I woke up late the next morning. Okay, so it was closer to early afternoon. My head was pounding, my stomach queasy, all on the account that I had to go and drink more after my foolish behavior with Torrie. Wasn’t my fault. Dom put a drink in my hand and told me to forget about it. That’s about the last thing I remember.

I sat up from my position on the couch, grabbed my head to stop it from spinning straight off of my shoulders, and groaned. Beside me, on the floor, Dom yawned and stretched and began snoring lightly. I stood carefully, trying not to step on Dom, wobbled a little before heading for the bathroom. I ran into Billy on the way there, looking all cheerful and bright eyed because he’d gotten to bed so much earlier than the rest of us. He started to wish me a good morning but I flashed him that “talk to me and die” look and he just raised his eyebrows and continued on to the kitchen, bless his Scottish heart.

After using the loo and taking a quick cold shower, attempting to wake myself up, I finally made my way back to the living room, rumpled clothing and all. Billy was eating a bowl of cereal in front of the television while Dom continued to snore away on the floor. Elijah was no where to be found, probably snuggled up contentedly in his bed, prepared to sleep the day away.

“So where’s Torrie?” Billy asked, making the beginning of my day that much worse. “Thought she came with you.”

“She did.” I sat back down on the couch.

“And?”

I sighed. “She left with Sean.”

“Why does it feel like I’m missing something?”

I focused my gaze on him. “If you stop prying I won’t mention how you asked her to marry you last night… Oops!”

Billy’s jaw dropped opened. “I what?”

I just grinned.

“Bugger me!” He exclaimed with a mouthful of cereal. “I didn’t, did I?”

“No, you didn’t, Bill,” I assured him, climbing to my feet. “When Lij wakes up tell him I left to face the firing squad.”

“Eh?”

“He’ll know what I’m talking about.”

“See you later then?” Billy asked. “Maybe we can refrain from our drunkenness long enough to catch up on things.”

I laughed, thought how stupid that was when my temples throbbed, waved and headed out the door. Then I sat in my car for about ten minutes trying to figure out where I should go. The chicken in me – yes, there is one and he sticks his goddamned head out every now and again when I least want him to – just wanted to go home and crawl into bed and pretend last night never happened. But the brave, responsible – and if you believe that I have some prime property in Rivendell to sell you – guy in me knew that what I had to do was go straight to Torrie and apologize for my behavior. Even if it meant groveling on my knees. Oh yeah, guys know how to grovel. Our moms teach us how to do it before they let us out of the house because they know that is where we will spend most our lives. Unless you have a son of your own, bet you didn’t know that!

So I drove to Torrie’s work, reciting in my head over and over again what I would say. It ranged from “I’m a complete jerk, Torrie. Forgive me” to “So… what’dya think?” Yep. That male pride getting in the way, dying to know if it wasn’t just the best kiss she had ever experienced and if it was lacking, then could I please get another chance to prove my masculinity. I really wasn’t going to go in there and ask that, but these were the thoughts going through my mind during the drive. The alcohol I consumed mostly clouded my memory of kissing her anyway, which kind of sucked because I would have liked to remember it and I really didn’t know if I had slobbered all over her like some love-sick teen on his first date. Maybe that was why she had seemed so heartbroken when she said “I thought you were my friend, Orli”. I might have slobbered on her or bitten her lip or something equally stupid.

Wishful thinking.

The Center was quiet when I entered through the main doors. The ticket handler looked bored. She sat up straighter when I walked over to her, and then when I got near her, her eyes widened in recognition. Great.

“Ohmigod! You’re Orlando Bloom!”

I really wanted to reply “I am?” but told myself to be good and forced a smile. “That’s me. Is Torrie Adams here?”

“Can I have your autograph? My friends are not going to believe this!”

“Sure.” She pushed a slip of paper through the slot in the window. “What’s your name, sweetie?”

Oh yeah, I can put on the charm when I know its time to behave like Orlando Bloom the actor.

