Take This Man

Chapter Thirteen



Adam stood at the door of the apartment with a couple of six-packs under his arm. “Hey, Kim, open up!” He pounded on the door. “I know you"re home. I saw your beater out front.”

The door was jerked open, and Kim stood there wearing ratty sweatpants, a T-shirt, and a scowl.

Adam grinned. “Hey, you dressed up for me!

Thanks, honey!”

“Don"t honey me, you jagoff. What the hell"s your problem, pounding on my door like some damn troglodyte?” She stood blocking the doorway like a sentry—no way was he getting in.

“Trogo-what?”

“Hey, I can use big words, you know. I watch the Exploration Network. In case you thought you were talking to some little dumb ass.”

“Kim, what the f*ck?” He sighed. “Look, I don"t want to fight. Come on, let me in.” He dangled a six-pack teasingly. “I brought beer.”

“Do you remember that little conversation we had at Sammy"s Subs? About how I didn"t want you crawling back to me? Ever? What part of that didn"t you understand?” she demanded.

“Kim, I—”

“Ten o"clock at night you show up here, thinking you can weasel your way in with a couple lousy six packs. Yeah, I know what"s up. It"s a straight-up booty call. Hell, you don"t even call. You just drive right up to the window. Well, sorry, the booty drive-thru is closed. Forever. See ya.” Before she could slam the door in his face, Adam 133

held up his hand in a plea. “Kim. I"m sorry.

Look…it"s not a booty call, I swear.” His face grew hot with shame that Kim really believed he was capable of that. Sure, from time to time he and Kim would scratch each other"s itch, but she was always more to him than just a lay. They"d been friends. At least, he thought they"d been friends.

After he stormed out of the hotel room, Adam drove around, wasting gas, not knowing where to go or what to do. He wanted to get shit-faced, but didn"t want to hang out at some bar with a bunch of strangers. Nor did he want to be alone. He might have called his brother, but Wash was probably busy with his girl. Adam"s mood was so foul he couldn"t stomach the thought of hanging with the lovebirds.

So he thought of Kim, somehow convincing himself he"d be able to charm his way back into her good graces. In spite of Kim"s suspicions, he really hadn"t come to put the make on her. He simply needed to talk to somebody. He was lonesome.

Kim peered at him as if trying to decide if she should believe him. He must have looked pretty pathetic, because she rolled her eyes and sighed.

“I"m an idiot,” she muttered, and stepped aside. “All right. Get your sorry ass in here.” She peered at him as he entered the apartment.

“Are you drunk? ?Cause I"m gonna kick your ass if you"ve been drinking and drove over here.”

“Nope. Not a drop. Which means I"m way behind.” Adam set the two six-packs on the coffee table and took a can, popping the top. He was about to sit in an overstuffed armchair, when he realized Kim"s scraggly cat had already taken the seat.

“Shoo,” he told it.

The cat gave him a f*ck you look and didn"t move.

Adam decided it wasn"t worth getting into a 134

tangle with the cat—Kim was definitely in a mood to take the furball"s side over his, anyway. He lowered himself onto her futon, and poured half the beer down his throat in quick swallows.

Kim"s place was small but tidy. Though the furnishings were sparse and inexpensive, they were chosen with care. Colorful throws covered the back of the futon, and the window curtains looked as though they had been sewn from patterned bed sheets. One big picture window had no curtains at all, but was filled with potted plants of all kinds.

Kim stood at the window now, fussing with one of the plants, picking off some dead leaves.

Adam touched a velvet throw pillow by his elbow, noting its softness. “Cute place.” She turned and eyed him. “You"ve been here before.”

His neck felt hot, and he cleared his throat. He was embarrassed he never before noticed how much pride she took in her living space. “Well, I"m just saying…”

Kim gave him a smirk. “Yeah, whatever.” She came and grabbed a beer, popping the top. “You"ve always been in such a hurry to get to the bedroom, you never took the time to notice anything about the place.” She perched on the arm of the chair, where the cat sat glaring at him.

Adam returned the cat"s glare. “Why don"t you chase him off? It"s your house.” She shrugged. “It"s his house, too. And he was there first.”

The orange cat was a mangy thing with snaggled whiskers, a mangled left ear, and a missing eye from too many fights during his former life on the streets. Those days were over once Kim took in the stray, but all those battle scars had left the cat with a permanently pissed-off expression, not unlike a sneer. Hence his name—Groucho.


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Kim and Adam drank in silence for a few moments. Then she spoke. “So what"s going on, Vostek?”

He snorted. “My life is shit, is all.”

“Oh yeah? Poor baby. Welcome to the club.” Adam"s eyebrows lifted, and he blinked at her in surprise.

