comfortable job as a pharmacist, a nice house, and a gorgeous wife. I was seriously envious of them. For having it all together, having their lives all figured out. Mine was a mess in comparison.
“Maybe?” I offered her a small shrug, eyes darting between her and the bar. To Noelle, cheeks flushed as she finished another drink.
Bryan’s eyes must have tracked mine because he was glancing in the direction of the bar, too, and I could tell he was trying to figure out what—or who—I kept staring at. “Everything good, man?”
“Yeah,” I answered too quickly and waved him off. “All good. I just know… someone over there.”
“You know, if you want to go say hi, it’s alright,” chimed in Cole’s girl, Kelly. Or was it Kaitlin? It was hard to tell them apart unless they were sitting with their guys, and sometimes I could barely tell the two of them apart. Two sets of identical twins dating each other—sometimes it confused my brain. I couldn’t imagine being them and being constantly confused for each other.
“Nah, that’s okay, really. She doesn’t even know I’m here.”
“Oh, she, huh?” Tanner interjected, wiggling his eyebrows at me.
“Fuck off.” I punched his shoulder from his side. “It’s not like that.”
“But it could be?” Bryan asked, taking a bite of the fries we had ordered. Out of solidarity for his pregnant wife, he hadn’t ordered a drink tonight either, so he was simply munching away on all our appetizers.
“No.” I narrowed my eyes. “She works at my university too, guys. Rest assured; absolutely nothing will be happening there.”
“Oh, but I bet you could teach her some things,” Cole smirked, and Tanner high-fived him.
“Hey,” Elizabeth said, giving her best mom stare at the twins. Geez, her kid wasn’t even born yet, and she already had it down perfectly. “Don’t joke about that kind of thing. Still, you could go say hi if you wanted. What does she do?”
I just shook my head. “It’s fine. I’m here with all of you. And she’s the hall director of one of the dorms.” I frowned because I realized I didn’t even know which one. “And she’s also a grad student.” I looked over at her again, now seemingly talking to the man who had been ogling her ass. Jerk. I wanted to go and tell him off, but I bit my tongue instead.
“Oh, and does this grad student have a name?” Bryan asked, and then winced in pain. Elizabeth had probably just kneed him under the table, which made me laugh.
I waited for a beat before responding, “Noelle.” And then went back to sipping my beer, choosing to look straight ahead instead of watching her flirt with some guy. And why was I so jealous, anyway? Hadn’t I just told my friends that nothing would ever happen between us? “Doesn’t anyone else have anything exciting happening in their life that we could talk about instead?” I asked, trying to deflect the conversation off of me.
“Well, I just got a promotion at work.” Kaitlin smiled, “I’m the new Head Nurse of the Pediatric Ward.”
“At OHSU?” Elizabeth looked at the blonde girl with pride.
“Yeah!” she exclaimed. “I’m excited because it means I get to work more closely with my favorite doctor, and he’s—”
Tanner groaned. “Babe, you know I hate when you talk about how excited you are to work with other men.”
“I can’t help it if you’re jealous, sweetie, but really, I have a super-hot basketball boyfriend. And I’m not interested in Hunter, I promise.” Kaitlin patted Tanner’s bicep, and then shifted in her seat to place a peck on his cheek. Again, I needed all of my friends to stop being so… sweet and happy, because it was making me feel a heck of a lot lonelier than I had been before. “Besides, he works too much,” she added, scrunching up her nose. “I’ve never seen him make time for anyone. Not like you do for me.” Kaitlin interlaced her fingers with Tanner’s hand.
“Working in a hospital must be intense sometimes, huh?” I asked Kaitlin, trying to remain present in the conversation as Noelle began dancing with the asshole.
“It can be challenging working with infants and kids, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it for any other job in the world. I love helping those families, and knowing what a difference I make in their lives… That’s what’s important to me, you know?”
I nodded. “I feel the same way about my students. Not that I save their lives, but you know, I hope I make a difference in them.”
