Troubled Waters

“Wait a second”

Jonah reached out to shake Connor's hand. Meanwhile I was standing next to the two trying to remember the disappearing spell from Harry Potter. Connor's hand stopped in mid reach and pointed at Jonah instead. He squinted his eyes as if he'd just remembered something. His head slightly cocked towards me and asked, “Isn't he...”

I snapped back from my outer body experience and cut Connor off. I could tell by his face that he'd remembered Jonah from the night of the dinner fiasco. “Yeah! He's from the Late Night show.” I tried my hardest to fake a smile. He caught my drift and smiled back.

Connor continued to shake Jonah's hand as he let out a laugh. “Nice to meet you, man!” For him, this was the moment he was waiting for. The man I'd left him for that night was now on the other end of the situation. “This is fucking mad!” Connor laughed nervously again as he thought of the situation we were in.

Jonah, still standing with a straight face, let go of Connor's grip. He looked uncomfortable. I mean, who wasn't? The moment was equally awkward. I tried to lighten Jonah's mood by explaining Connor's reaction, “He's a huge fan of the show” I lied.

He smiled sheepishly before his friend came wobbling over. “Dude, what's the hold up? We're all waiting for our shots!” He nudged Jonah towards the bar.

“Do you guys want to join us?” He asked. Connor and I looked over at the rowdy table. We'd have to be drinking the rest of the night to catch up with them.

“Appreciate the offer bro, but I've got an early morning tomorrow.” Connor responded in a friendly suave tone. I turned towards him surprised.

“Yeah” I agreed, “We just came for dinner. Y'all have fun though”

“Congrats on the show” Connor shook Jonah's hand once again. “It was nice meeting you”

“Thanks, man. It was my pleasure.” As Connor walked away behind the hostess, Jonah turned towards me and tipped the bill of an imaginary cowboy hat on his head as he winked.

I put both my pointer fingers up as imaginary pistols and pretended to shoot him. “Pew! Pew!” I whispered. The smile on Jonah's face grew. “You better get going” He nudged his head towards Connor. “I'll see you around, kid.” Jonah turned back around and disappeared into the crowd surrounding the bar.

The hostess sat us in a secluded area of the restaurant away from the horde. Connor cleared his throat as he picked up his menu. He began to look over his options for dinner. “Thank you” I said quietly as I picked up my menu to do the same.

“For what?” Connor asked without looking up.

“For being nice. I saw your face, you remembered him from that night” I put my menu down to look at him. He was fully concentrated on figuring out what to eat.

“Of course. Why wouldn't I be nice to him?” He smirked. “It's not like he was the one to do anything to me...” Connor finally looked up.

I sarcastically smiled back. “Look, just so you know, I had no idea he'd be here. I mean, I knew he was moving back to the City, but I thought it'd be later in the month. He didn't even tell me he was already here.”

“I'm starving” Connor mumbled as he looked around the restaurant. “Where is the damn service when you need it?”

“So” I folded my arms on the table and leaned in “Why aren't you upset about this?” I pointed towards Jonah.

Connor laughed and sat back in his chair. “Is there a reason I should be upset?”

“One, because you're you. And two, because if this was reversed I would be hella pissed.” I whispered loudly across the table.

“Really? I didn't take you for the jealous type.” He jokingly furrowed his brows, but then noticed the unamused look on my face and continued. “The guy moved back to the City for work. I can't be mad at him for that. Like you said, you didn't know he would be here. We were bound to run into him, right?”

Realizing that Connor had a point, I nonchalantly agreed. “Right”

“Besides” Connor leaned forward and grabbed my hand. “You're here with me and you look absolutely beautiful.” I smiled back.

I was glad to be put to ease with Connor being so understanding. I had been waiting for Jonah to come back to town since the day he left. Now that he was home, and I was with Connor, I didn't know how I felt about it anymore. All I knew was that my relationship with Connor was growing, and I was genuinely happy to be with him.

After dinner we decided to walk off our meal since we were only a few blocks away from my apartment. Once we'd gotten to my door I searched through my clutch for my key. I felt Conner's hands wrapped around my waist. He leaned down and kissed my neck. I laughed as his stubbled facial hair tickled my skin.

We both stopped and looked at the end of the hall when we heard a noise coming from an apartment door. We stood silently for a minute. Connor looked back at me with widened eyes, as if we were doing something we shouldn't have been. I quietly hushed him and pulled his face towards mine. He took a step forward, pressing my body against the wall. He lifted up my leg, wrapping it around his waist, and began grinding his body against mine while we continued to make out.

“Whoa my God!” I heard Kadie's voice yell. She'd opened the door so fast we didn't even have time to process what was going on. “I'm so sorry!” She stepped back behind the door ready to close it again. “I thought I heard something out here, but I guess it was just you two. Sorry!” She was talking a mile a minute.

“It's okay” Connor said as he pulled himself off of me. “I have to go anyway.” He leaned down and kissed me again.

“Come inside” I whispered, tugging at his arm. I could see Kadie from the corner of my eye tip-toeing back into the apartment.

“I wish I could babe. I have reports to finish before tomorrow.” He began fixing his shirt.

After we said our goodbyes I went into my apartment to find Kadie sitting on the couch.

“So, someone had a fun night, huh?” She winked, playfully.

“Uh, more like the opposite.” I threw my clutch onto the table and sat down next to her. Kadie's expression was begging to know what had happened. “We ran into Jonah. Apparently his home coming party was at the same place we went for dinner.”

“What?” Kadie's voice boomed through the apartment. “Jonah's already here? He wasn't suppose to come back til next month.” She spoke out loud to herself.

“Yeah, well he is. And Connor's surprisingly not phased by it at all. Which you would think would be a good thing, but for some reason it's making me nervous.” I grabbed a pillow and covered my face with it.

Kadie sat upright leaning towards me“Wait, you're not having second thoughts about Connor are you?”

“No. No, of course not!” I uncovered my face. “I mean we have our highs and lows, but that's what makes us special. I like Connor, a lot. But, I'm not going to lie, when I saw Jonah my knees went weak for a second...”

Kadie giggled “LA did him good didn't it?”

I nodded my head agreeingly “It's like that scene from that one vampire series, when they get bitten they become even more flawless than before.” We bellowed over laughing as we thought about it.

Kadie added, “I mean honestly did you think he could get better looking than he already was? He legit looks like a  fucking A-list movie star” her laughter slowed as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “I don't know, Lynn. I don't know how you're going to do it.”