Page 7 of Clay
“Honestly, it was no problem.” Kate leans over and steals a fry from my plate. “When you said you were going out for a day at the mall, I suddenly decided it had been far too long since I’ve seen my best friend… besides, my mum’s been nagging me to come down and have dinner with her. So, two birds with one stone.”
“I’m just glad you’re here,” I say, trying my best not to bite my recently manicured and lavishly painted nails. “I’m so nervous about tonight. What if he doesn’t like me? What if I make an idiot out of myself? What if he thinks I’m boring? Or fat? Or Ugly?”
“Megan,” Kate squeezes my hand, “stop driving yourself crazy. Obviously he likes you, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked you out… or kissed you. Which reminds me… you’ve been awfully quiet about this kiss... I want to know everything... Were there tongues? Was it good? Did his breath taste like cabbage?... Could you feel his erection poking against your tummy like a foot-long slice of perfectly cured salami, ready to rip from his jeans and ravage your pussy with its thick, meaty goodness?”
I let out a giggle, and dip one of my chicken nuggets in some spicy BBQ sauce. “It was… magical.”
Kate looks at me like I’ve just told her I’m a mermaid with wings who also happens to fly around on a sleigh every year and deliver presents to all the children in all the world. Landing on their roofs, sliding down their chimneys, silently placing the presents under an ornately decorated tree while drinking copious amounts of alcohol and biscuits, which were kindly left by some of the parents of some of the children who I also happen to keep a list on, in regards to whether they were well behaved, and thus worthy of my gift, or rancid horrible little shits, and thus deserving of a wrapped up piece of coal.
“Magical?” she laughs. “What happened? Did you look down and suddenly notice you were floating three feet above the ground? Did a rainbow appear above your heads and doves flock around you with olive branches in their beaks singing beautiful songs in their beautiful flutey, perfectly in tune voices?”
“It’s hard to explain,” I blush, “all I know, is it was the best kiss of my life. It was like every other kiss I’d ever had was a dry, stale, flavorless wafer, and everyone kept telling me it was a double chocolate chip cookie... and then, after all these years of believing them, someone finally baked me a real cookie, and I tasted it when it was still warm, and straight out of the oven, and I can’t believe I was stupid enough to think the stupid wafer was even worth eating.”
“Boy,” she says, stealing yet another fry from my plate. “I wish someone would kiss me like that…”
“I thought your love life was going well?”
“Kind of,” Kate says, “ But everyone I’ve been meeting recently falls distinctly in the stale, old wafer category. They’re the ingredients for the wafer all shoved in the mixing bowl… and not in a good way... like when you lick the chocolate from the bowl while you’re waiting for the cake to bake in the oven.”
“Oh,” I say, “I’m sorry, Kate. I didn’t realize.”
“Yeah,” Kate sighs, “I guess it was fun to start off with. But, it gets tired going out on first dates all the time... or being in a relationship when you know it’s not going to go anywhere.
"I look around at my co-workers, and they’re having children, or they’ve got children, and husbands, and I used to think that I’d rather die than have to change a diaper, or go to bed with a middle-aged man with a dad-bod... but now I think it would be nice to have someone in my life who was willing to commit to me.
"Someone who told me they loved me and kissed me and looked after me... and I wouldn’t even care if they have love handles… although, ideally they’d look almost exactly like Brad Pit from that film where he turned out to be two people and spent most the first part of the movie beating himself up in the parking lot of seedy bars.”
We sit in silence for a while and I finish off my meal while Kate helps herself to half the food on my plate.
We’ve been walking around the mall all day. Hair salon. Nails. Dress shopping. Shoe shopping. It’s been totally awesome.
But this revelation that Kate’s having a hard time with her love life has come as a bit of a shock. I always thought she was happy. And now, knowing that I was wrong, makes me wonder whether I’ve been a bad friend.
It’s hard when you live so far away. We used to be so close. But even though we’re always in touch, messaging and calling each other up, I guess it’s not a real substitute for actually seeing each other regularly.
I’m just about to say something about how she’ll find someone, when I spot Clay walking across the mall behind her… and he’s with a woman.
“Oh my God,” I hiss, lowering my head down in an attempt to hide from him. “Don’t look behind you, but Clay’s over there.”
Immediately, Kate turns around and gawks at the people walking by. “Which one?” she asks. “The one in the black shirt?”
“No,” I whisper, “he’s over by the Victoria Secrets... The tall guy. The one with the blonde woman.”
“Shit,” she says, now openly staring straight at Clay. “That’s the fireman? … that’s the guy who kissed you?”
I stand up and hurry away. The last thing I want is some awkward encounter, or worse… Clay outright ignoring me in front of this other woman.
How could I have been so stupid?
A man like that, of course he’s in a relationship.
I try and think back to whether there was a tan mark on his finger, but I honestly don’t think I looked. I was too busy gawking at his beautiful face, and his impressive muscles.
The idea that I’m just some piece on the side makes me feel sick. He probably went home to that stunning, slim woman, ripped her clothes off, and made love to her a hundred times.
“Hey,” Kate says, wobbling up beside me in her ridiculously impractical high heels, a huge collection of shopping bags hanging from both her arms. “I think we should follow him.”
“No, Kate,” I say, holding back my tears. “I just want to go home.”
