His Summer Fixation

Chapter One

By the time I arrived at Gemma’s house, the evening darkness was creeping its way across the sky and the energy of the summer day was dissipating.  I was over two hours late to the party, but I didn’t have much of a choice; I had been stuck at work, waiting for my replacement to show up.

I rang the doorbell and waited for Gemma, wondering if she—or anyone else—would hear. Music drifted from somewhere in her house, and the sharp smell of smoke was discernible in the air. My mind was on barbequed meat when the front door swung open and there stood Gemma in a pretty dress, her red hair set in a crown braid.

“Could you be anymore late?” She scolded, but the grin on her face told me that she was joking.

I held up the pack of Coronas I had purchased from The Beer Store. “Am I exonerated?”

“You will be after you’ve finished the entire pack.”

“A punishment I will happily accept.”

We hugged each other before Gemma stepped aside to let me in. As we made our way through the kitchen, I couldn’t help but notice a shiny black box sitting on top of the breakfast table. On the top, ‘Pusateri’s’ was printed in white capital letters.

“Whoa, a cake from Pusateri’s? You’re kicking it high class tonight.”

Gemma rolled her eyes as she handed me an ice-cold Corona from the enormous cooler that resided in a corner. “I didn’t buy the cake. Long story short: I forgot, and one of Daniel’s friends picked one up.”

“You forgot to buy a birthday cake for a birthday party?” I asked in baffling amusement. “That’s like…Chinese food without rice. Or, you know, gay porn without dicks.”

“Annie!”

I grinned. Our friendship was nothing without dick jokes.

In the backyard, Daniel McKenzie’s birthday barbeque seemed like it was in full swing. I was glad that I made it tonight, because I hadn’t seen Daniel for so long; he had spent most of the summer at Waterloo, where he had taken a few summer courses.

Gemma and I used to work together at a home furnishing store until she quit in order accept a job related to her academic studies. We had hit if off immediately when we discovered that we attended the same university, and it was all too common when we had shifts together to spend the slower periods bitching about the university’s harsh grading curve. By the time Gemma handed in her two weeks notice, we had formed a bond that existed beyond the workplace. It wasn’t long until Gemma introduced me to her boyfriend Daniel; while it was true that we didn’t hang out often, the times when we did had always been memorable.

Someone called my name before I got a chance to soak in the jovial scene before me; it was Daniel, sitting on a bench nearby. In the same vicinity, either in portable loungers or lawn chairs, were a few people that I recalled from Gemma’s previous get-togethers, but there were a few faces that were definitely unfamiliar.

“And here I thought you were going to be a no show,” Daniel quipped as I sank into one of the portable loungers. Gemma had disappeared for the time being.  

“I wouldn’t miss drunk Daniel for the world,” I joked.

He grinned at me, raising his bottle of Heineken in mock toast. “You may or may not be in for a treat tonight.”

While Daniel introduced me to the guests sitting nearby, Gemma appeared with a plate of food in one hand. She offered it to me and I accepted gratefully, my stomach heaving in relief at the knowledge that it was finally being attended to. The last time I had eaten anything was at lunch, and that was some seven hours ago.