The Truth Is...

"Have you ever met Claudia’s neighbor?” James as Colin curiously as they sat back on the couch in his house.

Colin glanced over at him, eyebrow raised at James as he asked, “The guy? What’s his name again?”

“Ryan.” James muttered.

“Yeah, I think I’ve met him once or twice. Seems like a nice guy. Why?” Colin asked him, eyebrow still raised and James still had a pouty look on his face.

“She’s dating him now.” James told him, adding in with annoyance clear in his voice, “For like the last two weeks.”

“So?” Colin asked, and when James simply stared at his jean clad knees so hard Colin was sure they were going to light on fire he told him, “Dude, she can’t just wait around on you to figure it out forever.”

“I never asked her to!” James exclaimed, and then when Colin’s words really sunk in he turned to the blonde next to him and stated, rather pathetically, “I don’t even like her in that way.”

Colin let out a laugh, “Yeah, okay. Everyone and their mother knows you’ve been into Claudia for forever.”

James rolled his eyes and tried to come up with some kind of witty retort but all that came out was a sigh and, “Okay, so yeah, maybe I do like her.”

“And now she’s dating her neighbor.” Colin stated out loud and James nodded his head.

“You know he’s vegan.” James noted.

With a quirked eyebrow Colin asked him, “And? What’s wrong with that?”

“And Claudia is allergic to soy and the guy keeps taking her to vegan places. I mean, if a girl I was seeing had a soy allergy I wouldn’t take her to restaurants where practically everything is cooked with soy.” James stated in annoyance, adding in, “And Claudia’s so fucking complacent with guys that she just goes along with it.”

“It’s her life man. There’s nothing you can really do about it short of professing your feelings and hoping that makes her ditch the guy for you.” Colin told him, and when James got a look on his face as if he was thinking about that option Colin was quick to add in, “And then you have to deal with an actual relationship with her, you can’t just tell her how you feel and then think she’s not gonna want anything in return from you.”

“Relationships aren’t that bad.” James stated, but then the more he thought about it the easier it was to admit, “Not that I would really know, I’ve never been able to make one work.”

“Exactly. Dude, not trying to be harsh, I’m really not, but you need to seriously think this thing through before doing it. You can’t fuck with her life like that if you’re not serious about it.”

Colin was right and James hated that. As much as he hated Claudia dating this guy he knew there was no point in telling her how he feels about her for a multitude of reasons. The first being that he wasn’t even sure exactly how he felt about her, the second was that he wasn’t sure he could handle rejection from her of all people and the third reason was because how arrogant did someone have to be to come in and screw up someone’s life when they weren’t even sure what they wanted from that person?

Things would go back to normal, eventually. He hoped.


Yet another meal shared where Claudia had barely eaten anything and was already thinking about what she had at home to make later. This was starting to get tiring but she just wasn’t sure how else to tell him that he needed to pick places that weren’t just vegan. Surely there were restaurants that catered to both vegan’s and not. Claudia just wasn’t sure how many other ways there were to tell someone that.

They were in Ryan’s vehicle, Claudia was learning that he was a bit of a control freak, because he always picked where they were going, he always drove them, and tonight he had ordered for her. She found it cute when James ordered for her because he truly knew what she liked but with Ryan she simply found it annoying.

How did she tell someone that everything about their personality pissed her off?

This was exactly why she didn’t like dating.

Ryan glanced at her as he drove them home and he pointed out, “You’re quiet.”

“It’s just been a long couple of weeks.” Claudia told him, adding in an explanation of, “There’s just a lot going on with James and he hasn’t really been talking to me and I guess it’s just stressing me out.”

“So… while we’re on a date you’re thinking about another guy?” He asked her in annoyance.

Claudia sighed and told him, “It’s not like that. I haven’t been thinking about him, you asked why I was quiet and I told you I was quiet because there’s been a lot going on in my life lately. He’s a friend, it’s not like this would be an issue if he had boobs.”

Ryan rolled his eyes, “It would make me a lot less uncomfortable, yeah.”

“Whatever, let’s just talk about something else.” Claudia muttered, turning her head to look out of the window. What on earth had she gotten herself into?

“How was your dinner?” He asked her.

“It was good.” Why had she bothered to lie?

