~*~ Chapter 32 ~*~
NEW YORK CITY, NY – Kirstin and Tom’s Loft – Jan. 12th, 2002 – Saturday
The conversation in the living room was pretty much about baseball, so basically Tom, Barry and Mark were doing all the talking. Kirstin would talk only when someone would ask her something and the same was happening to Ashley and Grace.
Ashley was there to observe. That was all he was doing. Observing Kirstin’s behavior sitting between Tom and Barry. Tom had his right arms resting on Kirstin’s shoulder, talking mostly to Mark sitting on the other couch. Barry seemed like he couldn’t care less about Tom being there. He acted like Tom wasn’t even there, because sometimes, when he’d notice Tom looking to Mark, he’d rest his left hand on Kirstin’s thigh. Kirstin would gently push it away, but he’d very often place his hand on her thigh again.
“Well, the conversation is real good, but I have to get to work.” Tom said, looking at his wristwatch.
“On a Saturday afternoon, Tom?” Ashley asked.
“Yeah. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s just that… it’s weird.” Ashley replied.
“Why is it weird? What do you know about working in a bar?” Tom was getting defensive already.
“Tom!” Kirstin sensed the vibe.
“Nothing. Sorry I asked.” Ashley apologized himself.
“Good. Now…” Tom got up “You guys are great.”
“Thanks.” Mark said getting up, Grace beside him.
“You too, man.” Barry said, shaking his hand.
“Oh, do you mind signing my baseball glove?” Tom asked excited.
“No, not at all.” Barry answered with a grin on his face.
“Great! Be right back!” Tom headed up to the bedroom to get the glove.
“You said he liked was, but he really likes us.” Barry said, grinning devilish at Kirstin.
“Yeah, well… I told you so.” Kirstin smiled back.
“Here. And here’s the pen.” Tom said when he got down, handing the glove and pen first to Mark, who, after signing it, handed it to Barry.
“Whenever you’re in Oakland, come watch us play.” Barry was playing nice, giving Tom his glove back.
“I sure will! Thanks so much for signing it guys.”
“No problem.” Mark and Barry said together.
Tom headed upstairs again to put his glove back on its place. When he came back down, everyone was sitting on the couch, but Kirstin.
“So… whenever you guys are in New York, please come visit us. We’ll be more than happy to have you guys here.” Tom said shaking the guys hand and they were getting up.
“Thanks, man.” Barry said as shaking his hand.
“Yeah, thanks.” Mark said too.
“Good. Now I really have to go. Bye Grace.” Tom kissed her on the cheek, just looked at Ashley and grabbed Kirstin’s hand to walk with him outside.
“So… did you like the guys?” Kirstin asked when they were on the hall way.
“Yeah. They are so cool! And they invited me to watch them!” Tom had a huge smile on.
“Yeah…” she pecked him on the lips “Glad you liked them.”
“Where are you guys going?”
“I don’t know. Probably to a bar or a restaurant or something.”
“Cool. Oh, the elevator is here. We’ll talk later, alright? If you get back and I’m still not here, call me on my cell, because I’ll probably be at Luna’s.”
“Ok, baby. Bye.” Tom pecked her quickly on the mouth and disappeared into the elevator.
“Can we go now? I’m kind of hungry.” Grace asked Kirstin the minute she walked back into the loft.
“Where are we going?” Ashley asked getting up and going next to Kirstin.
“I don’t know. Does anyone have an idea?” Kirstin asked.
“Yeah, well… there’s this bar near Washington Park that is really good. We could go there.” Barry got up too and stopped in front of Kirstin, staring at her. She just looked away. Ashley just observing.
“Oh, yeah! It’s really good there.” Mark and Grace also got up.
“Ok, so we’re going there. Let me just get my things.” Kirstin looked up at Barry, smiled, looked down and headed to get her things “Ok, let’s go.” she said, opening the door to the hall way “Are we going all in one car?”
“Yeah, I have my car downstairs, we can all go in it.”
Mark said.
“Ok. Let’s go then.” Kirstin said, locking the door behind
her.
The drive to the restaurant was awkward. In the front sat Mark and Grace and in the back, sat Kirstin in the middle of Ashley and Barry. Ashley and Kirstin were playing with their hands as they would do when they were in high school. Barry would, from time to time, place his hand on Kirstin’s thigh and she’d feel uncomfortable with that. She sometimes made some moves so he’d take his hand off. Sometime he would, some others, he wouldn’t. It wasn’t that Kirstin didn’t feel attracted to him anymore. It was just that, she knew that if she showed any interested on him, he would attack her, like, he would try to kiss her for sure, because he had already done that. And she couldn’t do that to Tom. She just couldn’t.
NEW YORK CITY, NY – Game Bar
The car stopped and everyone got out. Mark handed the valet
guy the keys to the car and the 5 of them headed inside the bar.
It was around 6 p.m. and the place was packed. The place was called Game Bar and it was like a sports bar. Nothing fancy, but this really cool vibe around it, with TV tuned in some football game and some people were cheering.
When they got there, a man came over to them all excited.
“Hey, Barry! Mark!” the man with grayish hair shook the guys hands all excited.
“Hey, Harry!” Barry greeted him, grinning.
“How are you guys?” Harry asked.
“Good. We’re good.” Mark answered the nice man.
“Please, please, come this way. I have a special table for you.” Harry led the way to a tall table with tall stools “Please, make yourselves comfortable, I’ll send someone right over to take your orders.”
“Ok. Thanks, Harry, my man.” Barry said, grinning.
“My pleasure.” Harry said, excusing himself.
“So, you guys come here a lot?” Grace asked.
“Not so often. Just when we are in town.” Mark answered her.
“I see.” Grace nodded.
“The guy seemed to like you two a lot.” Ashley assumed.
“Yeah. Harry is a big fan of baseball.” Mark informed him and Ashley just nodded.
“I’ll be right back.” Kirstin excused herself to go to the restroom. On her way, she felt a hand on her arm.
“K…”
“Oh. Yeah, Ash.”
“I just wanted to say that I noticed that guy making a move on you on the car, like, with his hand on your thigh and you feeling uncomfortable and everything and…”
“Ash… didn’t we talk about it already at the game? That you don’t have to protect me?” Kirstin was being nice. She just wanted him to realize she didn’t need him.
“Yeah, but the guy is like… I don’t know, I just don’t really trust he won’t do anything here to try to have you.”
“Ash, really. It’s alright.” Kirstin placed her hand on his shoulder “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. He won’t try to do something I do not wanna do with all these people around here.” it was right. The place was pecked.
“Ok, but if he tries…”
“You won’t do anything, alright?” Kirstin asked and Ashley looked down ”Alright?”
“Ok, alright.”
“Good, now let me go to the restroom.”
“Ok.” Kirstin turned and headed into the restroom.
* Thanx Taryn and Stacie for reviewing and correcting the grammar errors *
~*~ Chapter 31 ~*~
~*~ Chapter 33 ~*~
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