“Laurie. L-A-U-R-I-E.” She was just about bursting with happiness and fairly tore the paper from my hands when I pushed it back to her.

Was it really that exciting to meet me? I didn’t think so.

“Oh thank you, thank you!” Laurie smiled up at me adoringly. Okay, yeah, she was cute. Petite, blonde, cornflower blue eyes. She couldn’t have been more than seventeen.

“No problem. Erm… Torrie Adams, is she – “

“Oh! Sorry!” She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Silly me! I completely forgot. She’s back in the dolphin tank. I’ll take you.”

Before I could say anything she was out the door of the ticket booth and urging me to follow her into the hallways. I didn’t want her to get in trouble for leaving her post and told her so but she just waved it aside, saying as how they weren’t that busy anyway and she needed the walk. Laurie chattered away the entire time, telling me how many times she had seen “Fellowship” and “Black Hawk Down” and that she couldn’t wait for “The Two Towers” and it was amazing how different I looked outside the wig. I kept smiling and nodding and added a comment here and there, knowing I could probably recite everything she was saying word for word. I appreciate it, don’t for a moment believe otherwise. But it’s like you begin to hear the same compliments and comments time and time again and after a while they just don’t seem to mean so much. Just once I would like to hear “Hey, Orli. You sucked in ‘Fellowship’, man.” Okay, that’s pushing it. But you know what I mean. You can only be perfect for so long before you end up falling off that pedestal. So you spend the intervening time wondering when that moment will take place and what will lead to it. ‘Enjoy it while it lasts’ never has so much meaning as it does in Hollywood.

“Well here we are.”

Laurie stopped by a set of glass doors that led to the outside. Through the windows I could see Scott, the manager, standing at the edge of a pool, his mouth moving as if he was speaking to someone. I followed his gaze out into the water where I spotted Torrie’s dark head bobbing among the soft waves. A dolphin suddenly surfaced beside her then dove quickly beneath the water once more. Torrie laughed.

“If there is anything else you need… “ Laurie trailed off hopefully.

“No. This is great. Thanks, Laurie,” I told her, pushing the door open and stepping out into the sun.

“Well… sure.”

Without another glance back, I moved across the courtyard, flashing a smile at Scott as he turned towards me.

“Mr. Bloom. Hello.” He held out his hand and I shook it. “Torrie didn’t tell me you were coming by.”

“Er… She didn’t know.”

“Ah.” He nodded, his gaze sweeping over me, no doubt noticing the obviously slept-in clothes. Scott turned back to the water. “Hey, Torrie. You got company.”

She was laughing at something the pair of dolphins she was swimming with were doing. Then she turned and saw me and the laughter just died. Just like that. Damn. That was the last effect you ever wanted to have on a person. I forced a smile and kind of waved and she just continued to tread water, watching me. I began to wonder if maybe she was just going to ignore my presence and make me swim out after her or something. One of the dolphins nudged her from behind, pulling her unwavering gaze from me for a moment. Torrie spoke to the creature, stroking its nose, then spun around and began swimming toward me and Scott. When she reached the edge of the pool, Scott leaned down and gave her his hand, pulling her out of the water. I tried hard not to stare at the way the wet suit clung to her like a second skin. I mean, what a way to begin an apology for kissing her, Excuse me while I ogle you for a moment.

I walked over to her, noting the way she cast a furtive glance at me before slicking her wet hair back over her forehead. Droplets of water sparkled in her long lashes and there was a smear of bright yellow water-proof sun block across her nose. Adorable.

“Hello, Orlando,” she greeted coldly.

Orlando. Ouch. I mentally winced.

“Um… hey, Torrie.” I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket and found myself at a complete loss for words.

