Best Friend's Brother

Chapter Seven

I spent the rest of the weekend hiding from my best friend and staying away from my house. Cowardly, I know, but I didn't want to give Matt a chance to do anything that would change my mind. I might have slipped up once but I wouldn't slip up again. I had too much to lose.

The Tuesday after the fact I was in my office going through a particularly boring manuscript about some girl who found out she was adopted. Of course, I wasn't going to be the one to tell that to the author since she was some big name in England and this would be the first book she'd be publishing from Canada. Obviously I had to do everything in my power to please her.

I was thankful when my phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Claire Rayne?" asked a voice as smooth as velvet.

"Yes, may I ask whose calling?"

"Oh, right. It's Marcie Grace. I was just wondering if I could set up a meeting with you to discuss something... personal."

I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at it for a second. "How did you get this number?"

"Oh," she said and then gave a shaky laugh. "I kind of took it off my boyfriend's phone. He's really plastered right now and he kept mumbling something about a girl named Claire and you're the only Claire in his contacts on his phone so I thought I might want to talk to you. Would it be possible for us to meet up sometime?"

"That still doesn't answer my question, Marcie. Whose phone did you get my number from? I need a name."

"Oh. Matt. Well, Matthew Da Villa. My boyfriend, like I said."

My mouth dried out. Matt had conveniently left out the part about having a girlfriend while he was down. "Then I'm afraid I can't meet with you. You see, I live in Mississauga and I'm very busy with work."

"Oh," she said sounding disappointed. "I guess I should have thought about that since he's from there. But still, I assumed that you were somebody on campus that I hadn't met yet."

"Not quite. May I ask what he was saying about me?"

She gave a nervous laugh. "It was nothing really. He was just really wasted and he said something about not giving up. He didn't say what he wouldn't give up on but I thought that you might be able to help me out with that. We've only been going out a couple of days but it still kind of freaked me out, you know?"

"Well there's nothing for you to worry about. I promise that he meant nothing by it."

"Thanks, that really calms my nerves," she said laughing. "I was kind of freaked that he might be trying to get back with an ex or something like that."

"Nope, nothing like that," I said just a second too quickly. "I mean, there's nothing to worry about. I'm just a family friend that's known him for a while."

And why was I still on the phone with this girl?

"Oh, okay. Good. Because I'd hate for him to be lying to me about anything. Relationships are all about trust, you know?"

If they were all about trust then why had she taken my number from his phone while he wasn't paying attention? I wondered. "I know exactly what you mean. Anyways, I really need to get back to work now."

"Oh, right. I'll tell Matt you say hi."

"No!" I said a little too forcefully. "I mean, does he know you've called me?"

She paused a second. "That's true. I guess it would be better if I kept this little conversation a secret. Thanks, you're a great friend."

"Friend?" I asked.

She laughed. "Well, you know what I mean. Since you're Matt's friend I'm assuming that I'll meet you in person eventually. In that case, you'd be my friend too. Right?"

I paused. "Sure. Bye, Marcie."

"Bye Claire! Gosh, you're so nice! I wish you really were on campus so that I could just meet you already. You seem like the type of person who's really trustworthy and not a catty bee-otch if you know what I mean."

I hung up before she could say anything else. She definitely wouldn't like me if she knew I'd slept with her boyfriend but that's nothing I could fix now.

Only after I had turned my attention back to the manuscript did I realize that she had called my work number and not my cell. I hadn't given Matt this number so he must have gotten it from Whitney.

Sighing I pick the phone back up and punched in her number. She picked up after the third ring with a chipper "Hello?"

"I have a bone to pick with you, sister!"

She laughed. "Uh-oh, what did I do this time? Don't tell me, you found out about the cookie I had yesterday before supper and I'm in trouble now."

"Did you forget to mention the fact that you gave Matt my work number?" When she didn't say anything in response I continued. "I know you gave him my cell number last Thursday but why does he need my work number, too? I for one definitely did not give Matt my work number since I saw very little of him over the weekend and you saw an awful lot of your little brother."

She was silent for a second. "Busted. I just thought that since you guys hooked up I'd help move things along. I didn't think he'd call you so soon after you were so obviously avoiding him last weekend. He must be more into you than I thought."

"He didn't," I said through my teeth. "His girlfriend did."

"His what?" she screeched.

"You heard what I said, Whit."

"Hold on a second, I'm going to get away from the kids so I can actually talk."  

I could hear the telltale signs of her shuffling the kids around the living room so she could see them from the kitchen but they wouldn't be able to really make sense of what she was saying.

"Did you say Matt has a girlfriend?"

I nodded. "That's exactly what I said and you know it. Apparently he got wasted and was talking about me so she took my number off of his phone to see if I was an ex of his or something. I calmly explained to her I was in no way Matt's ex and I'd like it if you would remember that yourself. A one night stand does not mean that anything will ever come out of it. I told her not to worry about it since I was just a family friend and then she went and told me I sounded like a trustworthy person. I feel like such a creep!"

"No, it's not you, Claire. Matt's the creep."

"What did Uncle Mattie do, Mama?" came Jace's cute little voice.

"Nothing Sweetie. Go play with Anastasia and Simon, they look like they miss you."

I laughed. "Man, it's like your kids need bells or something. He totally snuck up on you with that one!"

She sighed."I know, right? I can't believe that Anastasia and him are already four. Or the fact that Simon's three.  And now there's another little guy or girl on the way? Help!"

I laughed at how obvious her joy was. "Whit, you'll be fine. Like always. Anyways, I just called to give you hell for giving away my number and you should really be spending time with your kids now."

"Hold on, before you go I want to ask you something. Should I leave your name out of it when I yell at Matt for not telling me about this girlfriend of his?"

"Whitney! Of course you should. I don't want him to know his girlfriend's called me because of some stupid mistake. It would make things awkward if we ever run into each other."

"Yeah, because that would be the awkward part, right?"

"Goodbye, Whitney."

"Bye Hun!"