So Different (22 page)

“I completely understand,” he said.

“I think you’re okay, if that’s any consolation. And don’t let Sally bother you. She’s tough on everyone. She’s had her share of deadbeats. Your gender can be really bad sometimes.”

“Yeah, well, your gender’s not all that great either sometimes,” he said.

“True,” she said, watching him closely. “Too bad about your engagement. People forget that breaking up is painful, regardless of whether you do the breaking up or not.”

He nodded and gave her a small smile. She squeezed his hand. “You’re doing great,” she said, offering reassurance.

He smiled at the humor of this night.

“We’re here,” Ms. Nomer said, five minutes later.

He looked around and, yes, they were at Pinky’s Place. They parked in the back, near the spot where he’d parked and made out with Mariah. Seemed like ages ago.

* * *

Jesus, his feet hurt. He was finally sitting down. After dance number seven he’d quit counting. They’d been here for over two hours, and it was little after midnight now. He’d done enough dancing for ten men.

“Want to dance with me?” Good & Plenty asked, smiling the same secretive smile everyone else did when they asked him that question.

“You know…” he started to say, but was interrupted.

“Remember, we’re all Mariah tonight. You wouldn’t turn her down, would you?” she asked.

Yes
, he said to himself, but instead he smiled and said, “I would love to dance with you.” He stood up and followed her to the floor. Good & Plenty wrapped him up nice and snug in a big old bear hug, which he worked to pull back from as the dancing got underway.

“You smell good,” she said, pulling him in closer. She was a very strong woman and he had yet to get used to the tenor of her voice.

“You do, too,” he said, backing away again. “So what’s your name? Not your derby name,” he asked, thinking that conversation would keep some space between them.

“Amy.”

“How long have you been skating, Amy?” he asked, as he worked to create space between their bodies. She winked at him like she knew what he was up to but let him anyway. He danced and listened as she talked their way through three dances.

* * *

He was now seated at the bar, needing a break from the ladies. He’d probably lose his male card if that admission got out.

Casper slid into the seat next to him.

“You okay?”

“Yep, just taking a break.”

“You’re doing fine,” she said, smiling at him.

“Hope so,” he said.

“Hey, Pinky, this man here needs something stronger than a beer, don’t you, Adam?” Sally said, looking over at him as she made her way to the bar.

“No, I’m good,” he said.

“Come on. Have you ever had a sake shot?” she asked.

“Can’t say that I have,” he replied.

“Let me have two, Pinky,” she said. Adam watched as Pinky filled two glasses midway with beer. Then he poured two small glasses of sake and set them next to the beer glasses.

“Come on, ready,” she said, picking up the smaller glass, filled with sake, her hand hovering just above the glass that held the beer, a challenge in her gaze. And although he knew he should pass, he wasn’t going to and didn’t. He picked up his sake-filled glass, his hand hovering above his beer glass, and caught her grin before she dropped the sake into the beer. She then picked up the whole thing and drank, her eyes focused on him as she drank hers; she was no match for him. He hit his glass on the table a second before her and laughed.

“Two more,” Sally said, motioning to Pinky, who repeated the earlier process. “Ready,” he said, getting into the spirit of it, in the spirit of besting someone who had been riding his ass all night, actually since he’d met Mariah.

They dropped their glasses into their beer and drank again. He finished first again, hit the bar with his glass, burped, laughed, and pumped his fist into the air.

“Best four out of seven,” Sally said, and before he could blink, there were four glasses of beer and four glasses of sake sitting before him. He looked to his side as all of his new women friends surrounded him now.
This was planned
flickered through his mind, but he lifted the first of his four, way more loose than when he started, and the race began.

* * *

“We better get him home,” Casper said, sitting in the booth at Pinky’s. Adam sat next to her, in whispered conversation with Lisa. Lisa was the only one talking. Adam’s head was laid back on the booth, eyes closed behind his glasses. He was easy on the eyes, and if she were into his type, she would have been all over that. He’d surprised her by dating Mariah, though they hadn’t been really dating.

She was just as surprised as Mariah had been by his stopping by the rink. She thought he would have moved on, found some other woman by now, but no, he’d shown up and asked for help with locating Mariah. And here he was now, out trying to be friends with her friends. It was a whole lot to do for friendship.

