Fun night? (Part 2)

I couldn’t wipe the surprised look off my face when I turned around and saw who was standing there.

Before I could say anything, Matt’s face broke into a huge smile.

“KIM! What are you doing here?!” He asked as he stood up and embraced her in a big hug.

I was so confused, which was probably pretty obvious by my face expression, so Matt elaborated.

“This is my friend from back home! I swear this girl was my lifesaver during my undergrad!”

Why did she call refer to him as “hers” if they’re just friends?  I thought. And how can he be good friends with someone as awful as her?

She laughed, and playfully swatted him, “Oh he’s just being nice, we helped each other. I’m actually here for work! I’ll be here for the next 6 weeks staging our new store!” She said chipperly.

“Kim works for Pottery Barn, in their corporate office, overseeing the opening of new stores

I couldn’t believe this was the same person who, just hours earlier, was ready to have our heads ripped off for “stealing her appointment” and now she was acting like the sweetest girl in the world. I wasn’t buying it.

She turned to me “Ahh, where are my manners! I’m Kim, and you are?” She extended her hand to me.

Being polite, I shook it and flatly said “Sarah.”

“Nice to meet you! I was totally kidding, Matty isn’t mine, just old friends”

I was unsure of what to say, and I couldn’t tell if she was pretending like we hadn’t met earlier in the day, or if she really didn’t recognize me.

Matt chucked and said “Yeah, but you’ve always been protective, so much like a sister!”

Her smile twitched when he said that.

“So Sarah, are you the new woman in Matty’s life that I should be grilling with questions?” Even though she said it nicely and with a smile on her face, I had a feeling it was just a front.

When she asked this, everyone at the table looked at me, waiting for my response. Since no one other than Chloe, Katelyn, and Maddie knew about Matt and I, I told her that we were just friends and I was trying to show him around since he was new to town.

I made eye contact with Katelyn who looked just as confused as I was. She obviously recognized the woman from before too, and was just as shocked as I was at her change in demeanour.

I definitely thought she was going to try and weasel her way into our group table when Matt asked if she wanted to join us for a drink, but for some reason the Gods were on my side that night. Or she was leaving to go and ruin some other poor receptionist’s day. “No thanks, I gotta get going, you guys enjoy your night. Matty lets meet up next week we have SO much to catch up on” She said while shooting me a side glance. Is no one else seeing this?! I thought.

“Sounds great Kim! I’ll give you a call this week” Matt said back, still smiling.

I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but it seems like men in general are not great at reading characters or detecting when someone is hiding their true colors.

After she walked away Matt went back to talking to the group, and gave my knee a slight squeeze under the table as if to assure me there wasn’t anything to worry about.

I needed girl chat stat.

“I’m just gunna run to the washroom, be right back!” I said loudly while looking at the girls, hoping one of them would be able to read my mind.

“I gotta go too, can I squeeze by?” Maddie said.

Even though she had no idea about what had happened at the spa earlier, she could tell something was up and I was glad she was the one to follow. (Katelyn was now on her fourth drink so I didn’t think she would be able to offer the best advice)

“Okay what the hell is up? Do you know her or something your eyes almost bulged out of your head when you saw her” Maddie said, as soon as we were alone in the bathroom.

I told her about that day at the spa.

“And you’re sure it’s the same chick? She seemed nice…a little fake maybe but nice.” Maddie said.

“I’m positive! Even Kate knew it was the same girl she looked just as surprised to see her! And she recognizes me, I know it, she obviously didn’t want to bring the whole thing up in front of Matt” I replied.

“Are you going to tell him?” Maddie asked.

“I dunno! What do you think I should do?! I mean, he obviously hasn’t seen that bitchy side of her so I don’t want to come off like some jealous psycho girl he’s only been on a few dates with.” I said.

“Well she said she’s only here for a few weeks, and if she’s here for work I’m sure she will be busy most of the time so I doubt she will be plotting any plans against you” Maddie said. I think she was trying to make me not jump to worse case scenarios, which was probably a good idea otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to think of anything else throughout the night.

“Your right, maybe she was just having a really bad day or something. Matt isn’t the type to be friends with someone like that” I said, trying to convince myself more than anything. I got a bad vibe off her, and that doesn’t happen too often.

“Right, so let’s try and have fun tonight. You’re here with Matt and you should enjoy it! Plus you get to be graced with my presence” She said jokingly while giving me a wink.

I forced a small smile and we were about to walk out when she grabbed me.

“Everything else okay? You’ve seemed kinda distracted all night, even before the wicked witch of wherever-the-hell-she’s-from showed up.” She looked at me suspiciously.

“Just some shit with Katelyn. I think something’s going on but she won’t talk to me” I said as I sighed.

“She does seem to be hitting the booze pretty hard, but that’s not really new…we will keep an eye on her tonight. Maybe she just needed a weekend to let loose, you know?” Maddie suggested.

“Yeah true enough, alright we better get back out there or else everyone’s gunna think we jumped out the window” I said as I opened the bathroom door.

When we got back to the table the appetizers were there and all the guys were digging in like wild animals.

I looked over at Katelyn whose eyes were glued to her phone with her fingers tapping rapidly.

“Hey there Hollywood, you better grab some food before the guys eat it all” I said to her lightly. I wanted her to eat something to try and soak up some of the food but I didn’t want to sound like a mom either. Whenever we would party or drink back in high school, as long as she ate, she could drink like a fish and not seem drunk at all, but if it was on an empty stomach, she would be passed out after 5 drinks. I didn’t want that happening because the night was supposed to be fun and it was still so early in the night.

She looked up from her phone and I could tell she was starting to get the droopy drunk eyes. Urgh c’mon Kate,  don’t go down this fast, I thought.

“Nah, I’m good, gotta pee though!” She said as she got up from the table

.Over the next few hours, Katelyn seemed to get her second wind, which was good. She didn’t eat, but she was bubbly, energetic, and wasn’t showing any signs of being drunk.

Our table grew because Jeff saw one a few of his buddies that he lived with in first year residence, so they joined us and everyone was talking and getting along really well. I had little internal yippee moment because I had put this together pretty last minute and it had turned out to be a really fun night (other than Kim showing up but I figured I wouldn’t think about her unless I had to).

Matt was doing an amazing job at splitting his conversation between me, and talking to the guys, trying to get to know them better, and even making a point to talk to the girls. He was being the perfect secret date/gentleman and was even giving me some leg rubs under the table that were coincidentally moving higher and higher up my thigh over the course of the night.

Before I knew it, it was after 1 am and I was getting to the point where all I wanted was a slice of pizza and bed.

“Maddie, ready to go? Is Kate just in the bathroom?” I asked her from across the table.

I had been busy talking to Matt that I didn’t even see her leave the table.

“Yup and yup, said she had to pee again.” She said as she started saying goodbye and how nice it was to meet everyone.

“I’ll walk you guys o-” Matt started to say, when Chloe came up to me from behind and whispered to me, “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

I got up and we walked over to the bar.

“What’s up?!” I said happily (I was in my Sangria bliss).

“Okay, I don’t want you to panic or anything, but my sister called me so I went outside to take the call..” She started while looking nervous.

“Anddddd?” I asked with wide eyes, expecting some juicy gossip or something.

“Your friend Katelyn was out there.”

“Oh, I thought she was in the washroom, maybe she just wanted some air…” I said.

“Well I saw her talking to some guy in his car and it looked pretty sketchy…”

“Why? What do you mean sketchy?” I asked, starting to get nervous and quickly felt my buzz leave my body.

“Sarah, I think she was buying something off of him”