Page 8

Will

I wander off with Lauren to watch her rotate the wine barrels. I’m not really paying attention though, instead half listening to Ellen and Tommy as they catch up, their laughter echoing all the way to the back of the shed.

I’m not usually a jealous guy but there’s something about this Tommy guy that’s got me worked up for some reason.

The way his eyes lit up when he saw Ellen, the way he hugged her, his arms lingering a bit too long for my liking.

“Will?”

Lauren’s voice cuts through my obsessive thoughts. “Yeah, what?”

She smiles at me as she indicates the rows of wine barrels that must be stacked about ten high on some sort of wooden rack. “Did you wanna learn?”

I shrug as I walk over to her.

“You okay?”

I let out a long exhale, not sure why I’m about to ask this question, but apparently unable to stop myself. “What’s the deal with Tommy?”

Now it’s Lauren who’s shrugging. “Nothing,” she says. “We’ve known him forever. ”

“So, Ellen and him,” I start, forcing myself to try and act casual as though I’m only asking to make conversation, not because I’m jealous. “Did they ever…you know, date?”

Lauren laughs, shaking her head as she grabs some sort of remote control panel and starts punching the buttons. The low hum of an engine starts up and I look up, watch as the mechanism that’s linked to the rack starts slowly rotating the wine barrels one by one.

“Wow,” I murmur, my nerdy engineer side impressed at how the whole thing works.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Lauren says just as the sound of laughter rings out.

I turn and even though it’s dark in the back of the shed, the light streaming through the open door shows Tommy and Ellen in silhouette. I watch as they both laugh at something, Tommy extending his arm as his hand falls on Ellen’s shoulder.

She doesn’t move, instead, her own hand reaches out and lands on Tommy’s chest as they both continue to laugh at whatever it is that both of them finds funny.

I feel my chest tighten as I watch them, a weird surge of possessive jealousy coursing through me. It’s not that I don’t trust Ellen, I do. I guess I’ve just never had to see her with another guy. Especially not one she’s so…so familiar with.

“He’s just a friend,” Lauren says and when I turn, I see her standing beside me, watching her sister and Tommy.

“Uh huh,” I reply, as I walk back toward the front of the shed.

Neither of them notices my approach and it’s not until I slide my arm around Ellen’s shoulders that she even realizes I’m there.

“Hey,” I say, pressing a kiss to her temple. “We were gonna go into Napa and grab some lunch,” I remind her. “We should get going? ”

Ellen turns and smiles at me. “Yes,” she replies, before turning back to Tommy. “Do you want to come?”

Tommy immediately answers, “Yes,” with Lauren chiming in that she wants to come and before I know it, my day spent hanging out with my girlfriend has quickly turned into something else.

Tommy drives us into Napa, and we spend an hour or so wandering around, checking out the shops before grabbing some lunch. Despite my earlier reservations, we have a good day and as much as I wish I was spending it alone with Ellen, it’s actually kinda fun having both Tommy and Lauren around.

I learn that Tommy didn’t exactly flunk out of school, but is currently taking an extended leave of absence courtesy of the weed-induced high failure rate of some of his classes.

“Truth be told, I’m not even sure I want to go back,” he admits as the waiter drops off the three huge pizzas we’ve all decided to share.

“You don’t like it?” I ask, confused because I’d always known what I wanted to do, ever since I was a kid and my dad took me to the robotics lab he worked at. It might sound totally nerdy, but to me it was cool as fuck.

Tommy shrugs. “Nah, not really. I actually prefer being outside, working with my hands. Kinda only went to make my mom and dad happy, but that backfired big time.”

“In what way?” I ask.

Tommy chuckles. “In the way where I got paired up on my first day with the biggest stoner gamer there is this side of Colorado. I don’t think he ever went to class and as a result neither did I.”

I nod. “Yeah I remember that feeling of being away from home, no parents watching over you and no one caring whether you went to class or not. I nearly failed a couple of classes in my first year too. ”

“You did?” Ellen asks, surprised.

I nod, smiling at her. “Yeah, although not for smoking weed or anything, although we did do a bit of that. It was more the pranks we used to play on the TA, all the hours spent planning that shit instead of studying or paying attention in class.”

Tommy grins now, elbows on the table as he leans forward. “Oh yeah, do tell?”

I shake my head, laughing a little. “Is this a good idea, given the company,” I ask, gesturing toward Lauren. “Young impressionable minds and all?”

Lauren scoffs as she flips me off and says, “Please, I’m a grown ass adult.”

Ellen bursts out laughing as she all but collapses against me. “Right,” she gets out between chuckles. “Which is why you’re pining over some guy you pretended to hate but actually are secretly in love with and now totally miss the shit out of?”

Lauren blushes and we all laugh as she grabs a slice of pizza and angrily begins to eat it.

“Alright, I’ll spill,” I say, in an attempt to make peace with her. “We did a lot of shit to torment the poor guy,” I start. “It was probably a bit harsh, but to be fair, he did make our lives a living hell a lot of the time. Running the class like he was on some mega power trip or whatever.”

