means.
The cold beer seemed to quiet the fire inside of me just enough to dull my defenses and allow me to fully play my part, though my part carried me back to a part of my life I thought I’d moved past. I had to go from being the new me to the old me, from being Trish, the solid, strong, ambitious woman who wouldn’t put up with any shit, to being Patty again… Patty, the naïve, backward girl who spent her better days behind locked doors, planted next to a geek named Tommy who didn’t yet know how to be a real man.
Being Patty was a bit of a pain, in several ways, and it required me to do some psychological backpedaling—but, it wasn’t entirely without its advantages. When Tommy tried to ask how my efforts at clearing my name were going, I quickly changed the subject, and he quickly followed my lead.
“You know,” I said, avoiding the questions Tommy posed, “back in college, if you’d told me I’d be involved in something like this, I would have told you you were insane.”
Tommy laughed a bit at my remark. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “There was a lot we couldn’t have seen coming… and I mean a lot . We were both pretty studious and ambitious back then, but who’d have even thunk we’d both land jobs at major, top-notch tech firms, let alone end up in a mess like this?”
“And who’d have thunk you’d go from being such a geek to such a hunk?” I added, feeling the booze take greater effect.
“So you like what you see?” Tommy asked, winking at me.
“Well, compared to how you used to look,” I replied. “We both have to admit, you’ve come pretty far.”
“I guess that’s true,” Tommy replied. “I really was a dweeb back then… But you —you were always hot… and you’re even hotter now.”
“Thanks,” I said. Shitty as the situation was, I still took the compliment well, and swallowed it with a teaspoon of sugar rather than a grain of salt.
“Do you ever talk to anyone else from back then?” I asked. It was a probing question, but it followed the path of where our conversation was going.
“Not really,” Tommy replied, obviously lying. He’d known Gretchen back then, and dated her as recently as a year ago, which, in my opinion, should have made any real, honest man answer my question differently.
“Me either,” I said, obviously lying as well. I’d already dragged J.R. into this thing with Tommy, and there was no way in hell I was going to do the same thing to Julie, who, if you’ll remember, had once upon a time been my all-American college friend who lived in the same dorm as me.
I specifically avoided mentioning my current affiliation with Julie, and, as Tommy and I went on to talk about people we knew back in the good ole days, I specifically avoiding mentioning her again. Instead, we talked about some of the other computer geeks we knew, wondering what they were up to, sharing rumors, and reminiscing about this or that.
The conversation kept flowing, and so did the drinks, and I was playing my part so well that I nearly forget I was playing a part at all… nearly. Every once in a while, when Tommy said something nostalgic or sentimental, my heart couldn’t help but swell a little—and every time I stared at his stealthy body when he got up to get me another beer, my girl parts couldn’t help but throb and twitch a bit. I had to repeatedly remind myself of the situation, and repeatedly tell myself that, no matter what he sounded or looked like, Tommy Ferguson was up to no good.
~ Chapter 3 ~
“What time is it?” I asked, rolling over in what I thought was my bed. The sunlight coming in through the window was much brighter than it should be at any hour I was used to waking up at, and it made my skin feel uncomfortably warm against the blue flannel sheets.
Wait a minute , I thought to myself, touching the fabric, I don’t own any blue flannel sheets .
I shot straight up and sat at full attention, staring around the bright, modern
The cold beer seemed to quiet the fire inside of me just enough to dull my defenses and allow me to fully play my part, though my part carried me back to a part of my life I thought I’d moved past. I had to go from being the new me to the old me, from being Trish, the solid, strong, ambitious woman who wouldn’t put up with any shit, to being Patty again… Patty, the naïve, backward girl who spent her better days behind locked doors, planted next to a geek named Tommy who didn’t yet know how to be a real man.
Being Patty was a bit of a pain, in several ways, and it required me to do some psychological backpedaling—but, it wasn’t entirely without its advantages. When Tommy tried to ask how my efforts at clearing my name were going, I quickly changed the subject, and he quickly followed my lead.
“You know,” I said, avoiding the questions Tommy posed, “back in college, if you’d told me I’d be involved in something like this, I would have told you you were insane.”
Tommy laughed a bit at my remark. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “There was a lot we couldn’t have seen coming… and I mean a lot . We were both pretty studious and ambitious back then, but who’d have even thunk we’d both land jobs at major, top-notch tech firms, let alone end up in a mess like this?”
“And who’d have thunk you’d go from being such a geek to such a hunk?” I added, feeling the booze take greater effect.
“So you like what you see?” Tommy asked, winking at me.
“Well, compared to how you used to look,” I replied. “We both have to admit, you’ve come pretty far.”
“I guess that’s true,” Tommy replied. “I really was a dweeb back then… But you —you were always hot… and you’re even hotter now.”
“Thanks,” I said. Shitty as the situation was, I still took the compliment well, and swallowed it with a teaspoon of sugar rather than a grain of salt.
“Do you ever talk to anyone else from back then?” I asked. It was a probing question, but it followed the path of where our conversation was going.
“Not really,” Tommy replied, obviously lying. He’d known Gretchen back then, and dated her as recently as a year ago, which, in my opinion, should have made any real, honest man answer my question differently.
“Me either,” I said, obviously lying as well. I’d already dragged J.R. into this thing with Tommy, and there was no way in hell I was going to do the same thing to Julie, who, if you’ll remember, had once upon a time been my all-American college friend who lived in the same dorm as me.
I specifically avoided mentioning my current affiliation with Julie, and, as Tommy and I went on to talk about people we knew back in the good ole days, I specifically avoiding mentioning her again. Instead, we talked about some of the other computer geeks we knew, wondering what they were up to, sharing rumors, and reminiscing about this or that.
The conversation kept flowing, and so did the drinks, and I was playing my part so well that I nearly forget I was playing a part at all… nearly. Every once in a while, when Tommy said something nostalgic or sentimental, my heart couldn’t help but swell a little—and every time I stared at his stealthy body when he got up to get me another beer, my girl parts couldn’t help but throb and twitch a bit. I had to repeatedly remind myself of the situation, and repeatedly tell myself that, no matter what he sounded or looked like, Tommy Ferguson was up to no good.
~ Chapter 3 ~
“What time is it?” I asked, rolling over in what I thought was my bed. The sunlight coming in through the window was much brighter than it should be at any hour I was used to waking up at, and it made my skin feel uncomfortably warm against the blue flannel sheets.
Wait a minute , I thought to myself, touching the fabric, I don’t own any blue flannel sheets .
I shot straight up and sat at full attention, staring around the bright, modern
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