The next day Zac brought Ginger from the airport to my apartment. I was cleaning a mess Zac had made the last time he was over, which he always seemed to leave behind, when they came in. "Taylor, where are you?" Zac impatiently asked. I threw my sponge into the sink and walked to the front room where they were standing. I froze immediately in the doorway upon seeing her. "There you are." It was like I was glued to the floor. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my entire life. This wasn't like the really hot chicks you see around and you just have a nice little rendezvous and then never call. This was like the really hot chick that makes your voice disappear and your hands sweat. I'd never seen anything like her and I've never felt like this before. Her hair was smooth and silky, like in a pricey shampoo commercial. Her skin was flawless and daintily freckled. Her violet eyes, a kind I'd never seen before but with every passing moment wanted to see more, drifted over to me and smile crossed her face. I melted. I hated it.
Quickly pushing that aside, I grabbed some force from deep in my gut and stepped forward. "So you must be Ginger," I said, finding myself smiling back at her. "It's nice to finally meet you."
"Finally, eh?" she asked. Her voice was just as sweet as her looks and I could have sprayed myself right there if I hadn't learned to contain it.
"Of course. Zac's told me a lot about you," I said, extending a hand. She took it and firmly shook it. "But let me say, he didn't do you justice. You are incredibly beautiful." Her smile grew and she showed me a set of perfectly sculpted, white teeth. A soft blush came over her cheeks.
"Thank you," she said, her voice dropping a notch.
"That's about enough of that," Zac said, interfering. I was glad he did. I finally let go of Ginger's hand and Zac took it in his to make sure that kind of connection didn't happen again. "Let me show you your room." He led Ginger out of the room, and as she walked ahead of him, their hands still connected, he pointed a finger at me. "I'll deal with you later."
Oh shit. Ginger's been here less than five minutes and I've already managed to hit on her and make Zac uncomfortable. Suddenly I didn't trust myself anymore and that was going to be a big problem if she was going to be staying the night, alone, with me. I'm just not going to have to be around her, that's all.
"What the hell was that?" Zac asked. I still hadn't left the front room when he came running back in very, very pissed.
"What the hell was what?" I retorted.
"Taylor, I brought her here because I wanted to spend some time with my girlfriend, not so you could get your jollies from looking at her."
"What are you talking about?"
"Whatever," he said, turning around and walking deeper into the apartment. I sighed, shaking my head, and followed him. I wasn't at all surprised when Zac pulled Ginger out of the bedroom and down the hall to the front door. "We're going out."
"Nice to meet you," Ginger yelled after me; Zac was pulling her very quickly out of there. "I'll see you later!" I waved and they left. I sat down at the counter in the kitchen and put my head down. As soon as I closed my eyes I saw her face. I banged my head against the counter.
"Ow." Bang. "Ow." Bang. "Ow." The phone rang. I gratefully sat up and picked the phone up. "Hello?"
"What's wrong, homeslice?" It was Leo.
"I'm a terrible, terrible person."
"What'd you do?"
"I think I just hit on Zac's girlfriend," I said, propping my head up with my hand. "Oh my God he's going to kill me�"
"How did you manage to do that?"
"I don't know. She's staying the night here, not because I asked her, but because she needed a place to stay and Zac said she could stay here. Of course that was before we met. She is so hot, Leo."
"You know, you always make it seem like it's not your fault whenever you steal a girl from Zac."
"I'm not stealing a girl from Zac!" I yelled. "It's not like I want a relationship with her or anything. Zac loves her too much for me to do that. No. That's not going to happen." Leo sighed on the other end. We'd had this very same conversation before. I talk to Leo every time I end up stealing a girl from Zac. But that's not going to happen this time. I've never seen Zac like this before. He's obviously in love with her and it could really go somewhere, so I'm not going to interfere. As long as I never have to see her again, then it's all good.
"But you'd still sleep with her?" Leo asked after a pause.
"Well, yeah."
"You never change, Taylor."
"What? It's not like it's going to happen! I'm not going to hit on her again. I'm not going to even talk to her again. I'd rather her think I don't like her than have her think I want to nail her."
"I guess so�"
"Yeah. So I'll just have to not like her then. There's bound to be something I can find out that isn't kosher."
