The Wanted Girls

Chapter 8

Nate's POV

I waited for Kate to continue, hearing Alex, Alex, Alex, over and over in my head.

"It was Sam," she said finally.

I nearly choked.

"Sam?!" I spluttered. "You mean, Sam, Sam?"

"Yes," Kate whispered.

This, I never would have guessed. I didn't even want to picture it. I didn't even want to be in the same room with someone who had slept with Sam.

Sam, I thought with disgust.

Sam, the pathetic geek I had been forced to endure since Kate befriended him when she and I were first dating, back when we were still in school.

She was going to university in the city, and I was at another school a little over an hour away. Maybe if we had been dating in high school, we would have planned to be closer together, but we were only friends back then, and obviously wouldn't have chosen our respective schools based on the other's choice.

That was when Kate really came into her own, in university. Away from pretty much everyone who had known her in high school, when she was a nerdy, hardcore Christian girl who loved books and band. It was a huge contrast back then, to know her, to see her in the halls, swinging her clarinet case, this beautiful girl in ill-fitting, loose jeans and Harry Potter t-shirts. Smiling at everyone, her mouth full of braces. Passing out flyers for Christian Club and her church's youth group.

But she was funny, and fun to hang out with, and in our rag-tag group of friends, I always found myself talking to her, and laughing at her silly quips and quirky observations about pretty much anything. 

"He always looks like a dog that has to poo," she might say about our biology teacher, and it would be so spot-on, I'd burst out laughing.

After high school, we kept in touch, and it got to the point where we were talking almost every day. I liked her well enough to look forward to our chats, but she had a boyfriend, a weaselly, obsequious guy she knew from church, and so I didn't bother thinking about her too much.

Somehow, though, as time went on, she morphed into this cool girl, and dropped the whole Jesus thing ("I was really just doing it for my mom," she said once. "She liked me to be all churchy and involved.")

Then we hung out when I was back in the city for the summer, and when she walked up to where I was waiting for her, I was bewitched.

I don't remember when she got her braces off but later, at home, I flipped through the yearbook, and there she was, smiling away, no braces on her teeth. I hadn't even noticed back in high school.

Her hair, which back then she often wore in these ridiculous Sailor Moon buns, was hanging long and loose down her back, and she had gotten bangs. She still wore her awful jeans and beat-up Converse sneakers, but somehow the jeans seemed to fit her body better. Instead of some ridiculous t-shirt with a dancing cat or smiling pancake, she was wearing a simple, tight black tank top. Between the hem of the tank top, and the belt of her jeans, I could see an inch of toned stomach. And her breasts, which had always been noticeably large, even under baggy t-shirts, were round and full and on display in the clingy top. She wasn't even trying at all, hadn't even bothered to dress up to meet me, and she was a knock-out.

Still pretty much the same old Kate, but hotter. 

It was a whirlwind summer. We hung out a lot, checking out a movie together, or going for a bike ride through the city, and then relaxing on the deck at my parents' house, sipping a few beers and seeing if any of our mutual friends wanted to stop by and join us.

Of course we fell in love. She confessed that she had always had a crush on me, and I said I always thought she was really cute. We were head over heels for each other.

By the end of the summer, she had dumped the boyfriend, who it turned out was pretty emotionally abusive. We were f*****g all the time, and when we weren't I was soaking up every minute of her presence. 

I hated going back to school in September, but we saw each other every weekend; either I would return home or she would visit me. It was more difficult during exams and finals; sometimes I would have to go almost two weeks without seeing her!

That was the year she met Sam.

Fucking Sam, with his stupid Comic-Con t-shirts, and his stupid anime messenger bag, and his lame jokes and puns, and his stupid, unrequited crush on Kate. Probably the most pathetic person you ever saw - he looked like Seth Rogen or Jonah Hill, but without any of the redeeming qualities.

But Kate befriended him, and he followed her around like a puppy, and I tolerated him when I met him, and put up with Kate hanging out with him at school, or him driving her home.

Sam confessed his love for her at the end of the year. I don't know what he was hoping she would do; say, "Oh, I always loved you too, Sam!" and dump me and be with him?

Kate must have let him down gently, because they continued to be friends even after school ended.

From that point on, every two months or so, they'd hang out and go to a movie, and after Kate and I moved in together, he'd sometimes be there after I got home from work. I'd always find some excuse to be busy until he was gone.

Fucking Sam. The saddest-looking person I'd ever seen at a wedding when he attended Kate's and my wedding. 

"You don't even like him!" I had said when I saw his name on our guest list.

"He's my friend," Kate said defensively. "And he assumed he was going to be invited; I couldn't say no."

"Probably not bringing a date," I muttered. As if he could get any girl other than Kate to spend more than five minutes with him.

"I'll give him a plus one just to be nice," Kate decided, and that was it.

Fucking Sam, and his puppy-dog eyes whenever he looked at Kate. His way of seeming like he was waiting in the wings, ready to swoop in at any chance.

