Sleeping with a Friend

Friday Night... Dinner Date?

I started to put my night bag together and get ready to head over to Xander's apartment. It is his night to host the Friday Night sleepover. It had been a little bit since I had been able to hangout. The last night I had seen him was when he was entertaining business associates at the Mockingbird. He shot me a text.

"Change of plans for tonight. Get dressed up, taking you out"

Taking me out to dinner on out sleepover night? But why? I obliged his offer and started to get ready. I found a sundress. It was mustard color, and vintage cut. The neck line was low, but the fabric was bunched under the chest, and the sleeves were short and loose, it came just below my thigh. I used any reason to wear flat slip on shoes when I could to give my feet a break.

I knocked on his door and he answered not wearing a shirt. I gave him a big hug and he lifted me off of my feet. "It's only been a few days, not a few decades." He shook his head as he placed me back onto my feet. He told me to shut up, and that he was just happy to see me. He gushed over how the associated had enjoyed themselves at the Mockingbird, and how they had also relayed the information to his boss. It only helped them seal the deal. I order him to get dressed, because I was starving. I would usual hold off on eating, because I enjoyed when we ordered take out. But I gave him a thumbs up about his deal. "Why does it take me longer to get ready then it takes you?" He said and smiled as he made his way to the bedroom. "You better ask for a raise, after all the money you have earned for this man." He emerged with his hair a bit a mess, a black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and he left it untucked. "There was some mention about that." I mussed his hair back into place, and took his hand and headed to the door. "I'm hungry, let's go eat!"

The bistro was a bit busy, but then again it was a Friday night. We only waited a few minutes until we were seated at a table. We hadn't really gone out to eat on a Fridy in a long time. It had always been comfy clothes and movies with pizza and beer. A waiter soon came over and took our drink orders and appetizers. "There had to be another reason to come tonight, so what is it?" He didn't want to make eye contact initially. I saw his eyes widen to someone that was behind me. He sat up straight and tensed up immediately. I was curious so, I turned to look. "Don't look!" He grabbed my hand. "Who is it?" He lowered his head and said her name. "It's Sara."

To give you a quick recap of Sara, Xander and her dated right out of college. We were "girlfriends" and hung out, but she was ape s**t crazy for him! She was very jealous, and very possessive. She always thought that me and Xander were messing around behind her back. I knew she was a Wiccan, and I could have sworn to this day that she put a hex on me. Every time he had prepared himself in breaking up with her, she would cry and flash her long lashes and reel his heart right back into her clutches. There were days he would tell me that she literally smelled his c**k to make sure it didn't smell like another woman's p***y. So, I was surprised when he did tell me that they finally called it quits. of course it wasn't that easy, he had to change his phone number she would prank call from blocked numbers, and leave him some lengthy voice messages. Not to mention all of the voodoo dolls that had been delivered in the mail. But all of this was in the past, we have all moved on to bigger and better things now.

"Xander?" I watched his cringe as she and her voice neared out table. He took a deep breath before trying to carry a conversation with her. She had black hair, and a pale complex accented with lavender eyes. She preferred wearing her contacts to her glasses. She had a baggy white shirt on, with an over sized heavy cardigan on top, with cut off jean short, and black stockings to cover her skin. "Sara, hey." He was polite and stood up to give her a hug. She then turned to face me, "Lee?" I smiled and stood to give her a hug. She smelled of vanilla and cinnamon. I could tell by the way she was looking us over if we were now dating. "So are you two like an item or something? who would have thought that." I looked at him, hoping I could get a response from him so I would be able to play along, but when I saw him reach for my waist and pull me in close, I realized that we had to play. "You know, I knew that when we started dating. Not saying that you two were together then, but I'm not surprised now that you are."

I didn't know how to respond, and by the look of it, neither was he. We all were lingering in silence and awkwardness, before I found myself saying these words, " You know, why don't you join us for dinner." He pinched my back and looked down at me. Sara agreed and the waiter came back with another chair.

Time had seemed to have slowed to a crawl with her seated in front of us. It's not that Xander and I haven't played house before either. We would bail one another out of worse situations. We quickly tried to play the part of happy couple. I leaned into his chest, as he draped his arm over my shoulder, and he would lean in to kiss my neck every so many minutes. I watched Sara's expression on her face, as though she was conjuring a spell or hex of some sort on me again. "So how long have you been together?", she inquired. I spoke up with the first thing that popped into my head. "About five years now. But, what have you been up to all of these years?" Sara looked over at him and rolled her eyes, "Did you mean in this lifetime or from the past lives I have already lived?" I smiled painfully. "I lift this cup to my lips, I drank it slow with tiny sips, rose, tea, caraway, and fennel caused his love to stay. It's a little chant I like to say before I eat or drink anything. Me? I've been keeping myself busy. I own a shop here, it's called Witches of the Crescent." I looked surprised, because I shop there. I told her I buy all of my candles and incense from that place.