"You do that. Does Zac know you want to nail her?"
"Of course not!" I said. "Well�actually, I'm sure he thinks I like her but he knows I'm not going to act on it."
"Are you?"
"No! No I'm not!"
"All right, whatever man," Leo said. "Call me after you nail her."
"I'm not�!" He hung up. I huffed and banged my head against the counter again. "Ow."
That evening Zac and Ginger returned. It was about ten o'clock and Zac's curfew was ten-thirty. He didn't normally have a curfew, but since he was got caught going to Denver my mother has been very strict with him. If he came home any later my mother started to call about every five minutes to find out where he was, and that really bugged the hell out of everybody, especially me. Whenever Zac was late my mother always assumed I had something to do with it. That was usually true.
When they walked in Zac took her to the bedroom. I was very happy when he came out of there about a minute later; there was no way I was going to let them have sex in my home. "Well I did all I could but Mom won't let me stay over," Zac said, sitting down next to me. I wanted to ask where Ginger was but I didn't want to sound like I was interested in her, so I decided not to ask in hope he'd answer the question for me. "So she's going to stay here and I don't want you to do anything to her, all right?"
"Zac, why are you so paranoid?"
"It's because I know you, Taylor!" Zac said. "She's in the shower right now, then she's going to bed. I don't want you to even talk to her." I opened my mouth but he shook his head. "Don't even. I saw you this morning. You were ready to toss me into the hallway and fuck her right there."
"Don't be silly, Zac."
"I'm not being silly! I know you Taylor and I know what you're like. I thought it was going to be different this time but evidently you haven't changed a bit since you stopped using drugs. Don't even blame them, because you obviously are exactly the same way you were then." I shook my head.
"I didn't even do anything."
"You were doing everything you do to get a girl in bed with you! You were smiling, calling her beautiful�"
"Oh my God so I smiled and called her beautiful! Alert the media!"
"Taylor I am in love with her and I don't want you to ruin things like you always do. I don't even know why I'm letting you stay here with you."
"Then why are you?" I asked. "Take her somewhere else! I don't want her here!"
"Taylor�"
"No! Why don't you take her to some hotel where you can get it on in peace? I don't want to see it! Nothing's stopping you from going. Mom can't bother you if she doesn't know where you are. Sure you'll get grounded in the morning but she's leaving tomorrow anywhere and you're not going to see her for a while anyway!"
"You are such a prick sometimes."
"No, I'm just that coked up slutty older brother of yours who sleeps with your girlfriends and then throws them away in the morning! But, honestly Zac, why stop there? There's bound to be a million other things you stereotype me as."
"I don't stereotype," he said, standing up. "I tell the truth." He huffed and walked away. "I'll be back in the morning." I let out a deep breath and sat back, turning up the volume on the television. It was a few minutes later that Ginger appeared wearing what looked to be a pair of Zac's boxers and a tank top. She had her bright red hair in a messy ponytail on top of her head. She obviously just threw it up to get it out of the way for the night, but it looked beautiful. I didn't like it.
"Hi," I said despite the icky feeling I was getting by seeing my brother's girlfriend in her pajamas.
"Hi," she said.
"Is there something you need or�" I didn't know what exactly to say to her and she looked completely out of place talking to me.
"No," she said quickly. "No, it's just, um, I heard you and Zac fighting earlier."
"Shit�" I breathed. "Listen, I'm sorry about that."
"Do you really not want me here?"
"No!" I said immediately. "It's not like that."
"I could always find myself a hotel."
"No, stay here," I said. "I didn't mean what I said. I just have a terrible habit of�um�"
"Sleeping with Zac's girlfriends?" I nodded. "Yeah, he told me." I figured he would. He talks to her more than he talks to anybody else. "Did you mean what you said earlier�do you really think I'm beautiful?" Oh no. She did not just ask me that. There is absolutely no way I can answer that question without looking either like I'm hitting on her or I'm just flat out lying to her.
"I think you should go to sleep." She lowered her eyes. "Listen, Ginger," I said, getting up and walking over to her. As I stood next to her she looked up at me and I had to take a step back, realizing I was too close. "You can't always believe what I say. I'm not exactly the best person in the world."
"So you didn't mean it?" she asked.
