Secretly

*TWO MONTHS LATER*

Jon would never get used to it. Patrick Kane, his best friend and the biggest player in all of Chicago (maybe the United States), was really, actually, going steady.

With an actual person. And only one person.

What was that all about?

Patrick, who usually took forever to get ready, was taking and even longer time to get ready for his date with his next-door neighbor.

Jon was happy for him. Really, he was.

When Patrick called him a month ago to tell him the great news, Jon didn’t believe him, but then he saw it for himself, and at that point, he didn’t really have a choice.

“I asked her out,” Patrick had said, fighting to keep calm. Jon almost dropped the pads he was getting ready to put on. “And she said yes!” It might have been a marriage proposal, the way Kaner was describing it.

A whirlwind of emotions was going through Jon, and he did the first thing that came to mind. He punched his best friend.

“Dude!” He cheered, smiling. Was he smiling too much? “That’s great!”

“She’s here tonight. Watching the game. And then we’re going out,” Patrick couldn’t stop smiling. Neither could Jon. He was really happy for his friend.

He smiled the whole time. Throughout warm ups, and then the whole game through. He smiled when Kaner scored a goal and blew a kiss to Julie, who was sitting right behind the players’ bench. He smiled when they won the game and Patrick rushed to Julie, hugging her over the railing.

He even smiled when they shared a tiny peck in celebration.

He was happy. They’d won the game, and his best friend was with the girl of his dreams. Patrick’s dreams. Not Jon’s dream.

Jon was just dandy.

Now, sitting on Patrick’s couch playing Diablo 3, Jon wasn’t smiling anymore. But that’s because he was losing. And to some guy named BoogerEETER221.

Worse of all, Kaner was singing in the shower. Jon didn’t want to be an ass, but he wouldn’t be picking up the phone to vote any time soon.

Booger was annihilating Jon, and he was getting ready to throw a grenade when he heard a real life scream. It was coming from Julie’s apartment.

Dropping the controller, Jon rushed to the door, out of it, and banged into Julie’s kitchen.

She was hysterical, standing on top of a chair, a look of horror her face.

“Holy Toledo!” she shrieked. “Biggest spider ever! Please help!”

But Jon wasn’t listening. Julie had obviously just come from work. She’d shed her blazer, but was still in a tank tucked inside a pencil skirt, which, in her haste to climb on top of the chair, had ridden way up, exposing softly toned white thighs. And because she was so tall and standing on a chair, her legs were perfectly in line with his eyes.

He just wanted to push that skirt all the way up and –

“Jon!” Julie screamed again. “Help!” Jon looked away, and up.

He shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t his fault though; that tank top was way too sheer. He hoped she hadn’t paid too much for material that thin, because then it would have been a big rip off—

“It was huge,” Julie panted, “Can you see it?” Jon mentally slapped himself.

“Where is it?” he asked, focusing his attention on where Julie was pointing. He walked over to the other side of the kitchen island and studied the floor.

“Be careful,” she warned. “That thing belongs on the Discovery Channel.”

Jon found the spider and started to laugh. It was the tiniest thing ever. He raised his foot to squish it when he felt a hand on his arm.

“No, don’t kill it,” Julie whispered close to his ear, as if the spider might hear and attack her. She’d jumped from the chair and onto the kitchen island. It reminded Jon of when he was little and he used to play island jumping, trying to get around the room by stepping on furniture and strategically placed couch cushions.

She peered over the edge of the island; her legs tucked underneath her, and shuddered when the she saw the spider.

“You can’t kill it,” she whispered again, her breath tickling his ear. “That would be murder. And murder is a crime.”

Jon lowered his foot. “Well, then what should I do with it?”

“I don’t know,” Julie responded, shrugging. “Release it into the wild. Set it free. Just get it out of here.”

Jon laughed, shaking his head. “Jules, I’m not touching that thing.”

Julie’s eyes widen. “Then why did you bang on in here like some kind of hero?!”

“I thought you were being abducted,” Jon shrugged.

“So you’d take on my kidnapper but not a teeny tiny little spider?”

Yes, he wanted to say, He’d take on anyone for her. But he couldn’t exactly say that.

“Are you kidding me? That thing’s huge!” Jon proclaimed incredulously. He added solemnly, “You’re right, it belongs on the Discovery Channel.”

“Jon,” she whined. “Fine. I’ll do all the work and you can do the easy part.” She stood up on the island, towering over him. Those legs of hers were all he could see. She walked until she reached the end, then stepped across to the counter where she fumbled around for a glass.

Jon watched, amused, as she traced her steps back. She laid on her stomach on the island and very slowly, lowered the glass and dropped it on the spider. After waiting ten seconds, she finally got down from the island and breathed a sigh of relief.

“That was the toughest part,” she informed Jon, rooting around in a drawer. “Sometimes, they run.”

“Of course they do,” he nodded, playing along. Finally, she found a piece of paper, which she slid underneath the overturned glass.

“There,” Julie said triumphantly. “Now YOU take it outside and release it.” Jon shook his head, but obeyed, picking the glass contraption up and making his way to the balcony, where Julie opened the door for him.

She stood back as he dumped the spider out of the glass, and when the coast was clear, came out to join him

“Thanks,” she said softly, nudging him with her elbow. “Even though I did all the work.”

Kiss her, Jon urged himself expectantly. Just do it.

And before he could try and talk himself out of it, Jon turned towards her to find that she was turning towards him.