Milk and Cookies

"I'm a pretty reasonable person, Brittany," I said. I could feel my anger building, but I was fighting mightily to quell it. "But it seems there's a lot you're not telling me. You better start from the beginning."

"You remember how I told you that every man who'd ever been in my life has turned out to be a liar?"

"Except one boyfriend who didn't even last a week," I remembered.

"Me."

"Yes," she said. "Kevin, I always had such a crush on you. That was the main reason my sister let me hang out with you guys so much, so I wouldn't ask her questions about you all the time. You remember my swimming lessons?"

"Very, very vaguely," I said. I was always a good swimmer, so I offered to help out as a volunteer for little kids' swimming lessons. I didn't remember Rita being one of the students until just now.

"Puberty and the hormone attacks started a little earlier for me than most girls. During those lessons, when you'd hold your hand under my back to keep me floating or move my legs to show me the proper kicking motion, I was too young to know what it was, but it got to me, Kevin. There are pages and pages about you in my diary from back then."

"You were one of the popular kids, but you weren't mean to the unpopular kids like most of the others were," she continued. "You always had fun, but I remember you breaking up a couple fights, too. You always did the right thing. I was so excited when you asked me to be your girlfriend, and I was crushed when you told me it was all a joke. What a horrible thing to do to a girl, ask her out as a dare!" She playfully punched me in the chest. "I cried for a week, and I was mad at you for a long time. Mama was too, but she told me that boys did a lot of stupid things, and at least you were honest with me about it and didn't let it go farther."

"I was mad at myself for doing it, Brittany," I said. Yes, she had a lot of explaining to do, but I needed to make amends. "I know I said sorry when I told you about it, but I truly was sorry. I still am. Believe me."

"I do," she said. "I didn't realize until I went back and read my diary years later, that you always tried to be nice to me afterward, but I was really mean and just didn't want to talk to you ever again."

"You had a good reason," I said.

"The older I got and the more guys I dated, the better you looked. Sure, you'd hurt me, but they were hurting me and wouldn't even be truthful about it. Sometimes they lied about the shit they did, and sometimes they lied about other girls, sometimes they lied about wanting to see me again. And then... and then, my fucking husband was apparently transporting drugs."

I felt so bad for her. She got tired of waiting for me and walked over, still gloriously naked below the waist.

"Be mad at me if you want," she said. "Just please, hold me. I'll keep talking."

I wrapped her in a hug, and just like every time before, we fit together perfectly. She lay her head on my chest, sighed deeply, and continued.

"I never really forgot about you, Kevin. You were the only man who'd ever been honest with me. About a year ago, I looked you up on Facebook. You were playing one of those games on Facebook, Mafia Wars or something, so I added you as a friend and said I needed more friends for the game. You accepted it."

"You Facebook stalked me?"

"Yes," she said. "When I first added you, I found out you were married. I was disappointed, but I let it go. Then when all of the stuff with Kira happened.. Kevin, it was so hard for me not to message you and tell you who I was."

"Wait," I said. "I told you all of that last night, and you already knew?"

"Kevin, it was all over the news, just like you said," she explained. "I knew all about it before I realized you were the husband. You never talked about it on Facebook, but I started seeing your friends giving you their condolences and such, and I knew the girl's name was Kira Collins, so I kinda figured it out."

She waited for me to answer, but I had no intentions to. Any response I would have given right then would include a few expletives, and I didn't want to do that.

"Anyway, I kept tabs on you, thinking maybe one day I would get up the nerve to send you a message. Imagine my surprise when you moved here."

"So, why not say something then?"

"Like I said," she said. "I was nervous. I was busy, too -- insanely overloaded with classes during the spring semester, and I interned with an accounting firm downtown this summer. But mostly, I was just nervous. Then I saw you tell someone on Facebook that you were going to spend Christmas all by yourself, and..."

"Jesus, Brittany," I said, exasperated now and unable to hold back any longer. "You've known everything I told you, before I even told you about it."

"That's not true," she said. "I knew about Kira, and I knew you lived here. And I knew a little about your baseball career, because I googled you, too. But I didn't know about your job."

I just shook my head.

