Uninvolved (26 page)

They talked and texted like normal in the mean time
,
and Becka started getting cold
feet about breaking up with Kyle
.
She wondered if it had to be so final
.
Maybe
she could talk him into a friends with benefits
type
relationship
.
While she
herself would be all for it
,
she was pretty sure Kyle would still want more.

She
ended up going over to Kyle's apartment
.
The moment he opened the door
,
she chickened out
.
Kyle was just so easy to be around
.
He had this constant contentment that was contagious
.
Even when Becka was moody, he always knew what to do to cheer he
r up
.
On top of that
,
they had become
so compatible sexually, which was important to her.

Instead of breaking up with him
,
Becka ended up snuggling on the couch and watching a movie with him
.
Becka didn’t feel like a coward for not going through with it
.
She
felt like maybe she was being rash and foolish to consider it in the first place
.
Maybe she could slowly wean herself off of
Nate
,
and no one would be the wiser. Yeah, Dave had s
aid he would tell Kyle
,
but she
was sure that was just to scare her.
After their movie
,
Becka and Kyle went
to the
m
all to grab dinner and shop.

Even though it was only April,
in
Phoenix
it was
already absurdly hot
,
which meant Becka would be either in her air conditioned car, house,
or
office
,
or at the
pool
.
Since she had not broken up with Kyle
,
she now had a boyfriend with an apartment in a complex that had a pool
.
It would be stupid to break up with him before she had the chance to use his pool.
After they ate
,
she dragged him to help her pick out a couple of new bikinis.

Kyle was so cute in t
he store, picking out
the most modest suits he could find for her to try on
.
She arched a brow at him letting him know she was hip to h
is game
.
It was
his subtle way of not wanting guys to check her out
.
Kyle was the type of guy to
not
get o
utwardly jealous.

Becka ended up meeting him halfway
.
She
bought
one black
,
high
-
waisted
,
one
-
piece
suit and
two
only semi
-
scandalous bikinis
, one yellow and the other white
.

"Are you sure you don’t want this one?" Kyle asked
,
holding up a full piece swimsuit with an almost knee length skirt attached as Becka waited in line.

"Why don’t you
buy
that one for your mom
,
sweetie."

"It was worth a shot
.
" Kyle came to stand behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Becka smiled and looked back at him when something caught her eye. She stiffened in his arms as she watched someone who looked exactly like
Nate
walk into a store opposite of the one they were in. A series of questions raced through her mind
.
Did
he see me? What is he doing here? How do I get out of here without him seeing us? Kyle gently motioned her forward when a cash register opened up.

"Will this be all?"

Why do they always ask that?

"Um
,
yeah, thanks."

"Did you want to sign up for our mailing list? You get amazing coupons and notifications of our sales."

Yuck
.
Junk
email
.
"I'm good
.
Thanks
."

Once Becka paid and had her bag
,
she lied to Kyle and said her stomach hurt
,
and she'd like to go back to his place. Kyle was so sweet
.
He
carried her bag and walked
her
to his car. On the way back to his house
,
he offered to stop and
buy
her Tums, but Becka's stomach was
miraculously healed. They still stopped but to pick out a DVD from a mobile vending machine.
Since
Kyle was not working that evening
,
she would spend the night at his place and lounge around his pool on Sunday.

Chapter
10

It was easy to
fa
ll into a comfortable rhythm with Kyle
.
On nights that he was not working
,
it was a given that she was spending the night
at his place
where
in the past it would be a toss
up between their places
.
Becka no longer needed to pack a bag when she was coming over since she had spares of most things there, including a key
.
On weekends, whether he was working or not
,
she usually still came by to use the pool.

Becka
,
during one of her calls with Lilly
,
conf
essed that maybe she was more into
with Kyle
than she thought
after all
.

"Still emailing that
Nate
guy?"

Becka cringed.

"Still there?"

"Mm hmm."

"Did you hear my question?"