Torrie seemed to be waiting for something, then finally gave up, flashing me a disgusted expression before crouching down beside the pool and tossing a couple of fish out to the two dolphins. I sighed, moving over to kneel beside her, allowing the silence to stretch on much longer than I should have. But I wanted to make certain I said the right thing. I didn’t want her to think I was only apologizing to assuage my own guilt. As corny as it was, I wanted her to understand that I respected her much more than I had shown the night before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I already admitted it was corny but it was how I felt. I didn’t want her angry with me. And I sure as hell didn’t want to lose her friendship.

“You could’ve at least had the decency to go home and change before coming here,” she muttered beside me.

Well, that was something. “Maybe I should have. But I thought seeing you first thing was more important.”

Torrie glanced at her watch. “First thing, eh?”

I shrugged. “If you hadn’t noticed, I had a little much to drink last night.”

“I see. Is that what your excuse is?” She shook her head. “Looks like I gave you more credit than I should have.”

Torrie stood and walked away. Damn. This wasn’t going the way it was supposed to. I followed her to the back of the courtyard where she started putting away what appeared to be dolphin toys. Yeah, sounds silly to me too but that’s what they were.

“Torrie.”

She ignored me.

“Torrie, please. Dammit.”

This time she looked at me.

“I’m sorry.” There. I said it. And it wasn’t so bad. “I shouldn’t have kissed you last night. I majorly overstepped my boundaries and I don’t want you to have the wrong impression of me.”

She raised a brow at that. I made a face, looked away, kicked at something on the ground. Silence.

“I would love to be able to blame it on the alcohol,” I began again. “But I know that’s the easy way out. Maybe it was a whole assortment of things all jumbled into one. The way we had been talking about romance and how comfortable I felt with you and how you smelled and the moonlight and lack of inhibitions from the alcohol.” I shrugged. “I don’t know what to say except that I’m sorry. I don’t want you to think I was trying to force myself on you or anything.”

Torrie shook her head. “I would never think that about you, Orli. After all, its not as if… well, it isn’t as if I was completely against it happening.”

My head snapped up at that and our gazes met. She was worrying her lower lip and dammit but if that devilish side of me didn’t rear his ugly head again and I found myself wanting to feel that lip beneath my own once more. I pulled my focus from her mouth back to her eyes.

“But that’s why it can’t happen again, Orli,” she continued softly. “And maybe we should just say goodbye to each other now and not take anymore chances.”

She moved away. I panicked. I reached out to grab her, turning her to face me. She kind of jumped when I did it, maybe I startled her but for a moment there was the tiniest bit of fear in her eyes which I didn’t understand and I just let it go. I was shaking my head, still holding her hand.

“No, Torrie. I don’t want to just say goodbye and end it at that. I like you. I like spending time with you. I like this world that you live in and I don’t want to give up the chance to visit it from time to time. Please, don’t make me leave. Don’t make me think that my one little mistake could cost me what is proving to be a wonderful friendship.”

Oh yeah, I was on my knees here. Not literally but I might as well have been. My sister used to accuse me of using what she referred to as “puppy dog eyes” to get our mom to agree to anything I wanted. Well, I used those now. Full force. I was holding nothing back. And Torrie was caving. Go me.

“Unless, of course, you don’t feel the same?” I slammed it home with that one, adding the guilt. Her eyes kind of widened and maybe she picked up a little on what I was doing but I didn’t care.

Tucking a wet strand of hair behind her ear, Torrie looked away for a moment before glancing back to me. I couldn’t read a damn thing in her gaze and that was frustrating beyond reason. “I do enjoy your company,” she admitted.

I mentally did a little dance. Outwardly I allowed a small smile at her confession. “Then why are we arguing this? We’re both adults, Torrie. I can behave myself, as long as you can learn to keep your over-sexed paws off of me.”

Torrie laughed, which was just what I wanted.

“I swear all you women want me for is my body,” I continued.

“And that would be bad because… ?” She teased.

