A Will To Change (Hope) (15 page)

“What the fuck is up with this shampoo?”

“What do you mean?” Gabby asked, her mouth full of toothpaste.

I picked up the bottle and even through my tired eyes, I could see the words Feminine Wash as clear as day. “Ah, Gabby!” 

“Are you having problems in there, Will?” 

“Yeah, I am.” I reached around the shower curtain with the bottle. 

“Oops, sorry,” she giggled, taking it from my hand. “That's not meant for you.”  

“Yeah, well, I already used it.”

“Oh my god. Where?” She busted out with laughter.

“On my hair!”

I could hear her laughter getting louder as she exited the bathroom. I quickly put
real
shampoo in my hair and finished showering.

Gabby was standing outside the bathroom door with her coat on, and her travel mug of coffee in her hand. Her smirk that she was trying to hold in quickly turned into a full-fledged grin. “What's the matter, Will? Were you having one of those ‘not feeling so fresh’ kinda days?” She bent over, holding her side, laughing hysterically as tears rolled down her face.

“You are just so funny,” I said, sarcastically, trying my hardest not to laugh. 

She tried to catch her breath. “Go get some sleep before you start doing something with my tampons that you shouldn't,” she teased, sending her into another fit of laughter.

I lifted my head off my pillow and was surprised to see that it was almost dark outside. Damn, I must have been exhausted; normally, I would only sleep for four or five hours during the day. I was starving so I got out of bed and went into the kitchen. Gabby was working until seven so I was on my own for dinner. When I opened up the refrigerator, I was pleasantly surprised to find a container with a note on top.

Dearest William,

Since I know that you are unable to boil water and being the nice person that I am, I made your favorite, Chicken Parmigiana, last night. Heat it up for a minute-and-a-half (that's 90 seconds) and then check it. If it's still not warm enough, put it in for another 30 seconds. NO longer than that or it will overcook and the last thing you want to do is choke your chicken (or maybe you do…sorry, couldn’t resist). There’s some German chocolate cake in the fridge for dessert, too.

You're welcome.

The bestest roommate ever,

Gabby

She was such a smart ass, a smart ass that I was finding myself missing when she wasn't around. I laughed to myself, remembering her reaction to my mishap with the shampoo this morning. I was going to have to think of some way to pay her back for that one. 

After I was done eating, I finally made the dreaded phone call back to my mother, letting her know that I would be at Jamie and Hope’s house for Thanksgiving. I flopped down on the couch, trying to find something on TV. I was just about to rent a movie from Netflix, but decided to wait for Gabby to get home so we could watch one together. My phone was blowing up with text messages from Janelle and Tabitha so I decided to turn it off completely. I didn’t feel like dealing with any of them tonight. I was actually looking forward to just hanging out with Gabby.

I was flicking through the channels, hoping I was hearing things and that someone really wasn’t knocking on my door.
Fuckin’ crazy bitches. If I’m not answering your damn texts, get the fuckin’ hint!
I threw the remote down and reluctantly got up to answer. “Come on, douche bag. Open up!” I was relieved to hear Peterson’s voice instead of a female one. I flung the door open to find him and two other guys from work, Tim and Adam, on the other side. Each of them was holding a twelve pack of beer under his arm as Peterson pushed his way in.

“What the fuck’s going on?” I asked.

“Umm…we’re having a card game here.”

“What the fuck is wrong with one of your places?”

“Well, Tim’s girl is home. Adam’s mom is at his place.” Peterson and Tim both began to laugh.

“Shut the fuck up. She’s visiting from Florida,” Adam said.

“Yeah, and what’s wrong with your apartment, Peterson?” I asked.

“My cleaning lady just cleaned today. I don’t want to mess it up. We were supposed to have it at Flynn’s house until his old lady started ragging on him about us being there.”

“Oh, so you assholes planned a card came that I wasn’t even invited to, but now I
am
invited because you have no place else to have it?”

“Pretty much, d-bag. I’m kidding. I texted you and called you. It went right to voicemail,” Peterson said, handing me a bottle of beer.

We took a seat at the kitchen table. “Oh, shit. The missus isn’t going to get mad that we’re here, is she?” Peterson teased, causing Tim and Adam to burst out in laughter.

I creased my forehead and gave him a look of warning. “Man, Will, you are fuckin’ crazy! I can’t believe you haven’t been hittin’ that shit already. She is one cute little piece of ass,” Tim said as he shuffled the cards.

“Could you guys just shut up with that!?” I snapped.

“With what?” Tim asked.

“Talkin’ about Gabby that way.”

“Oh, don’t say anything about Will’s precious little Gabby,” Peterson said.

“Shut the -.” I stopped myself when I heard my apartment door open. Gabby walked into the kitchen and all three of them stared at her like they had never seen a woman before.

“Hey, guys!” Gabby flashed them her adorable smile as she went in the fridge to grab a bottle of water. “Whatcha playin’?”

