AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What can I do?” I said quietly. “He’s getting married. And I think I know why now. You should have seen him with Brody and Brennan today. He’s amazing with kids, and they adore him. His fiancé can give him children of his own. I can’t compete with that.”
“Um, it’s called adoption,” Jess whispered.
“Yeah, Mo pointed out the obvious, too. But maybe he wants his own flesh and blood with this woman. Whoever she is. And maybe it’s more than that. Maybe he loves her.”
“He loves you, Jamie.”
“I’m going to be a total basket case when he gets married, Jess. I’m seriously going to need you to block out the whole month of June. That’s when the wedding is. You, me, and Nando are going to have to run away to Mexico and spend weeks getting totally shit faced. I won’t want to sober up until sometime next fall.”
“Ok. We’ll do that.” Jess looked at me closely and whispered, “Jamie, are you sure you should go on seeing him? Maybe if you walk away now it’ll hurt less than walking away right before the wedding.”
“I can’t,” I told her. “Walking away now would rip my heart out. And it would deny me a few months of getting to be with him. I’d regret that for the rest of my life.”
Jess put her arm around me and I put my head on her shoulder, and we tried to focus on the movie for a while. On screen, a nightclub was getting shot up. And just as the good guy reached Sarah Connor, a voice behind us said, in perfect unison with the muted screen image, “Come with me if you want to live.”
We both turned to look at Dmitri. He was leaning against the doorframe to the bedroom, dressed in a pair of my cargo shorts and a t-shirt from my favorite sushi bar, Pink Godzilla in Santa Cruz. The shirt featured a pink cartoon baby Godzilla riding a surf board.
And Jess said, “Holy crap! Less than a week together and you’ve turned that well-dressed man into a mini Jamie.”
I rolled my eyes at her and said to Dmitri, “Hey baby. Sorry if we woke you.”
“You didn’t,” he said. “Mind if I join you guys?”
“Please do.”
I started to slide over to make room for him on the couch, but he sat at my feet and leaned against my leg. He glanced over his shoulder and said, “Hey Jess. Cute PJs.”
“Hi Dmitri. They’re Jamie’s fault.”
“Ah.”
“So, just to catch you up, we were doing shots every time someone in the movie got killed. But Jamie just wimped out,” she said.
“Yeah, after six shots of tequila!” I reached for the remote and put the sound back on, and asked, “Want me to start it over at the beginning?”
“No need. I’ve seen The Terminator a bunch,” Dmitri said. “I love this movie. In fact, I almost named my nightclub Tech-Noir after the club that’s on screen right now.”
“Seriously?”
“Yup. But then, as my sisters pointed out, that would have made me a huge dork. And also probably gotten my ass sued by James Cameron.”
“Valid points.”
Jess said, “Well damn, I guess I need to give up the drinking game, too. That nightclub is littered with corpses. I’ll pass out if I do that many shots.”
“You win anyway,” I told her. “I bailed before you.”
“Again,” she said.
“Again,” I agreed.
We watched the movie for a while, Dmitri’s head on my thigh as I stroked his hair. At one point I exclaimed, “Oh, ew! Xacto blade eye surgery! Gah!” and hid behind my hands while everyone laughed at me.
“You think that’s scary? How about Sarah Connor’s acid wash high-rise Mom jeans, tucked into a pair of white socks? Now that’s scary,” Jess said.
“Don’t blame her. Blame the 80’s,” I replied.
“Shh, you’re gonna miss it,” Dmitri exclaimed, sitting up straighter. “Wait for it…” And then in perfect sync with Ahnold, Dmitri delivered the line, “I’ll be back.” He smiled at me happily over his shoulder and said, “Classic.”
Jess grinned at that and said, “Aw man, and Dmitri looked so normal. You two deserve each other. You’re both total dorks.”
When the movie was over Dmitri offered to drive Jess home, since he was the only one that hadn’t been drinking. I could only imagine the embarrassing things Jess was going to say about me in the five minutes they spent alone in his car.
When he returned to my apartment, Dmitri let himself in with my key. He found me in the bedroom, naked and lounging on my stomach. His breath caught at the sight of me and he reached out to brace himself against the doorframe.
“That,” I grinned, “is an excellent reaction.”
“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” he said, staring at me in open admiration.
“Speaking of fucking,” I said with a big cheesy grin, “do you feel like going one more round, you on top this time? I want to be sore tomorrow, too.”
