Love Unexpected (9 page)

While Kieran was busy mingling with people he knew, I went to the bar and ordered an apple mojito.

I was reaching for $10 in my purse when someone said, "I got it."
 

Oh my
. Clad in a black classic suit, Zander stood a couple of inches away from me. He looked so good!

His intense gaze landed on me, as he handed the cash to the bartender.
 

I handed my money to him.
He closed his hand on mine.
 

"No, my treat,” he smiled. The full effect of his shimmering eyes and his mega-watt smile brought my heart to a thud. I was at a loss for words
.
Or equations.

People were behind us waiting to give their orders to the bartender so I stepped to the side, holding my drink on my right hand.
 

"I should probably be the one treating you. I saw your name on the program, you’re also up for the Sportsman of the Year award, even if you won it last year, accordi
ng to the people in my table. "I sent flickering glances his way.

My heart was still trying to get back to its normal rhythm. If I stole another glance at his yumminess, I would not be able to think straight.
 

"It's my treat because I'm feeling lucky
tonight," he said.
 

"Oh?"
 

"Yes, I feel lucky
because you're here." His piercing gaze seared into me. How in the world did I resist this man?
 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kieran, in his dark green suit, walking towards me.
 

"Ace, I've been looking for you." Kieran approached me on my side and
touched my arm.
 

I smiled at him and said, "I was just getting a drink at the bar,"
slowly waving my apple mojito in the air.

Zander's gaze flicked back and forth between Kieran and me. How remiss of me!
 

"Kieran, this is Zander," I gestured towards Zander, "Zander, this is Kieran."
 

Zander's look was unflinchingly steady. I noticed a muscle tic in his left jaw. I got the impression that a tic on his facial muscles mea
nt bad news.
 

His voice was deceptively calm when he spoke and extended his hand to Kieran, "Nice to meet you. I didn't realize you were with Sedona."
 

I was about to say, "He’s my friend," when Zander continued, "Listen, I'm sorry, I gotta head back to my table. It was nice to see you here, Sedona." His footsteps were hurried as he walked away from Kieran and me.
 

"Hmm, so that's Mr. Football Wunderkid," Kieran said.

I didn't answer him. I wondered why Zander walked off? That was weird.
 

We heard an overhead announcement across the room, "Ladies and gentlemen, please return to your seats. We will be starting with our schedule shortly." That was our cue to go back to our table. 
 

The rest of the night passed in a blur. I saw Zander, but he was always mingling with other people. He had no shortage of female admirers. Women of all shapes, sizes, and hair color flocked to his table. I knew I told him I wasn’t ready for dating or anything like that. So, he moved on to his ardent female admirers. It just sucked to see him laughing and flirting with all these women.

A baseball player won the Sportsman of the Year award. Nalee and I talked about how proud we were of Kieran as he drove us home. Kieran, in all his cockiness, said that the baseball player won because he was the Dean's grandchild. I had no inkling of that baseball player’s relationship with the Dean or if it had anything to do with his win. I just knew for sure that Kieran hated to lose, at anything.

It was almost 1 AM when we got home. I didn't receive any texts from Zander. The last time I saw him was 3 weeks ago and that was when I told him I wasn’t ready for anything.  However, every single night since then, he had texted me.  Just a simple, ‘Nite’ or ‘Sleep tight’. His texts made me think that he was waiting for me, until I was ready.

Seeing him tonight made me think of him again. It awakened my thoughts and desires to maybe pursue this attraction between us.

The way he left after Kieran showed up bothered me so, I texted him;
             Congrats on your nomination 2nite! It was nice seeing you again.
 

I fell asleep waiting for his response.

*****

Two days after the awards ceremony, Kieran and I were eating a very late lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant. He was busy scrolling through his phone when Mrs. Wei, the owner, came up to greet us.
            "It’s nice to see you here, pretty eyes.” She had called me ‘pretty eyes’ from the very first time Kieran and I discovered this place. I thought it was so cute the way she said it so the name stuck.

I smiled at her and she said, “Mr. Kieran is too busy, huh?” Noticing that Kieran was on his phone and not conversing with me.
 

“Yes, I think he has a couple of e-mails to answer,” I answered for him. Kieran glanced up an
d smiled at the both of us.
 

Mrs. Wei was a charming
Asian lady who owned the place with her husband. She was also a hands-on owner and was very friendly to the staff and customers. She always took the time to chat with everybody.

Kieran was still busy responding to e-mails when our orders arrived. When our server placed our orders of Cashew Chicken and Kung Pao on the table, he set his phone aside. He started removing the hot chili peppers from the Kung Pao chicken. I hated the hot chili peppers, especially when I unexpectedly bit into them, so Kieran always took them out.
 

The orange chicken and sweet and sour shrimp plates were also brought to our table. Kieran moved the shrimp dish to his side. I was allergic to shrimp so he was t
he only one who ate the dish.

We were in the middle of talking about our upcoming schedules, when my phone pinged from my purse. I normally let it go, especially when I was eating. Kieran signaled me to check it.
 

Nalee: Check ChattyPepper.com no
w!
 