As dinner had been going well, I felt as though Sara wasn't buying the idea that me and Xander were an actual couple. When she stepped away from the table, I told him that we needed to step our game up. So when she returned, he had put his hand on my chin and turned my face towards his. Stroking my cheek briefly and looking into my eyes intently, I felt his lips touch mine. I needed to add a little bit more into this, so I slipped my tongue between his lips and began to play with his. I felt him tense up but return force back during that kiss. I pulled away but gave him a few little pecks on his lips, and caught Sara walking back to the table. The look on her face was shockingly happy. She offered to pay, but I wouldn't allow it.

We started to exit the bistro, and me and Xander were walking hand in hand. Wishing Sara a good evening, he turned once again and kissed me, before reaching the parking lot. "Do you think she bought that?" I looked at him as I was taking a deep breath before answering. " I believed it." he must have not seen the look in my eyes of shock and awe. His phone started to ring and he walked away to answer it. I hated when he was secretive and trying to hide things, I could only hear bits and pieces of his conversation, even though he thought he had walked a safe distance away. "Hi... You miss me... No... No... Stop thinking like that... Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

I waited outside of his car, "Who was that?" He didn't answer right away, and immediately I began to worry. "Someone..." I gave him a look and punched his arm, and started to tickle him. "Alright, alright, I met someone, at work. We've just been hanging out, but she wanted to take it a step further..." I looked at him confused. The tone of my voice showed that I was upset with him for not mentioning this news. He pushed my arm trying to joke with me, so I could go back to the lightheartedness we had before that phone call. "You know I would be happy for you I you found someone. I just don't understand why you would hide it form me." Xander smiled at me, and continued to push my arm.

We got back to his pace, and I found out that the choice of movie was between Bloodsport or Kickboxer. I got changed into my comfy clothes, which consisted of some baggy sweats and a tank top. I grabbed a beer from the fridge, and sat down next to him on the couch. After flipping a coin, it was Kickboxer that he started to play. I always enjoyed watching kung fu movies. Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon was a personal favorite, and I was surprised that Xander sat through that one, he kept telling me that it was a musical and not a kung fu movie. "Are you still upset because I didn't tell you?" I didn't bother to respond, he kept pushing my arm and laughing. "What's so funny dumb ass? Did you hit your head or something? Stop shoving me!" I pushed his hands away, and shoved him back. "Well, who is she?" he didn't make eye contact. I straddled over his waist and started to tickle him. " Tell me!" He grabbed my wrists and pinned me to the cushions on the couch. I forced us to roll off the couch and onto the floor, which left me on top now. If he wanted to do this, then we would. I put my knees on his arms, and my hands wrapped around his wrists. His body squirmed and wiggled, and I could see in his eyes that he was getting angry. "Are you done poking at me? Why don't you tell me about her?" He refused to say anything, but squirmed a bit more to try to get up. He finally gave in and tapped out in a surrender. I let him up and he got a serious look in face. "it's Jennifer." I looked at him, and asked the question to myself, "Am I supposed to know Jennifer?" his eyes widened and it clicked. "You know the one from the party. in college." My jaw dropped to the floor, and I eased off of him. The shear coincidence that after all of these years their paths were to cross once again. My jaw dropped to the floor.

Apparently she just transferred to his department. It was by chance that he actually crossed paths with her in the lobby. He told me that they had looked at one another thinking they must have known one another from something. He had asked her for her name, and when she said it a bomb went off in his head, "The girl from the frat party in college." They had lunch that afternoon, and she even remembered me as they chatted. He mentioned that we were still friends, and she immediately wanted to meet up to have dinner or something. So Xander set it up. "There is something about her, I don't know, but I like it!"

It took me a minute to gather everything he just blurted out, but I still couldn't believe Jennifer, of all the people for their paths to cross. A million questions began to pop into my head like first and foremost, have they had s*x yet? Was she any good? Is he happy? I was happy for him. Well, I was happy for them both. But then I started to question what happened that night at the party. They walked away together, but he never mentioned her since that night. Not until bumping into her now.