How The Cookie Crumbles (23 page)

Sandy nodded. “So, how much longer are you going to be in Kingston?” she asked me.

“Actually, I’m just looking into flights for next week. My mom called Thursday and she wants me to come home soon. My brother’s leaving for Waterloo soon, and she wants to have the whole family together before he goes.” I had pointed out that I was currently in the same province as Waterloo was in, and I could not only see Glen but also help him settle in, however she was adamant about the family being together.

“Next week? I didn’t know you were going so soon,” Jake said.

“Who can blame her for wanting to go back to Vancouver,” Angela said. “I’ve only been once, but I loved it there.”

The rest of the weekend flew by. Andrew and Chloë acted like lovesick teenagers, which was cute at first and a little nauseating after constant exposure. They shared a room at the cottage, and when Tolly took off to meet his weekend fling again on Saturday night, Jake had remarked sadly that it was the first weekend he could remember that everyone was getting laid but him. I’m not sure if he thought that would result in a pity fuck, but I was less than sympathetic.

“Maybe this will give you more empathy for those guys who don’t get chicks so easily,” I told him.

“You’re a hard woman, Frankie,” he said. But he was smiling, and then we went out for a nice swim in the moonlight. Naturally Jake wanted to skinny dip, because he never gave up. But I could be stubborn too.

On Sunday, I got a drive back to Kingston with Chlo and Andrew, since Jake was staying up at the cottage for the week. Jake gave me a goodbye hug, but I think he was a little relieved to see me go. I had a good time, but I was pretty sure the weekend hadn’t turned out the way he planned.

I sat in the back seat, while the two lovebirds chatted and giggled. It gave me a chance to think about my whole summer in Kingston, now that it was coming to an end. When I looked back, I would say that things were pretty good overall. I’ll admit that I had been too chicken to go away for university, so I ended up staying in Vancouver. But now that I had taken the plunge and gone away, I realized how much I enjoyed having new experiences. The best thing about Liam had been all his travel stories, he kind of inspired to want to travel a little too and see some great art in person.

This summer I had proven something to myself, that I could take some risks and succeed, that I didn’t have to play it safe all the time. I knew that compared to most people, my risks were nothing, but baby steps, right? I had made some decent money, had fun with Chloë, and dated a couple of different guys. Enough different experiences to make me forget old what’s-his-name anyway.

28. Leaving Kingston

Jake

I was sitting out on the public beach with the guys, and we were watching four high school girls try to inflate a little raft. They were wearing bikinis and struggling big time, and it made for a nice view.

“Have we turned into perverts yet?” Andrew wondered.

“Yet?” Tolly responded.

“I mean, when we’re in high school and they’re in high school, it’s okay to find them hot. But when we’re older and they’re younger, does that make us dirty old men?”

“That’s a line from a movie, isn’t it? ‘That’s what I love about these high school girls, I get older, they stay the same age!’” Tolly was laughing, and his laugh was sort of pervy. One of the girls looked up at us and then scowled. That seemed to answer the question, we were pervs.

Frankie had gone back to Kingston Sunday. We had a good time, lots of laughs but no sex. I let her come to me the rest of the weekend, and guess what? She hadn’t. Not a big surprise I guess.

“Naomi and I split up,” Tolly volunteered, but he didn’t seem that upset.

“How come?” Andrew wondered. He hadn’t seen Tolly and the blonde on the weekend.

“I don’t know, she wanted to get more serious, more committed in some way.”

I shook my head. “We’re too young for that commitment shit.”

“I don’t know about that,” Andrew said.

“Chloë?” Tolly wondered. “She’s really nice, but you haven’t dated that many other girls.”

“You don’t have to date everyone in the universe to know when it’s right.” Andrew spoke with a quiet confidence that wasn’t like him.

“I am not planning on settling down for years,” I responded. “It’s not worth the hassle.”

Andrew just smiled. “It doesn’t have to be a hassle. It can be great.” Then he peered over his glasses at me, “And what about you and Frankie?”