“Wait, was Greg involved in all of this too?” Ellen asks, knowing exactly what my roommate is like.

I laugh. “God, of course, he was the ringleader of it all,” I say, knowing he hated our TA more than anyone. “Anyway, apart from the usual shit like barricading him in the restrooms or slipping laxatives into his coffee, the final straw came when we sort of stole his car.”

Tommy chuckles. “Sort of?”

I glance at him, an eyebrow cocked as I say, “Well, we moved it…without his knowledge. ”

Tommy nods slowly as though he’s trying to put the pieces together. “Okay, elaborate,” he adds, moving his hand as though to hurry me up.

My grin widens. “He used to drive one of those tiny cars, some sort of Fiat or whatever, I don’t know,” I start. “All I know is that it was little and we’d been jokingly saying how it was so tiny we could practically lift it up. Then one day a bunch of us decided to see if we could move it.”

Tommy lets out a loud laugh. “What?”

“Yeah,” I say, nodding as I continue to explain. “We picked it up and actually moved it.”

“To where?” Ellen asks, her eyes wide.

I slip my arm around her shoulders as I grin at each of them. “Well, the first time…”

“The first?” Tommy asks, shocked.

My grin widens. “Yeah, the first time, we managed to wedge his car between two others,” I explain. “It was jammed in so tight, you could not open any of the doors and the only way he’d be able to get in was if one of the other cars drove away.”

“What happened?” Ellen asks, reaching for another slice of pizza.

“Well, we chose wisely,” I say. “Because we knew both those cars belonged to the members of the track team…who were at a meet and not due back for hours,” I continue, chuckling a little at the memory of our asshole TA desperately trying to work out how to get into his car, which was jammed between two SUVs, a wall at the back, preventing him from opening the trunk and just climbing through.

He hadn’t noticed us all laughing our asses off from the lab, two floors up, which was why we’d been able to get away with it.

“Pretty sure his car was stuck there until like midnight or something. ”

Ellen swats at me, but she’s laughing as she says, “You guys are assholes.”

“Yeah,” I admit, shrugging.

“And you never got caught?” Lauren asks, her eyes wide in amazement.

I shake my head. “Nope, not that time. Were pretty close the next time though, which is why we called it quits before we got ourselves thrown out.”

Tommy smiles as he shakes his head. “What’d you do the second time?”

My brows raise as though to say, this one was good, even as I stall a little by reaching for another slice of pizza.

“Will…” Lauren whines. “What did you do?”

I chuckle. “Next time, we dumped his car in the middle of the football field,” I say.

Nobody says anything, the shock seemingly rendering them all speechless. Eventually Tommy speaks. “How the hell did you manage that?”

“That was some ninja stealth moves, I’m telling you,” I say, remembering how close we came to getting caught. And even though we were all dressed in black, dark ski masks pulled over our faces, we knew that if anyone had seen us, we’d be toast.

“It was winter,” I continue, by way of explanation. “So it got dark early. I don’t know where he thought his car had gone, but I did hear the football coach went totally apeshit when the team met for practice and this TA’s car is sitting in the middle of the field.”

Everyone collapses with laughter now as we finish off our lunch, Tommy and I continuing our stories of shit we did that almost got us kicked out of school.

By the time we’re heading back to the vineyard, my earlier jealousy has disappeared and been replaced with a genuine like for the guy that I can now see is more like a brother to Ellen and Lauren.

Later that night, I’m lying in bed when I hear the sound of the front door to the cottage I’m staying in open and then close. I smile as the sound of footsteps gets closer and by the time Ellen appears in my doorway, there’s a huge grin on my face.

“Thought you weren’t supposed to be over here,” I ask, hands behind my head as I lean back against the headboard.

Ellen bites her bottom lip as she stares over at me. “I’m not,” she says.

A soft laugh escapes me. “So, what, you’re gonna sneak back in before you get caught, are you?”

She smiles now, twisting a strand of hair around her finger as she stares across at me. “Maybe,” she says, walking toward me. “Maybe you could teach me some of those ninja moves you were talking about.”

I chuckle as I pull back the covers and Ellen climbs into bed, straddling my hips. My hands move to her thighs instinctively, because even after only one night, it already feels like too long since I’ve had her.

“I might be able to do that,” I say, slipping my hands higher.

She stops them, all playfulness gone as she looks down at me. “Thank you,” she whispers.

“For what?” I ask, confused.

“For coming here like this, for today,” she says. “For…for being understanding about Tommy and not being weird about him.”

“Well,” I start, as a tiny stab of guilt lurches through me. “To be fair, this morning, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about him, but actually, he’s not that bad. ”

Ellen nods, her hands lifting off mine now as she cups my face in her fingers. “He’s like a brother to me,” she whispers, leaning in to kiss my lips. “Nothing more.”

I nod, pulling her closer as I deepen the kiss. “Good,” I breathe out.