Doublecrossed (18 page)

“Regan! Wait!”

She stopped and turned to find Callie goofily grinning at her. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, but you don’t have to.”

“I came with you, I leave with you,” she shouted. “This is Cheri.” She turned and kissed her on the cheek.

“Are you sure?” Cheri said. “I could take you home. I have a car.”

“That’s sweet of you. But I’m here with my friend and I’ll go home with her.” Callie disentangled herself, then attempted to stand as Cheri held onto her waistband and tried to pull her back down. Callie deftly removed her hand, leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow on the beach.” She waved, then took Regan’s arm as they headed for the door.

When they got outside, Regan spent a moment trying to dispel the image of Callie eating that woman alive. “I couldn’t tell if you were ready to leave or if you were just being polite.”

“Both.” Callie grasped her arm and hugged it. “I can do two things at once.”

“You looked like you were having fun.” A massive understatement.

“Yeah, I was. She was super cute, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah. She looked like a lot of fun.”

“Yep. She liked to kiss as much as I do. Kissing is the best, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, sure. I just don’t have that…drive anymore. It seems like something I used to do, but lost interest in.”

“I felt the same this afternoon, but my drive started to wake up tonight.” She shivered in the cool air. “Cheri woke it up but good!”

When Callie blinked her eyes open the next morning, Regan looked at her guiltily as she slipped into a pair of jeans. “Sorry,” she whispered, “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

The sun was shining brightly and Callie rolled over and looked out the window. “What time is it?”

“It’s around eight. I’m starving. I thought I’d head down for breakfast.”

“Do you want to go alone?” Callie tossed her head back and forced the hair from her eyes.

“No. Not a bit. I thought you’d like to sleep longer.”

Callie threw the covers off, stood up and stretched. “It’s a beautiful day and I’m in a beautiful place. Why would I waste such a nice day lying in bed?”

“Are you always a morning person?”

“Yeah, comparatively speaking. Marina always got up before I did and she made me feel like a lazy bum.”

“And she was such a role model of behavior.”

“Screw her. I’m sorry I brought her up. If you’ll give me five minutes, I’ll go with you.”

“If you can really get ready in five minutes you might be the ideal woman.”

Callie smiled at her and tousled her hair as she walked by. “I’m not saying I’ll look good, just that I’ll be ready.”

She hadn’t looked bad yet, in two countries and three cities. That wasn’t exactly true. She’d looked wonderful. Simply wonderful.

*

After breakfast they strolled down Commercial to see what was going on. Callie saw a sign advertising a touch football game that was set to start in a short while. “Let’s play!”

“Really?”

When Regan looked extremely skeptical, Callie said, “I can keep up. I might be old but I’m energetic.”

“You’re certainly not old by any means. I don’t think I can keep up. These girls get rough. It’s flag football, but they play like it’s tackle.”

“Are you serious?” She took Regan by the hand and started to lead her down the street. “You’re too young to be tentative.”

“I’m not tentative,” Regan protested feebly, holding back a little as Callie practically dragged her along. “My track coach always warned us to stay away from any kind of contact sports to make sure we didn’t hurt our knees.”

“You’re out of high school now, and no one will know,” she whispered loudly. “It’ll be our secret. And if you blow a knee out, I’ll tell everyone you were helping an old lady across the street when a truck hit you.”

*

They were put on different teams and every time they faced each other at the line of scrimmage, Callie put on a fierce expression and glowered at Regan, who was completely unable to keep a straight face. But she got into the game when their quarterback saw how quick Regan was. She kept trying to throw to her downfield, but she had a tough time throwing with anything close to accuracy. Time and again Regan was wide-open, but she never had a ball thrown within two feet of her.

Callie did better when she showed that she was fairly fearless and was able to jump over a fallen teammate or defender. She took a handoff and streaked along the sideline scoring a touchdown right before Regan caught up with her and pulled the flag from her pants.

Callie performed an exaggerated touchdown dance, then bent over and hiked the football between her legs to a surprised Regan who caught it defensively right before it hit her in the head. “You are fearless!” Regan said, clearly surprised.

“No, I’m not. I just love to win.” She dashed away, singing, “I love to win. I love to win…”

*

The cool morning had turned into a lovely spring afternoon. They went to a coffee shop for drinks to go, then sat on a bench in front of the library and watched the parade of passersby.

The warm afternoon sun made Callie’s hair glow in a copper radiance. Regan shielded her eyes and gazed at Callie for a moment. “I don’t think a minute has gone by without somebody checking you out. Your hair is impossible to ignore.”

Callie smiled mischievously and tossed her red hair over her shoulder. “I bet they were looking at you.”

“No. They look at you, then they look again, then they take a quick glance at me to make sure I’m not going to mind.”

Callie slapped her leg playfully. “You’re good for my ego.”

“Seriously, do you always get this kind of attention?”

“Attention?

“Don’t play coy. I’m really interested.”

Callie looked at her curiously and said “I’m not sure what you mean. Are you being serious when you say people are interested in me?”

Regan exaggeratedly rolled her eyes. She couldn’t be dense enough not to see it. No one could ignore the kind of attention she got. “You’re playing with me again.”

“No, I’m not. I thought you were teasing.”

“Come on. I was minimizing it if anything. When I’m ready to start dating again, you’re the last person I’ll hang out with. I’d get nothing but your rejects.”

Callie looked around quickly as though she could catch someone in the act. “Now you’re making me feel paranoid.”

“Do you really not know? All those women talking to you at the football game weren’t just being friendly.”

Innocently, Callie batted her eyes. “They weren’t?”