"Of course I meant it�" Shit. Shit, shit, shit. She was smiling at me. "I think I'm going to sleep." I shut off the television, threw the remote on the couch, and brushed past Ginger.
"Wait," she said. I turned around. Suddenly she looked completely different to me and I had a feeling I knew what it was. "I was thinking we could talk a little bit, maybe have a cup of coffee." Ding. Coffee. She knows my weakness.
"All right."
We went into the kitchen and I put on a pot of coffee. My coffee pot is the best. I don't like to wait for coffee and this makes it in under a minute. I barely had time to get out two mugs before the coffee was done. "Wow," Ginger said, obviously impressed.
"Yeah, I'm terribly impatient when it comes to my coffee," I said. I put a mug in front of her and poured her a cup. I was surprised to find she drank it black. "You know I thought I was the only one left in the world who drank my coffee black."
"All that other stuff just takes away from the taste," she said.
"So what'd you want to talk about?"
"Nothing in particular," she said. "I just didn't want to go to sleep just yet. Zac insisted that I stay in my room�whatever."
"He's just afraid I'll hit on you again."
"Again?" I froze. Dammit, Taylor, just leave the room before you do anything else, my mind yelled at me. "I was unaware you hit on me the first time."
"Well�I didn't think I was, but Zac�"
"Zac thinks everybody hits on me," she said, rolling her eyes before she took another sip of her coffee. "He's just paranoid."
"Zac's not a very trusting guy."
"You know what?" she asked. "Let's not talk about him."
"All right," I said. Unfortunately that was the last thing I wanted to do. If I talk about him, I'll remember that I'm talking to his girlfriend and not somebody I brought home. "So, you're a romance novelist, eh?"
"Yeah. Just a little something I do on the side. It pays the bills."
"How do you get into something like that?" I asked.
"Well I've been writing for years," she said. She lit up with a brightness she hadn't had before. "It's something I always did but I could never do anything with it. I mean I would take my work to the publisher and they kept rejecting it, then I was watching Friends with my girl friend Kris and it was the one where we meet Chandler's mom, and she's a romance novelist�"
"Right," I said, nodding. Come on, I've seen the episode a million times.
"And Kris turns to me and says 'you know what, why don't you try a romance novel?' I'm fourteen years old, I'm a virgin, I've never even been kissed at that point, but I tried it anyway and they liked it and decided to publish it. Who knew?"
"Zac told me your name isn't Ginger?" I asked, trying to get Zac back into the conversation.
"No it isn't," she said. "It's Rosemary. But I haven't told Zac. I don't like my name."
"Why not?"
"You know�Rosemary's Baby and all. It's like the forbidden name and everything."
"Rosemary Clooney isn't bad."
"True." She took a sip from her coffee, looking at me while she did it. Her eyes were killing me. I'd never seen anything like it before and it was completely natural. She kept staring at me with those eyes and I knew if I talked to her for much longer she wouldn't be sleeping in her room tonight, no matter how much I tried to remember Zac. "You know Taylor," she said, putting her mug down, "I've always admired you."
"Really?"
"Yeah�but I've noticed one thing." I raised an eyebrow. "You are so much cuter in person. I didn't think that was possible." Oh my God�it doesn't take a genius to understand what she was getting at and for the first time in my life I was afraid of where this could go. "And you've got the greatest hands." She reached across the counter and picked up my hand in both of hers.
"Ginger�"
"Yes?"
"You really should get to bed." I looked at the clock. It was only ten-thirty.
"Why?" she asked, a small smile crossing her perfectly puffy lips. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"
"Just a bit," I whispered.
"Well then I've accomplished my first goal." She stood up and walked around the counter, standing next to me.
"What about Zac?" I asked.
"He doesn't have to know," she said, looking up at me with her lower lip protruding slightly. "It's not like I'm leaving him for you. Anyway, it might get it out of your system." In one swift moment I'd pressed my lips against hers. She jumped a little bit but responded just as quickly. I picked her up and carried her, not removing my lips from hers, into the bedroom. I kicked the door closed behind me and fell onto the bed with Ginger. In half a minute all of our clothes were on the floor and we were having the most passionate sex I'd ever experienced in my life. It wasn't until afterwards that I realized exactly what I had just done.