“Time to get him home,” she said, again, louder this time, interrupting Lisa’s lengthy explanation of marriage and commitment.

He had, nine drinks ago, filled everyone in on his fiancée from hell and how he’d come to be back home working for his daddy, how she had turned into a crazy stalker, and how she had problems with Mexicans. He was part Latino, and that bit of knowledge had stunned them all.

She had to hand it to him. He’d won the drinking contest; well, it wasn’t really a contest, since it had been rigged. Pinky had watered down Sally’s drinks so it hadn’t been fair, but so what. All is fair in love and war.

He won the date and had moved all of them over to his side, surprising them, turning out to be a good sport, funny, and a fine dancer. He did need to work on his liquor threshold, and he should not be allowed to don a pair of skates ever, but nobody was perfect.

Casper stood up and leaned over Adam. She shook his shoulder.

“Adam, time to go,” she said. He murmured something she couldn’t make out. His eyelids fluttered, but remained closed. Casper looked over at Lisa and they giggled. She hadn’t done that in a while, the old-fashioned girly giggle.

The women stood up and walked over to help. Casper and Good & Plenty were called upon to lift him. They each placed one of his arms around their shoulders, lifting him. They then half carried, half walked him to the car and placed in the front seat of Casper’s car.

His head slumped over. Casper walked around and got behind the wheel, leaned over to snap Adam’s seat belt into place, and started to laugh as he let out a snore. Lisa and Sally’s laughter joined hers.

Ten minutes later they were back at his apartment, dragging him and his heavy carcass up the steps. They all stood near the door. All twelve of them, and that was another surprise. Casper had assumed they’d lose some of the women before the night ended, but no, they all liked him, especially after his disclosure regarding his broken heart and his broken engagement.

Casper and Good & Plenty held him while Lisa unlocked the door, and then Casper and G&P carried Adam inside. They all entered and walked him to his bedroom. They laid him down on his bed.

“Maybe we should skip the last part,” Lisa said, looking around at the women, misgivings in her eyes.

“Nope, I’ve come this far, let’s finish it,” Sally said, reaching for his shoes. “Do I have to do this myself?” she asked, looking at the women standing around his bed.

“Nope. I’ll help,” Casper said, grabbing the end of his t-shirt and pulling it over his head.

“Nice chest. Good muscular definition,” Good & Plenty said, pointing to the top half of his body and tracing the curve of his abdominal muscles. “Shows that he works out.”

“What are you, our anatomy instructor?” Sally said.

“You can be so harsh sometimes, Sally,” Reagan said.

“You’re one to talk,” Sally replied.

“You think he has underwear on under those jeans?” Lisa asked, bringing the attention back to Adam. Sally lifted the waistband of his jeans, taking a peak.

“Yep. Boxers. So let’s go,” she said, unzipping his pants without batting an eyelash. She glanced around at the others, who seemed shy all of a sudden.

“When did you all become such women,” she said and laughed. Casper reached for his jeans at the ankles, helping to pull them downward. She looked up at Adam to see if were still sleeping. Yep, dead to the world. She and Sally removed his jeans. They stood there for a second, all twelve of them admiring his body.

“Wow. He’s really got a nice physique. I can see why Mariah was here all the time. Why she was always leaving with him,” Lisa said.

“Me, too. I’m impressed,” Sally added.

“Wonder what
that
part of him looks like?” Ms. Nomer said, turning her head, taking in the looks of speculation in a few of their eyes.

“Mariah didn’t ask us to find that out. She knows already, anyway. Let’s just put the cap on him, take his picture, and go,” Lisa said.

They stood there debating the merits of leaving without getting a look. “It wouldn’t be ethical to look,” Lisa added, catholic schoolgirl to the end.

“We don’t have to remove his underwear to get a good look. We can get a look from the outside,” Ms. Nomer offered up, not ready to give up getting a look yet.

“What?” Dirty South asked.

“How?” Sally asked.

“Get out,” Dee said.

