Walk With Me

As I stepped away from Josh and told him we could reschedule, he stepped forward, taking my hands in his. “I don’t want to reschedule,” he lifted my hands up and held them in his against his chest. “I don’t have to go to Mark’s, he won’t mind.”

“It’s ok Josh,” I gave him a smile. “Like I told you, we can always reschedule.” I wanted to spend the evening with him, I didn’t care if it was alone or at Mark’s but I wasn’t about to invite myself just to be with him. Maybe if we were really dating, I thought. But not right now.

“I don’t want to reschedule,” Josh repeated. “I told Mark when he called that I made plans with you; he seemed ok about it.”

“Josh, I don’t…” I trailed off when I saw Zack out of the corner of my eye; he was shaking his head, laughing at us. “Just go,” I pulled my hands from his to put them on his arm to turn him towards the door. “Go hang out with Mark and I’ll see you later.”

“No Anna wait,” he stopped and wouldn’t let me move him anymore. “I was thinking,” he started but then hesitated. I asked him what he was thinking and he sighed. “I want you to come with me,” he told me.

“I don’t want to impose Josh.”

“You wouldn’t be,” he told me. “Mark doesn’t mind, he said so when I mentioned it to him.”

Five minutes later Josh and I said bye to Zack before heading out to his car. “So who’s going to be there?” I asked him.

Josh listed of his normal group of friends - Mark & Selena, Jack & Rhea and Warner – all of them I knew because they were friends with Zack as well; Zack was invited but he declined so he could, in his words, spend the night ‘loving’ his wife. “Oh,” Josh said suddenly. “And Jack’s sister, Molly will be there too. Do you know Molly?”

I nodded. Molly was the same age as I was. We went to school together but hung out with different crowds so we never really got to know each other all that well; Molly wasn’t really all that friendly to anyone outside her little group. “Why is Molly going to be there?”

Josh glanced at me and then chuckled, “It seems that Molly will be there with Warner.”

“What?” I stared at him in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me! Warner is the world’s biggest pervert!” And a man whore, I said to myself. “How did he manage to hook up with Molly? Jack can’t be too happy about that!”

Josh cringed, “Whatever you do, don’t say ‘hook up’ along with either one of Molly’s or Warner’s names around Jack; he isn’t happy that Molly is dating Warner.”

“I wouldn’t blame him!” Josh gave me a look when I said that. “What? What’s up with that look?”

“Nothing,” he said with a shake of his head and then laughed. “Ok,” he said after a second or two. “The way Jack reacted to Warner dating Molly is the way I expected your brother to react when he found out that I wanted to see you.”

“I don’t see why you would expect that,” I turned to him. “You aren’t sl...” I was going to say ‘slutty’ but Josh gave me a look that made me stop. “I mean, you and Warner are nothing alike.”

“You’re right,” he stated. “I don’t sleep around, or play with women’s hearts, or any of the other things that Warner does on a daily basis. Jack has every right to be worried about his sister but…” he shrugged.

“She’ll do what she wants no matter what he says,” I finished for him, he nodded.

When we got into town, Josh told me that he wanted to drop off his car at his apartment and walked over to Mark’s. “It’ll be difficult to find a parking spot at Mark’s,” he told me when I asked him why. “He only lives a couple blocks from me,” he added. He mentioned something about it being a nice night. “Don’t you think it’s a nice night for a walk?” The question seemed innocent enough but the look in his eyes told a different story.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, I think it is.”

He held the door opened for me and took my hand to help me out of his car. Once the car door was closed and locked, he turned towards Main Street and pointed. “It’s just two blocks that way, on the other side of Main Street.” With that said, he started to move forward still holding my hand in his.

We made small talk as we walked hand in hand down his street. It was a cool night, like most of the nights were in March; there was a little bit of a breeze but I barely noticed it, I was warm just from Josh’s hand around mine. When we first started to walk, he was ahead of me because his strides were way longer than mine but as we approached Main Street, he was walking along side me.

It was 6:30 on a Thursday night so we were waiting for a few minutes before the light changed so we could walk across the street. We were half way across when I stepped on some ice and my foot slipped out from under me.

“Whoa!” Josh exclaimed, startled but he managed to grab me before I fell on my ass, taking him with me. We were standing in the middle of the street, his legs were bent at the knees from when he moved to catch me, and his one arm was around my back, he was staring down at me and I swore he was going to kiss me but a horn sounded and he looked around, his cheeks reddening in the glare of the headlights in front of us. “I think we better move,” he righted me and we hurried to the other side.

Josh didn’t say much more as we continued down the sidewalk towards Mark’s. As I walked beside him, I wished I was able to read his mind; I didn’t like it when he closed off. It was a small comfort that he still held my hand as we walked.