"The meetings at Wal-Mart," I said. "I guess there's no way in hell those were accidental, either, huh?" Both times I'd met her at the store, I'd been so excited. I was fascinated with fate and what it had done for me. Even as I asked, though, I knew there was no way they could be coincidences.

"Actually, the first one was," she said. "I knew you lived in Garland from Facebook, but I was curious about exactly where. So, I looked you up in the online phone book. I didn't expect it to work, but I was surprised to find that you had a landline. So, I had your address. I was heading out to Rockwall to see Sherry, and I decided to just do something crazy. Throw caution to the wind, so to speak, and quit wondering about you."

She stopped to breathe.

"So, I came over to your house."

That took me by surprise. "You did?"

"I sat out front for two hours on Wednesday afternoon, trying to work up my courage," she explained. "Finally, I got out and rang the doorbell. I think the only reason I did is because I knew what time it was, and there was a good chance you weren't home. Sure enough, no one answered. I figured I'd just head east to Sherry's house and send you a Facebook message, but I wanted to surprise Sherry with stuff to make a Christmas dinner. I knew there was a Wal-Mart right around the corner. So I'm halfway done with my shopping, and I turn down the aisle to get stuffing. I think my heart stopped when I saw you throw a bag of noodles into your cart. You smiled at me as you walked by, and I'm still not sure how I didn't wet myself."

The thought was humorous, so I smiled.

"How'd you know it was me?" I asked.

"Facebook," she explained. "You're not much for posting photos, but a lot of your friends like to tag you in theirs. Anyway, I kinda followed you throughout the store, and when you went to check out, I decided it was now or never."

"What about the next day?"

"A case of weird timing," she said. "I told Sherry the whole story, and after I spent the whole night talking about you, she convinced me to try it again on my way back home. As I turned onto your street, you passed me. As bad as the roads were, I figured you couldn't be going far, so I followed you."

I didn't know what to say.

"When you asked me for my phone number, Kevin... my heart leapt out of my chest. I was so incredibly happy, and I've only gotten happier since."

I led her back over to the bed.

"I had this whole thing in my head as a fairy tale, basically. A massive, fortunate coincidence, where truth is stranger than fiction," I said. "Once of those things that you couldn't script if you tried. And now I find out.. you did exactly that. You planned everything."

"Not everything," she said. "I believe in fate, too, Kevin. You got a job offer in the city I live in. What do you call that? And what about that snow storm? You know, the one that led to us spending all this time together the past couple days and developing this incredible connection? I like to think I can control a lot of things in my life, babe, but I can't make God hit DFW with the worst winter storm in more than 20 years. And meeting you at Wal-Mart... Kevin, I swear, I had no idea you'd be there."

There was a lot of truth in her words.

"I'm not sorry we met, Kevin," she said. "And no, I'm not even sorry that I set it up. I've never been one to just let things happen to me; if I want something, I chase it. The only thing I regret is that the moment I handed you the breath mints on Wednesday, I didn't tell you everything."

"I told you last night in the kitchen that the worst part of the thing with Kira is that she lied and kept so many things from me," I said. "That would have been the perfect time to tell me."

"Kevin, I knew last night was going to be special," she said. "There is something magical going on with us, and I didn't want to ruin it. I can't say that I regret it, either, because.." she trailed off for a second. "Because last night was perfect."

I needed to think. A lot.

"This is just a lot to take in, Brittany," I said. I spied my overnight bag, and made a snap decision. "I'm going to go for a run."

"Uh, what?" she asked.

"I run almost every day, when I have the chance," I said. "It keeps me in shape, and it helps me clear out my brain. Right now, that's what I need to do."

"Are you mad at me?" she asked, a slight look of fear on her face.

"I don't know, Brittany," I answered honestly, quickly throwing on sweatpants, a hooded sweatshirt, and tennis shoes.

"This is real, Kevin," she said, gripping my hand tightly. "I might have set things up, but I can't manufacture the feelings between us, or what we shared the last two nights."

I inhaled deeply. I knew she was right. Still, I'd been so badly burned, and now that I knew Brittany was keeping secrets from me, it made me wonder what else she wasn't telling me.