“Here, watch,” Ms. Nomer said. Their eyes followed her as she walked around his room looking for something, they weren’t sure what. She found a string bookmarker in one of the books that lay on the floor. She removed it from the book and dog-eared the page before walking back over to the bed.

“What are you going to do with that?” Sally asked.

She took the ribbon and ran it slowly over the part of him not visible, but underneath his boxers. You could make out the indention and she moved the string back and forth, up and down was more like it. “I wish I had a feather,” she said, as they watched him grow, eyes widening at what they saw developing.

“Girl,” Sally said.

“Dang,” Good & Plenty added.

“I can’t see this,” Lisa said and fled the room, but stood peeking back in from the doorway.

“Come on, let’s go,” Casper said, chuckling, getting her own eyeful. “Where’s the hat?” She accepted it from Dirty South’s hand and stuck it on his head.

“Take the picture,” Sally said, smiling at the picture of Adam, reclining on the bed with a clown hat perched on his head. They adjusted his body so it would look more like he was reclining and took two pictures, one for him and one for Mariah. Lisa had one of those old Instamatic cameras, way old-school and Barbie pink in color.

“We should cover him, don’t you think?” Lisa asked, after they’d readjusted him to a more comfortable sleeping position.

“You cover him. I’m out of here,” Casper said, the final task complete. They gave him one final look and left.

“Mariah owes me big-time,” Sally said.

“He’s a nice guy,” Lisa said, pulling part of his duvet over him.

Casper locked the door and they made their way to their cars.

* * *

Adam woke up with a groan and checked the clock. It was approaching 4 a.m. His head pounded and his stomach felt queasy. Overall he felt awful. He laid there as images from the night before flashed through his mind. Dinner, roller-skating, dancing, and the worst of it was the drinking. He couldn’t remember getting here, turned over and onto his stomach, had to lay there for a second, allowing the nauseous feelings to pass.

He opened one eye, looked over his bed and found a picture. He turned it over and laughed, then groaned. It was a picture of him dressed in a ridiculous clown hat. And what had happened to his shirt, his jeans? He grimaced at the peaceful expression on his face. He turned back over onto his stomach.

He knew better. He hadn’t done that kind of drinking in so long, since before dental school. Last night’s drinking had knocked him flat, which explained his current condition.

What day was it? Sunday and he had nowhere to be, which was great because he wouldn’t be able to get there this morning. He closed his eyes and pulled the cover over his head to block what little sunlight had filtered through the window. He let himself drift back to sleep.

* * *

“Girl, I wish you could have been there,” Casper said, sitting next to Mariah. Lisa and Sally were the first to put in an appearance at Joshua’s Sunday afternoon. Mariah had promised lunch for the teammates. It would be her treat for participating in their date with Adam.

Mariah took a sip of water as she looked over the picture of Adam stretched out in bed. He had such a nice chest. She remembered how it had felt next to hers, seemed like ages ago. His eyes were closed and he had on a silly little clown’s hat. She laughed. “How much did he drink?” she asked again.

“At least ten sake bombs.” They all broke out in laughter again.

“He paid for it all?” she asked.

“Yep, all but the drinks. I was starting to feel bad by then and put a halt to Sally’s drink-down,” Casper said.

“So how was he?”

“When?”

“All night,” Mariah said.

“He seems like a good guy, Mariah. He was surprised that all twelve of us showed up instead of you, but he went with it, answered our questions, except for our questions regarding his engagement. He didn’t talk about that one until he was drunk,” Lisa said.

“He called it off, and what a bitch she must have been. Crazy, too,” Sally said. They’d already recounted to Mariah Adam’s tale of his fiancée gone bad and her problems with his ethnicity.

“He’s better off if you ask me. And as much as it must have hurt, he’s lucky he found out before he married her. It’s women like her who make it hard for the rest of us,” Sally said.

Shock didn’t begin to describe Mariah as she took in this change of heart from Sally, hater of all men.

“I know what you’re thinking, but I can be nice when they’re nice. There’s just not a lot of nice ones in the world.”

“So he’s biracial, white and Latino, who knew?” Mariah said, feeling a little guilty for calling him a white guy. Seems she harbored her own brand of assumptions. He’d just let her talk without ever correcting her.