Life After That (10 page)

"Are you sure he was her boyfriend, maybe it was just a guy she met at the bar and…" Erik was trying to make things better, but it wasn't working.

"She introduced him as Tom, her boyfriend." he said bitterness evident in his voice.

"Oh man. That's not good."

"I know! I told you!"

"So, what are you gonna do now?" Erik asked his friend. He didn't know what to say on a situation like that.

"I don't know. As much as it hurts, there's nothing left for me to do. I can't go after her, follow her around, I would be stalking her and I don't want that. And to make things worse, I don't know where she lives or her number or anything. I gave her my phone number, I don't think she's gonna call, but I sure hope so. That's the only way we would talk again." Ashley was really counting on Kirstin's call. That was the only chance he had to make things better. He couldn't think of any other way for them to talk again unless she'd call him. And he prayed for her to do so.

"Let's go to my place." Kirstin said through kisses. They were all over each other.

"Are you sure?" Tom stopped so he could face her.

"Yes, I am." Kirstin was drunk. Tom wasn't. She had had more then just a few drinks. "Let's go to my place now!" she didn't want to stop kissing him, so she pulled him to her. He just pushed back and asked:

"What about Grace?"

"What about her?"

"What about her? Are you planning on leaving her here?"

"Grace is a big girl. I'm pretty sure she can get herself a cab."

"No way! Let's find her, leave her at her place and then we can go to yours."

"Ok, let's have it your way then, Good Samaritan!" that comment made Tom smile.

"Good. So let's find Grace. Actually, you stay right here and I'll go find her."

"Ok, but give me a kiss first before you leave." she pulled him to her. Tom was the one who stopped the kiss and left to find Grace. Kirstin said while he was leaving "Don't take too long!"

Tom was happy. He had the girl of his dreams all over him, and now she had asked him to go to her place. What else could he ask for? His conscious kicked in then and he began to think, 'Alright, she may be a little too drunk, but she wants me. And God, I want her so badly!' He found Grace getting off of the dance floor and grabbed her lightly by her arm.

"Grace, we are leaving."

"WE are leaving?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna take you and Kirstin home. Kirstin is a little drunk, she shouldn't drive."

"Tom, you don't have to give me some lame excuse. You can say you are going to her loft too." she smirked.

"Ok, ok. Then that's the truth."

"So, how are things with her?"

"Good actually, she's great and a great kisser! And she's being really nice to me and all."

"Really? That's good to know!"

"Yeah. In fact, this guy she knows came over to her a little while ago and she totally blew him off and..."

"Wait, wait, wait! A guy she knows came over to her? What was the guy's name?" Grace already knew the answer to that question, but she asked anyway.

"I think it was Ashley. I don't really recall, but I think that was it. Why?"

"Nothing. And what did she say to him?"

"I don't know. Well, she introduced me as her boyfriend to him!"

Grace felt the enthusiasm on Tom's voice but she wasn't at all excited. She knew Kirstin was just using Tom so she could hurt Ashley the same way he hurt her. "And she's drunk you say?"

"Well, a little bit."

"And you are still gonna go home with her?"

"Grace, I'm not gonna take advantage of her. She was the one who asked me to go to her place and…."

"You know what, I don't need the details. You two are responsible for your lives, so do whatever you want with them. Just take me home and after that, everything's up to you guys."

"Well, you don't have to get mad at me, you know how long I have waited for this moment."

"Tom, I know. I just didn't think you were the type of guy that would take a drunken girl to bed. But hey, my mistake!"

"It's not like that G, it's…."

"Save it. Let's just go, please."

Tom glanced down and headed back to where Kirstin was.

"Hey baby! You took too long!" Kirstin greeted Tom from her seat.

"Sorry, I couldn't find Grace." Tom couldn't really see eye-to-eye with Grace.

"Oh Grace, you naughty girl! Where have you being?"

"No where, I was just dancing with these girls that I know from college."

"So, let's go?" Tom held Kirstin's hand.

In the car, Grace was sitting in the back seat, Tom was driving and Kirstin was in the seat beside him. During the ride, Grace didn't say a word and was kinda disgusted with the two lovebirds in the front seats. Every time there was a stoplight, they'd be all over each other.

"You can stop there." Grace pointed when they were in front of her apartment building. "Thanks." She said getting out of the car.

"Good night, G." Tom said while she was getting out but didn't hear her say it back to him. "She's mad at us."

"Oh, she's always mad. Don't worry about her. Come here." Kirstin told him and pulled him to her. When things started to heat up, he backed away and said:

"Let's do this in your place."

"Why? Right here is fine with me!"

