Page 39 of A Matter of Time
“I asked if you want a drink.” Her smile had turned slightly wary as she glanced over in the direction I’d just been looking. “Is everything okay?”
Everything wasnotokay, to my great frustration. I shouldn’t care that Tonia had brought someone else with her. He must have come with her, because he definitely wasn’t from the office, and they certainly seemed to know each other. I had just told Marley the night before that I was over Tonia, and for that reason, I had brought my own guest tonight. Kyra was one of the women who worked out in the gym in my building, one who often flirted with me but I’d never encouraged before, and when I saw her in the gym that morning, I asked her if she wanted to join me for drinks tonight. I made it clear it would only be as friends, but she had been happy to come along anyway.
Making Tonia jealous wasn’t my aim, since she hadn’t given me any indication that she would care. After all, she had seen me with another woman the night she showed up at my apartment building, and it didn’t seem to bother her, or to stop her from inviting herself up to my apartment. Rather than being provocative, I simply wanted to show her I wasn’t fixating on her or what happened between us earlier that week.
But if Iwasover her, as I said I was, then why did the sight of her with another man make me want to scratch my skin off?
“I’m fine,” I lied to Kyra, trying to smile even though it felt wrong. “I’ll get the drinks though, you stay put. What would you like?”
She gave me her order, some fruity cocktail I’d never heard of before, and I headed up to the bar, passing along the info to the bartender and doing my best not to turn around and check on Tonia and her companion while I waited.
I managed to pull it off too, at least until the guy in question sidled up to the bar next to me. “Two Lone Stars,” he told the bartender before glancing over at me. “Hey, you’re with this Barnly group, right? I’m Tyler, I’m a friend of Tonia Callahan.”
He offered his hand and I had no choice but to shake it. “Cam.”
“Nice to meet you. What do you do at the company, Cam?”
We made small talk about my job while his beers and mine were brought over. I still had to wait on Kyra’s drink, and Tyler didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get back, so I asked the burning question in my mind, as casually as possible while taking a swig of my drink. “So, you’re here with Tonia? How do you guys know each other?”
“We dated for a while at the end of college,” he told me, and it took all my self-control not to spit out the mouthful of beer I’d just taken. “Didn’t work out then, but we just got back in touch, and I’m feeling pretty good about it. I always kind of felt she was the one that got away, you know?”
I certainly did know. There was very little that I knew about better than that.
“Better to regret the things you did than the ones you didn’t, isn’t that what people say?” Tyler continued, raising his beer in a toast. “Here’s to taking a shot.”
With that, he headed back to the table, handing the other beer to Tonia and leaning over to whisper in her ear again, his hand resting on her arm.
“Sir? Your drink?”
Once again, I hadn’t realized I was staring until the bartender tried to get my attention.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I took it from him and headed back over to my own table.
Kyra gave me a smile as she took her drink from me. She clicked it against my beer bottle, and we both took a drink as Bradyn nodded his head at me. “We were just talking about first kisses, Cam. Time for your story.”
For the second time in a matter of minutes, I nearly spit out my beer. “How the hell did that come up?”
“My nephew asked me for advice,” Jason explained. “So, we were just seeing who had the worst experience and so far, Bradyn’s winning for kissing what he thought was his sister’s friend, but was actually her friend’s brother.”
Everyone laughed, clearly having enjoyed the story the first time around.
“Can you beat that?” Jason asked, leaning forward in anticipation.
In an attempt to keep my eyes from wandering over to Tonia, I looked at Kyra instead, who smiled at me, waiting eagerly for my story as well.
“I hate to disappoint y’all, but my first kiss was pretty dang wonderful.”
They all groaned in disappointment, except for Kyra, who looked intrigued. “What made it good? Did you have it all planned in advance?”
The memories came back to me whether I wanted them to or not, of Tonia and I out on a dirt road outside Sandy Creek. We’d biked out to the fishing pond just out of town, and on the way back, I skidded on some loose gravel and wiped out. I was 14 years old and desperate not to cry in front of the girl I’d had a crush on for years. She pulled some pink Band-Aids out of her bag, and though she tried to be gentle, it still stung. A tear slipped down my cheek before I could hide it, but Tonia didn’t care. She reached over and wiped it away, and as soon as her hand touched my face, I couldn’t help myself. My hands went to her face too, and I kissed her, down on the ground on that dirt road, blood on my fingertips and hers, the sun setting behind us and flies buzzing around us, and neither of us having the first idea what we were supposed to do.
It was absolutely perfect.
“I didn’t plan it at all,” I told Kyra. “The girl involved made it special.”
Several of the guys made gagging sounds as Bradyn coughed “bullshit” into his hand. They moved on to the next guy, but Kyra seemed to appreciate my answer, giving me a warm smile.
“That’s sweet.” Her hand went to my thigh as she leaned closer to me. “And I’m sure you’ve improved since then.”
