Chapter 15: Angel in the Doorway

We finally disentangled, but I still wouldn't let Kayla go completely. I kept my arm around her and pulled her with me back to my chair. She sat down next to me, pulling her chair close so I could keep my arm across her shoulder. She leaned in to me and put her hand on my thigh, wanting and needing the physical touch as much as I.

I looked around the table as Eric and Keisha got settled in. "Were all you guys in on this?" I asked.

Jesse smiled and nodded. "Yep. Everybody except for Bryan. I told him a little about it the other day, but Keisha and Danielle really planned it all and pulled it off."

I stared at Danielle, across the table from me and looking like the cat who ate the canary. "And you played the innocent so well," I said. It made her smile even more.

"And you," I said, pointing at my friend Eric. "That bullshit about you and Keisha was all made up, wasn't it?"

He shrugged. "Hey, she was busy. I had to keep you away from her for a few days."

"What did you tell your parents?" I asked my love.

She laughed, and my heart filled again. "I'm on a campus visit," she said, glancing fondly at Keisha. "It was all Keisha's idea, and she was the one who really convinced my mom and my dad it was okay. I'm staying with her and looking at Maryland, and then I'm going with Danielle to see South Carolina."

I was a little crestfallen. "You're staying with Keisha?"

Kayla looked at me, smiling. "No," she said, shaking her head slowly.

"No?" I was a little slow on the uptake.

"No," she repeated. "But my parents think I am."

"Then where are you..."

She pinched my thigh, and I got it. Idiot, I chastised myself, but Kayla was laughing, and everybody else at the table seemed to think my chronic stupidity was highly amusing.

"So how ... and why ... and when..." I couldn't seem to finish a sentence at all.

"For a college kid you sure don't have any answers," laughed Trent. "Actually, Dani and Keisha set the whole thing up. Jesse and Spencer were in on it, too. I think they felt sorry for you, all lonely and depressed and everything."

I glanced at Jesse and Spencer both. Visions of Reggie briefly flashed in my head, but they popped like soap bubbles into the ether.

"We had some convincing to do on your behalf," said Danielle. "I worked on Kayla's mother, and Keisha talked to her dad. Between the two of us we managed to convince them it was all on the up-and-up."

"Which reminds me," said Keisha. "Kayla, you're due to call your folks in about an hour. Don't forget."

Kayla pointed at her watch. "I'm keeping track, don't worry," she said.

"So are you really considering going to Maryland?" I asked. To be sure, I was disappointed Florida wasn't on her list to visit.

All three of the girls, Kayla and Danielle and Keisha, looked at me very strangely.

"Whatever made you think I'm considering attending school at Maryland?" asked Kayla, an amused look on her face.

"Uh ... because you're visiting ... and..." Her hand on my leg must be cutting off the oxygen supply to my brain, I chastised myself. I decided I would show her I was smarter than I looked sometimes. "And you're just using the campus visit as an excuse, aren't you?"

"See? I tole you he wasn't as dumb as you thought he was," commented Eric to Keisha. He carefully kept his face neutral, his quick glance in my direction to see if his barb hit its target his only giveaway. Keisha's response was to hit him in the bicep.

"Give the poor boy a break," she said to her boyfriend. "He's been doing without for a long time."

Kayla gave her a wink. "I've been doing without for a long time, too, but it hasn't scrambled my brain," she noted.

"That's because you're not a guy," said Danielle with a critical look at me.

"No, I'm not," agreed Kayla.

"No, she's not," I confirmed. I turned her head to me so I could kiss her. I wanted to make sure I wasn't really imagining all this. Her return kiss confirmed the reality for me.

"Cripes, get a room, would you two?" said Jesse in mock disgust.

I grinned. "I'd like to," I said.

In fact, I was ready to blow off dinner and grab a cab back to the hotel with my Luscious. Patience, I reminded myself. Good things come to those who wait. Admirable sentiment, but difficult to do. Still, I waited.

We all ordered, and Kayla and I spent the next hour in communion with our friends around the table. Even as anxious as I was, I found myself really enjoying the time we spent together, my friends and me.

While we were waiting for dessert, Kayla and Keisha got up from the table and walked into the lobby of the restaurant. It was time for Kayla to report in to her parents, and Keisha was sure they were going to ask to speak to her, too. They trusted their daughter, but after Jake's indiscretions of a few years ago, and Tara and Stephen's problems of about a year past, all our parents were on heightened alert.

While they were gone, I took the opportunity to ask a few questions of Eric and Trent.

"So, how come you guys thought of this?" I asked.

Trent had the good grace to look chagrined. "Actually, we didn't," he admitted. "Keisha and Dani came up with the idea." He glanced over at Eric. "We," he continued, indicating himself and Eric, "weren't particularly in favor of it, actually."

That surprised me, and maybe disappointed me a little. I tried not to make judgments, however, and I didn't think anything showed on my face.

"Why not?" I asked, trying to sound noncommittal.

Eric laughed, and I looked at him in surprise. "Shit, Porter, we didn't want you to be happy during this tournament," he said. "A happy Sean is a tough Sean when it comes to soccer. Bringing your girlfriend here just didn't sound like it was in our best interest."

Trent chuckled with Eric. "But once the girls ... reasoned ... with us, we saw the error of our ways," said Trent.

"Reasoned? That what you call it?" asked Eric, smiling and grimacing at the same time. "I'd call it damn painful."

"Yeah, it was that, too," said Trent. "Anyway, after Dani and Keisha pointed out the ... defects ... in our logic, we decided that maybe an exhausted Sean was almost as good as a lonely Sean to us. If your girlfriend can tire you out enough, it should offset any benefits from the happiness quotient from seeing her."

"You think so, do you?" I said. "Well, maybe I won't exhaust myself wining and dining her, so I'll have enough energy to whup your asses on Sunday."

The whole table laughed out loud. "Yeah, right," said Trent. "Let's see how that plan works."

He was right. That plan just wasn't in the cards, and no matter how much I tried to bluff, and Trent and Eric both knew it.

The girls came back about ten minutes later, all smiles. Everything had gone well, and Kayla's parents weren't expecting to talk to her again for a couple of days.

As much as I loved my friends, by the time we were done with dessert I was ready to get out of there. Jesse, Eric, and Trent, letting their perverse sense of humor show once again, insisted on ordering coffee. They sat back and enjoyed watching me squirm as they sipped.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore.

"Fuck it," I muttered, and I stood up. Kayla gave me a quick glance, and then allowed me to pull her chair out. She stood gracefully and took my hand. She looked at Jesse, Bryan, and Spencer, and that was all it took. The three of them scrambled to get up. How does she do that? I thought to myself. I have to cajole and plead, and all she has to do is look at them and they jump. Probably willing to ask how high on their way up, too. It was another of those mysteries of the universe a small mind such as mine would never unravel.

We all reached for our wallets and threw money at the table to cover the bill. Everybody else also got up, and Bryan went out to get a cab while we all said our goodbyes for the evening.