The rest of the ride home fell into the category of awkward silences, and Claudia had never been so happy to get out of a car in her life before. She tried not to slam the door as she got out and headed to the sidewalk, she was surprised when Ryan fell into the spot next to her and walked her to her front door.

She unlocked the door, propped it open against her hip and then turned to him with a small smile, “Well… thanks for dinner.”

“Aren’t you gonna invite me in?” She was genuinely surprised when he asked her that and perhaps that was why she stepped aside to let him into her condo.

As she slipped out of her shoes he followed her lead and did the same with his, tucking them neatly by the door next to her high heels. Claudia went into the kitchen and she asked him, “Do you want anything to drink? Some wine or something?”

“Yeah, sure.”

So she busied herself getting two wine glasses from the wine glass hanger on the bottom of the cupboard above the dishwasher. She then grabbed a bottle of wine from the little bottle holder on the counter, pouring a rather small amount into each glass because frankly she wanted him to leave as soon as possible. She really needed to learn how to say no to people.

Ryan was standing by the fireplace that had been blocked off but left in the condo years ago, he had a picture frame in his hand, one of her and James after his overtime winner in round three of the playoffs that year. Suddenly she wished she had canceled her dinner plans and went out with him, Colin and Lucca after all.

She cleared her throat as she headed to the couch and Ryan put the frame back, she noted he laid it face down on the mantle. She handed him a glass, taking a drink of her own wine as he looked down at the liquid in his. Could you please hurry up and drink that?

She was relieved when he took a drink, but then he set his wine glass down on the coffee table and took hers from her to do the same with it. Claudia looked over at him and asked, “Do you not like red? I think I have some white but it’s not chilled.”

She wasn’t a red wine fan, but she figured there would be less of a chance of her being talked into a second glass if she poured them each a glass of red.

“No it’s fine. I didn’t really even want any, but you offered.” He told her, watching as she nodded her head slowly.

I asked, but same thing I guess.

Claudia was more than surprised when Ryan grabbed the sides of her face, leaned over and kissed her. She kissed him back out of nothing but reflex and instinct but eventually she was the first to pull back, and he shot her a smile before one of his hands slid from her cheek to the back of her neck and he pulled her back in for another kiss, this time, this one, was a little less sweet.

She was aware of his palm spreading out on her knee, his fingers pushing underneath the hem of her skirt just the slightest, she was glad that he didn’t try to move his hand after that. Instead, Claudia pulled back slightly from his lips and said, “I uhm, I just… we should stop.”

“Come on. Live a little.” He told her, leaning over to hiss her again, this time his palm slipped up a few inches to her thigh, underneath the fabric of her skirt.

She shifted slightly away from him and when he pulled away from her lips for a second she took the opportunity to tell him, “Please stop.”

When his hand had her skirt pushed up to the middle of her thigh and his fingers brushed against the fabric of her underwear Claudia tried to pull away from him as he leaned over and kissed her again but his vice grip on the back of her neck held her in place.

She waited until his grip loosened enough for her to shove his hand out from underneath her skirt and to get up from the couch and she told him, “Seriously, I said stop.”

Ryan looked at her, standing up as well, he towered over her just the slightest, rolled his eyes and told her, “So you’re one of those girls who thinks it’s okay to lead a guy on and then stop before we get to the good part? Wow.”

She flinched just slightly when he slammed the door closed behind him, but once the door closed she let out a sigh of relief.


“Alright, what am I labeling this box as?” Claudia asked James as she sat on the floor of his living room with a box in front of her and about six other ones scattered around the room between the living room and kitchen.

“What’s in it again?” He asked her as he walked out of the kitchen with his arms filled with cookware and kitchen gadgets he was sure he hadn’t used in the three years that he had them in his kitchen.

As he packed those things away in a box, carefully wrapping each breakable item in a towel before delicately placing it in the box Claudia glanced into the contents of the box in front of her and she told him, “Not breakable knickknacks and some dog stuff.”

“Just put living room on it.” He told her and in response she rolled her eyes at him.

“Original.” She muttered as she wrote that on the two sides of the box.

He watched as she leaned over, resting her elbow on the floor as she typed into her computer for a second and then half a minute later the printer, which was connected to the computer and plugged into an extension cord across the floor, spit out a piece of paper. Claudia had found it somewhere upstairs, James honestly couldn’t say where she had found it because he had forgotten that he had even bought a printer.