“What about us? Nothing’s happening there,” I grunted.

“That’s so weird, she’s like the first chick in forever you’ve liked, and she’s not even interested in you. I wonder if that’s why you’re so into her?”

I shook my head. Frankie had been a huge hassle and I wasn’t even getting any. I was looking for a summer thing, and all I got was this crazy chick. I did like Frankie, she was cute and really different. I liked talking to her and hanging out. But I never understood her, I thought she liked me but she didn’t give me anything to go on. It was probably a good thing that she was leaving soon and I wouldn’t have to see her any more. She was too confusing.

“I’ve given up on that shit. I’m staying up at the cottage and relaxing. Soon, I’ll have to get back to L.A. and start training camp. I want to kick back while I can.”

My last week in Kingston went all too quickly. Chloë was unhappy that I was leaving, but she was really happy with Andrew, so that balanced things out. Vince, my manager at The Keg, was surprisingly nice and told me I could come back anytime and work there again. Ironically, although nobody had wanted to hire me for just the summer, I had ended up outlasting many of the supposedly permanent staff. The restaurant biz was full of turnover. I thanked him for the offer, however it was hard to imagine why I would ever be back in Kingston.

Manny and Elaine were even nicer and had a special cake for me on my last day at the café. There was a goodbye card, and all the staff and even some of our regular customers had signed it.

“So kid, how’s the Big Burrito?” Elaine growled at me, as we were cleaning up afterwards.

“He’s fine,” I replied. I hadn’t seen Jake since I went to his cottage; but tonight I was going out to dinner with Andrew and Chloë, and Jake was supposed to show up.

“I don’t mean how is he, I mean how is he? In the sack.”

I grimaced, “In the sack? No clue.”

Elaine shook her head. “Honey, you’re wasting your peak years here. Once everything starts slipping and sliding, you’re not gonna get as many offers.” Then she craned her head around to check out some construction workers who had walked in. “Ah, beefcake in the house. Come to mama.”

Life was clearly a lot simpler for Elaine. I laughed and gave her a hug.

For dinner, we went to a nice place downtown called Le Chien Noir. It was pretty upscale for Kingston. I was a little late, and Jake was even later, so Chloë and Andrew had been waiting and drinking. They were at that irritating stage of a relationship where they kept whispering and constantly touching, and the alcohol was lubricating that. Maybe they were making me feel lonely or perhaps I was a little melancholy over leaving the next morning, but I ended up snapping at Jake over some dumb comment.

“Someone’s a little grumpy,” Jake remarked.

“That’s because it’s going on five months now and she ain’t had nothing twixt her nethers weren’t run on batteries!” Chloë said, giggling. Then Andrew snorted with laughter as well. Time to cut them off.

“Is that true?” Jake asked, clearly intrigued.

“It’s not true, and it’s just a stupid
Firefly
quote,” I declared. Of course it wasn’t true, who would bring their vibrator on a trip? Wasn’t there a case where the whole plane was evacuated because someone thought a vibrator in a suitcase was a bomb? How embarrassing would that be? Of course, the fact I hadn’t had sex all summer was true.

“It’s actually from
Serenity
,” Andrew corrected me between guffaws. I shot him a fierce look and he shut up.

“Y’know, I’ve got the cure for a Cranky Frankie,” Jake suggested. And he gave me a look that was way too lecherous before I had eaten or had a drink.

“Pass,” I said and had a sip of my champagne cocktail. Turning down Jake was one thing I wasn’t going to miss about Kingston. I liked him way better when he acted normal and not all horn-doggy.

“Frankie thinks she’s losing her touch,” Chloë piped up. “Aside from you Jake, she hardly had any guys ask her out all summer. Not what she’s used to.”

“Chlo!” I said, blushing. What was in her drink, truth serum?

“Oh yeah, really?” Jake and Andrew exchanged furtive glances.

“What?” I asked.