In the present, tearing my mind away from Sam, and my dislike of him that had turned into hatred in an instant, I looked at Kate.

"Was this all planned?" I asked, louder than I intended.

"No!" she said, shaking her head vehemently. "He was just... there. And we hung out and talked and had drinks, and he said, did I want to get out of there? And go back to his place? And I said yes? I really wasn't thinking about s*x, I just thought we'd hang out, but we had more drinks, and, I don't know... I always liked him..."

"You liked him?!" I didn't even care that I was shouting now.

"I just mean, you know, he was my friend," she said. "Of course I liked him. Not romantically, just, I liked him."

"I thought you couldn't stand him!" I yelled. "Sometimes you'd dread hanging out with him! 'Ugh, I'm not in the mood for Sam today' you'd say!"

"Yeah, well, sometimes I'm not in the mood for a lot of people," Kate shot back. "I'm not in the mood for you right now!"

Looking at her, with her disheveled hair, and her face looking tired from a late night of s*x and booze, I felt like I'd never be in the mood for her again, either.

We looked at each other for a moment longer, Kate sheepish and unsure of what to do now. Abruptly I got up and brought my sandwich into the kitchen. I wrapped it up and put it in the fridge, and dropped my plate in the sink.

"I lost my appetite," I snapped, and brushed past her.

And then remembering something, I wheeled around to face her again.

"We said," I yelled, pointing my finger at her. "We said no friends!"

"You had no problem when I mentioned hooking up with Richard!" she shrieked.

I had to wrack my brain for a moment. Richard? Then I remembered our mutual friend, the lighting engineer. The cool guy whose more-than-decent band we had gone to see a few times. He had always liked Kate. I liked him, too, and never felt threatened by him.

I had forgotten that Kate said he had been flirtatious, and curious about Kate's and my open marriage. I knew she always thought he was kind of cute, even though he looked a bit like a lumberjack. Kate had just giggled a little and shrugged. "I don't have a type," she had said once. "I don't get to choose what I am attracted to."

I thought of Sam again. Clearly.

It's not that I was particularly even mad, it was just... Sam. I couldn't say he was a gross, fat guy. He was quite tall, and bulky, but not necessarily overweight. He just had that look of a guy who spends his weekends playing D&D, or Magic: The Gathering. With a bunch of other likeminded man-children.

I had always been very vocal about mocking Sam in this sense. As Kate prepared one day, quite some time ago, to meet Sam and go to a movie, I called to her as she left, "Enjoy your time with the man-child!"

This hadn't made her happy. Even though she would sometimes bemoan having to hang out with Sam - and I suppose I get that you have to be in the mood for some people - she was defensive of him. 

"Oh, you mean the man-child who has a union job, and owns his own car and condo?" she shot back. "That man-child? Yes, I'm sure we'll have a lovely afternoon."

Now, in the present, Kate busied herself with getting ready to take a shower. Once I heard the water running, and I was certain that she was not going to emerge for a while, I took the opportunity to go through her phone. There were no new messages from Sam, so the chances are pretty good they did not plan to meet up in advance. I checked her other text exchanges as well, but there was nothing that aroused my suspicions any further. In fact, most of the time she was downright dull and it almost wasn't worth the time to check up on her.

For a split second it crossed my mind how much I would be upset if Kate did this to me. My private exchanges are just that. Still, I reassured myself, she had been the one lying by omission. She didn't deserve the right to privacy any more.

I thought about her obvious shame at having hooked up with Sam, and decided it was nothing to make a big deal out of. If I did, Kate would do as she always does; she would put on her serious face and we would have a civil discussion about the open marriage, and she would recommend that we stop. "This experiment is not going well," she had said before. "I don't think we should continue."

I had to keep tabs on her and keep her placated so that I could continue doing as I pleased.

Placing her phone back where I found it, I settled myself on the couch to read. After a while, Kate finished her shower and went into the bedroom. I heard her opening and shutting drawers and dressing herself. 

I got up and went to join her in the bedroom. I wrapped my arms around her from behind and kissed her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," I said, as ashamed as I allowed myself to sound. "You just caught me off guard. And I had been worried about you, you know."

"I'm sorry, too," she replied, turning to face me. She swiped her lips against mine. "And, my phone lost its charge. I never meant to stay over."

I kissed her forehead quickly. "It's all right." I sighed. "I just can't believe it was Sam!"

Kate blushed and looked down. "It surprised me, too," she said softly.

I wanted to ask something but I was afraid of the answer. "Was it... good?" I asked finally.

Awkwardly, Kate shrugged. "It wasn't bad?" she offered. "Surprisingly? Like, I didn't think the whole time, this the worst s*x ever, or anything. I didn't really think about anything, honestly, I was just enjoying the moment, I guess. He was nice, he was attentive. It was okay."

She shrugged again, with nothing more to report.

I nodded and that seemed, to me, to be it.