James leaned over and read what was on the paper that Claudia was currently taping to the box and he grinned and said, “You’re putting down what’s in each box? I knew you were a geek, but jeez Claudia, come on, even I can’t help you with that one.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and told him, “Trust me, you will appreciate this when it comes time to unpack and you’ve forgotten what’s in each box and what goes where.”

He shrugged, “I was just planning on leaving the boxes I wasn’t sure about for you to do.”

With a laugh Claudia told him, “It’s in my own personal rule book not to help fools out.”

“Uncalled for.” James told her, feigning annoyance with a huff as he went back to packing up his own box and Claudia started on the next one.

Claudia glanced over at him and she said, “I was thinking we should talk about this whole Vegas thing, actually.”

James figured he would save himself the awkwardness by telling her, “No hard feelings, I get it.”

“What?” She asked him, eyebrow quirked as she watched him, waiting for an explanation for his attempt to speak for her.

James took an extra few seconds getting the box in front of him to close before he turned to Claudia, put on his best fake smile and told her, “You’re not coming, I get it, you’ve got something here worth staying for now. Honestly, I don’t think I ever really thought you would come with me anyway so it’s not like this was a big surprise.”

“What are you talking about?” She asked him, a hint of annoyance clear in the tone of her voice.

“Ryan, that’s what I’m talking about.” James muttered as he pulled another folded up box toward him and unfolded it, hooking the bottom together before he set it upright and started to fill it with left over stuff from the kitchen that he knew he wouldn’t be using any time soon.

Claudia rolled her eyes and told him, “And what, you just assume that because I’ve been casually seeing someone that I’ve suddenly made up my mind?”

“It’s pretty fucking obvious Claudia.” James spat out, glancing over at her for only a second before going back to packing.

It was infuriating her so she stopped what she was doing, crossed her arms over her chest and told him firmly, “You’re acting like such a brat right now. Seriously, you’re mad at me for dating someone? What is this middle school?”

“Just forget it.”

“No, you don’t get to start this and then pull out of the argument when it’s not going your way. I’m sorry you’re upset over your life right now but it’s time to grow the fuck up James. You can only play the whole ‘my pride is wounded’ game over this whole expansion draft thing for so long before it starts to get old and let me tell you, it’s starting to get really fucking old.” Claudia told him, rolling her eyes when he simply shrugged. His silence made her blood boil and she continued on her war path, “That’s how this is gonna be? You start this and then I get the silent treatment from you? Are you joking right now?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.” James told her honestly, watching as she rolled her eyes again.

Tugging her hair from her face Claudia spat out, “Jesus fuck this is ridiculous. You know what, I was gonna tell you that I want to go with you but now I’m not so sure. All because you’re acting like a two year old over a guy that I’m not even seeing anymore!”

“Wait… you’re not?” James asked her. He was aware that she had said that she wanted to go with him to Vegas but the only thing his mind could comprehend to respond to was the part about the end of her casual relationship with Ryan.

“Yeah. I ended things yesterday. Well, actually, no, if I’m being honest he did because I wouldn’t sleep with him and apparently two weeks of waiting was long enough. I said no twice and he still tried to shove his hand down my pants and then when I said no a third time he got pissed off, told me I shouldn’t have lead him on and then slammed the front door on the way out. But thanks for caring.” Claudia told him, looking down at her feet on the hardwood as she spoke.

“I’m gonna kill him.” James stated, and then his expression softened, he sighed and said, “He’s an idiot and you deserve way better.”

She scoffed, “You just threw a hissy fit and now you’re telling me what I deserve? Fuck you.”

James looked down at the floor and sighed, and after a long period of silence between the two of them he mumbled, “This isn’t how I wanted this to go.”

“What? Oh, well what a relief you didn’t actually want to start this fight.” Claudia muttered in response, rolling her eyes for good measure.

James looked up at her with soft eyes and he told her quietly, “No, this; you and I. I wanted… after we slept together I just wanted things to… and then you were dating your neighbor… this isn’t how I wanted things to go.”

“You made it perfectly fucking clear that you didn’t want me like that.” Claudia reminded him, both out of surprise and confusion from his quiet words only seconds before. What was he trying to say to her?

The words came tumbling out before he could think of a better way to say them, “I thought we could go back to normal but then it just bugged the fuck out of me that I wasn’t him.”