And now the times are changing
The things I’ve seen before don’t look the same
My life is rearranging
But falls apart with whispers of your name…
-Vertical Horizon

            The supple leather of the couch felt cool and comforting on the back of AJ’s neck.  He let his eyes drift slowly shut, heavily; his senses were lulled by the steady sound of water running in the bathroom down the hall as Adrienne took a shower.
            Outside the sun was setting.  A reddish-gold glow filled the living room and gave objects a softer appearance than they normally possessed.  AJ cracked his eyelids open just enough so that he could watch through the window as the sky slowly tinged with shades of lilac and burgundy.
            He lifted his hands to his head and massaged his temples with the tips of his fingers.  The sudden and unwelcome rush of emotion and thought—trying to figure this whole thing out—had given him the beginnings of a headache.  He could practically feel the blood vessels in his brain constricting and throbbing with each beat of his heart.
            AJ pushed his eyes shut again and let his arms drop back to his sides.  He lay perfectly motionless, still soothed by the muted noises of water falling upon the shower walls, upon Adrienne’s body.  Attempting to drive all conscious thought forcefully from his mind, he could not succeed and instead tried letting the anxiety slowly, passively drift away.  That was better.
            That’s right, just let it all slide away, smooth and even.  No thoughts, no worries, no feelings.  Just pure white nothingness, unawareness.  Clean and simple.
            After he had let his mind fall empty for a minute or two, he allowed certain thoughts to trickle back into his consciousness.  He envisioned them falling through his brain, sorting themselves into neat little piles, so that he could sift through them with ease.  This was how he arranged his ideas when he was feeling particularly confused.
            In an attempt to remain organized, he placed his returning thoughts into an orderly list.
            1. Although I’ve barely met Adrienne’s friend Gwen before, I have feelings for her that I cannot yet identify. 
            That was true enough, he thought, and safe.  ‘Unidentified feelings’ were vague enough to remain unthreatening.  And he didn’t want to deny emotions he was having.  Refusing to acknowledge his own feelings had gotten him into trouble one too many times in the past.
            2.  I cannot yet act on these unidentified feelings because I am in a relationship with Adrienne.
            Another simple, honest fact.  There were many ways AJ described himself, but ‘cheater’ was not one of them.  He wondered, however, where the word ‘yet’ in that sentence had come from.
            3.  I have a desire to further my relationship with Adrienne, physically as well as emotionally, if at all possible.
            In the bathroom he heard Adrienne turn the water off and slide the glass shower door back with a soft bang.  He knew he shouldn’t, but he envisioned what she must look like stepping out of that cloud of steam… wet, glistening, completely—
            “AJ, sweetie,” she called out, interrupting his thoughts that were beginning to border on erotic fantasy.  Damn, I really must be stressed out, he thought to himself with a small sardonic smile.
            “Yeah?”  He pushed himself unwillingly to his feet and trudged toward her voice.
            “Will you get me a towel?  I forgot one.”  He could detect a trace of playfulness, flirtation—seduction?—in her voice.
            He walked to the linen closet across the hall from the bathroom and selected a fluffy white terrycloth towel that felt soft and smelled good, clean.  He rapped twice on the bathroom door to let her know that he had completed his assignment.
            AJ waited a few moments in the hallway, sensing the humid warmth oozing from the bathroom and watching as a lazy plume of vapor escaped through the crack between the door and the frame, settling on the skin of his face, his forearms.  He fidgeted almost imperceptibly as his clothes began to cling to his body.
            Suddenly the door flew open and Adrienne’s bare arm shot out.  AJ—catching a brief glimpse of her silhouette, her golden hair—was expecting her to grab the towel, take it and shut the door again, so he held his offering out to her.  However, her dripping fingers instead found the fabric of his shirt, twisting the cloth in their grip.  With a strong tug, Adrienne forcefully pulled AJ into the bathroom with her, kicking the door shut with her foot once he was inside.

            God, where is she?  Gwen tapped her foot impatiently against the metal leg of the table.  The fronds of the palm tree overhead rustled in the evening breeze; a paper napkin fluttered across the tiles of the outdoor patio.