"Mm hmm."

"Well
,
just so you know
,
I think that answers it."

"But Kyle is a really nice guy."

"I'm sure he is
,
Becka, but come on
.
Be
a little realistic here."

"I want to like him."

"I don’t believe that."

"Why not?"

"Alright
.
You
aren’t going to like this
,
but in my personal opinion
,
you are insulating yourself from
Nate
,
not reciprocating your feelings."

"Ouch."

"Am I wrong?"

"I don’t' know."

"You always sucked at admitting when I'm right."

"When
—
whatever
.
You’re
right. Feel better?"

"God
,
Becka, I didn’t mean to piss you off."

"No, I'm sorry. It's me. I am a sucky, rotten person."

"Becka."

"I am."

"You are not. Yes, you are doing a sucky thing right now. That does not make you a sucky person."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Thanks
,
Lil."

"Anytime, but I gotta go. Love you."

"Love you more."

"I really hate when you do that."

"I know."

Becka ended the call and checked the time on her phone.
Becka had spent the night at Kyle's and was waiting for him to get off of work
.
Once a month
,
they would go over to his parent
s’
house for dinner
,
and
it
was easier to get there from his place
.
Becka really liked Kyle's mom
. I
t wasn’t unheard of for Kyle's mom to call Becka directly if she needed something
.
Becka was
even
planning on meeting up with his mom later that day to go shopping together for a birthday present for Kyle
.
He was turning twenty-five
and his parent's wanted to plan a party for him and were including Bec
ka in the planning.

When he got home from work
,
he showered then pulled her to bed
.
Becka loved how
,
even though they had been seeing each other for months
,
Kyle still couldn’t keep his hands off of her
.
Becka
napped with him but
woke up hours before Kyle since she had gotten enough rest the night before. She went into the living room to read
.

Becka had moved past the cold feet she had experienced in her relationship with Kyle
.
She was content with how everything was going and had not seen
Nate
since she spent the night at his house
.
They still talked over email
,
but she had been doing a pretty good job at keeping their conversations tame
.
Becka felt some guilt towards
Nate
in the fact that she had omitted telling him the she was still seeing Kyle
.
She used the excuse that the topic had not come up.

#

The doorbell pulled Becka from her thoughts
.
Since
she lived closer to the mall
,
Kyle's mom was picking her up for their shopping trip
.
Becka gave his mom advice on what shirts or pants she thought he would like and a couple
DVD
s
.
They stopped in the food court for salads.

As they ate
,
Mrs. Wyrick jokingly asked Becka to convince Kyle to lose the lip ring.

"No way
.
That’s
your battl
e
,
" Becka
laughe
d in response
.
"
B
esides
,
I think it is cute
."

Hi mother gave her a look like
“
oh no, not you too
”
and
,
smiling
,
shook her head saying
,
"I'll never understand it."

"I'll bet there was something you did that your parent's didn’t understand about you."

"You make a good point
.
What
about you Becka
?
What
is the thing that your parents don’t understand about you?"

"Where to start?" Becka laughed
.
"For my mom
,
it's probably that I'm not married yet. My older sister was already married at my age."

"Do you ever want
—
"

Becka waved her off
.
"I have no idea
,
but I know for sure I'm not ready right now."

By the end of their shopping trip
,
Kyle's mom
had bought him three shirts, two pairs of jeans, and two
DVD
s
.
Becka bought him some cologne and
a baseball hat
.
She would have to come back to the mall another day to pick up the other half of his gift
.
She h
ad wanted to buy some really hot
lingerie to wear for him
,
but there was no way she was going to be doing that around his mother.

Kyle's
birthday was on a Friday
,
and he had managed to get the night off
.
The plan was to go have dinner at his parent
s’
house
,
but what he did not know was his parent
s
and Becka were inviting a bunch of his friends over as well
.
His mother handled inviting all of his high school friends while Becka invited some of his coworkers, including Dave and some of their other friends.