She frowned at him. “Look, I wasn"t kidding. If you rolled in here hoping to score some nookie by getting me to feel all sorry for you, you"re shit out of luck.”

He gulped down the rest of his beer, and reached for another. “You really think I"m that low-class?”

“You"re a guy, aren"t you?” Groucho stretched and hopped off the chair, allowing Kim to slide onto the seat. “So what"s the real problem? You and your girl have a falling out?”

He shot her a look. “How"d you know about—”

“Duh, Adam. I knew something was up the minute you said you wanted to take a break . And I"ve seen her picture.”

“You"ve seen—”

“The pretty blonde, right? Oh, keep your shorts on, I wasn"t snooping. I was looking for rubbers one time, and I opened the wrong drawer. But shit. A guy keeps a woman"s picture in his nightstand, it"s a pretty big f*cking clue he"s still hung up on her.” Kim paused, waiting for him to digest that. “So what"s her name?” she asked, her voice low.

“Elyse.” Adam leaned back on the futon. Maybe he was a prick, considering who he was confiding in, but it felt good to finally talk to somebody. “She hates my guts,” he grumbled, pounding his second beer. “You make it pretty easy for women to hate your guts, you know. You can be a real dick sometimes.” He belched. “Thanks a lot.”

She shrugged. “You always have to be a hard-136

ass. Put people off with snarky comments. Afraid to show your feelings.”

“Oh, that"s crap.”

“It"s the truth. What is it about guys? You all act like you"re so tough and strong, but when it comes to being honest about how you feel, you"re a bunch of scared little babies.”

Adam was now on his third beer. “Tell it to Oprah.”

“Asswipe.”

“Hey, she was in bed with another man, all right? How am I supposed to act when I see that?” he demanded.

Kim"s brown eyes grew wide, and her mouth fell open. “In bed with—”

“Well, they were on the bed,” he admitted grudgingly. “On top of the covers. And okay, they were dressed, they only had their shoes off. But there were liquor bottles everywhere—all right, just the little kind from a mini-bar, but—”

“What the f*ck are you talking about?” Kim looked at him as though he"d sprouted two heads.

“And I don"t care if Devereaux is gay, something"s going on there—ow!” Groucho the cat, perhaps tired of hearing Adam run off at the mouth, decided to shut him up by using his leg for a scratching post. Adam winced as he tried to disengage the cat"s claws from his thigh.

“Grouch, that"s bad.” Kim made no move to get up and chase the cat away. “Quit it.” Groucho gave a low growl as Adam freed himself and then bounded to the floor to find another way to amuse himself.

“Shit,” Adam rubbed his thigh. “That stupid cat"s got razor blades.”

Kim smirked and shook her head pityingly.

“What?” he asked.

“You really are a sad case, aren"t you, Vostek?

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You get in a fight with your Elyse, and instead of talking it out with her, you drive your ass over here.” Adam felt the sting of embarrassment, but he tried to play it off. “What are you talking about?”

“You"re jealous of this guy friend of hers—this gay guy—and instead of admitting it, telling her you"re scared to lose her, you come and pester my ass. Man, how chickenshit.”

He shifted uncomfortably, and then got mad.

Where did Kim get off? Things were a hell of a lot more complicated than she thought.

Weren"t they?

“Well, I"m sorry,” he rumbled as he tried to stand. His vision was fuzzy, his legs heavy and awkward. “Sorry you think I"m such an a*shole. I"ll leave, then, so you don"t have to put up with me,” he added, highly insulted.

“Oh, shut up and sit down,” Kim told him.

“You"re not going anywhere after what, four beers?” She took one more sip of beer and set the can on the glass coffee table. “You need to sober up. There"s coffee in the cupboard, you know where it is. Make it yourself, I"m not waiting on your ass. I"m going to repot my spider plant, and then I"m heading to bed.

You can crash on the futon tonight.”

“Okay,” he said glumly, chastened.

“And don"t be thinking you"re getting any sex off of me. The gravy train has left the station, I don"t care how pathetic you look.” Kim looked fierce enough to kick him in the nuts if he even suggested such a thing.

“Yeah, yeah.”

She kept her promise. She repotted her plant and went to bed without much more to say to him.

Well, what was there to say? She"d already called him on what a prick he was. In spite of his embarrassment, he respected Kim for standing up for herself.

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He nursed his fourth beer while Kim was still awake, but once she was asleep he killed the rest of the six-pack and finished off most of the other.

The more Adam drank, the more morose he became, and the gloomier his outlook.