            She crossed her arms snugly across her chest, the cantaloupe-colored cotton of her tank top stretching tighter against her body.  Eyes quickly darting from one person to another, she watched and waited for Corrina’s car to pull into the restaurant’s parking lot.  She glanced at her watch again: six fifty.  Still plenty of time.
            Her thoughts drifted back to that afternoon’s events, specifically those that occurred after practice in the boathouse parking lot.  She had barely had time to rush back to her apartment and take a quick shower before speeding to the restaurant where she’d supposedly had a date to meet Corrina for dinner.  She used this time to unwind and catch her breath.
            I absolutely cannot believe this is happening.  I mean, it’s really not a big deal, I don’t know why I’m turning it into one…but it’s a rare enough occasion that I should have these…feelings…for anyone, much less my best friend’s boyfriend.  What a mess.  Oh well, there’s nothing to be done about it now, so maybe if I just ignore them, they’ll go away and everything can be normal again.
            Restless, Gwen pulled her purse from the café table’s surface onto her lap, rummaging through it in search of anything that might keep her busy.  She pulled out an old concert ticket stub—Eric Clapton.  She began to hum the tune of “Layla” as she set the stub on the table.  Next she pulled out a tin of cinnamon Altoids and popped a couple into her mouth, enjoying the intense flavor dissolve across her tongue.
            When Gwen looked up from her purse about ten seconds later, Corrina was walking across the parking lot toward the patio, her step lighthearted, waving at Gwen with a wiggle of her fingers.  Gwen stood up to greet her friend.
            “Corrina!  I thought you’d never get here!” she exclaimed as Corrina hugged her quickly.
            “Gwen, chica, I’m five minutes early,” Corrina smiled.  “So please, tell me a little more about this whole situation, because I have to admit that I’m quite curious.”
            “There’s really nothing to be curious about,” Gwen responded as the two girls sat down at the table Gwen had recently been occupying.  “I told you everything over the phone.  I had told Adrienne and her boyfriend that I was going to meet you here for dinner, wanting to get away from them, but Adrienne invited herself along, and her boyfriend too of course.  And it turns out that I’ve met him before and seem to have these weird feelings for him.” The last sentence was spoken very quickly in the hopes that Corrina would let the words slip by without further questioning.
            No such luck.
            “Whoa, whoa, what’s this about weird feelings for or about Adrienne’s man?” Corrina questioned, placing an elbow on the metal table.
            “I don’t really know, actually, but when I figure it out I’ll be sure to give you a full report,” Gwen replied sarcastically.
            “Well, I’m not asking you to give me a complete analysis, smartass, but I would appreciate a brief summary and/or abridged version of what’s going on in your messed-up little brain.”
            “You mean heart.”
            “Whatever.  Just spill the beans.”
            Gwen sighed.  “Corr, I’ve only met this guy once—well, twice now—but we’ve got this freakish connection whenever we’re close to each other.  It’s like some magnetic force is trying to pull us together while, at the same time, the two of us are trying to push the other away.  I know it sounds ridiculous.  I know nothing about him.  It’s just…weird.”
            “Very,” Corrina added.  “But you know you can’t follow through.”
            “Of course I can’t!  Which is why I’m just going to pretend that I feel nothing, think nothing, about this guy.  AJ, I believe his name is.  That way, before I know it, it’ll be like this whole thing never happened.  I’ll be back to my normal life of studies and crew and Adrienne and AJ will be happily shagging on their honeymoon in Tahiti.”
            Corrina laughed, but her smile faded as she said, “Gwen, I know where you’re coming from, but I don’t think that ignoring everything is really such a good...”
            “Shh, Corr, here they are.”
            Adrienne and AJ were approaching the table on the patio where Gwen and Corrina had been sitting.  Adrienne’s hair was still dripping wet, as if she had just emerged from the shower, and AJ’s shirt had a couple suspiciously damp spots as well, although no one really noticed.