I laughed with her. Actually, the day was turning out a lot better than I had expected. And I proved to myself that maybe it really was the alcohol in my system that made me kiss her last night because standing with her then, I didn’t feel the need or desire to do it again. I was holding her hand and it felt nice but I wasn’t consumed with any need to take her to bed with me or anything. She was adorable when she laughed and the water on her lashes reflected like diamonds in her eyes but she wasn’t so stunning that I would resort to jacking off to photos of her in my bathroom.

So I should have said goodbye then and left and told her I’d call her or something and we would get together. But I didn’t. And it only took her a few minutes before she invited me to help her feed their newest addition, Bob the seal. I followed her to the seal room where I was introduced to the most adorable creature possible, a Pacific Harbor seal which I didn’t think looked like a Bob at all but then he opened his mouth and barked at us and I decided that he did sound like a Bob, as strange as that may seem. Torrie laughed at me and gave me some look like “I told ya so”. I ended up removing my jacket at some point and before long was getting just as wet as Torrie and Bob while we fed him fish and squid and scratched his neck which he seemed to love.

We talked nonstop. This time I opened up a little about my family and she told me about hers. Her parents were divorced and she had a half-sister with whom she was not very close. From the sounds of it, Torrie had never really been happy at home, which made me sad because I was so close to my mother and Samantha. I began wondering about her relationship with Steve – one didn’t have to be too observant to see that they did not exactly have a lot in common. So I began to pry a little, not outright, but just enough to formulate an idea in my head as to why she was with this guy. I began to piece together her answers along with the information she provided about her family.

My theory is this: Kids who grow up in stressful family situations, where they are either ignored or pressured to be something they aren’t or both, end up growing up with that need to receive acceptance and pride from their parents. So they’ll do anything to impress them, anything to make them happy. I was beginning to think that was where Steve came into the picture. He was everything a dad like Torrie’s would want for his “little girl”. Successful, good-looking (in that slimy, mobster-like way), filled with more testosterone than a football stadium. You know, a man’s man. And so she was with this guy because it was what her family expected of her, to find some guy that would most likely want her to be a housewife once they married and would give her an allowance each week and question her as to what she was purchasing and why and expecting his dinner to be ready for him each night when he got home. Okay, maybe I wasn’t giving the guy a chance. Maybe there was something more to Steve Rubin that I wasn’t seeing. But when I listened to Torrie talk about him… I don’t know. I just didn’t like him and it was so goddamned obvious that she seemed to look up to him as if he were something better than her. I really hoped he wasn’t the one putting that shit in her head. But the way she said things like “Steve puts up with my klutziness… Steve allows me a night with the girls… Steve doesn’t like to hear the music I listen to… “ I just wanted to grab her and shake her and yell don’t you realize what you are saying?! But it wasn’t my place to do that. Not when Torrie set so much store in what her family thought of her and her choices in life. Maybe someday, when we were closer and more comfortable, then I could just ask her What the fuck, Torrie?

Or I could let Elijah do it.

Slowly I steered the conversation away from her fiancé and back to more pleasant things. I told her my favorite color was yellow and she said hers was green. We laughed at how atrocious that sounded. Her current favorite song was Angels by a Canadian band called Tea Party and I told her she had to check out the album Punishing Kiss by Ute Lemper, who Atti had turned me on to. She had blinked at the name Atti and I quickly told her all about my best friend, Andre Schneider, who I met after one of my ex-girlfriends had started dating him. She found that funny and I had to admit it was a little strange. She said it sounded like a country music song, like “My wife ran away with my best friend and I miss him” and I laughed and told her only she would compare me to country music. And there were so many things that we were complete opposites on, such as her love for dairy – admitted she could drink half a gallon of milk at one sitting and when I made a retching noise at that she pointed out that she had never broke a bone in her body in her life. Touché. When I told her I was a technophobe, she admitted to being more of a geek, spending quiet evenings at home after work scouring the web for the daily news and talking with other biologists around the world. The more we talked, the more it just went to prove that we were not compatible with one another in any way imaginable. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t be friends.

