As Luck Would Have It

21) The Ladies Man

           

"Who's Felicia?" Michelle asked as she observed the blonde girl by the window. She was kind of caught off guard that there was some other girl in Peter's life that she didn't know about.To her, Peter always found some way to let his secrets slip out, but to have no knowledge about this 'Felicia' was really shocking to her.

Peter whipped himself back to face her, and he felt the stress building inside him, as if he was being put on the spot for something he wasn't ready for. "Ah," he stuttered as he thought about what to do or say, "she's a girl I met during the Stark Internship." He reached for the bridge of his nose, thinking of what she would be doing here. "How did she find me?" he whispered nervously.

Michelle didn't quite understand what was happening. "Why, what's wrong with her?"

Peter's hands practically clawed his face as he tried to make a valid excuse to give to his friend. "I think uh...," he paused, "she might have had a crush on me." He couldn't believe what he just said. What girl would actually have a crush on him. And now, he was reduced to lying to the only female friend he had that someone had interest in him. More or less, he would be embarrassed by one of two things. Either that he had the balls to come up with an excuse like that in front of Michelle, or that she would make fun of it.

Michelle took one quick glance back over at Felicia before returning to Peter. She had a puzzled look on her face that soon turned into a giggling grin. "A crush? On you?" she teased. "Wow Parker, since when were you a ladies' man?"

"You of all people know that I'm not," Peter fired back in embarrassment, "But believe me, this girl is crazy." Peter didn't take a chance to look back at Felicia. He knew at some point that she was going to walk up from her spot and interject herself into his business. It started to become clear that this was her way of playing with his double life. Michelle, on the other hand, was kind of interested to hear more about the girl in the window. "Well, I'd like to meet this crazy girl" she said with a smirk.

"Ha," said Peter, "that is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard."

"C'mon, what's it gonna hurt?" she argued.

"Michelle, just trust me on this one," Peter said with a hand raised to stop her, "I don't feel comfortable around her."

Michelle sighed. "Fine..., you don't have to talk to her," she said reluctantly, "but that doesn't mean I can't." She stood quickly and started walking toward the front of the diner. Peter's senses went into full alert mode as he realized what she was doing. "Michelle no...," he loudly whispered as she walked away. Knowing that he couldn't stop her, he exhaustedly slapped his palm against his face in frustration. Now Michelle was entering a situation where Felicia could tell her anything, which was terrifying for Peter.

He lifted his palm off his face and watched everything that played out at Felicia's table. The two girls shook hands, said a few words to each other, and a few smiles and laughs were exchanged. This made Peter even more nervous, the fact that they were getting along. To be fair, he figured Felicia would be able to interact with anybody, given his observations of her. Michelle was the one that he was most surprised by, from the way she composed herself, to the way her hand gestures seemed to imply friendliness. It was something Peter was not accustomed to seeing on an everyday basis, and quite frankly, it was nice to see her engaging in open conversation.

Wow, he thought, I never thought Michelle could be this way. It's kind of, cute. Wait stop, what's the matter with you Parker? How can you be thinking about how cute Michelle is, when she is currently talking to the only person that could expose your double life. What could they even be talking abou..., OH GOD, THEY'RE LOOKING AT ME! WHAT'S HAPPENING? OHH NO, HERE THEY COME!