Chapter 7
Misty headed home to change her clothes. She couldn’t help smiling at strangers on the subway. She’d needed that release more than she’d realized. Her first real orgasm with a guy. And she was glad it was Gabe who gave it to her.
As she walked up to her house, she received a text message. She smiled when she saw it was from Gabe. She waited until she was in her apartment before she read it. All he said was,We never made firm plans for your birthday. I can’t do the spa. I’m working until 6. When should I pick you up?
She felt like saying “now,” but she didn’t want to seem overly eager. Or more eager than she already had been. Anyway, it was time to cool it…just a bit. Until she seemed more cool than desperate.
She consulted her calendar. There was very little to consult. Other than tests and doctor’s appointments, she was wide open. Sadness swamped her. If not for Gabe, her life would suck. Living paycheck to paycheck. Working at a job she had no passion for. Even her love of dance might be in jeopardy.
She wanted to be in a better mood when she talked to him again, so she just texted back,How about seven thirty?
A few moments later, he answered,You got it.
She shuffled to her bathroom, turned on the shower, and waited for it to get warm. What was she going to do with the rest of her life? With nothing to look forward to, she was adrift.
“Turn it around, Misty,” she said out loud. Her grandmother had taught her to reframe negative thoughts and feelings. But as much as she tried to look at it differently, all she could see was day after day of the same boring job and not much to show for it. She sighed deeply.
Stepping into the warm steam and hot water interrupted her train of thought. It was a good thing, because that train was on the track to doom. As she ran her hands over her head to get it wet and ready for shampoo, she thought of Gabe running his hands over her hair and down her back. Sometimes it almost felt as if he were petting her. And then his hand would move farther down…a little lower than was strictly necessary. It seemed as if Gabe was the only good thing happening to her now.
She missed him already.
Growing up down the street from the Fierros showed her how different families could be from each other. Her own small WASP family was quiet, and as children, she and Parker were expected to be well-behaved. Their home was always neat and clean, because that’s the way her father liked it. Her mother had a cleaning lady come in twice a year. She helped her with the huge spring cleaning to freshen everything after a long hard winter, and a thorough fall cleaning just because.
The Fierros, on the other hand, were a rough-and-tumble bunch, always running, jumping, and tossing things around. Their home was alive. There didn’t seem to be anything to refresh at any particular time of year. It would just wind up on the floor or out of place a minute later anyway.
Mr. Fierro may have been head of the household, but Mrs. Fierro was in charge. Misty’s parents commented on how they managed to keep all those kids in line. They would shake their heads and say, “How do they do it, with all those boys?” It was as if her family would have cracked under the pressure that the Fierros thrived on. Maybe they would have. But Misty secretly wished her family could be more like them.
After her shower, she toweled off and wound another towel around her hair. She barely heard her phone ringing. By the time she got there, she had a voicemail message. It was from her friend Julie in Saugus.
“Hey, girl. We miss you. All of us are planning on getting together for a toy party.” She giggled. “And we’re not talking about Barbie dolls. Let me know when you’re available. We won’t have it without you!”
Misty called her right back. “Julie! It’s so good to hear from you. I’ve missed you too.”
“So, have you met anyone? Anyone that could replace the toy, if you know what I mean?”
Misty smiled to herself. “Sort of.” She wasn’t sure how much to say. She didn’t want to identify Gabe as her boyfriend…yet.
“Sounds intriguing. So where did you meet this ‘sort of’ someone?”
“I don’t want to go into details just yet. You know how it is.”
“Ah. It’s just at that flirting stage, right?”
Misty thought about how far past flirting they were. “Not to repeat myself, but sort of.”
“Oh, come on, girl. Spill. Is it someone I know?”
“No. None of you know him. Let’s just say that I’m not ready to DTR.”
Julie sighed loudly. “Fine. When you ‘define the relationship,’ be sure to let me know first.”
Misty figured she’d better change the subject. “So where are we having this toy party?”
“Well, we were thinking of doing it at your place. None of us have seen it yet, and we’d like to go into the city to kick around a bit beforehand.”
Misty laughed. “Oh, so you just thought you’d invite yourselves to my place? Lucky for you, I’d love that. Maybe when you all know how to get here, you’ll come and see me more often.”Or at all, she thought.
She missed her friends and was afraid that their lives were going separate ways. The kind of separate ways that resulted in Facebook-only communication. Everyone was either going to college or engaged already. Julie was the only one whose life was as uncertain as hers was.