Peterson finally put his tongue back in his mouth long enough to speak. “Poker.” He checked her out from head to toe, and I could feel myself getting more and more pissed off.

“Will, did you eat the chicken that I made you?”

“Yup. It was great.” All three of them looked up at me and I knew that I was going to get teased once Gabby left the room, but I didn’t care. They were just jealous because they didn’t have a beautiful woman cooking for them.

“Hey, Gabby, where ya goin’?” Peterson asked as she was walking out of the kitchen.

“Oh, I need to get changed.” She gave him a quick smile before exiting the room. I was praying that she didn’t change into those pants that she would always wear when she did her exercise videos, the ones that made her already perfect ass look even more perfect. Not that I minded seeing her in them, but I didn’t want any of these guys to be privy to that.

“Oh, Gabby, Gabby, Gabby. What a sweet ass you have!” Tim said in a loud whisper.

“Hey, thanks!” Gabby screamed from the hallway.

We all laughed, except for Tim. His eyes widened. “How the fuck did she hear me?” The look on his face was priceless, making me forget that I was a little pissed off at him for talking that way. I decided that I would ease up a bit and quit worrying about these jokers being around Gabby. She wasn’t like most girls. She had this all under control and could handle these perverts with one hand tied behind her back. So instead of getting pissed at their crude statements, I was just going to sit back and enjoy the fun.

I went into my room and changed into my sweats and a t-shirt. After working for seven days straight, three of which were doubles, I couldn’t wait to be off for the next three days. I had been avoiding reading the text message that had come through from my mother earlier in the day. I hadn’t spoken to her since that day at my apartment. I was still so hurt and wasn’t ready to talk to her. Taking a deep breath, I finally picked up my phone to read the text.

We’re not going to Palm Springs for Thanksgiving so if you would like to join Andre and me for dinner, please let me know so I can call the restaurant and adjust the reservation.

Was she serious? Why didn’t she just send out a formal invitation with a card to RSVP? I didn’t know why anything that she did surprised me. A normal mother would have apologized for the way she had treated me that day. Actually, a normal mother would never have treated her daughter the way that she did, or said the things that she had said to me. I quickly hit delete. I didn’t plan on having Thanksgiving with her and her husband, and I didn’t even plan on responding. I would be perfectly fine spending the day alone. It had crossed my mind to maybe volunteer to go into work so I would at least have my patients to spend the holiday with, but the thought of having three consecutive days off trumped that thought.

I threw my phone on the bed and headed into the kitchen to heat up dinner. When I opened my bedroom door, I laughed at the obscenities coming from Will and his friends.

“Man, I wanted to fuck that chick sideways. She was -.” Adam stopped himself, looking a little startled when he saw me entering the kitchen. “Ah, sorry, Gabby.” Adam was so adorable, in a little boy sort of way. If I had to guess, I would say that he was no taller than 5’8”. His dark brown hair matched his deep brown eyes, and he looked to be about fifteen and not in his late twenties.

“Oh, that’s okay. Don’t mind me.” They all became quiet as I went into the fridge to get my dinner. I decided that I would break up the silence. The last thing I wanted was for them to feel uncomfortable because I was here.

Quickly turning around from the refrigerator, I watched as they took their eyes off my ass and instantly looked back at their cards. “So, Adam, how exactly does that work?” I asked, popping my dinner into the microwave.

“Huh?” He looked confused.

“Fucking a girl sideways? Is that because your -.” I cleared my throat. “You know, your thingy down there is too small to do it any other way?”

Tim choked on the sip of beer that he had just taken, while Will and Brian tried to catch their breath from laughter. I stood there, waiting for an answer.

“What?! No! It’s just a saying.” I could see his face turning red.

I bent over and looked under the table at his feet. “If you say so,” I shrugged, turning back around to take my food out of the microwave.

“You are cool as hell, Gabby!” Tim said.

“Cool and a sweet ass… What can I say? I’m just blessed, I guess.”

“You can sit on my lap and eat that if you’d like?” Peterson teased. Brian, on the other hand…or
Peterson
…definitely didn’t look like a little boy. He was good looking in a grown-up man way. He was about the same age as Will. His eyes weren’t the same shade of spell-binding blue as Will’s, but they were still pretty nice to look at.

Will looked up from his cards and shot him a dirty look. “As tempting as that sounds, I think I’ll pass,” I smirked, taking my bowl of soup and going into the living room to watch TV.

I sat on the couch and was happy to see that the
Wedding Planner
was on. Matthew McConaughey always put a smile on my face. I curled up under the blanket and tried my best to ignore the conversation going on in the other room as Will went into explicit detail about his latest sexual encounter a few days ago.

I was just dozing off when Will and his friends woke me, yelling from the kitchen. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and was just about ready to head into bed when Brian, Adam, and Tim came walking into the living room. “So, who won?” I asked, trying to sound awake.