Not the One

“Hey, Jane,” I said, when she called me at 10:30 later that night.
“So I confirmed it with Fernando. He said Saturday at 7. That’s two days from today. Are you available? And your girlfriend?”
“Hold on.” I put my phone down and knocked on the bathroom door. It sounded like Tina was taking a shower. I heard her stop the faucet.
“Yes?” She called.
“Jane called. She wanted to know if you want to come to her pool party Saturday at 7.”
“Um, sure. I don’t think I’ll be busy. You’re not, right?”
“No. I’ll tell her we’ll make it.” I went back to my phone.
“Hello?” I said.
“It’s Jane.”
“Yeah, we can make it.”
“Cool! See ya there.” We hung up. I lied down on the bed, waiting for Tina to come out. A part of me wanted to burst through the bathroom door and make love with her in the tub, but I didn’t think Tina would be pleased. Probably not. Maybe. I should be good and keep things slow between us. After all, we met not too long ago. I wouldn’t do that to Jane even if we were going out. Oh, here I went again. Still thinking about Jane. It was like every time I thought about Tina, thoughts of Jane fill my head. What could I possibly do to stop this?
Tina came out fresh and wet. “Hey,” she said seductively. I got up out of bed and carried her in my arms. I placed her gently on the bed and leaned over and kissed her soft lips. Probably the only way to keep my minds off of Jane was to focus on Tina completely. I could do that by closing my eyes and kissing her.

I woke up the next morning to find myself and Tina half naked. Both our tops were gone. We were lying horizontal to the bed. I didn’t remember anything we did. I only remembered kissing her right after she got out of the shower. She was still asleep. I grabbed the blanket and put it over her. She looked so cute sleeping. I gave her a kiss on the forehead and headed for the shower.

When I came out, Tina was lying on the bed, pillows propped behind her, reading a book. It didn’t look like it belonged to the hotel. The title was “How to Live Life”. It sounded like a self-help book of some kind. She must have bought it while she was out.
“Hey, how’s the book?” I asked.
She put her book down face down so her page wouldn’t be lost. “It’s good. I’m learning a lot. You should read it.”
“Do you really need to read a book on how to live life?” I sat down on the edge of the bed next to Tina.
“Well, no. I was just curious to see what was in it. But I really am learning a lot. Things that I never thought I would do, I might actually consider doing them.”
I asked, “Like what?”
“Skydiving, being in an eating contest, riding a horse.”
“Cool. I would do those things with you.” I held her hands with both of mine.
“We should do them after our Paris trip.” I lifted up the blankets and got under. Our feet touched. Mine were cold. Hers were warm.

It was the day of the pool party. Tina and I had the whole day to do whatever we wanted before the party started at 7. We might go a little later so we didn’t seem too eager to go.
“What should I wear? This one or this one?” Tina held up two bikini tops. One was pink and the other was yellow.
“I like the pink one more.” I pointed to it.
“Okay, I was thinking the same. I’ll wear this underneath this white dress,” she said.
“Sounds good.” I gave her a big thumbs up.
“What about you? What are you going to wear?”
“Probably my swim shorts and a gray t-shirt. I don’t really care.” I shrugged.
“All right then.” She continued to pack her bag with her essentials. I didn’t have anything to pack. I never had to bring anything with me when I went places.

For the rest of the day, we stayed in our hotel room, getting ready slowly. We were in no rush to get to the pool party, which took place on the roof. It was only one floor up from where we were. We channel surfed and watched videos on the internet. Most of the shows were in French and the internet webpage had French. We ended up watching a bunch of French commercials on food. That got us hungry so we ordered pastries and coffee.
“So, do you think Jane is completely over you?” Tina asked me suddenly. I wasn’t expecting her to ask something like this.
“Um, I don’t know. She already told me she didn’t like me like that anymore before she left.” I nibbled on a pastry, afraid to say something stupid.
“Well, she could be lying. Maybe she still likes you but afraid to tell you. Especially now that you both have someone.”
“Eh, it doesn’t matter.” But it did. I wanted to know desperately if Jane still liked me. I didn’t know if I should ask her. She would deny it for sure. But even if she did admit to liking me, what would I do? Would I break up with Tina to be with Jane? That would be mean, and I didn’t know if I wanted to do that. I wasn’t sure if seeing Jane here was a good or bad thing. Now that I had seen her, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It was bad enough before seeing her, but now it was really bad.
“Oh, God, I think I’m getting a headache,” I said, aloud. I lied down on the bed with my hand covering holding my head.
“Let me get a warm towel,” Tina said, rushing into the bathroom. I heard her turn on the sink faucet. She came back out with a damp towel. She placed it on my throbbing forehead. She was so caring. I loved that about her. “Is it really bad?”
“Kind of.” I groaned. Tina glanced at the clock.
“The party’s about to start. Should we not go?”
“No, we have to go. I don’t want to seem like I didn’t show up on purpose.” I groaned again.
“But you look tired. Let me call Tina and tell her your situation. She’ll understand,” Tina instructed, going over to the desk reaching for my phone.
“Stop!” I cried, louder than I meant to. Tina looked shocked. She wasn’t expecting me to do that. “Just… don’t. We’re going, and that’s final.”
“Okay…” Tina said, quietly. I felt bad for raising my voice on her. My headache was getting worse. All I could think about was Jane. What would she be wearing at the party? Would I be able to talk to her alone? What would Fernando think of me? I hoped they weren’t serious. “I’m… going out for a bit. I’ll come back later,” Tina said, opening the door and stepping out. What have I done? I was too tired to go after her.