The following night, Drew entered her small apartment and threw her purse down on the table in from of the couch. She saw the light on her answering machine blinking and she made her way across the room, kicking off her high heeled shoes as she went. She reached the couch-side table and pushed the play button on the machine.
*beep*
"Hola, chica!"
Drew smiled at her mother's voice who, even though she lived in the USA most of her life, still reverted to her native Spanish every once in a while
"I'm just calling to check up on you. Your hermano came home three days ago and told us how you were doing. When are you going to come home and visit your padres? It's been too long, hija, we miss you."
Natalia Bailey paused for a moment and Drew could hear her father's voice in the background before her mother once again talked into the phone.
"Your papa says you better get yourself up here soon or he'll send your hermanos after you. Call us soon, we want to hear from you. Te Queiro. Adios."
*beep*
As her mother's message stopped, Drew plopped down on the couch and massaged her aching feet. She had been on them all day at work and the were hurting. She leaned back on he rcouch and closed her eyes as she listened to the next message.
*beep*
"Hey girl, its me, AJ. I haven't heard from you in a few days and I just thought I would call and say hey. If you want to go do something tonight, call me and let me know. Talk to ya later, bye."
*beep*
As the message went off, Drew smiled into the empty room. At the conclusion of their "date" the other night, she and AJ had split company in the very early hours of the morning. But what she hadn't told Kevin was that they'd both decided that although Howie had good intentions, a relationship between the two of them would never work. They'd decided to be friends instead. She'd meant to tell Kevin this but she was rather enjoying his obvious jealousy.
Once again, she found her thoughts returning to Kevin. With his dark hair and beautiful eyes, he occupied most of her thoughts since she met him. Thinking about it, Drew realized she'd only known him for a short while, but it seemed like much longer.
When they were standing on the bridge the day before, Kevin had commented on her previous actions. Looking back, Drew knew that her actions seemed strange but she had her reasons.
Her entire life, men had frightened her. Not physically of course but she knew that they had the power to hurt her more than she thought possible. As she grew up, she never allowed herself to commit herself emotionally to any male.
In her senior year of high school, Drew met the person who would change her drastically. Micheal was a handsome, sweet baseball player who was intrigued by her aloofness. Drew was flattered by his persistance but still refused to get emotionally involved with him. Micheal persisted and kept on until Drew felt the wall she had built so carefully around her heart start to crumble piece by piece. He made her see that she was being silly by not trusting men. So she did the unthinkable. She fell in love with him.
The night that she told him of her feelings, Drew could have sworn she saw a look of triumph on his face before he told her the same thing. In her young mind, Drew took the words as the truth and that very night, she lost her virginity to him. They'd spent the entire night making love but when the morning came and Drew awoke, she found herself alone.
The next time that she saw Micheal at school, he laughed at her. He told her of the running bet he had going with his friends to see if he would be the one to melt the 'ice queen' first. He said he one the bet and didn't want her anymore.
Drew was crushed. Her carefully built defenses were shattered and left her vulnerable to all. For the first time, she'd allowed herself to care for a man and he betrayed her feelings. It wasn't the fact that she'd relinquished her innocence to him that hurt her. It was the fact that she let herself fall in love with him and believe that he loved her too, and then he betrayed her.
From that day forward, Drew had many physical relationships but had never let herself get emotionally involved again. Until she met Kevin.
From the first moment she had seen him, she wanted him. At first she had only wanted a physical relationship with him, not wanting to open herself to him emotionally but a few days ago, everything changed. Up until one specific moment, she'd wanted only one thing from him. Up until the moment she'd held him in his arms and he shed tears over the child he would never have.
At that moment, Drew felt her defenses start to slip again. Only this time, it didn't scare her quite as much. She felt that she could live through it this time. For some odd reason, she trusted Kevin. When she was in his arms, she felt secure, she felt that with him she would be safe from harm, physical and emotional.
As Drew got off the couch, she headed back to her bedroom to change out of the business suit she wore. She found her favorite pair of form fitting jeans and slipped them on along with a baby blue tank top. She pulled her dark hair off of her neck and into a pontytail. As she made her way back to her living room, Drew heard her doorbell ring.
She made her way back into the front of her apartment and opened her front door to see Kevin standing there with a fierce scowl on his face. "Is something wrong, Kevin?" she asked, concerned.
Kevin nodded as he advanced on her menacingly. "You, ma'am are in big trouble." he growled.
