Chasing Mr. Carlton ( The story of a Shrew's Son)

Part 23

Bobby was making her lunch when she got the first text from Matt. 

It was a simple: "I called you last night?!?"

She sighed, recalling the entire incident. That idiot.

"Yes, I picked you up, dropped you off. The Usual." She wrote, not wanting to delve into it again. 

She refused to tell him that he kissed her in his drunken madness. She'd been furious at first- Bobby was hardly the type of girl who'd let anyone kiss her but after she'd slept it off... she was over it. Well, not completely, but her anger had subsided to slight annoyance. 

When she thought about it now, she wasn't sure what she would have expected from a kiss from Matt. It had never occurred to her that they would ever kiss but she supposed it was a bit disappointing. Or maybe she was unable to enjoy it because of the circumstances. Whatever the case, the point was she was going to erase that kiss from her brain- and that was final. 

"Sorry." He texted simply but Bobby didn't reply this time. 

Instead she tossed her phone aside and focused on her cooking, after all it was New Year's eve and she was going to spend a long and comfortable evening on the sofa before falling asleep to the sounds of cheering. 

----

"So how long have you two been together?" 

It was one of the most typical questions that Matt hear coming from Lisa's friends- girls he'd known all his life and that Lisa only befriended when she moved to New York. 

"Nearing on four months." Lisa said with a smile. 

"Wow, that's nice. Still the honeymoon phase." They murmured but Matt wasn't so sure about that. The honeymoon phase? Lisa had returned from her visit home quite angry and moody. Everything seemed to set her off and Matt found himself annoyingly walking on eggshells to keep her pacified. 

Like the night before- Lisa had stormed off during dinner because she found out that he'd invited Bobby over for the Christmas.  It was outrageous! He'd explained that Bobby was going through some tough times and that he'd invited her so she wouldn't be alone but she wasn't hearing it. 

It seemed she was more than ready to be jealous of the time he spent with Bobby and that was extremely irritating. 

Then he'd spent most day today nursing a hang over before getting a call from her- cool as a cucumber- as a reminder for her New Year's Eve party. She was actually still expecting him to go after the little scene she'd just caused.  It was the lack of energy his night of excess had afforded him that encouraged him to go to the party. 

He didn't want to fight, he didn't have the energy to fight and all he really wanted was to relax and enjoy a calm evening. 

Of course her party was flooded with people and about 90% of them knew him so it was a constant whirl of Hellos, how are you and we should get together sometimes. 

It was exhausting and in the end all he wanted to do was sit on the sofa, watch television and drift off to sleep- of course, that was because he'd made the mistake of overdoing it the night before. 

He shook his head when he thought of that- he couldn't quite remember most of what happened but he had this vague image in his head of Bobby getting after him... and maybe she'd been in his apartment. He was upset with himself, he'd promised he wouldn't rely on her so much and had even made up his mind to call Nick. 

And somehow his fingers had dialed her. He chuckled to himself as he thought about his faithful little Bobby, always coming to save the day with her honest, straightforward, earnest and calm manner of doing things.