“I’ve really gotta get going,” I said finally when I glanced at my watch and realized it was already four thirty. Shit. I needed to get home and changed and then see what the guys were up to for the evening.

“Damn, it is late!”

I helped Torrie to her feet and she offered to walk me back to the entrance of the building. On the way there I handed her my phone number and asked if I could have hers.

She hesitated a moment. “Well, I live with Steve and I don’t think he would… well, he doesn’t like me to give out our number too much.”

“Oh?” The man was a complete freak.

“You can call me here anytime though,” she offered, then handed me a business card of the Center as we passed through the lobby.

“Don’t you have a cell?” I questioned.

Torrie sighed and began to reply when I cut her off.

“Let me guess: Steve.”

She gave me a small smile. “He feels it is unnecessary for us to both have one.”

“You know, Torrie,” I started, then quickly changed my mind. It wasn’t my place to say. I came here to apologize, not to piss her off yet again. “Never mind.”

She looked at me strangely but didn’t question further. I kind of wish she would have. Then maybe I would have said something instead of waiting and dragging it out. I could already tell that the only times I would be able to see her would be to either come by the Center, go fishing with her uncle or wait until her fiancé was out of town. Which luckily, according to Torrie, he traveled a lot. I couldn’t help but wonder if she cranked her music loud enough to blow out the windows when he left town. God, I hoped she did.

“I have a mass of meetings next week,” I told her. “But we need to get together and swap CD’s.”

Torrie smiled. “Yeah. That sounds good. Maybe lunch sometime.”

“Perfect.” I flashed her a smile.

Then I leaned forward and hugged her and she wrapped her arms around me in return and we just kind of held each other for a moment. It was nice. She had dried off but still smelled like salt water and seals and I realized I must have too, which was a little weird. This may sound really odd but to me, some people are just made for hugging. There are those that you might chance to hug and its not really comfortable and they are kind of stiff and maybe they don’t smell right or feel right and the entire experience is just awful. And then there are those who were made to be hugged and to hug in return. Torrie was like that. She was all warmth and softness and gentleness and she relaxed into my embrace like she really wanted to be there, like she was silently telling me how much she enjoyed being that close to me. There was nothing sexual in it, although I suppose there could have been under different circumstances, especially if the ticket girl, Laurie, wasn’t watching us from her window with a wide-eyed and somewhat jealous expression. I just smiled and squeezed Torrie a little harder.

“Victoria.”

Torrie jumped in my arms and pulled back almost as if she had been burnt. She met my eyes only briefly before turning to greet Steve who was walking toward us and my gaze met his and we just kind of stared each other down. The man was not happy, that much was obvious. Hell, it wasn’t as if I had her on the floor and was fucking her out in the open for all to see. It was just a little hug between two friends and here he was giving me a look that clearly told me I should be shaking in my boots from fear of him or something. Instead, I smiled.

“Afternoon, Steve. Thought you were out of town?”

Torrie was trying to catch my attention but I didn’t turn away from the man in front of me. That was wrong of me, to bait him like that, but I was so pissed at this guy’s arrogant attitude that I couldn’t see straight, much less think clearly.

“Orlando, isn’t it?” Steve replied coldly, with a nod. “Lost, are we? I thought Hollywood was that direction?” He indicated with his head.

I rocked back on my heels. “I’ve discovered a recent attachment to the sea.”

“Is that so?”

Wow. You could have cut the tension with a knife.

“Orli was just leaving,” Torrie was saying and I glanced at her and she flickered an expression toward me and I could have sworn there was a minor plea in it. I tried to hold her gaze but she turned back to Steve and was saying something like how much she had missed him and was happy that he had come by work to get her. She was already pulling him away, back into the building but they both kept looking back at me, him with a silent warning and her with a silent apology.

“See you later then, Torrie!” I called out.

I thought she was about to nod but then Steve grabbed her arm and led her around the corner and out of my sight.

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