“Oh,” he said, sounding stunned. “I had forgotten how nice those were.” He started slowly backing up toward the open door.
“Cameron!” I charged at him to push him out faster. “Close the f**king door, for Christ’s sake!” I hissed loudly. Just as Braden walked in. I stood there. In my bra. With my arms around Cameron. After telling him to close the door. Frozen in shock.
Braden looked at me with confusion. Then Braden looked at Cameron with fury. Cameron looked at Braden with horror.
“Not what it looks like!” Cameron sputtered backing up away from me frantically. Then Adam walked in and stopped short. His eyes immediately dropped and he openly admired my boobs for a long moment and said, “Hi, Gabrielle. Nice tits. I’m going to find Mark to help me save Cameron’s life.” Then he ducked out quickly.
“What. The f**k! Are you doing? With my girlfriend now Cameron?!” Braden’s voice was deadly.
Mark and Jess came through the door next.
“Holy shit!” Mark exclaimed, looking at me in shock. Then, seeing the look that Braden was giving Cameron, he flew into action. “Braden! It’s Gabrielle! I’m sure there’s some wacky explanation for this!” Jessica literally threw herself in front of Cameron as Adam came back in and quickly assessed the situation.
“Whoa! Braden! Down boy! You’ve found her dressed in garbage and BDSM gear. This is just par for the course, man!” He and Mark put themselves physically between Braden and Cameron then too. Finally, I snapped out of it and I grabbed Kim’s blouse and threw it on, buttoning up as well as I could with shaking hands.
“Braden! My blouse got wet and another PD lent me an extra one. I was changing when Cameron walked in. He was only in here for a few seconds and he was trying to leave but he was shocked and he was moving too slowly and so I was pushing him faster. I wanted him to close the door on the way out!”
I watched Braden take deep breaths and force himself to calm down. Cameron visibly relaxed then and let out a deep breath of his own. I hurried over to Braden and put my arms around him, hugging him tightly and rubbing his back. His muscles felt like piano wires and I could feel his heart beating fast.
“Braden, baby. Listen to me. You need to stop worrying. I love you and Cameron knows and respects that! He’s not going to try anything with me.”
“I do know and respect that! I really do! I would never touch her as long as you were together! I’ve only ever touched her once before! Well, a few times, but only one night, and it was eight years ago when I was nineteen years old!” Cameron said emphatically.
“You’ve slept with Gabrielle?” Adam asked. “You haven’t slept with her too, have you, Mark?”
“No!” Mark answered.
“Good, or I would have felt really left out,” Adam, who was apparently suicidal, added.
“It was when we were in college!” I seethed. “Before I even knew Braden.”
“Thanks for trying to protect me, by the way,” Cam said, looking at Jess. “Didn’t you wonder why Gabrielle was half naked with me?”
“It’s Gabrielle and so I just assumed that there was some nutty reason for it. I’ve learned not to question why she does anything. It’s better that way,” she answered with a smile, collapsing into her desk chair.
“Okay, I’m sorry!” Braden said finally. “You have to admit it was kind of weird!”
“Well, that was fun,” Adam quipped.
“Braden, man,” Mark said, “you’re planning to marry this woman.” He looked at me and his eyes dropped to my chest for one second before he shook his head and looked away. “You really need to get used to walking in on weird shit, dude!”
“Did you say ‘nice tits, Gabrielle’?” Braden asked Adam with a hint of menace.
“So, we came by to see if you wanted to have lunch together!” Adam said cheerfully while slowly backing away from Braden.
“That’s a great idea! I need to talk to everyone about something anyway,” I said grabbing my purse and bolting out the door. Luckily, they did follow me.
We all sat around a table at Reading Terminal Market eating our lunch and chatting much more calmly. Probably because we were all fully dressed and nobody was in mortal danger.
“Should I be brave and ask Gabrielle what she wanted to talk to us about?” Mark asked, taking a bite of his sushi.
“I wanted to tell you about a napkin that we found on the floor,” I explained.
“You wanted to talk to us about litter, honey?” Jess asked. She didn’t really sound surprised, for some reason.
“We found it right in front of Braden’s door after someone had pulled a false alarm and we had to leave the building. It wasn’t there when we left.”
“Somebody must have just dropped it when people were evacuating,” Adam said, eyeing up his corn dog a little suspiciously. A corn dog? Really, Adam?
“It was a cocktail napkin,” I explained. “How many firemen do you know who go out for cocktails before going on duty?”
“Maybe another resident dropped it,” Mark suggested.
“It was right in front of my door,” Braden admitted a little reluctantly.
“It was from a place called Club 51 and on the back someone had written 7161030.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cam asked.
“I think it’s a date and time. This Friday at ten-thirty and I think we should go check it out!” I said excitedly.
“What do you mean ‘we’? Who do we look like? The Scooby Doo gang?” Adam asked, biting into his dubious looking food-like product.
“Oh trust me, man!” Mark broke in, “you haven’t lived until you’ve gone with Gabrielle on one of her little adventures. What should we dress up as this time?”
“Aliens,” I answered dryly. “The club has a conspiracy theme. The 51 refers to Area 51.” I took a bite of my veggie lasagna. All the adrenaline had given me a big appetite. I could probably eat a whole pan of this stuff.
“Uh oh! Conspiracies!” Adam said. “Maybe your litterbug read the article in the New York Times and is worried about the senator’s son dating the kingmaker’s daughter.”
“You know, even though you’re just being a wiseass, you may not be wrong,” I said thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s a message, and in more ways than one.”
“I think it’s a message that Braden should take you out on a date,” Jess said, playing around with her salad. “You two haven’t really gone out anywhere since the first time. Although, I’ll admit that it’s hard to top a kabob joint and a train station.”