“What, what?” Jake replied, infuriatingly.

“That look, that I-know-something-you-don’t-know look. What’s going on?”

Jake smirked at me, drank his beer and said nothing. But luckily for me, Chloë wasn’t the only one drinking truth serum.

“Word was out around here that you were with Jake,” Andrew explained.

I took a moment to figure out what this meant and then it all came together. How that Vern guy took off after the mention of Jake’s name. And various other times, when complete strangers seemed to know who I was. “Are you serious? How can that even be? Everyone in town knows who I am, and whose property I am?”

“It’s Kingston,” Andrew shrugged. “Everybody knows everyone else’s business.”

I turned to Jake, “What are you, the King of Kingston? I don’t even know where to start with what’s wrong with this! You marked me, like some territorial dog, and we weren’t even going out!”

“I knew you were into me. I figured it was just a matter of time.” He seemed totally cool about this. “Besides, we have spent a lot of time together this summer. It’s like we were going out anyway, except for the good part.”

“No, but really? I’d like to know what you said. How did you describe me so everyone knew not to ask me out?”

Andrew explained, “Jake said you were a cute little brunette with big....”

“Brown eyes,” Jake interrupted quickly. “Who wore dresses all the time.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” I said. That was better than I expected. But the whole situation still seemed so macho. “Can I point out that while I was ‘yours’, you seemed to be dating other women all this time? So that wasn’t exactly fair.”

“Whatever. I haven’t been out that much either.” He was obviously through with this subject and started talking to Andrew about soccer. And when I thought about it, I realized that as far as I knew, he hadn’t been out with any other women since he got back from Vegas.”

Who cared, anyway? At least it reassured me that I wasn’t getting all wrinkly or pudgy-looking, and I felt cheered up. I was leaving tomorrow and going back to Vancouver. I raised my cocktail and clinked Chloë’s glass, “Here’s to having had a great summer.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Andrew said happily, and looked at Chloë. They were certainly a cute couple. Jake clinked his glass too, and winked at me. He was probably happy I didn’t go all ballistic on him.

After dinner, Jake and I went for a walk together. Chloë and Andrew had gone back to our house, so it was a way to give the two lovebirds a little privacy. I was already all packed, and a trial run found that Rex could still fit in his carrying case. The mystery of his weight gain had been solved, it turned out that Chloë had been secretly slipping snacks to him, trying to win him over. She confessed when I came home and found them peacefully sitting on the couch together, only a foot apart.

We ended up taking a long walk through the Queen’s campus. Jake would be leaving for L.A. in a week, and he was pretty pumped about that.

“It’s weird. When I’m in L.A., I can hardly wait to get back here. But by the end of the summer, I’m ready to go. I like getting back to playing and seeing all the guys.”

“It’s beautiful here,” I commented. “It looks just like a university in a movie or something.” U.B.C. was a hodgepodge of different building styles and spread over a huge area, whereas Queen’s looked like it was transported from England.

“I guess,” Jake said. “There’s always been tension, y’know, between the school and the town. When the students come in, take over everything and then look down their noses at the place you love, it sucks.”

“Really?” I wondered. Had I been like that too? Making fun of Kingston? I did like the old buildings, the convenience of a small main street, and the beauty of the lake. But the lack of shopping and multiculturalism bothered me, and that fishbowl feeling sucked. It was too easy to mock Kingston. “I’m sorry if I’ve offended you at any time. It’s really different here, and I’ve never lived anywhere but Vancouver. But I did have a great summer.”

“I love this town. I like being back here with my family every summer. Since my mom works for the university, I don’t hate it. But there’s no way I would have gotten into Queen’s with my marks.” He didn’t sound particularly concerned though.

“But your dream came true anyway, right?”

“Yup. My dream was always to play hockey. I was never sure it would all work out, but now….” he smiled contentedly. That was a nice thing about Jake, he really seemed to enjoy life. He had a way of taking things a day at a time that I admired.