"Dude - you coming out tonight?" he asked, looking and sounding as though his mouth was talking without his brain being involved.
I felt stupid for a moment or two, and then it hit me - it was Friday night. I felt such guilt that I hadn't been out with the usual crowd for so very long while I'd been enthralled by one Zoey Schoenberg. Robin must have felt I'd become worse than the married ones among us - at least Marty and Vic were usually able to spend a few hours out after work on Fridays, before going home to do their duties. But right now, I so wanted to just get inside with Zoey since we'd both been so horny all day.
I said: "Well, I don't know - "
Robin did a poor job hiding his disappointment, though he did try. He said: "It's been so long, dude. I mean I know you met someone really special, but - "
I saw him look up, catch his breath. Zoey had walked around from the driver's side, and now stepped onto the sidewalk behind me.
"Uh…" I said. "Robin, this is Zoey. Zoey, this is Robin - I share an apartment with him."
"Hi," Zoey gave him a broad grin, holding out a hand for him to shake.
I suddenly felt scared she'd think I was afraid to introduce her to my friends and family - I just hadn't gotten around to it until now. There hadn't been an opportunity, and I'd never been in a position to make such a suggestion with Zoey in charge.
"Oh, hello," Robin beamed in return, subtly looking her up and down, his face all lit up as he reached out to grasp her offered hand. He was clearly impressed. "Lovely to meet you, Zoey. I was… uh… just headed out, actually. You know, the regular Friday night."
Robin was now clearly implying that we didn't have to worry about any intrusion, that we'd have the apartment to ourselves all evening. Suddenly, his attempts to persuade me to come out had been fully answered. Any man would be a fool to go out on the town if he had a woman like Zoey Schoenberg to see to at home.
But Zoey said to Robin: "So I heard. Sounds like fun. You mind if we tag along?"
A beat as the information sank in.
She'd misconstrued his acceptance of my non-participation as an invitation for us all to go out. I suddenly felt very nervous, although there was definitely a part of me that really liked the idea of showing off Zoey to my friends, offering some kind of explanation as to why I hadn't shown for so long.
"You know, I couldn't think of anything better," Robin said, and Zoey glanced at me with one eyebrow raised, amused at the sudden change to our evening's plans.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I'm not sure if I was more nervous of my friends meeting my girlfriend, or my girlfriend meeting my friends. I guess mostly, I was worried about how Zoey would treat me in front of the others - having sat with them giggling at Benny's adventures with his kinky fiancée, I could only imagine what they'd all say as Zoey started ordering me around in front of them, perhaps getting drunk and letting on about how she had me under her thumb.
But, as it turned out, everyone was civil, polite, even mildly impressed - on one side that I'd fallen for such a bright, independent female, and on the other side that my friends were actually a nice bunch, and not the kind of chauvinistic gaggle of which my sales team comprised.
"So you're the hot babe who's taken Aide from us?"
"You're so... brunette."
"Thank you. Yes, I'm sorry I've been monopolizing his evenings recently."
"Well, I mean, since he was with you, I guess we can forgive him. If he buys the next round."
Sure, she made me go get the drinks whenever we ran dry, but I managed to infer that since I was on the end of the booth, and I was the designated driver and therefore unlikely to spill as much, I was really in the easiest position to go get the drinks. While I was away, I'd look nervously back and see the guys apparently grilling Zoey about me, and Zoey seeming to be extremely willing to open up. It could have just been me being paranoid, of course, but you know when people have been talking about you from those not-so-subtle glances you get when you return, not to mention the subtle way they change the subject.
I was being a little paranoid. Much of the time when I returned with drinks, I'd find they were talking about Benny's fiancée or Marty's inability to engage his wife in anything other than a hug, or Vic's suspicion that Rona might have a touch of depression.
"You should just let her do it to you, Ben," Zoey would be saying, or something similar. "Might find you actually like it. Might even transform your life."
"Seriously? But what if it hurts?"
"Then don't do it again - but at least you'll know you don't like it."
Zoey seemed to take on this role as relationship guru, the guys flocking around her like moths to a flame, eager for her pearls of wisdom. She'd tamed the untamable, she'd locked down the Harry Houdini of commitment, she'd bewitched the king of one night stands - she was clearly one to be respected and consulted in the field of successful romance.