'Girl' Talk Part Two

I had a blast with Brandy and the girls the next day while Logan was at work. The girls wanted to play dress up and put on a fashion show for us while we sat on the couch and acted like judges, scoring them on their smiles, original clothing concept and their ‘walk’. In the end it didn’t matter what the ‘score’ was both girls got a treat for their hard work.

I had planned on leaving Brandy’s around seven because I didn’t want to be driving really late but things didn’t end up that way. While I sat in the kitchen with Brandy as she made supper, my cell phone rang. At first I didn’t recognize the number, I said it out loud and Brandy spun around to stare at me. “Mike?” She raised a brow. “How did Mike know you were in town?”

“Mike?” I jumped out of my chair and answered the phone as Brandy laughed at me. “Mike!” I squealed into the phone. “How are you doing?”

“I’m hurt,” came his sad reply.

I sat down again really worried about what he would say. “What’s wrong Mike?”

“Well,” he let out a shaky breath and sighed. “I thought that I was important; I thought that you loved me but no! I had to find out from Nick that you were in town! And you weren’t even planning on coming to see your favorite guy.”

“Mike!” I rolled my eyes. “Of course I wanted to see you but there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to give you the attention you deserve.” I was totally kissing his ass and he knew it, he called me on it. “Ok,” I laughed. “I knew if I saw you I wouldn’t want to leave town at all,” I lowered my voice and whispered. “Mikey you know you make me do things I wouldn’t normally do.”

“Your flirty ways are useless on me,” he told me with a laugh and then asked if I would meet with him for a couple minutes before taking off. When I promised him I would, we said bye and hung up.

Shaking my head, I glanced up at Brandy who was giving me a funny look. “What?”

“Forget Nick,” she said knowingly. “If that man wasn’t gay, you would be all over him in a heartbeat; Josh wouldn’t stand a chance.”

I smiled, “But Mike is gay and Josh has nothing to worry about!”

“Unless Mike is chasing him, then he would have something to worry about.”

“It’s funny that you should mention that,” I told Brandy and then went on to tell her about the Christmas party and Mike’s reaction to Josh. “I think if Josh wasn’t straight, Mike would’ve been all over him!”

After supper was done and all the dishes were back in their proper places, I said bye to everyone and headed over to Mike’s.

Mike lived on the opposite side of town from Brandy but it was closer to the highway that I needed to get on to go home so I was actually happy that he wanted to see me before I left town.

I was about to get in the elevator to go up to Mike’s apartment when I spotted Eric coming down the hall. “Hold the elevator please!” He called out while he attempted to keep all the bags he was carrying in his hands. “Thank you,” he flashed me a smile as the doors closed behind him. He asked me to hit the button for his floor at the same time he realized that it was already pressed. “Oh!” He looked at me, there was a hint of recognition in his eyes but by his next question, I knew he didn’t remember me. “You live in the building?”

“Eric,” I chuckled softly. “I’m Anna,” he frowned. “Jordan’s best friend?”

“OH!” Eric looked a little embarrassed that he didn’t remember that. “I’m sorry, I knew I recognized you but I didn’t…” he trailed off. “Mike invited you over?” He seemed a little annoyed.

“Yes, just for a couple minutes. I’m actually on my way back home, I was visiting Brandy.” The elevator doors opened which saved Eric from having to respond to me. “Did you want some help?” I nodded towards the bags he was carrying.

“Yes,” he handed me a few and then stepped off the elevator.

As I followed Eric down the hall towards the apartment I tried to carry on a conversation with him but he was very quiet, only saying enough to answer my questions; I got the distinct feeling that he wasn’t too happy that I was there. Soon he stopped in front of the apartment door and lifted his key up only to have the door swing open.

“An – oh, Eric, hello.” Mike’s smile disappeared for a brief moment before he saw me. “Anna!” he pushed past Eric and swept me up in his arms, squeezing me tight.

When Mike hugged me, Eric disappeared into the apartment without a word but he did give Mike a dirty look. “Mike?”

“How are you doing?” He stepped back and looked down at me. “You look good.”

“I’m great,” I told him a little distracted by Eric’s behavior. “How about you? Is everything going alright?”

Mike glanced over his shoulder towards his apartment. “Every thing is good,” he told me slowly. “Eric’s probably mad because I promised him that tonight we would take some time for us,” he raked his fingers through his hair and sighed. “I’ve been so busy at work, I barely see him and…” Mike shrugged. “But what was I supposed to do? I never see you and you were leaving tonight!”

“Mike!” I slapped him on the arm. “You were supposed to keep your promise to Eric!” I shook my head, “Men! Seriously!”

“I totally agree with you Anna.” I glanced over Mike’s shoulder to see Eric leaning against the door with his arms folded, glaring at Mike.

“I should go,” I started to turn when Eric told me that I didn’t have to go. “Are you sure?” I asked him, ignoring Mike telling me that he wanted me to come in for a couple minutes.

I ended up spending a couple hours with Mike and Eric; I didn’t even realize the time was flying as we sat in their living room. I like to blame it on Mike because he was the one who brought up Jenna and wanted to know if I had a picture of her. “I know Jordy says she looks like he did when he was a kid but I have to believe she’s cuter than that!”

“I just have my camera,” I told him as I pulled it out of my bag. “I have some pictures of Jenna with Jess at his party last Saturday,” I told them as I scanned through the memory and found one. “Here,” I handed Mike the camera.

“Oh wow,” Mike smiled down at the picture of Jenna. “She does look like Jordy did,” he looked up at me. “And you say the little boy is Jess?” I nodded and Mike looked back at the picture again. “Cute kid, looks like his dad. And speaking of his dad,” Mike pressed the forward button on the camera until he came to a picture of Josh with Jess. “How is he? Still pretty hot, I see.”

I laughed and took my camera away from him. “Yes, he’s still really hot.”

“Are you two back together?” He asked me and then told me that he couldn’t believe it when Nick told him what Jordan did.

“No,” I sighed and then told him the whole story. When I was done both Mike and Eric were giving me pity looks. “Don’t do that! I know I have a lot of work to do but I’m confident that Josh and I will get back together! We have too!”

They both told me that they hoped it happened and then they started to give me some ‘pointers’ on getting a guy and one of those little pieces of advice was to play hard to get. When I told them I wasn’t going to be playing any games when it came to Josh, they looked disappointed.

It was almost nine when I left their place, I wasn’t looking forward to the three hour drive home and if I didn’t have to work in the morning, I probably would’ve taken them up on the offer to spend the night in their guest room.

I was dead tired when I walked through the basement door of Zack’s house just after midnight that night. I went straight to my room, dropped my stuff on the floor and headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. When I got back to my room, I saw a note on my whiteboard from Cassie that told me to call Josh when I got home; ‘Coach Baker called – sounded worried – call him when you get in. Love Cass.’

“I’ll call him tomorrow,” I said out loud before falling onto my bed.