"So, he kissed you," Jade said again. And it bugged the hell out of Gale, again.
"Again," Gale sighed, pushing around her lettuce, "yes, he did."
"What did you do after that?" Katrina asked.
"I walked away and told him not to follow me." The two just looked on in shock. "Will you two stop looking like that? It's not that big of a deal."
"Not that big of a deal? You kissed Patrick."
"No, he kissed me. I was only trying to get some sort of explanation for the stuff that James had mentioned, and I still didn't get my answers."
"Yea, it's hard to talk with his tongue in your mouth," Jade replied, which made Katrina snicker.
Gale narrowed her eyes at the both of them and shook her head. "Look, I know that wasn't the best way to go about getting the explanation but it happened."
"Well, how do you feel?" Dominique asked.
"Forever the psychiatrist," Jade asserted, shaking her head, and Dominique just stuck out her tongue.
"I don't know. At first I was like: 'how dare he kiss me?' and then it started to feel good. I mean, really good. It shouldn't be this way, right? I mean, we broke up years ago and to have these feelings just resurface out of nowhere is ridiculous."
"Not so much. You both do have a lot of issues that need to be settled. Not just the break up, but the whole relationship in general. You said he claimed that it was only sex, but 'only sex relationships' don't last for a number of years where you meet the family and go through the process of finding a place for the two of you to live together. I think you need to talk to him, but in a neutral territory," Dominique finished.
"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Katrina nodded.
"That's what I was trying to do the other night."
"Not really. When I say neutral territory, I mean something where you both aren't letting the emotions take over and you both are in a calm place. Let it flow; because, if you force it, then you may not get the entire story."
"So, when does that whole therapy thing wear off?" Jade asked. "You know, since you're in the party planning business now."
"Fortunately, since all of my friends are a little loony, never," Dominique smiled, and Jade held up her shaking fist at her.
"Alright, I don't know how easy that will be though." Gale looked at her watch. "Speaking of which, I have to meet him in a couple of hours. So, how should I act?"
"Just be yourself. Let the guards down a little. One, it will relax him, and two, it will completely throw him off."
Gale nodded, taking a bite of her sandwich. Dominique had a point; she did need to let the guards down a little. She couldn't work with him and have a chip on her shoulder. It was a little draining, especially with all the hotel stuff they'd been doing. Just the other day, they'd finished looking at paint samples and made arrangements for the rooms to be painted by James and some others. Now they had a couple of places to visit to look at some furniture, and he'd already begun interviewing a couple of cooks for the restaurant in the hotel.
Everything was moving so fast, and she was happy with that because it kept her busy and her mind off of him. This was the first real moment she'd had to really spend time with her sister and friends since that night they'd kissed. Oh, the kiss! In the brief moment that their lips had connected, all of the buried emotions and everything that she'd truly denied had surfaced, rushing back into her heart. She realized now that that's what she'd been so afraid of. That everything that she'd held at bay for so long would come out with a simple touch, a kiss.
After that she'd spent most of her nights thinking about how his body had felt pressed against hers again. It'd been the most wonderful, and yet painful, feeling she'd had in a long time. Her heart still clenched, aching indecisively.
"So, what's going on with the place?" Katrina asked, breaking Gale's musings.
"Well, it's being painted now, so we're going to look at furniture to put in the rooms."
"Are you guys ahead of schedule?" Dominique asked.
"Yes and no. I mean, we lucked out in getting the rooms painted by having Ramon and some others paint."
"Oh yea, Nicole said that her and some people she knew from her college would help out," Jade shared.
"Really?"
"Yea, they said they were going to use it as a paid weekend getaway."
"Really, Nicole is out there? I wouldn't think of her as the painting type," Katrina said.
"She's trying to come out of her shy shell, even if it's a little," Jade smiled.
Gale was about to say something when her phone went off. She looked at it and groaned at seeing his name. "Yes, Mr. Adlam?"
"I'm done with my meeting, so I can meet you wherever you are and we can head down there together."
"I thought we were going to look at some furniture."
"We can do that tomorrow. I already have enough figures in my head, I wanted to take a look at the rooms together and go over what we want to look for. So, tell me where you are and I can bring a car to get you."
"No, thank you, I can meet you there." Gale sighed, getting up and laying down some cash.
