For my cute boys...Meph, Adam, Dith, Stuff, KDMA and of course Brooks. You are all so cute and so funny and so smart.....the next one will definitely be written with one of you in mind! Kisses boys.
*
Brian coughed uncomfortably, making everyone else turn to look at him; then shrugged and smiled at Carl. Carl looked like he was holding back a serious bout of laughter and Marci couldn't blame him. The ridiculousness of the group before her was hilarious on some level. Keri sat next to Drew, opposite Marci and Carl. Brian was at the head of the table, seated in Marci's rocking chair.
"Sooo...we're talking about what, exactly?" Keri asked; earning her a glaring frown from Drew. She smiled thinly at him and turned her gaze to Marci.
"I think we should just get all of this drama in the open and sorted out." Marci suggested, earning a gleeful smile from Brian. This time it was Marci who threw a narrow eyed gaze.
"We can start by Keri telling us why she's sexually assaulting Marci." Drew added dryly, pushing Carl over the edge. He burst out laughing, taking Brian with him. Marci wanted to join in the laughter, but she left it at a chuckle. Drew could be so melodramatic at times.
"I did not assault her! I kissed her. I can understand why you wouldn't know the difference." Keri retorted, turning to face Drew full on. Marci could see the muscles in his jaw spastically clench. Never a good sign for anyone.
"Ok, the point of this was for my personal clarification. Not for you two to deal with whatever is bothering you both. Though, I am curious as to the amount of animosity between you. My parents are coming by later this evening," Marci said while giving Drew a pointed glare, "I'd really like a solid story to tell them."
Brian and Carl stood up to excuse themselves and Marci started panicking slightly. She liked having them around. There was no doubt they were on her side, and she needed the emotional props to keep her up. She'd been having the most disturbing premonition that she was about to crumble.
"I want you here Bri, Please?" Marci asked softly, and both men promptly sat back down. She threw them an appreciative smile and turned back to Keri and Drew. Drew was eyeing her strangely; he seemed almost anxious. Keri, on the other hand, had never looked calmer. She even accorded Marci a small smile. It seemed genuine enough.
"I like Marci. There, I said it." Keri said into what was becoming a prolonged stretch of silence.
"Are you sure? You don't even know me, Keri. Also, I'm very straight." Marci answered.
"Yeah, I know; I also know I haven't done a good job of showing it. But you know what? The entire time I was married to Drew he talked about you. Brian and Nathan are even worse. Goodness! I feel like I've lived with you! That aside, I'm attracted to you; I don't have to know your dreams and aspirations for that to happen."
"True, and yet somehow I still feel a little creeped out." Marci admitted, squirming uncomfortably.
"I cannot believe you'd make a play for her. You know exactly what's going on with her and I, and yet you think it's ok to drop this on all of us; her especially." Drew said in a deadly cold manner. Marci had seen him in various moods over the last couple months. This was the second time she'd seen him be so stoic. The first time was the evening before she'd left Malindi.
"She's a grown up Drew, surely she can handle being attractive to other people?" Keri asked, making Marci want to laugh. Oops, not an appropriate time for laughter.
"What's really going on with the two of you, anyway?" Brian asked. It was a valid question. Keri and Drew looked at each other for a few moments.
"Divorce is never fun." Keri answered quietly.
"Why are you getting divorced? The truth." Marci asked the uneasy couple seated opposite her.
"We're divorced. It's done, not ongoing." Drew corrected her quickly with a smile. His first since he'd found her in Keri's arms.
*** She'd been stunned into inaction when Keri had stepped up to her in the bathroom for the kiss. She'd curiously allowed the beautiful woman to go on without responding in part when Drew had found them. He'd cleared his throat awkwardly, and to both the women's credit, they didn't jump back guiltily as others may have when put in the same situation. Drew seemed particularly angry at Marci, though he was hiding it well.
"Keri, back off." He advised before escorting Marci right into the ladies room, to the chagrin of the other girls in there. He'd pointedly ignored the hostile stares from the women in the bathroom while she was in the cubicle, and then followed her back to the table in the food court.
"Did it rain in the bathroom? It smells like storm clouds." Brian said with a quick grin, and then asked Carl to take him for a walkabout.
"What the hell?" Drew asked the moment the two men had gone out of hearing distance. Marci shrugged nonchalantly, there was nothing to tell. She'd been accosted and kissed; she wasn't the one who should be giving explanations.
