Page 31 of Best Laid Plans
With a final kiss to my jaw, Cole slowly releases me, then crosses the room to an adjoining bathroom on the other side. In his absence, my mind returns to reality.
The reality that Cole, who I’ve discovered is a gynecologist, just fingered me in his office in the same building as the fertility clinic where I just found out my uterus is pristine and a good candidate to carry my sister’s baby. This shouldn’t be sexy, and there shouldn’t be orgasms involved. I’m here for Ellie, to help Ellie out so she can start the family she’s always wanted. A sinking feeling washes over me, taking all the orgasmic feelings with it. I’m doing it again, I’m making it about me, letting my impulsiveness derail carefully thought out plans. I need to end this, whatever this is, with Cole.
If I see him again at the clinic, it might be weird, but it will only get weirder if I keep hooking up with him.
I lower my head back to the wall and stare at the ceiling. The water turns on in the bathroom and I imagine Cole thoroughly scrubbing his hands, like he’s preparing for surgery. Proper hygiene is so sexy.
Cole is trouble, a kink in my plan to help Ellie. She needs me right now and it’s a year of my life, compared to the years of buoying me along during my tough times. Now that I’m finally adulting, helping Ellie start a family is what I need to do.Wantto do.
The appropriate thing to do is tell Cole that I can’t see him anymore. Or whatever it is we’re doing. It’s not him, it’s me. Blah blah. Ugh. I’m not good at this kind of thing. Something tells me that speaking those words while Cole is staring at me with his gorgeous blue eyes while wearing his sexy doctor’s coat is going to be impossible. I push off the wall, my post orgasm legs take a moment to operate at full strength, but once they’re stable, I rush out the door, leaving Cole and his sexy smile behind. Once again.
In the elevator, my phone buzzes, my daily alarm to remind me to take my birth control. The birth control that I need to stop taking in order to get pregnant with Ellie and Josh’s baby. I rummage around in my purse, my fingers finally settling on the hard-plastic pack. The elevator opens to the lobby and I find my target, a trash can by the automatic glass doors. I stride over confidently, and without hesitation, my fingers release the birth control pack from my hand.
18
Cole
“Wait, wait,” my friend, Evan, pauses before he takes a swig of his beer, “this is the same girl? And she left your ass again?”
I immediately regret telling Evan about Brooke. About the fact that she snuck out after our night together and ran off after our surprise rendezvous at the clinic. He’s laughing so hard he nearly starts choking. Yeah, he’s never going to let me forget this.
Evan is my best friend from high school. We started playing lacrosse together when we were ten, and eventually we were co-captains of our high school team. He went to culinary school on the east coast, lived in New York for years working his way up the restaurant chain, and recently relocated back to Denver to open his own restaurant. It’s nice to have him back in town, even though I haven’t seen him much lately with his restaurant opening. But, the fact that Carrie is best friends with his sister, Erica, makes it easier for us to sync our social calendars with minimal effort.
It’s been three days since I fingered Brooke in my office and if I wasn’t already confused about her ditching me after sex last Saturday night, her disappearing act at my office this week pretty much sealed the deal that she’s either nuts or unavailable.
We’re gathered at Erica’s house for a barbeque. Her two little boys and my nieces have devoured cupcakes and are now high on sugar, chasing each other around the yard with squirt guns. While their wives chat in the shade on the patio, Kyle is restocking beer in a cooler, and John, Erica’s husband, is manning the grill.
“Wow, man. This happened to you?” Evan shakes his head. “If a woman is running from you, how do the rest of us even stand a chance?” He looks thoughtful. “I think you’re pursuing the wrong woman. Do what I do, instead of going after the woman that is hard to pin down, you go for the woman who is practically tripping over herself to fuck you. Less work.”
I’ve done that before. Gone for the woman that was easy and available. That’s what I’ve been doing while I focused on my career. The problem with that kind of relationship is that I always found myself with women who no matter how honest I was about not wanting a relationship, would always get upset when our hook-ups didn’t progress into something more.
Now, I want to put in the work. There’s something about Brooke that makes me want to figure her out. I don’t know her that well, but I have the desire to. Without a referral from a doctor at the fertility clinic, I have no access to her file, assuming she has one, and even if I did, I want Brooke to be the one to give me her number. I’ve stopped by BookBar the last two Sunday afternoons, hoping to see her again. It’s getting really pathetic.
I’m taking a swig of my beer when I notice Carrie on her way over to us with a pretty redhead in a green dress following just steps behind her. Sometime during my conversation with Evan, she must have arrived.
“This is my brother, Cole.” I can’t help but notice her emphasis on the word brother. “And his friend, Evan. Evan is Erica’s brother. Guys, this is Lori.”
Immediately I recognize the name and I recall back to the conversation Carrie and I had a few weeks ago about her setting me up with her yoga instructor. I had completely forgotten about it until now.
Lori smiles brightly and shakes both of our hands. Carrie hints not so subtly that she and Evan should refresh the drinks, and then they’re gone, leaving Lori and me to talk.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” Lori beams. “Carrie’s been telling me about you for months.” Her hair color is unique, almost a reddish blonde. She’s pretty, with bright blue eyes and a perfect smile.
“You, too,” I agree, but feel like a jerk when I can’t remember anything that Carrie has said about her. The only thing I know is she’s a yoga instructor, so I ask her about her job and she easily chats for twenty minutes before taking a breath.
“Sorry, I get a bit carried away with the yoga talk. I’m really passionate about it. And, it makes me happy.”
“That’s great. You should love what you do.” I take a swig of my beer.
Lori sips her wine and we continue making small talk until John announces the burgers and hotdogs are ready. I sit between Evan and Lori, who actually seem to have more in common, and are basically talking over me. My distracting thoughts of Brooke make me a poor conversationalist. So, it comes as a bit of a surprise when Lori stands to leave for a yoga class she has to teach in an hour, but asks if I can walk her out.
“Sure.”
As I’m standing to leave the table, Evan elbows me in the ribs and I can’t tell if it’s a friendly jab or a territorial one. We exit the back gate and walk until she stops in front of her white Toyota Prius.
Lori turns to me. “It was nice to meet you.”
“Same.”