Regan pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “I can’t tell if you’re being straight with me or not. Do you know they’re hitting on you?”

“I don’t think they are. I think women are just friendlier than guys. They look a lot and make small talk, but that doesn’t mean they want to jump on you. They’re certainly not aggressive the way guys are.”

“I don’t know a lot about guys, but I think women are just as horny.”

Callie patted Regan’s leg as though she were a child. “Then you really don’t know guys. Women aren’t nearly as pushy as guys are. I danced with a bunch of women last night and none of them acted like they’d laid claim to me.”

Every one of those women would have paid to sleep with her, and they would have claimed her if she hadn’t danced away before any of them could catch her. How could she have slept around Dallas for more than a year and not have figured out how hot she was? Maybe it just didn’t click for her. “You were too fast for them. I saw you slithering through that crowd.” She placed her hands together and made them dart to and fro in tandem.

“It’s different with women. Trust me. That’s one of the reasons I don’t see myself going back to men. If a guy wants you, it’s hard to tell him to knock it off if you’re not interested. It’s much easier with women. Heck, if you just don’t return the look very few of them would come back for a second try. It’s much more polite. More civilized.”

“Whatever you say. All I know is that you don’t ever have to go home alone if you don’t want to.”

Grinning, Callie said, “Well, I didn’t say you were wrong about that.”

That grin was so confusing. Had she been teasing? There was a part of her that seemed wily. Like she knew exactly what she was doing. But then she seemed truly oblivious to how appealing she was. She was an absolute mass of contradictions.

*

For the next hour Callie played a little game where she tried to match which woman would look best with Regan. Regan seemed to enjoy Callie’s interpretations, but after a while she said, “I’m just not feeling it. It’s been six months and I’m not much more interested now than I was the day after we broke up.”

Callie leaned over and gave her a gentle hug. With her arms still wrapped around her, she said quietly, “I know how hard this has been for you. I think Angela hurt you as deeply as it’s possible to hurt someone.”

When Regan pulled away, her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “It’s so nice to know that you understand. Most people think I should be over this by now.”

“I wish you were. I really do. But I know you have to just let it go at its own pace. When Rob and I broke up, I was a mess for a long time. The thought of being with another guy was repulsive.”

Curiosity showing in her eyes, Regan said, “Do you think that’s why you started dating Marina? The mere fact that she wasn’t a man?”

“It’s impossible to know. I was definitely open to being with a woman, but I wasn’t determined to go gay. It just happened. She came along at the right, or maybe the wrong, time.”

“I don’t think I know anyone who seems truly bisexual. Most of the women I know who’ve been with men did it because of family pressure, or they were confused.”

“I wasn’t confused. That’s for sure. I’ve always thought women were attractive, and I’m sure I would’ve dated a woman if I hadn’t been with Rob for so long. I gave him my prime experimenting years.”

“I’d think college was the prime time for that.”

“Not for me. I spent my first two years partying, then the next one trying to get my GPA up. Then I met the coolest guy.” She acted like she was on the verge of fainting, half falling into Regan’s lap. “We were like a magnet and a steel bar. I was stuck to him for years. But he didn’t ever get out of the frat boy thing and I had to move on.”

“So just those two guys melted your heart?”

“Not hardly.” She leaned her head back and laughed up into the sky. “I had boyfriends in junior high and high school too. I was into guys, Regan. Really into them.”

“Well, I’ve got to say that once you decided to give women a try you did it in a big way. You went all in.” Regan shook her head, looking both amused and amazed.

“Yeah, being with Marina probably wasn’t the right choice for a beginner. But sometimes it’s hard to see that when you’re in the middle of it.”

Somewhat tentatively, Regan asked, “If you had to do it over again would you change anything?”

“That’s not a game I like to play. I made my choices the best I could. I just try to learn from them.”

“What did you learn from Marina?”

Callie thought about the question for a long time. But image after image of Marina and Angela together assaulted her brain. It hurt like a punch to the gut, so she shut it off, refusing to invite that pain back in. “I’m not sure what I’ve learned. I thought I’d protected myself against being two-timed, but I got screwed over again.” She knew she should have a better answer, but she wasn’t interested in this game. Dredging up old hurts didn’t make them go away, it just made the wound fresh again. There was nothing to learn from Marina, other than to stay away from anyone even remotely like her.

*

After breakfast on Monday morning they packed up to leave. Callie was full of energy and she took off for a run while Regan read the paper and chatted with the other guests. When Callie returned, she was carrying a large bouquet of flowers that she presented to Regan, proclaiming, “Happy Birthday!”

Regan blushed, but took the flowers and gave Callie a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks. I love getting flowers.”

“My pleasure. I’ve never given a woman flowers. Oh, wait. Does my mom count?”

Their host, a friendly gay man of about fifty smiled at the pair. “You two make a cute pair. How long have you been together?”

“Oh, we’re not together like that,” Callie said. “We’ve just been friends for a few months, but we’re united by a common goal.” She grinned at Regan. “We’re working to rid the world of cheating girlfriends.”

“Good luck with that, girls. You’ve got your work cut out for you.”

Because it was the end of a three-day weekend, the traffic back down the Cape was very heavy, but neither woman seemed to mind. They’d both had a terrific time and neither was in a huge hurry to get back to Scituate.

They were about five miles from home when Regan’s cell phone rang. Callie searched through their bags in the tiny car and found it just after it went to voicemail. She handed it to Regan. “My older sister. Probably calling to wish me a happy birthday.” She opened the phone and hit a speed dial number, then put it on speakerphone. “Hi, Delaney. What’s up?”