"I'm going to run," I said. "When I get back, we'll talk."

I stood up, but before I could get out the door, she surprised me by launching herself at me. She pressed me up against the wall and forced her tongue into my mouth, rubbing her bare legs against my crotch. I tried not to kiss her back, but that lasted all of a second. I responded with equal passion, and when she pulled away a few minutes later, we were both panting.

"Take that with you when you go running," she said.

Running with a raging hard-on proved to be pretty difficult, but after a quarter-mile of making my own path through fresh snow, I found a junior high with a running track. It was covered in snow, of course, but after one lap, I'd made a trail for myself.

My brain felt like a beachside resort after a hurricane. There were so many thoughts in my head that I really didn't know where to start. On one hand, Brittany was right. Our connection was way beyond physical. Regardless of how they came about, the feeling were real, and the thought of not seeing her again made me want to stop and vomit in the fresh snow.

On the other hand, I could give forgive just about anything but dishonesty, even if it was lying by omission. The relationship was based on false pretenses. This whole time, I'd been under the impression that we were discovering each other together, when in reality, she knew all there was to know about me before we'd even met. I believed in fate and karma and the cosmos, and knowing that she'd orchestrated everything kind of aggravated me.

I was about three miles in when I made a decision. A few of them, actually. I stopped right there in the freezing cold and made a couple of phone calls. Ten minutes later, I was back at Brittany's house.

"I need to go," I told her. She and her mom were the only ones awake, and by the look on her mom's face, Brittany had told her everything. In fact, I wondered if her parents had known all along.

"You're leaving?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I got called in to take a flight after someone cancelled today. My bosses thought I was spending Christmas alone, too. I didn't tell them my plans had changed."

"Where to?" she asked.

"Cancun and back," I said. "Going to pick up one of my bosses, actually, along with a half-dozen other passengers." It was a little more complicated than that, but that's all I was going to tell her.

"Oh," she said. You'd have thought she'd just lost her best friend the way her face fell. My heart sank for her. "What about... everything else?" Her eyes were a little red and her cheeks a bit swollen, but she still looked incredible.

"We'll talk about it later," I said. "I really need to get going right now."

"You don't need a shower after your run?" Brittany asked. She was grasping at anything she could, trying to make me stay a little longer and talk to me.

"I'll grab one at the office," I said. "I'm sorry about your car being at my place, but I'll take care of it tomorrow." I was going to do no such thing, but I knew she'd ask about it.

"Okay," she said, slumping back in her hair and looking dejected. "Can I have a kiss before you go?"

I was tempted. Jesus, was I tempted. I so badly wanted to walk over to her, her mom's presence be damned, and lay a liplock on her that would steal her breath away.

"I don't think so, Brittany," I said. "Not until I figure things out a little more."

She nodded in reluctant acceptance. I grabbed my bag from her room and headed back toward the door. Something made me stop, though.

"I guess I never actually met you or your husband, Mrs. Pacheco?" I asked.

"I think maybe once, at one of the Christmas parties," she said. "But I'm not certain, and even if you had, I wouldn't think you'd remember that."

I nodded. I started to walk past them, but she grabbed my hand.

"Kevin." I looked at her. "Christmas is a time for forgiveness, especially when the one who wronged you did so with the best of intentions."

"I know, Mrs. Pacheco," I said, smiling. "Thank you for having me, and for your outstanding cooking. I'll never forget this Christmas."

********************

Brittany looked bewildered, but somehow managed to still ooze confidence as she strode confidently across the tarmac at Addison Field, pushing Alicia in a stroller. From my seat in the cockpit, I felt more than one part of my body react to her impending arrival. Sure, there was the predictable stirring in my loins as a highlight reel from the night before played in my head. But my stomach had enough butterflies to start a colony, and when I thought about everything she'd said and done the past three days, something on the left side of my chest started to ache, as well.

Before we'd taken off in Cancun for the return trip, my boss and a few others on board, I'd fired off a quick text message to Brittany. "A car will pick you and Alicia up in two hours. Might want to pack for a few days."

