The Home Court Advantage

“This has been such a fun trip,” Adam chimed in. “We really have to do this more often.” Just then we heard voices somewhere close by.

“Hello!” Braden shouted. “We’re over in the clearing. Anybody there?”

“Hey there! It’s Forrest, man! I’m with Rain and a few of the others. We’ll be right there.” And that’s how we were rescued from the woods by two aging hippies, a pudgy accountant, a g*y waiter, and Raoul.

We were all back by noon the next day and since both Mark and Beth were curious to hear about the weekend, Game Night and Girls’ Night were both a go. Tonight Bruno was hanging with the boys, so it was just Jess, Lily, Beth and me along with various varieties of crackers, cheeses, and a couple bottles of wine. For the rest of my life, that combination would remind me of Mr. Hughes with the shopping cart pants. Clearly, I was emotionally scarred.

“So after all that you didn’t get to confront him?” Beth asked, taking a bite of her brie-covered Melba toast and washing it down with a sip of Chianti.

“Nope. But we did confirm that Braden and I are not just imagining things. Some schmuck is actually following us,” I answered, biting into my Triscuit.

“I learned some fascinating things about political assassinations,” Lily added.

“Yeah, and she talked about them all the way home. I now know way too much about what John Wilkes Booth was doing the day Lincoln got shot, and don’t even mention the Grassy Knoll,” I said, spraying crumbs in my general vicinity.

“The truth I’m seeking is what she and Adam were really doing when that intruder showed up,” Jess said, giving Lily a suspicious look.

“Adam?” Beth asked, sounding intrigued, as she poured herself another glass of wine.

“Oh come on!” I agreed. “All that tension wasn’t about Goofy.”

“Goofy?” Beth asked, raising her eyebrows.

“We were playing that board game ‘Say My Name’,” Jess explained, cutting a piece of brie and spreading it on a cracker.

“I’m sorry I missed this!” Beth said with a big smile. “I want to know! What happened?”

“Nothing happened,” Lily said, rolling her eyes and blushing furiously.

“You didn’t sleep with him that night?” I asked, spearing an olive.

“Gabrielle!” Beth said with a laugh. “You sound like Drew.”

“Drew and I are actually quite alike in many ways,” I pointed out.

“If you mean did we have sex, then no we didn’t. If you mean literally, as in did we sleep together in the same room, then yes.” She explained to Beth how after the intruder freaked her out, Adam offered to just sit in her room until she fell asleep, but he fell asleep first.

“So you haven’t had sex with him.” I continued with my interrogation. “Have you kissed him?” Inquiring minds wanted to know. Now that Cam and Jess were a done deal, I might be in the market for another project.

“No,” she answered, and after hesitating for a moment she went on, “but we came close that night you’re talking about. We really were talking, but there seemed to be this tension, a different kind than usual. Anyway, I think he was going to kiss me. Well, I’m sure he was going to kiss me, but the intruder interrupted us.” I started making squee noises and kicking my feet. I really had no shame.

“But he didn’t kiss you later, when you two were alone in your bedroom?” Jess asked curiously.

“No. After all the adrenaline had left our systems, we were both exhausted. It was like four a.m. anyway. He sat on the other side of the bed and read, but I could see he was about to pass out. So was I for that matter. The fact that he and I were able to sleep in the same bed together should tell you how tired we were.”

“But he didn’t even mention the almost-kiss? Not at all?” I asked, surprised.

“He said something kind of weird right before he fell asleep. He said ‘I’m not ready.’ He could have meant anything though. His eyes were closed. He might even have been asleep.”

“So, what are you going to do about all this?” I asked excitedly.

“What do you mean?” She looked confused.

“Don’t you want to get together and turn the almost-kiss into something more?” I elaborated.

“He’s a womanizer. I have nothing against casual hook-ups in general. I just couldn’t be casual with him.”

“I said the same about Braden!” I insisted. “No offense,” I said glancing at Beth.

“He was a womanizer before he met you, Gabrielle!” she said with laugh.

“Well, see when we got together, he stopped being one.”

“I had a feeling he had met somebody he at least liked even before you guys started dating though,” Beth said, “because I hadn’t seen him out nearly as much as I had in the past for a couple of months before you got together.”

“Mark says that Adam hardly goes out clubbing anymore. He’s been spending more time just hanging out with the other prosecutors than picking up chicks,” Jess shared.

“Well, I’ll bet that Braden has had girlfriends before,” Lily argued. “I’m not sure, of course, since we didn’t go to college or law school together, but I have a feeling that Adam’s never been willing to limit himself to one woman.”

“Braden has had girlfriends,” Beth answered, “but those relationships didn’t even come close to the one he has with Gabrielle. We’ve never seen him act like this before with anyone.”

“And Adam acts differently with Lily than he does with any other woman,” I pointed out. “Jess and I stand up to him too and there’s not all that tension there.”

“It still doesn’t mean that he and I could be a couple. We’ve been arguing since we were four years old.”

“What kind of stuff did he do when you were four?” Jess asked.

“Let’s see, he locked me in the boys’ bathroom. He put paste on my chair. He licked my fruit Roll-up and he stole my red crayon. And that was just the first day of pre-school. It went downhill from there.”

“Mmm hmm!” Jess and I shared a knowing look.

“And what did he do when you were older?” she asked.

“Um, mostly he teased me. Like, for example, once in biology the teacher asked for an example of an asexual organism and he said Lily Adler. He used to say things like, I was only hostile because I wanted him. Actually, he still says shit like that.”