Manage Me

Katie and I were making our way through the local grocery store. It was a Thursday night, which meant we were stocking up for the week. Katie insisted it had to be Thursday since everyone else would either be going on Friday or Sunday and Saturday was just full of the drunks. Her logic didn’t quite make sense to me, but I went along with it. It was Katie we were talking about after all. I was putty in her tiny palm.

I had to admit, having Katie around made me a hell of a lot happier. It had only been two and a half weeks of her living in the pool house, but I couldn’t imagine her not being here. Most of the time it didn’t even feel like she was working for me. Sure, she cleaned, but most of the time I helped her. It was more like she was my roommate.

My roommate that I desperately wanted to throw on my bed and make sweet, sweet love to.

She made it so much worse with her quick hugs and kisses on the cheek when she was saying thank you. Every touch made me shiver, but I was still being a pussy and refusing to admit my feelings to her. I was going to change that though. I swear to God, I was going to ask her out, ask her to be mine. I just needed to wait for the perfect opportunity. And right now, standing in the grocery store with Katie contemplating whether or not to buy whole wheat or white bread, did not seem like the right time.

She finally threw up her hands in defeat and turned to me. Her eyes were pleading with me as she held up both packets of bread and I couldn’t help but laugh. She just looked so adorable.

“Jaaaaaack.” She whined. “It’s not funny. What bread do you want?” I shrugged and she huffed.

“No one’s life depends on this decision, Katie.” I chuckled. “Get whatever bread you want. Either way, we’ll be fine.” She bit her lip, contemplating for a moment, before throwing both breads in the cart and continuing on her way.

I smiled as I stood behind her a bit. She didn’t even realize it, but her hips were shifting back and forth in the sexiest way possible, drawing my eyes straight to her blue jean covered shorts. A shudder made its way down my spine. I allowed myself to watch her for one more second before quickly catching up. There was no way I would let Katie catch me staring at her.

She stopped the cart abruptly and I almost ran into her. She whipped around faster than I thought possible. She looked distraught as she almost began running the opposite way. Without hesitation, I ran after her. My long legs allowed me to overtake her within mere moments, and I gently grasped her upper arm. She glared at me and then her face softened, as if she hadn’t expected the person grabbing her to be me.

“Katie, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing.” She said airily, her voice higher than normal. “I just realized we forgot something in the other aisle. Gotta make sure we get it.” She smiled at me, but it was forced and tense.

“What is it? I’ll go get it.” I took a step but Katie’s hand shot out and clutched my arm with surprising force.

“No! No, I’ll come with you. It’s fine.” I stared at her for a moment. Something was off.

“Why is it that we always run into each other at the grocery store, Kates?” A haughty, almost taunting voice, asked from behind us.

Katie stiffened, her fingers digging into my skin. She forced herself to release my arm after a second or two, and slowly turned on her heel. I followed her lead, frowning. A blonde guy was standing in front of us. He was smirking and something about that fact alone made me want to punch him. Of course, the fact that his eyes were raking over Katie’s body, pausing noticeably at her boobs, and the way she seemed visibly uncomfortable didn’t help that matter either.

“You never answered my call the last time I saw you. Why is that?” Katie’s eyes snapped to meet his and I felt a wave of hostility roll over her.

“You mean when I caught you buying condoms with that walking STD? Yeah, sorry, I was afraid of catching your herpes through the phone. Oh, and I didn’t want to talk to you.”

“Oh, Katie.” He laughed. I clenched my fists. This prick was walking a thin line right now. “You know better than anyone else that I don’t have herpes.” Katie’s face flushed red.

The anger that suddenly roared inside of me was like nothing I had ever felt before. Images of Katie wrapped in the arms of this douchebag filled my mind. My fists clenched even tighter and I opened my mouth to say something when Katie cut me off.

“Who knows what the fuck has infested your ballsack in the past three years, Matthew. It can’t be anything good considering what complete and utter shit you look like. Outside finally reflecting your inside, huh?” Venom dripped from every word coming out of Katie’s plush lips. I stared at her, completely shocked. Other than the time she had swore at Lily outside of my house, I had almost never heard her swear or sound this angry. I actually felt a little sorry for the guy. “And I swear to God, if you are not out of my sight within the next three seconds I’ll make sure you never have another child again. Got it?”

The stranger just stood there, mouth hanging open. She narrowed her eyes at him and held up one single finger. That was all it took for him to stumble away. Katie’s shoulders sagged as soon as he was out of sight and she turned to me. Her thin arms wound their way around my waist and I immediately pulled her closer. I took a deep breath of her sweet coconut scent, feeling my anger dissipate as it invaded my mind. She snuggled deeper into my chest and I felt my heartbeat pick up speed. Her hugs had never been like this before. They were always quick, as if she was afraid of touching me for longer than necessary. Normally, I was the one who tried to hold on longer. But this time, Katie was clinging to me. I had to say, it was a nice change.

She pulled away after a few more moments. I frowned at the loss of contact, but covered it up quickly. Her face was dry, but I could still see the hurt in her eyes. She took a deep breath and released it in a huff. Her eyes trailed up to meet mine and I smiled at her softly.

“Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it. Are you okay?”

“Of course.” She nodded her head vigorously. “He’s just an ex. Whatever.”

There was something about the way she said ‘ex’ that made me feel weird. Her tone seemed particularly poisonous. Even on the rare occasion that I talked about Holly I knew I never sounded that hostile. Obviously, there was something more to whoever that guy was.

“C’mon. I’m pretty sure we have everything. I can always come back tomorrow if we missed something.”

My brow furrowed. Katie just began walking towards the check-out area. I walked after her, but my mind was still filled with confusion. Katie hated shopping on Fridays. That was the whole reason we did this on Thursday nights in the first place. If she was seriously risking having to return here tomorrow I knew something was more than wrong.

We both kept quiet as I paid and Katie began hauling all of the bags towards the car. I took half of them from her as soon as I caught up, but she didn’t say a word. The car ride home was silent too, not even the radio playing. I parked and Katie reached out to open her door, but then hesitated and turned to me. Indecision painted her small features.

“I’m sorry about what happened at the store, Jack.” She sighed, eyes downcast. “My history with Matt…well it’s complicated. I didn’t mean to react like that.”

That was definitely not something I expected her to say. I didn’t know why she felt the need to apologize. As far as I was concerned that jackass deserved everything Katie had said to him and more. She nibbled on her bottom lip as we sat there and then I cleared my throat. She shifted her eyes to mine.

“You have no reason to apologize, Katie. That guy seemed like a grade A asshole. Compared to what I wanted to do to him, you were an angel.”

She smiled, a light pink dusting her cheeks. I reached out to brush a strand of hair out of her face. Her white teeth sank into her bottom lip again. We both shifted towards each other subtly. Her eyes fluttered shut and my hand cradled her cheek. As soon as my breath hit her lips, she jumped back slightly. I didn’t move from my position as Katie’s eyes darted around the car, landing on anything except for me.

“Hey, Katie?” My voice sounded remarkably calm and upbeat for what I was about to do. She dragged her blue orbs over to my face, fingers twisting together.

“Yeah?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Wanna go on a date?”