James and the PI

     To say he wasn't happy about the news would be an understatement. James was beyond angry. Beyond upset. Beyond anything even remotely reasonable.
    The first few pictures could probably have  been justified or even explained away. But the second set were not so easily dismissed. This was not the news that he had wanted. He'd been glad that Mr Aron had found her; he had, after all, paid enough for the man's services.
    The first set were of a vaguely familiar blonde man and Alice, walking around San Francisco. They were behaving decidedly touristy, so he chalked it up to her showing him around town. In one of the pictures, however, he had a decidedly wicked look on his face and in the next picture she was ruffling his hair in a playful manner. Just because Mr Aron hadn't caught them kissing didn't mean they weren't.
   Then there was the matter of the second guy. They had spent a very long time together and there were more than a few scandalous pictures of them... Cavorting. It made his blood boil to think of this man's hands on his angel. His Alice.
   The PI hadn't caught them doing anything less innocent than making out on a blanket. Though they had disappeared for a time in the woods. Mr Aron had assumed they would be on the last boat, so he'd boarded without seeing them. As the ferry pulled away from Angel Island, he caught sight of them walking to another boat docked near the ferry. With his telephoto lense he was able to get a grainy shot of them getting on the boat.
   It was registered to a man named John Higgins, but the man with his hands all over her was named Benedict, Ben to his friends.

Bike or car?

More than friends

Looking back at the date, he couldn't see what he'd done wrong. As far as he could tell, she had been into him all evening. If they had stayed ten more minutes they would have closed down the restaurant.
   Alice had insisted that they walk down the warf for a while so that they could talk some more. It was a warm evening and she had even held his hand while they walked back to his truck.
    But that wasn't what had his heart pounding in his chest. The kiss. He had finally worked up the courage to kiss her. Being a fisherman and kind of a big guy, he'd always been a little afraid of coming across as being aggressive or using his strength and accidentally hurting someone.
    Not wanting to hurt her, he'd cupped her cheek gently and kissed the other side of her face. Pulling away afterward was gut wrenching. When she grabbed his face with both hands, he'd panicked at first, but her touch was intoxicating.
   Within seconds, they were moving against each other. Their hands and bodies moving by instinct. He wanted her so much, and now, finally, it seemed like she wanted him back.
   With her legs around his waist, he pushed her gently as he could against the door frame as she moaned softly into his mouth. It would have been impossible, at this point, for her not to know how aroused he was. That she had moaned, told him as much. Ben fumbled for the door handle until his sex addled brain figured out that they were leaning against it.
   Reluctantly letting her go, she kissed him again and openned the door. Before he realized what was happening, she had pushed him gently outside, thanked him for dinner and apologized about having to get up early. She also had looked like she had wanted to cry.
   He actually wanted to cry too, but for probably very different reasons. His erection pressed painfully hard against the fabric of his pants. He sat behind the wheel of his truck and hit the steering wheel repeatedly as hard as he could.
    What the hell had he done wrong? It was like high school all over again. Except then he'd been a football player and hadn't learned the virtues of playing it slow. Or, of preventing blue balls.
   With a heavy hearted sigh, he drove home to deal with the situation at hand. But he wasn't really mad. He just hoped that he hadn't somehow screwed it up with Alice.

Scott's duty

  Scott sat in the bagel shop below his apartment watching a guy outside pacing and talking on his cell phone. The guy was gesturing wildly and periodically stopping to look longingly at the bagel girl behind the counter.

  He knew how the guy felt. Scott had caught part of the conversation when he'd walked into the shop. Relationship on the rocks, and it was pretty obvious, to Scott at least, why that happened to be.

  He was in a similar situation, actually. Nora... He just couldn't figure out what to do. They couldn't get married, they'd only known each other for eight months.

   A baby... He knew that a baby needed a father, but he just wasn't that guy. He didn't know if he was relationship material, let alone marriage worthy. Any guy could make a baby, but it took a man to be a father. Was he man enough?

   He guessed it didn't matter, really. He should get a ring and do the right thing. Scott took a big bite of bagel as the cellphone guy hung up and came back inside. He sat down at his table and resumed eating his sandwich. From time to time, he looked up over his computer screen and gazed longingly at the bagel girl when she wasn't looking.

  What cellphone guy didn't see was the bagel girl smiling over at him when he wasn't looking. On the occasion that they were both there, this tended to be the scenery.

  Everyone wants something, Scott thought bitterly. If only she hadn't gotten pregnant. Nora was amazing. Smart, fun, funny and sexy as hell. She'd be an amazing wife, a great mother. But he wasn't good enough for her, really. She just deserved so much better than he could offer.