He was a f*cking loser. Kim was right to tear him a new one. She hated his guts, and Elyse did, too. He had managed to f*ck up everything even halfway decent in his life. He was going to be a lonely miserable f*ck for the rest of his life.

To distract himself from visions of his dismal future, he clicked on the television remote. After a few minutes, he realized it was set on some channel that featured women"s films. Kim probably watched it when she got tired of the Exploration Network. To punish himself, Adam refused to switch stations, and forced himself to watch hour after hour of women in jeopardy. By the time he was on his tenth beer, he was actually starting to sniff back tears for the lady in the movie whose baby was stolen by the evil nurse.

As he sat hunched in the dark, Groucho glowered at him from the armchair, waiting impatiently for Adam to fall asleep. Then the cat would turn him into hamburger.



****

The next thing Adam knew, broad daylight was stabbing him in the eyes and drool was running down the side of his face.

He blinked his gluey eyelids. The blurry form of a man stood above him, staring down impassively.

Adam levered himself up, trying not to groan as he rubbed his scratchy chin. It felt as if an elephant was sitting on his head.

The guy handed him something. “Looks like you could use this.”

Hot coffee in a tall Daisy Donuts cup. Black.

Ordinarily the smell would have appealed to him, 139

but last night"s beer was doing the cha-cha in his stomach, and he wasn"t sure he"d be able to hold anything down. But thinking it might help clear his head, he forced himself to swallow a few burning mouthfuls.

“Thanks,” he muttered, blinking again to clear his vision and get a better look at the guy. Tall, on the thin side, short sandy-colored hair. Adam wondered who he was.

“You"re welcome,” the guy answered in a tone neither friendly nor belligerent. His eyes swept over Adam slowly, making him aware of how disreputable he must look.

“Ow!” Out of nowhere Groucho had appeared, latching onto Adam"s ankle and sinking his teeth in.


Adam tried shaking the cat loose.

“Stop that.” The guy took firm hold of the cat and pulled him away. Groucho went still at the man"s touch and sauntered off without a care in the world when the guy plunked him unceremoniously onto the floor.

How"d he do that? Adam wondered. Kim came in with a white bakery box. “Charlie brought donuts.” She slid the box onto the coffee table, and grabbed a coconut donut while gesturing with her free hand. “Charlie, this is Adam. Adam, Charlie.” Charlie nodded, unsmiling. Adam eyed him and nodded back. He was not so hung over he couldn"t recognize the situation for what it was. Awkward.

Even he, clueless as he so often was, recognized Kim"s casual air was a put-on. She had not expected this Charlie guy to show up at her door, nor had Charlie expected to find some drunk sprawled on her futon. The two of them shot looks at each other that Adam pretended not to notice.

If he"d been more sober, Adam would have gladly left them alone to air their grievances. But at the moment he wasn"t sure he was capable of 140

standing without falling on his face. Or barfing his guts out. So he sat there pretending he was as dumb as dirt.

Kim pushed the donut box toward him. “Have one.” Just looking at the pastries made his stomach turn over. “No, thanks.”

An evil glint appeared in her eye. “Aw, come on.

You don"t know what you"re missing.” She nudged the box closer.

Charlie cleared his throat. “I"ll be leaving.” He gave Kim a meaningful look. “Think you can walk me to the door?”

Kim rose from her chair and followed him. Since the door was only a few yards from where Adam sat, they stepped into the hallway to talk. Still, he couldn"t help catching bits of the “discussion,” mostly from Kim, who wasn"t afraid to raise her voice.

“Well, who told you to come?”

“I didn"t know he was going to show up here—”

“What makes you think it"s any of your business, Charlie?”

Charlie"s responses were spoken quietly enough to be unintelligible. Moments later Kim stormed back inside, slammed the door, and flung herself into her chair. She snatched up her half-eaten donut and took an especially vicious bite out of it.

“Who was that?” Adam asked.

“Nobody. None of your business,” she answered through a mouthful of fried cake.

When she calmed a bit she added, “My nosy-ass neighbor.”

“Seems like he wants to be more than that.” Kim snorted and rolled her eyes. “He pisses me off. Thinks he knows it all. Got the answer to everybody"s problems. Yeah, right.”

“Looks like I f*cked things up, being here,” Adam observed.

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She gave him a scornful look. “Get over yourself and drink your coffee. You need to get out of here.” He took a few more sips of the coffee Charlie had probably meant for himself.

“Better?” Kim asked.

Adam nodded. “Yeah.” He pushed himself to his feet, and his gorge rose at the same time. The room started to swim. “Uh, maybe not.” He sank back down onto the futon, closing his eyes.

“Oh, shit,” Kim said.

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