~*~Kevin~*~
We went and picked up the SUV late afternoon and went for Chinese food. Things were fine when I picked her up. Pretty normal. I did notice she is so pretty, and I did think about kissing her. I know she’s pretty, but it’s not something I paid a lot of attention to. Until right now. I tried to block it out of my mind and be cool. Worked most of the time.
"So is this a date?" I was laughing.
"Don’t you do it! If either of us start analyzing ever breath we take we’re gonna have a problem. Mostly because I will kill you. Rip your throat out."
"Ouch, didn’t know you had that violent streak."
"Fiercely protective of my family and friends. So don’t you try and come between me and my best friend. He and I are working on a project." She smiled.
"A project?" I couldn’t wait to hear this one.
"Yes. A remodeling project. Like that?"
"I do like that. This has been cool. Like normal, but I keep thinking about kissing you." Remember that honesty thing?
"Yeah, I keep going there too. Is that off limits?"
Fighting urge to scream "hell no". I’d like to kiss her and actually plan and remember it. "I think so. Not like either of us have good self control, then we’d end up in bed with even more to figure out."
"Hard to back up from there. Although some people have friends with perks."
I crossed my arms over my chest, pretending to hide myself, "Just what are you suggesting! I won’t be your sex toy for some intermittent one night stands." I got serious again, "I can’t do that one. Too weird."
"Me either."
~*~Tracie~*~
I felt a little awkward. Nothing bad. More like I was trying to figure it all out. Trying to see if I saw anything else with him. I did then I didn’t, then I did, then I didn’t. It’s good we said two weeks. I’m gonna need it.
Lee came over that night and we went over everything. Did the girl thing of listing pro’s and con’s. Decided he was probably damn good in bed. Like I needed my mind to go there. She liked the two week trial period thing and thought we should be together as much as possible. After a few margaritas she looked over, "Don’t forget the feeling part."
"What feeling part?"
"How you feel about him. Don’t forget to take that into consideration."
"I love him."
"Yes. But do you love him, or do you love him love him?"
I just looked at her.
~*~Lee~*~
She loves him loves him. It’ll come back to her.
Little did I know AJ was having a similar conversation with Kevin. They were out driving the new car. Checking out beaches. To find the best one so Kevin could take Tracie there. AJ said he almost ate the steering wheel with that one. Kevin was sitting there planning a romantic get away while talking about how things were pretty much the same, just friends.
We got together the next day. Yeah, it looks like it’s just friends, maybe even sounds like it, but it doesn’t feel that way. Both of us noticed a difference in how they talked about each other.
AJ and Angela had broken up and he was going to be my date. We couldn’t wait to see the show that night. The Kevin and Tracie show.
~*~Kevin~*~
AJ made a good point. If we were gonna see what was going on we needed to be together a lot. I hung out at the pool all week, and we went to movies and dinner and shopping. Lee had a benefit this Friday and we were all going. Tracie and I had planned to go together weeks ago. It was formal and I had the tux all ready. We passed a boutique for dresses in the Mall and went looking for her. I found out pretty fast that maybe this wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had. I kept pointing out the slightly revealing sexy ones. Nothing to flashy. The things I liked. Like this was a real date and I wanted to participate in dressing her. We got ice cream in the food court, "Is this thing a real date?"
"It feels like one doesn’t it?"
I couldn’t stop watching her lick that cone and use her teeth to pull out the pieces of Reese cups. "Yeah. Friendly sort of date?"
She laughed, "That works. I’ll take your opinion into consideration as I choose my dress."
"You don’t have a dress yet? Let’s go try em on!" Immediately realized that wouldn’t be a good idea. I was having enough "trouble" right now. No more ice cream.
"No way. Lee and I are shopping on Thursday. We have two more days to diet and tan."
"You don’t need to diet."
She smiled, "Thank you, Kevlyn."
Yep, she’s a girl.
~*~Tracie~*~
The next few days were very normal. The Mall had been a definite not just friend thing. He is never allowed to eat ice cream in my presence again. He’d take these long licks, the use the tip of his tongue to dig out the pecans. Bad, bad, bad.
~*~AJ~*~
He’s usually not that easy to convince of things. When I mentioned they should spend a lot of time together he agreed WAY too easy. It was a test. They spend a lot of time together anyway. He bit. He’s sunk. In a good way.
We spent Friday in the studio. He was distracted. It was funny as shit. His mind was not with us. We order pizza in for lunch and sat around. "So Nick, is Pam coming tonight?"
He laughed, "Of course. She wouldn’t miss an opportunity to dress up like this."
Brian laughed, "All girls like to dress up. I bet she’ll look beautiful. How are things going?"
"Better I think. I’m not gonna stress on it. She either trusts me or not. We’ll see how it goes tonight. Her dress is great, light blue with those little straps. Looks great on."
I didn’t think it was gonna go well, "So Kevin, what is Tracie wearing?"
He never looked up from his pizza, "No idea."
The four of us looked at each other. I got to be spokesman, "She won’t tell you?" The others laughed.
"She and Lee are shopping today."
Nick got that mischievous grin, "So is this a date?"
"It’s a friendly date. We’re taking a look at options."
Howie cracked up, "About damn time."
"What do you mean by that?"
"What he means is that you two go out on more dates than anyone who is really dating. About time you looked to see if you were dating or not."
Kevin sighed, "I’m not going to risk our friendship. Means to much to me."
All four of us rolled our eyes, he missed it.
~*~Lee~*~
I love shopping for pretty dresses. It’s a girl thing. Sometimes it’s great to be a girly girl. I went for dark blue with a slightly full skirt. A little bigger dress as the hostess/planner of this. I like to stand out. Tracie chose a dress designed to kill Kevin.