Kieran saw the change in my expression, he aske
d, “What’s wrong?”
 

“I don’t know. Nalee wants me to check that
Chatty Pepper gossip website now.” I put my phone back in my purse. It pinged again.
 

Tanya: You gotta check ChattyPe
pper.com
 

“Now what?” Ki
eran asked again.
 

“It’s Tanya, she said to check that Chatty Pepper site. What is it with that site?” I resumed eating the cashew chicken on my plate. Kieran pi
cked up his phone.
 

“Oh,” he said as his gaze
landed on mine.
 

“Now what?” It was my turn to ask. So much for eating. Too many interrupti
ons were going on.
 

He handed me his phone. My heart dropped when I saw the screen. There were two images juxtaposed against each other. The first picture was of me in my light yellow bikini and Kieran in his trunks. We were at the beach; we both had sunglasses on, his left arm wrapped around my shoulder. This must have been taken a few weeks back during semester break. The second image showed Kieran in his dark, green suit smiling at me. This was obviously taken at
the awards gala.
 

Under the picture, the words “Mighty Z’s girl seen with our swim SEX-sation, Kieran” were displayed. A short paragraph described Kieran as ‘hot and hunky’ and a love triangle between Zander, Kieran, and I was insinua
ted by the writer.
 

I felt suffocated, violated. I was in my bikini, spending time with my best friend, and someone took a picture of us to put it up in a sleazy gossip website, without my permission! I lost my appetite. Kieran saw my
face getting paler.
 

“Ace, it’s no big deal. These people have nothing else to do,” His voice calm but his eyes were anything but. He was tamping down his rising anger.
            I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream at the writer. I wanted to tear down this website.
            “I don’t know what to do.” I was livid with anger and mortification. Who were these people? What right did they have to take pictures of us? Or, better yet, why did people even care what I was doing?
            “You can have this ruin your day or ignore it. Listen, I’ll talk to my dad to see what we can do against the site,” Kieran’s dad was a lawyer. He would know if we could file any legal action against the website or maybe just have our pictures taken down.
 

As upset as I was, for some strange, unknown reason, my thoughts drifted off to Zander. Was that why Zander acted weird that awards night? Did he think Kieran and I were together? Why didn’t he ask me? As silly as it sounded, I wanted to go to Zander and explain. But then again, what would I explain to him? I was probably the furthest thing on his mind. He had dozens of women waiting by the sidelines. 

I decided to do nothing. Nothing was probably for the best. Nothing left a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Zander

She told me she was not ready for anything.

Not ready, my ass.

John sent me a pic from that Chatty
Pepper website. Who the fuck were these people anyways?

I was sitting on a metal bench in the locker room, stretching and warming up for football practice.

John had just entered the doorway. He mentioned that he sent me a text.

I hadn’t checked my phone. I didn’t even hear it beep.

As soon as I saw the pictures, I had the strongest urge to slam my phone against the wall.

There she was. Her glorious body on display in a tiny, yellow bikini. She was crazy hot! An arm was snaked around her shoulder. I wanted to break my phone in half. She brought out my caveman-like tendencies. She was with that Swimming Guy, Kieran. I recognized him from the College Sports Awards Night. He was one of the nominees. I guessed that was her type. Football players were definitely not her cup of tea.

She looked happy. The Swimming Dude was all smiles in the picture. I bet he was. I had to rein in my emotions. Practice was in 15 minutes.

What was wrong with me? I didn’t get bent over a girl. Ever. I was crazy. She was making me crazy. I texted her every day. I was biding my time. Waiting for her until she was ready. This picture showed that she was ready to get into something. I wasn’t even talking about a relationship. I just wanted to see her, hang out with her.
Let it go, Zander, she just wasn’t into you.

Football practice sucked. My head just wasn’t in it. Coach Tanner called a couple of plays and it was my fault that the plays weren’t executed. In one particular play, I was supposed to throw the ball to my tight end, Aaron Dominguez, but I screwed up and threw it to Jason Schwan, my wide receiver. My offensive line was shocked. We had run that play a hundred times in practice. I made more mistakes after that. Coach had to pull me aside and ask what the hell was going on. I just replied, “Sorry.”

The field was supposed to be home for me. Today, I felt like a fucking stranger on it. My drive was not there. My focus was somewhere else. I couldn’t wait for football practice to be over.

After practice, the football team hung out at Hudson’s. I needed a couple of drinks in my system. I also needed to release the tension built inside of me. I was tired of Sedona’s antics. One minute, she was hot for me. The next minute, she was cold and not ready to be involved. I received a text from her after the College Sports Awards Night, which was two days ago. She congratulated me on my nomination. I wanted to respond back, “WTF? You have a boyfriend? You told me you weren’t ready for anything?”

Maybe, she was a liar. Maybe, she was one of those women who tagged men along for the ride. Maybe, I should just forget about her. It has been a while for me. Tonight, I was going to find my way towards blondes, brunettes, whoever they may be, as long as they didn’t remind me of piercing violet eyes.

“Life is ironic. The
sunglasses you’ve been looking for, has been sitting on your head all this time.”