"Gale—" She quickly cleared her throat. "Ms. Young, it makes no sense to take all these cars down there, especially with a bunch of college kids already here. I just pulled up so I can still send a car to come get you and you can ride back with me."
"I know whose there and I trust them, mostly, so I will see you there."
"I see, you trust them a little more than me."
"Don't make this bigger than it needs to be, I will be there in a little bit." Gale hung up and sighed, "I'll see you guys later."
"Have fun," Jade said. "And bring my little sister back."
"Whatever," Gale smiled, on her way out. She went to her car, got comfortable for the drive, and headed out.
Gale knew that Mara was there to watch over the kids while they finished the job. She, at first, had been a little skeptical about having a whole lot of college kids at the hotel. She'd been in that quandary herself and knew where it could possibly lead, if unsupervised. Luckily, there was no one out there that Nicole liked, not that Gale believed for a second that she would take advantage of the situation if she had.
She finally pulled into the lot a while later, noticing Patrick had beat her there. 'Good,' she sighed to herself, getting out of her car. She didn't want to ride with him and get stuck in an awkward position, having nothing to say to him and no means of escape if he did. She knew he would have tried to force a conversation and she didn't want that. There'd been a time where they could talk comfortably with each other, now it was just uncomfortable silence. Oh, well, there was no use in reminiscing about the past. She headed towards the front door and heard laughter around the back.
What was going on back there? She went around the corner and saw Nicole, Mara, Ramon, and the other kids running and playing around with water guns. What shocked the most was that Patrick actually had a gun in his hands, playing around with them too. Was he really doing this now? It looked like she had to be the voice of reason, again.
"Hey, what's going on? Are you guys done?" she asked loudly, and they all turned to her.
"Gale, we are just taking a break. Some of the guys brought water guns and balloons," Nicole smiled, her hair basically soaked.
"Break?" Gale sighed incredulously. "Come on guys, you have a limited time to finish this whole place. I'm pretty sure that James wouldn't appreciate you fooling around while he's paying you."
"Actually, I think James wouldn't mind much," Ramon interrupted.
"Really?" Gale said, crossing her arms.
"Yes, I mean, I do work with the man so I know how he rolls. I'm pretty sure."
"Gale, come on. These guys have been busting their asses all day. They're just having a little fun," Patrick added.
"Well, they can have all the fun they want after they are done. I'm sure they don't want to work all through the night."
"Actually, we were talking about camping out here tonight," Nicole said.
"Nicole, please. I know you are sticking up for your friends but this is ridiculous. Now I know you guys want to have fun but let's go inside and..." She was suddenly cut off when she felt a stream of cold water hit her.
Her mouth dropped as she stood there with part of her shirt soaked, the water rapidly seeping down. Gale could see Nicole trying to hide her amusement along with the rest of the crowd, and she clenched her teeth together. "Who did that?!" she demanded, and looked around the crowd. Everyone just kind of shrugged or looked the other way. It wasn't till she looked over at Patrick, who had his gun behind his back looking everywhere but at her, that she figured who had.
"Patrick," she clipped.
"What?" he crooned, giving her that innocent smile. "I just thought I would help. You seemed like you were overheating and I just wanted to cool you off a little."
"Look, I'm not trying to get into these stupid games, we need..."
He took the gun from behind his back and blasted her with another stream of cold water. "I thought it would be ridiculous for just the right side of your shirt to be wet."
"Very funny, now stop playing around and..." He blasted her again and she could feel her temperature climbing as some of the kids started laughing. Not only was she getting wet, but he still wore that cocky smirk on his face. "I'm telling you to stop!" she shouted.
She was blasted with another stream of water, but it didn't come from Patrick. It came from behind her. She turned around and saw Nicole had her gun pointed at her with a smile.
"I couldn't resist," she simply said. "Well, he got the front wet, might as well take care of the back," Nicole ended, and everyone started laughing.
"Fine, have your little fun." Gale sighed angrily and spun on her heel.
Trekking back around to the front of the hotel, she could hear them still laughing as she headed inside. Oh, did they really think that was funny? That damn Patrick thought he could just start all this and get her wet. She looked around the area and saw some water balloons and miniature water guns. She had to stop herself from snickering mischievously, but she smiled to herself as she grabbed them. She filled them all up, put a couple of balloons in her purse, and headed back outside.
