“Well, then how about just telling Nate exactly what you told me? I’m sure he’d understand if you let him know that you weren’t breaking up with him because you wanted to.”
“He wouldn’t understand. He already knows my mom doesn’t want me dating anyone, but if I broke up with him because of it, he’d just try to reason with me and talk me out of it.” She looked at the ground again, looking more fragile than when I’d first walked up to meet her. “I’d see his side of the argument and stay with him. But that’s not an option, so I need someone else to do it for me.” Another tear trailed down her cheek. “It really is for the best,” she added, more to herself than to me.
“If you’re sure, Karen,” I said sympathetically. I’d never run into this situation before. It just figured that the day I met someone who actually had a legitimate caring relationship, there would be no way for me to save it. Some marriage counselor I was going to be.
“I’m sure,” she whispered. And with that she was gone.
Chapter Fifteen
My mom wasn’t home when I arrived from school, which didn’t surprise me too much, though it was always a disappointment. I found some leftover steak and potatoes from one of her “client dinners,” so I reheated it and made that my dinner. I spent that night trying to figure out how to woo Nate when I was supposed to be someone as sweet as Karen. After my little conversation with Karen earlier in the day, I had found David waiting by my car and had asked his advice on the situation, thinking he’d have a bit more insight than I did. Sadly, he couldn’t think of an easy way around the whole mess, so we parted there with the promise that I’d see him the next day.
I was so exhausted by the day’s events that I didn’t even feel like painting, let alone doing homework, when I trudged to my room. I figured that everything that was due the next day I had already done, and all of my other homework could wait until tomorrow. My entire body felt tired from the emotional ups and downs of the day, and I began to wonder if maybe there was some sort of bug going around, and if Karen had given it to me. I concentrated all my efforts on going to sleep, and after what seemed like hours, sleep finally overtook me, giving me a dreamless eight hours before my alarm went off.
My wardrobe wasn’t difficult to pick out that day, since Karen wasn’t exactly the complicated type. I wore khaki pants with white sandals and a white form-fitting T-shirt. With my hair pulled back into a short ponytail, I slung my white backpack over my shoulder and made my way out the door. I noticed my mom’s car in the driveway, which meant she’d had a long night and must have been sleeping. When she didn’t bother opening the garage to pull her car in, I knew she’d gotten home much later than she’d want to let on.
I got into my own silver car and drove to school in silence. I had called David the night before to tell him not to talk to me today so that if Nate happened to walk by, he wouldn’t see me kissing some boy, and then trying to flirt with him. It had to seem like I was available, or this would never work. David hadn’t been happy with this idea, and I couldn’t blame him. Even I wasn’t happy with this, and I was the one making the rules.
Pulling into the busy school parking lot, I glanced down at the clock on my dashboard. I only had about five minutes before the bell rang, so I’d have to seek Nate out quickly. I made my way to the cafeteria and pulled an apple from my backpack. This, of course, was simply a prop to make it look like I had a legitimate excuse to be in the cafeteria. I spotted Nate easily enough. His light brown hair and rosy cheeks gave him away pretty quickly. His back was to me, and his shoulders were hunched over as if he, too, were exhausted. There’s definitely a bug going around, I thought glumly.
Pulling on the hair in my ponytail to make sure it was firmly in place, I slid onto the bench next to Nate, causing him to jump slightly. When he looked up at me, I realized that he looked almost as pale as Karen had the day before. His cheeks were still bright red, but I suspected he could be frozen to death and his cheeks would remain naturally rosy. I wondered for a moment if perhaps Nate had gotten Karen sick, but thoughts like that didn’t get my job done, so I pushed them away to concentrate on what I was doing now.
“Are you Nate?” I asked sweetly, letting an innocent smile play on my lips. He paid absolutely no attention to my full lips as some boys did when I talked to them, and I was instantly reminded that this was going to be a difficult job.
“Yeah, I am… why?” It didn’t seem to be enough of a happy occurrence that a pretty girl was sitting with him; he was apparently the questioning type and needed a reason for this phenomenon.
“I’m a friend of Karen’s,” I said, my voice still oozing with honey. This got a reaction out of him, and he instantly straightened up and scooted closer to me, looking into my eyes intently.
“Is she all right?” he asked quickly, an urgency in his voice that I found touching. I was a bit puzzled by this reaction but responded to it with perfect cordiality.
“Oh, yes, she’s fine. She’s just feeling a bit under the weather.” I gave him a winning smile that was a mixture of sympathy for my supposed best friend and allure for him. He didn’t react to it in the slightest.
“Oh, good,” he breathed, obvious relief lining his voice.
“I, on the other hand,” I said as I scooted closer to him, “am all alone today. I was supposed to sit with Karen since it’s my first day at school and everything, but she’s sick, so I don’t know a single person here.” I batted my eyelashes at him a bit, and he cleared his throat and scooted away. At least I was making him nervous, that much was evident.
“Well, I’ll be here at break and lunch if you need someone to sit with, but if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to my first class. Can you find yours all right?” All of this was said with such a polite concern that I couldn’t lie to the boy, so I simply nodded my head and watched him walk away. I checked my watch once more and saw that there were only two minutes until the bell rang. Letting out a deep sigh, I threw the apple back into my backpack and stood up, only to have hands circle my waist from behind to rest lightly on my stomach. I turned my head with a shocked look of confusion to find David resting his chin on my shoulder.
“That didn’t seem to go well,” he remarked without any malice. There was only mild interest in his voice. He may not like my line of work, but at least he liked me enough to know when he shouldn’t tease me too much.
“Not at all,” I answered as I tilted my head to the side so that our cheeks were touching. I knew I shouldn’t be so close to David when I was in character to break someone up, but I knew Nate would be halfway to his first class right now anyway, so I didn’t see much point in enforcing that rule.
“Well,” David began, gearing up for what sounded like the beginnings of a pep talk, “after what you told me yesterday, I think your best bet for this one might just be to tell him the truth. I mean, you may be the most beautiful girl ever, but that boy’s got it bad. He’s not going to take any bait you put out there.” This all made sense, but the one thing David didn’t understand was that I couldn’t tell him the truth because Karen had told me not to.
“What if I’m not allowed to?” I asked, wondering what he might have to say to that little detail.
“I think Karen should be grateful to you for getting the job done, so I don’t think she should be able to put too many stipulations on exactly how it’s done. This really is probably the only way to complete this assignment so I can finally have you all to myself.” He kissed my cheek lightly after saying this, pulling me closer to him. I placed my hands on top of his where they rested on my stomach and I closed my eyes. I felt so comfortable and safe with him there. It was such a weird feeling to have after only knowing him for a short time. I hoped beyond everything that jumping into this relationship so fast wouldn’t come back to bite me in the butt later.