There was a stunned silence in Drew's backyard as every stared at Eugene in amazement. Eugene smiled proudly, leaning on his cue stick and returning their stares confidently. Having spent so much time around them had allowed him to relax and he had become a comfortable part of their group. They had all been celebrating the arrival of warmer weather with the first pool game of the season, and Eugene had just won almost effortlessly.
"That was amazing," Oswald said, the first to regain his speech.
"Yeah, you're probably better than Kate," Drew said in awe, receiving an elbow to the ribs from Kate for this comment. "Ow, hey, well it's true. It's too bad you can't play very well right now."
"Yeah, well this stomach sort of gets in the way," Kate retorted, resting her hand on her enormous abdomen. She was now only a month and a half from her due date.
"Doesn't stop Drew," Lewis pointed out. "He seems to have found a way to play around his stomach." Drew glared at him and everyone else laughed.
"Drew doesn't win games though," Kate put in.
"Hey," Drew protested. "I thought we were talking about Eugene, not about me." He turned back to Eugene. "Where did you learn to play like that?"
Eugene shrugged. "I just play every once in a while," he said casually. "The random night when I want to hit a bar or something. I've just always been fairly good at it."
"Fairly good?" Lewis asked with raised eyebrows. "I hate to tell you, but you are a bit more than 'fairly good.'"
"You are a pool god," Oswald said, grasping Eugene's shoulder and giving it a little shake. Eugene's smile grew but he simply shrugged again. Lewis tried to shake away the image; he was, by this time, quite confident that Eugene was attracted to Oswald but he wasn't quite sure how Oswald felt about it or if he even noticed.
"He's right," Drew agreed. "I'm never playing against you again if there's money involved." He threw his twenty dollar bill onto the pool table and Eugene grabbed it up with a grin, tucking it into his pocket.
"How do you think I paid my rent when I was out of work?" Eugene said by way of reply. "Some of those temp jobs didn't pay me enough, so I made a little extra playing pool on the weekends."
"I thought you said you didn't play much," Kate said, smirking at him.
"Only on the occasional weekend when the paycheck was too short," Eugene replied, his characteristic mischievous grin returning. "I was good at it before I started doing it for money. Like I said, I've always been good at it. Natural gift, I suppose."
Drew drained the rest of his beer and shook his head. "If I was as good at pool as you I'd quit my job and just play for a living," he said. "Wonder if they have a professional circuit for it." Everyone shrugged, murmuring that they didn't know the answer. "Well, anyone up for another game?"
"Not against Eugene," Lewis said instantly, making everyone laugh.
Eugene glanced at his watch and frowned. "Actually Kate and I need to be going anyway," he said, walking over to slip his cue into the rack.
"Where you going?" Oswald asked, his eyebrows knitting together. "I didn't think you had to be to work for like two hours."
"I have a few errands to run before work," Eugene explained, smiling at Oswald's concern.
"Well I can drive Kate home if you need," Lewis offered, straightening up. "If she doesn't need to be home this soon, I can drop her off on my way home."
Kate looked around awkwardly. "Oh, I don't want to be a problem," she said, waving her hand.
"It's no problem," Lewis said with a shrug. "It's on my way. I have to get home about the same time you do so I can get ready for work. It'd be easy and then you won't have to be sitting at home doing nothing for that long."
Kate was glancing between Eugene and Lewis, indecision on her face. Eugene was giving Lewis a strange look, but Lewis tried to ignore it, not wanting to know what was going through the man's head. She bit her lower lip thoughtfully and then shook her head. "Thanks for the offer, Lewis, but I still need to shower and get something to eat before work," she said. "And trust me, it takes a lot longer to shower when you have a stomach like this," she added with a smile.
Lewis tried not to let the response bother him and he was able to act impassive, but for some reason he felt a slight tinge of disappointment inside. Not understanding it, he ignored it as well as he could. "Alright then, thought I'd offer," he said, putting on a small smile. "See you later then."
"See ya," Kate replied, giving everyone a smile and wave before she followed Eugene around the side of the house. There was silence until they heard Eugene's car back out of the driveway and disappear down the street.
"You like her, don't you?" Drew said abruptly, startling Lewis.
"What?" Lewis replied stupidly, still trying to regain his composure after the strange statement. "Are you accusing me of having a crush on Kate?" he asked, trying to sound as incredulous as possible. "Please, this is Kate we're talking about. She's impossible."
"I think you're in denial," Drew said. He gazed at Lewis shrewdly and Lewis tried to retain his act. "I think you're starting to fall for Kate."
"Oh sure," Lewis said sarcastically. "I'm going to fall for the woman who has repeatedly rejected me in every way possible since we were kids. Who wouldn't want to have that sort of ego damager around all the time?"
"Then why would you keep asking?" Oswald asked curiously.
"To annoy her," Lewis said, shrugging casually. "I gave up on actually getting a yes out of her decades ago. Now I just keep doing it because it irritates her."
"You liked her when we were kids though," Drew put in.
"Yeah, well which one of us didn't?" Lewis replied. "All of us liked Kate when we were kids. Only difference is I gave up on it shortly after high school when you two didn't." This made the other two stop and they lapsed into quiet, none of them looking at each other.
"Anybody up for another game of pool?" Oswald asked suddenly, looking up eagerly with a smile that suggested correctly that he had already pretty much forgotten about the disagreement. Drew and Lewis exchanged quick looks that served as closure to the discussion and then both agreed to the game.
Time swept by as the three of them played several games of pool and talked about random things that held no real purpose. The sun sank towards the horizon, until the drop in temperature brought Lewis' attention to his watch. "Oh hey, I've gotta go," he said, slipping his cue into the rack and draining his beer. He dropped the bottle into the trashcan, waved a quick good-bye to Oswald and Drew, and then hurried out to his car.
Climbing down into the vehicle, he grumbled to himself again. "I really need to get a bigger car," he muttered, starting the car and heading off. His car was simply not built for a six and a half foot man, leaving his legs cramped and his head scraping the ceiling. Still, no matter how much he complained about the car he had yet to replace it, partly out of finances and partly out of affection for the car since he had had it for quite a few years.
His thoughts were on Kate once again as he made the familiar drive to the Warsaw. He knew that Drew had been right, and that he was falling for Kate. Truthfully, he'd been falling for Kate more every day since they had been in elementary school. He had just never acted on it because Kate was so openly hostile to him. Now it would just be too complicated to get involved with her, even if she did give him the chance. Not only would he have to worry about the fact that Drew and Oswald both loved her, but she was about to have a child. Lewis didn't think he was ready to have to take care of a kid.
As he was passing through an intersection, a loud honk and glare of lights jerked Lewis back to the present and he felt his heart leap into his throat. There was no time to react as the SUV came flying under the red light and into the driver's side of his small car. Pain lanced through his body and he felt a sickening wave of vertigo as his car rolled sideways, and then quite suddenly everything drifted into darkness.