Together.
It started out as just annoying. It seems Lauren doesn’t know how to skate, and Aidan sucks as a teacher because for the past half hour or so she’s had to cling to him all the way around the rink. They’re talking and laughing so much that Lisa ditched her solo performance to join in on the fun. It’s good that they’re having fun. It’s just irritating to watch them together but I can’t seem to stop watching either.
“Whoa!” Lisa says as I almost slam into her. Luckily we’re both pretty good and manage to not face plant.
“Chris! What the hell,” she asks angrily once we she’s stable on her skates again.
“Sorry, Lisa. I didn’t see you,” I apologize. I really wasn’t paying attention.
“I’m sure you didn’t, seeing how hard you’ve been staring at Aidan and Lauren since you’ve been on the rink,” she says knowingly. “Come on. Let’s have a little chat, buddy.” She links arms with me and we skate off to the table. Jenna’s still in the arcade room, where she stormed off to, after she finished blowing up at me.
“I haven’t been staring.” It’s not that much of a lie. “But they’ve been skating almost an hour and he hasn’t even gotten her to where she can skate without holding on to him,” I say defensively, and Lisa shakes her head.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were jealous.” She chuckles.
“Jealous? Why would I be jealous?”
“Of course, it would be completely ridiculous if you were jealous. It’s not like you have feelings for this woman deep down inside,” she says sarcastically, and I stop. She does the same. I frown at her. She leans forward and sighs.
“Chris, it’s okay to have feelings for her. I think it’d be strange if you didn’t. Yes ‘Cal’ is the one who met her fell in love with and married her, but at the end of the day, Cal is a part of you,” she says, looking me directly in the eye.
“You need to be honest with yourself. His feelings are your feelings,” she says sincerely.
“It’s not exactly like that,” I say confidently, but these days it’s starting to feel like she could be right.
“Oh please, Chris. She hasn’t even been here two weeks and the way you look at her, it’s not like you just met. It’s something deeper than that,” she says adamantly.
“I love Jenna,” I state plainly.
“And Lauren?” she asks bluntly.
“I’m not going to lie and say I don’t feel anything,” I say honestly. I look over at her with Aidan, how she laughs, the dimple in her cheek when she smiles, the way my heart speeds up when she’s near me, but it’s confusing. I don’t really know her, but…
“I can’t believe no one has suggested this. That you haven’t even considered it, but maybe you should put things on hold with Jenna until you figure all this out.”
“I—I can’t do that. Jenna, she saw me through the thing with my mom. She knows me. She loves me,” I say to both her and myself.
“I know Cal loves Lauren. It wasn’t just a physical thing like I thought, but Cal loves her. Those are his feelings,” I say, avoiding Lisa’s knowing gaze.
“Well, Cal hasn’t been the one staring at Lauren all night.” she says sarcastically.
“I know you want to be fair to Jenna, but this, how you’re feeling now isn’t fair to you, to her, or Lauren for the matter.”
I drop my head.
“Trust me, it’s no fun being in love with a man who's in love with someone else,” she says solemnly. I’m about to ask her what she means when I see Jenna walking towards the table. She’s long abandoned her skates. She sits down not glancing at either of us or saying anything. After a moment of awkward silence, she huffs.
“How much longer are we going to be here? It’s almost 10:30. I have class tomorrow.”
I sigh.
“I’ll go and see if Lauren and Aidan are ready to go,” Lisa says. “Well, actually, they look like they’re having fun,” she continues lightly. Lisa glances over at me as I turn around and watch them. They are having fun…too much fun.
Lisa sighs and stands up.
“Well, Chris and I drove together. There’s really no reason for them to leave just because of me,” Jenna says feigning innocence. “Come on, Chris, let’s leave them to it,” she says, standing and taking my hand. Lisa looks at us awkwardly.
“I’m not really ready to go.” The words leave my mouth before I can stop them.
“You’re not ready to go?” she asks sharply. “Right. Because you’re having so much fun,” she says sarcastically.
“I think they’re ready too,” Lisa interrupts. “I’m going to go get them,” she says, and quickly skates away.
Jenna lets out a deep breath and puts her head in her hands. “Do you think I’m stupid, Chris?” she says quietly.
“No, I don’t think you’re stupid.”
“You are really, really pushing it…why did you bring me here if you were just going to stare at Lauren all night,” she says angrily.
“I wanted to come here to have a good time with you, and ever since we got here you’ve acted like you don’t want to be here,” I protest.
“I didn’t want to be here with them! I thought this was going give us a chance to spend time together. You didn’t tell me this was going to be a big field trip with your wife in tow,” she spits at me.
“They’re heading over. Can you please be nice?”
When they make it to the table, Lisa’s wearing a nervous frown. Lauren and Aidan are all smiles, laughing as they plop into their seats.
“You guys ready to go already?” Aidan asks, catching his breath.
“They’re going to close in a little while anyway,” I reply shortly. I’m not sure why I’m irritated with Aidan. Actually, I know why, but I don’t mean to sound like it.
“I told Chris that if you guys weren’t ready to go, you didn’t have to. For some reason Chris has Caylen confused with Lauren and thinks she needs a babysitter,” Jenna says, adding a laugh. The awkwardness sets in as soon as she says it. I see Lauren’s eyes narrow in on Jenna.
“Well, I think I’m a great babysitter,” Aidan jokes, throwing his arm around Lauren’s shoulder. She smiles at him.
She smiles at him!
She doesn’t inch away uncomfortably or shoot me a glance for help. She just smiles. I can feel my face heating up.
“I’m starving. You guys want to get something to eat?” Lisa interrupts.
“Is the food that bad here?” Lauren giggles.
“Terrible,” Aidan says, turning his body towards her.
“I didn’t know you couldn’t skate, Lauren,” I say and she shrugs.
He gets a wide smile but I get an indifferent shrug?
“Yeah, I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s night by saying anything.” She laughs. I can feel Jenna shift in her seat.
“Chris, are we leaving or do I need to need to call a cab?” she asks me sharply. I see Lauren let out a deep breath. I’m trying to hold in my own.