"What does that...mean?" he asked, incredulously doing a very bad imitation of her shrug. She smiled at him.
"It means that you are asking the wrong person. I suggest you call your wife and ask her." Marci replied smoothly. The moment she said "wife" she knew she'd walked into a bad zone. Drew didn't like being reminded he was married to Keri. Especially since they were now divorced.
"Keri's not my wife. Why were you kissing her?" Drew asked, holding her hands in his and fixing her with an inscrutable look.
"She kissed me; I just got sort of frozen and couldn't think of the most appropriate response at the time. I don't know, but I certainly didn't start anything. Nor did I participate." Marci told him when he showed no signs of ending the huge frown on his handsome face.
"I don't like it. I do not like it at all, Marci." Drew stated flatly, giving her another one of those penetrating gazes of his.
"Come here Drew." She told him with a sly smile. He didn't look like he was about to move so she quirked an eyebrow and pursed her lips. That got him up quickly.
"Kiss me." She whispered when he was close enough to. He kissed her slowly, possessively, hungrily. Marci could see a few people staring at them out of the corner of her eye. She was slightly mortified; PDA's weren't really her thing. When she had been seeing Nathan, he hated the fact that even holding hands was slightly uncomfortable for her. She returned the kiss with the same passion he was putting into it, and then pulled back slightly before whispering in his ear, "Who are you really jealous of? Me or Keri?"
Drew pulled back with a shuddering sigh and gave her a killer look before stalking of. She had no idea where he was going so she went back to her drink and waited for her little group to return to table. It didn't take long before Brian and Carl arrived, bearing gifts. She made the necessary cooing noises and nervously kept looking around for Drew. She was no longer in the mood for the mall, and she was hungry.
Carl's food must have some magical power because it was all she wanted to eat at the moment. She'd just had breakfast, but the mind is a fascinating thing. The moment Brian and Carl had informed her that she was pregnant her appetite had increased exponentially. She had been eating non stop, it seemed, and Carl loved to cook; it was working for her.
"He's coming." Brian told her when she cast the hundredth furtive glance around the food court. Sure enough she felt hands on her shoulder and turned around, slightly startled. It was Drew. He still wasn't smiling.
"Ready to go?" he asked in a dangerously low tone, telling Marci would be an exercise in futility to delay the departure that a few moments ago she had been yearning for. Her apprehensiveness grew when she spotted a smug looking Keri behind Drew.
"She's coming with us. We need to talk." Drew said tightly and held his hand out for Marci's car keys.
"Umm... No. My car, I drive." She told him and side stepped him to lead the way to the parking lot. The drive was longer than it had seemed first time around. No one said anything, and Marci was grateful for the drone of the FM station that was playing pop-rock. It kept everyone thankfully quiet.
*** And that was how this uncomfortable ménage of people had come to be gathered in Marci's sitting room.
"Keri, you want to take that one?" Drew asked his ex-wife. Keri looked none too enthusiastic to answer him.
"Let's just say couples drift, things change, and bitterness is a bitch on crack." Keri summarised. Again making Marci want to laugh. On a random note, it would probably have been easier to be friends with Keri were it not for the Drew factor. She reminded Marci of her friend Natalie.
"What she means is that she cheated on me several times, then decided to become bi; and now it turns out she is headed the lesbo way." Drew said cuttingly from his seat.
"Stop being a he-bitch." Carl told Drew calmly.
"Thanks Carl." Keri said with a small smile at Brian's boyfriend.
"Okay, that may have been WAY more information than we really needed for this particular conversation." Marci chuckled uneasily and excused herself to go to the bathroom. Ignoring the guest bathroom, she went to the one in her room. She really didn't actually need the bathroom; she just wanted fresh air and a plan to get everyone into the kitchen to eat. She was starving. Again.
"You ok, baby?" Drew asked from behind her; startling her again. Why, she didn't know, but he seemed to follow her everywhere.
"Just so I know, Drew, if I end up with you will I ever get to go to the bathroom unaccompanied?" she asked with a small smile. Whatever was going on, she really loved Drew. Her eyes popped wide at the thought in her head. She made up for it by smiling widely at him.
"I don't think so. I'm intrigued by the expression that just crossed your face. Do you want to have sex? I'm horny. When I'm angry, I get horny." He said, hopefully pulling her into his arms.
She couldn't resist that smile and put her arms around his neck to bring him down for a kiss. He was surprised and kissed her back hungrily.
