Tonight, Not Again

Rob
After several months of going back and forth with myself and what I wanted out of this obscure relationship, I decided I need to turn it up a notch. It was unfair of me to keep stringing the girl along like that, even if all we initially signed up for was some good sex. I’d had enough with wondering whether or not she was fucking other guys, and whether or not she got the same feeling looking at me as I did looking at her.
In retrospect, I was probably a little too gung-ho about it all at first. I stayed at Zoey’s house for weeks at a time (much to Adrienne’s dismay). At first she pretended to be put off by the idea but every morning she woke up smiling, nestling into my chest. After a while, I was beginning to forget what my flat looked like. We spent a lot of time on the beach. Zoey pestered me until no end about surfing, but when I finally let her teach me I ended up smacking her in the face with the board. Her mom eventually warmed up to the idea of me being around, though she was still fond of staring me down when Zoey wasn’t paying attention. Everyone thought we were dating, which eventually lead the two of us to believe we were as well. I was just biding my time really.

…

“Are you ready?” Zoey shouted at me from inside the bathroom. She’d been shouting at me all day. We were going to a concert and excited was an understatement.
“I really should be asking you,” I retorted. I had been ready hours before and was now lying on her bed. A tube of mascara hit me in the stomach.
Zoey stepped out of the bathroom, hair wild around her face. The plain white t-shirt she had on stood out against her tan skin and the black pants she’d tucked into black boots made her look oh-so-sexy.
“Stop messing around Rob,” she smiled. “Let’s go.”

I thanked my lucky stars that the place was so incredibly crowded—nobody even noticed us. Zoey looped her arm through mine and we walked down the aisle. I felt her reach into my back pocket for the tickets.
“No fucking way.” Her voice went about three octaves higher. “We’re that close?”
“Would you rather be up there?” I pointed to the tip top of the stadium, nudging her. Zoey’s eyes narrowed. Around the time we’d gotten together, she said that she had never once sat down at a concert. I wasn’t about to ruin the streak.
As it got closer and closer, Zoey got more and more talkative. At this point I’d heard all of the band members names at least fifty times, along with a brief history lesson. After we’d had a few beers, the lights went down. I heard Zoey inhale sharply and felt her hand tightly close around my arm.
“Oh man,” she sighed. The music started and all I could do was watch Zoey. Every single word left her mouth and she danced around beside me.
It hadn’t been like this with Kristen or Katie or whoever else I happened to have been hung up on.

“God I love you,” I chuckled, thinking she was too far into her own world to hear me. But she stopped. The rest of the crowd disappeared into the distance. Even the band was muffled.
“You do?” She’d grabbed onto my arm again, as if to stop from toppling over.
“Well, yeah.” I guessed it was now or never.
“No you don’t.” Zoey shook her head, smiling like it was a big joke.
“But I do.” I felt my heart stop. If she didn’t feel the same way, I’d probably walk out of the arena.
“No.” Her brow knitted as she looked up at me. Her voice faltered.
“Zoey. Yes.” I frowned at her.
“But you’re…and I’m…” She fumbled with her words.
“Well that doesn’t make any sense.” I turned away from the stage. “What do you think all of this is?”
“I, I don’t know?”
“Do you know now?” As much as I wanted to kiss her, I was getting a little irritated. “It’s not like this at all for you, is it?”
Zoey just stared at me.
“I knew it. God dammit, Zoey.”
I weaved my way through the crowd, feeling a little more weighted down with each step. When I got to the doors, I looked over my shoulder. She wasn’t behind me.

Zoey
“Excuse me!” I pushed my way through the haze of smoke. I was sure my shirt would look like one big beer rag by the time I got to where I wanted to be. “I need to—ah! Excuse me!”
My mouth was dry and my heart was beating faster than drums I’d left three hundred feet behind me. He was gone.
“Rob!” I resorted to shouting the rest of the way. He couldn’t have gotten that far ahead. It took about five seconds for me to realize that I hadn’t spoken to chase after him. “Rob!”
I rushed past the crowd hovering around the doors and practically fell trying to get through them. My eyes were bleary, but I spotted the back of my man walking toward the alcohol.
“Rob!” I shouted once more and took off sprinting when he didn’t answer. “Rob!”
He turned around, shaking his head as if to ask me what the hell I wanted. I didn’t give him time to open his mouth. I thought jumping his bones would let me get my point across more quickly.
I could faintly taste the beer and cigarettes and the cinnamon gum that he chewed. My fingers wove through his hair. He staggered back a little, catching his balance as he grabbed onto me. He kissed me harshly, and I kissed back even harder. I was sure we were making a scene.
“Don’t ever do that again.” He breathed heavily, kissing my chin. “Ever.”
“I love you.” I smiled, giving into the temptation of smothering in kisses. “It’s been, ah, so long.”
“Tell me about it.”
“You were never seeing anyone else, were you?” My breathing had become just as ragged as his.
“No.”
“Me neither.”
“I was so—”
“Me too—”
“I thought you—”
“I did too.”
Rob pushed back my hair, smiling at me like a fool. I smiled back.

This was exactly where I wanted to be.