I turned off my cell phone right after, so I had no idea how she'd respond. Watching her now, I had at least part of my answer. She was bundled up, of course, but I could see a turquoise turtleneck sticking out of her leather jacket. Her blonde hair was getting tossed around a little by the cold winter winds, and really, that just added to the effect.

She was pretty much a walking wet dream.

"So, that's what this is all about," my co-pilot, Tommy, said from the right seat as he joined me in the private ogling. "It all makes sense now."

There was only one other passenger, and he helped Brittany and Alicia up the steps before boarding himself.

"Good afternoon, folks," I said over the intercom when the doors had closed and we were taxiing out. "The flight should take about two and a half hours, putting us at our destination sometime around 8 o'clock local time. Sit back and enjoy the ride."

Fifteen minutes later, Tommy and I had the Gulfstream pointed northeast and up at cruising altitude. The cockpit door opened, and the third passenger, Bruce, walked in.

"How is she?" I asked.

"Looks like she's going to throw up, and it has nothing to do with being airsick," he replied. "Her daughter is having a ball, though. Alice brought her some crackers, so I think they're best friends now. You might wanna get back there and calm mama bear down."

I got up, and he took my spot in the pilot chair. As soon as I closed the cockpit door, Brittany was out of her seat.

"I thought that was your voice earlier," she said. She ran over to me and gave me a fierce hug. I kissed her on the forehead as we pulled apart.

"Hey, Alicia," I said, crouching down in front of the giddy little girl. She grinned cheesily at me and held out one of her Ritz crackers a few inches in front of my face.

"Aww, your mama taught you how to share already," I said. I gobbled up the cracker straight from her hand, and she squealed in delight. I tousled her dark, curly hair before standing back up.

"Brittany, you've already met Alice," I said, motioning to the woman sitting next to Alicia. "Not only is she one of the best flight attendants in our company, but she also raised three kids. Are you comfortable with her watching Alicia for a little while?"

"Um, sure?" she replied, but it was clear that she was confused.

"We'll be right in the back, Brittany," I said, "and there's an intercom where she can call us if anything goes wrong."

She nodded. I took her hand and led her through a door into the back lounge. Black leather couches lined both walls, and there was a wet bar near the back.

"You want a drink?" I asked.

"I want you," she answered. She looked into my eyes, almost fearful of my answer.

"Well, come here, then," I said. She was on me in seconds, pushing me onto the couch before climbing on top of me. We made out feverishly for a few minutes, a replay of what had happened on my house at Christmas Eve.

"What is all this?" she asked, waving her hands around when we took a break.

"It's an airplane," I responded, and she jokingly punched me in the chest. "I wasn't entirely truthful with you earlier. I did take a flight this morning, but I didn't have to. This is our company airplane, the one we use to fly our people around. I wanted to use it, but it was going to Cancun to get my boss. I told them I'd take the trip if I could have the plane afterward. So here we are."

"And where are we going?" she asked.

"You'll find out when we get there," I replied. I pulled her up until we were sitting next to each other on the couch. "Brittany, I didn't tell you the whole truth this morning, but that's the last time that's going to happen. I've always been a pretty forgiving person. People act out of anger, or they make mistakes, and end up doing things they shouldn't do. We're all human, and I'm as imperfect as anyone else, so I understand. But it's hard for me to forgive a lack of honesty."

She opened her mouth to talk, but I held up a hand to stop her.

"I look at what you did, and the way you set all this up, as a series of small fibs, white lies," I continued. "Like if I tell you I have to work late, then when you get home, I jump out from behind the couch with 20 of our friends and throw you a surprise party. I think that, given the magnitude of the situation, you should have told me anyway."

She nodded.

"But given that none of what you did was ever designed to hurt me, there's absolutely no way I can be mad at you."

I pulled in her in for one steamy, passionate kiss, then she lay her head on my shoulder.

"Besides, I think all men would agree that if we have to have a stalker, she might as well be smoking hot."

She giggled as she sat up, but her face soon turned serious. "I know how important honesty is to you, Kevin," she said. "It is to me, too. That's why I told you about Alicia right away. That was the one dealbreaker for me, if you couldn't accept that I had a daughter. Even if you could, that wouldn't have been fair to you to find out after we had a relationship. I couldn't lie about it."