Part 43 – Sadie
The ball was amazing. It was all sparkly and pretty just like a ball should be. There were swag bags full of ridiculously expensive free gifts from sponsors at our table, the food and drinks were great, the music was awesome and since it was an ASPCA thing there were even adorable cats and dogs there.
I managed to go around the dance floor once with AJ before deciding that my ankle-foot couldn’t take it. After that we basically mingled and did little side activities that were set up around the ball to create awareness about animal rights. There were even animals there that were available for adoption that I tried to stay away from but AJ dragged me over to anyway.
“Look at this one, she looks like Vinnie!” AJ said as he pulled me toward a puppy.
“Oh my goodness…” I cooed as we walked up to the pup. She was definitely like looking at Vinnie when I’d adopted him from the Humane Society. “Well hello, sweet baby…” I said as the puppy came up to us and wagged her tail. I presented my hands to her and she immediately began licking them. “You look just like my baby, oh yes you do…”
The puppy began giving AJ kisses and I could tell immediately that they were in love. I spoke with the girl holding the dog’s leash about Vinnie and she explained that this dog was named Sadie and she was just four months old.
“I do not need another dog… I do not need another dog…” AJ was mumbling as he rubbed Sadie’s belly.
“Yeah keep telling yourself that, babe…” I giggled. “She loves you! She wants you to take her home!”
“My home that’s across the country…”
“Yep… that one. She wants you to be her daddy.”
AJ groaned but kept petting the dog and I giggled. I looked around the ball as AJ fell further in love with Sadie. I saw Kevin standing nearby talking to a group of people and smiled. Then I saw something that I didn’t want to see.
“Oh shit…”
AJ looked up at me from the dog, “What?”
“She’s here…”
“Who?” AJ asked and stood back up from the crouch he’d been in. He followed my gaze and then let out his own groan. “Fuck… Get over there, she’s eying him.”
I nodded and put my hand on his arm, “Sorry…”
“Don’t worry about it, you’re officially not my date anymore. Go!”
I kissed his cheek, gave him a quick ‘I love you’ and then made my way across the ballroom toward Kevin faster than I would have thought I could with a sprained ankle-foot. Not fast enough though because I saw Kristin beeline it over to Kevin and she made it to him first.
Just before I got to him I grabbed two drinks from a waiter who was carrying a tray around and then easily slid my way up to Kevin giving him the glass like I’d just been gone for a bit. “Here you go, honey…”
“Awesome… thank you…” he said and bent down to kiss me. “You seem to have lost AJ though…”
“He’s about to adopt a dog…” I said and chuckled. I looked at Kristin as if I was just noticing that she was standing there, “Oh… hi.”
She smiled a fake smile and nodded at me before looking back at Kevin, “Anyway I was saying that I got a call this morning from the realtor in LA. I guess they found someone who wants to buy our house. They tried calling you but couldn’t get a hold of you since you changed your cell phone number so they called me.”
Kevin nodded as I slid my arm around his waist and he pulled me close while still looking at Kristin. “They have all of my numbers but I’ll give them a call.” The cold tone in his voice practically made me shiver. If there had been any doubt before that he was completely done with Kristin there wasn’t any left. He looked at her like it was absolute torture to even be in the same room with her. “Is that all?”
Kristin glanced at me and then back at Kevin, “Listen… I’m sorry about the mess I made, okay? I honestly didn’t mean for anything I said to Mark to make it on the air. Then it just blew up. I don’t hate you, Kevin.”
“Uh huh…” he said and took a drink from his glass.
I squeezed him and he gave me a squeeze back as Kristin looked at me, “And I’m sorry that Mark did that to you. Trust me, he’s gotten into a lot of trouble over it. They might even fire him from NBC.”
I shook my head sadly, “I don’t ever enjoy hearing that someone is out of a job. He made a really stupid mistake but I hope it doesn’t ruin his career.”
“Me too…” Kristin said quietly and I actually believed her. There was an awkward moment of silence between the three of us and then with a sigh she said, “I’ll leave you two alone. I um… well, sorry again.”
She walked off without a goodbye said by any of us and I moved so I was facing Kevin, “You okay?”
He nodded but I could tell he wasn’t quite okay yet. He smiled and kissed me, “Thank you, for coming to my rescue.”
I chuckled and wrapped my arms around his waist, “If I could have run I would have been here quicker. I saw her and then AJ was like ‘She’s eyeing him! Go!’ and I took off but she still beat me.”
Kevin shook his head, “It was perfect. The look on her face when you showed up was great. She probably thought you weren’t here since you’ve been hanging out with AJ all night.”
“Probably…” I said and smiled up at him. “It went better than I expected. I had all sorts of visions on my way over here of me having to kick her ass then all sorts of chaos ensuing. Dogs barking, cats hissing, hair pulling… it wasn’t pretty.”
He laughed, “I’m glad you didn’t have to go that far.”
“Me too… wouldn’t want to mess up my pretty dress or this awesome hairdo!”
“Exactly…” He kissed me again and then lingered with his forehead pressed against mine. “I love you.”
“I love you too, baby… AJ fell for a puppy named Sadie so I’m all yours for the rest of the ball.”
“You’re all mine?” he asked with a true smile that made it all the way up to his eyes as he pulled back just enough to see my face.
“Yep.”
“Well then I’m a lucky, lucky man.”
“A lucky man who is going to get lucky…” I said and laughed.
“Soon?”
I wiggled my eyebrows at him, “Perhaps… If we leave now we’ll beat the boys home and can be as loud as we want for a while.”
Kevin dipped his head and kissed me on my neck, just below my ear then whispered, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