            “Hey, guys!” Adrienne trilled as she plopped down into the chair next to Gwen.  “Sorry about my rather tousled appearance, but I didn’t have time to blow dry my hair.  Luckily I only live, like, three minutes from this place, so I wasn’t too late.  Are we late?” she asked, looking at AJ and then down at her watch.  “No, we’re actually just on time, isn’t that incredible?”
            AJ had seated himself next to Corrina, directly across from Gwen.  Both he and Gwen made a pointed attempt to ignore the other’s existence.  Corrina continued to smile politely at Adrienne’s monologue.  A waiter came, took their drink orders, and went back inside the café.
            “Um, hi there, I don’t think we’ve met,” AJ said, turning to Corrina without interrupting Adrienne.  “I’m AJ.”
            “Mucho gusto,” she grinned at him.  “I’m Corrina.”
            “Right, I’ve heard Adrienne talk about you.”  AJ played with the silver cross hanging from a chain around his neck.
            “I would be surprised if she hadn’t,” Corrina laughed.  “She talks about everything.  As I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
            “—so that’s why I haven’t had time to study for my history midterm, which is understandable…What?” Adrienne asked, cutting herself off.  “I heard my name.”
            “Nothing, babe, just introducing ourselves,” Corrina replied smoothly.
            Adrienne beamed.  “Oh, great, I was just getting around to that!  AJ, these are my best friends, Corrina and Gwen.”
            Gwen looked at AJ for the first time since he had arrived with Adrienne.  “We’ve met,” she said.  For a moment she forgot that looking into his eyes could be dangerous; when their gazes met, she felt her heart pause.  Although she looked away a moment later, her cheeks quickly flushed the color of a ripe guava.  Corrina quickly kicked her roughly under the table.
            “So, AJ, how did you and Adrienne meet?” Corrina asked charmingly, trying to change the subject.  She glared at Gwen, who glared right back but remained silent.
            AJ cleared his throat.  “We were at a club, actually, a few weeks ago…”
            “…and we started dancing together,” Adrienne broke in.  “He bought me a drink.  We’d both been admiring each other.  Once we got into it, we immediately knew that we would be perfect together.  It was really romantic, right, baby?”  She batted her eyes at AJ, and he responded with a small, somewhat embarrassed smile.
            “Of course,” he said quietly.
            Gwen couldn’t take too much more of this.  Someone please pull out a gun and kill me, she thought.  Or at least seriously wound me.  Where are those drive-by shooters when you need one?  Out loud, however, she merely excused herself to go to the ladies’ room.
            Once inside, in the echoing quiet of the dimly lit restroom, Gwen leaned with her palms on the countertop, staring at her reflection in the mirror.  She took a few deep breaths, trying to get herself together.
            Come on, Gwen, don’t be such a child.  Just go back out there and act normally.  Everything is completely fine.  She stood up straight and ran her fingers through her long curls.  Satisfied with her appearance, she turned and pulled open the door leading back into the hallway of the restaurant.
            Keeping her eyes low, she walked quickly down the hallway, headed for the doorway leading back out to the patio.  She was surprised by a figure bumping clumsily into her as she rounded the hallway’s corner; she found herself losing her balance and crashing into the wall next to her.
            “Shit, I’m really sorry,” a deep voice—AJ’s—exclaimed as he threw out an arm to help her.  His hand landed on her bare arm.  “Gwen?” he asked as she looked up and he saw her face.
            “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine,” she said quickly, backing up a few steps.  She tried to walk past him to get back to the safety of Corrina and Adrienne’s company outside, but his hand shot back out and touched her elbow lightly.
            “Hold on a second,” he called to her, taking a few steps in her direction.
            Gwen turned to face him.  Her eyes were dark, her lips slightly parted.  “Yes?”
            Attempting to keep his voice light, he asked, “I know this might sound a little…weird…but have we met before today?”
            “No,” Gwen responded sharply, quickly.  “No, you must be mistaken.”  Without another word, she turned on her heel and practically flew back outside, leaving AJ standing alone in the darkened hallway, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion, his heart beating faster than before.

Continue to Chapter Ten: Seen the Danger
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