"No, let's go to your place. Someone can see us here."

"Ok, ok. I forgot you are a good guy!" she smiled. "Let's go quick then." She told him and he started the car.

In the elevator, going up to her loft, she couldn't keep her hands off of him and he couldn't keep his off of her. When they got to her floor, she opened the door, dropped the keys on the kitchen counter and slammed the door. Then she was all over him again.

Kirstin led them to the living room and pushed Tom down on the couch and then crawled on top of him and slammed her lips into his. Tom placed his hands on Kirstin's waist and slowly began to stroke her back and sides. Kirstin pulled and struggled at the edge of Tom's shirt trying to rip it off him without having to move her lips. Tom finally broke the kiss and ripped his own shirt off. Kirstin smiled down at him with a devilish look and then kissed his neck and made her way down his chest to the top of his pants. Tom held his breathe in anticipation, but Kirstin only ripped her own shirt and returned to kiss him. Tom sighed in frustration but he was too turned on to protest. Kirstin took Tom's hands and placed them on her breasts.

"You don't have to be a good boy anymore." she whispered to him.

Tom smiled at thin air and flipped her over.

"If you say so." he said through a smile. He expertly unbuttoned her pants while kissing her and flung them off in one quick motion. He kissed along her jaw line and down to her neck. She moaned softly as he kissed the valley between her breasts. As Tom continued to caress her body like he had always dreamed about, Kirstin's mind was on other things as the shots of tequila that she had before were starting to wear off.

'Why did Ashley break up with Jen?' she thought to herself 'And now, the same day we had that conversation at the coffee shop?' Kirstin was still a little tipsy but it finally snapped 'Oh my god, what if he broke up with her because of that conversation at the coffee shop? No, he wouldn't. Would he?' Kirstin suddenly sat up making Tom wobble backwards.

"Kirstin, are you ok?" Tom asked reaching a hand out for her.

Kirstin grabbed a blanket off the chair next to the couch and wrapped it around herself.

"Uh yea, um Tom I can't do this." she said pulling the blanket tight.

"But why?" Tom asked standing up, "This doesn't have to do with the pip squeak at the bar does it?" Kirstin sighed.

"No! I mean, I don't know, it might." her temper was getting the best of her "But I don't see why that is factor."

Tom looked shocked. "I thought you really liked me so yeah, it is a factor and you even called me your boyfriend and were all over me." Tom sounded hurt. Kirstin didn't wanna do that to him.

"Tom, I didn't mean to hurt you, I'm so sorry if I did, but tonight's just not good." she said "Maybe some other time."

She walked to the door and opened it. Tom grabbed his shirt and walked out of the apartment without another word.

Kirstin closed the door. She sat there, leaning against the door. She had her head in the middle of her knees. It hadn't been a good night. Tom was hurt, she was hurt and she probably hurt Ashley at the bar.

"What am I gonna do now?" she wondered, clueless.

3 months had gone by. After what happened between Kirstin and Tom that night, she had never seen him again. She didn't want too. She was ashamed of herself. And he never went after her, mostly because he didn't have her phone number and didn't know what to say if he was to show up at her door.

Kirstin kept her routine: home to college – college to work – work to home. And the 'Thursday Nights' were also kept as part of the routine. She and Grace had to find somewhere else to go because Kirstin didn't wanna see Tom. No need to say that Grace was not at all happy with how things turned out to be. Kirstin still had her fun with the 'Thursday Guys' every week and very often things would end up at her place. It was the choice she had made to help herself forget about Ashley. And it was working pretty well. Sometimes it just felt like a bad dream to Kirstin.

Ashley had spent the past 3 months trying to put everything behind him and go on with his life. A little after the night at 'Inferno' things were pretty messed up in Ashley's head. He ended a 5-month relationship with a great girl so he could be with the girl he really loved. But things didn't go as planned and he was left pretty hurt. Day after day, he would expect Kirstin's call. At every hour he would check his cell phone to make sure it was on. But she never called. It was starting to interfere on his job, so he managed to put things behind him at least while working, but when he was lying in bed, trying to sleep, with his eyes closed, it was Kirstin's face he would see. But time was the best medicine for Ashley and her face eventually started to fade away.

"Excuse me, sir."

"Kirstin, please, come in." Mr. Goodman, a short, bald guy in his mid forties and with a really friendly face pointed a chair in front of his desk so Kirstin would sit.

"Did you wanna see me, sir?"

"Yes, I did. It's about your job here." Kirstin got a bit worried. She couldn't afford to lose her job there. It would be too difficult for her to find other job in that area. With a worried look upon her face, she said:

"Yes…"