Long time ago, we started a story via email. Everyone wrote a couple of lines and then passed it to the next person. The initial after the paragraph denotes who wrote it. I, of course, am B. Marsh is M and Clussy is C. But I really thought Harms wrote here too. Strange.
It is a terrible story, yet full of fun. I just remember all the non-story emails that consisted of "Who has the story?" and "Where is the story?". ha! And then we would get mad at each other for not having the story go the way we had planned. Good times. I love my girls.

Kate blew on her nails, wondering if that really helped dry them quicker, or if it was just something you did like shaking Polaroid prints to make them develop faster. Isn't it common knowledge by now, that it does not help the picture show up faster? She contemplated the colour she had chosen. Shut up
and kiss me. It was a deep pink, almost red, but not slutty. Did she pick the colour because she was looking for some action without the mental games, and if so, why was the colour not sluttier? Why did girls paint their nails anyway? The only person she knew who appreciated the gesture was her friend
Julianna. Julianna was the queen of primping. Hell, she probably knew whether blowing on the nail polish was useful. Kate picked up the phone with her feet. She used her nose to press redial, because as fate would have it, Julianna was the last person she called. Actually, Julianna was the only
person she called except for the pizza people. She had them on speed dial too. (B)

"Yeah?" came Julianna's sing-song voice through the phone.
"You knew it was me" Kate said flatly, somehow disappointed.
"Yeah, well, who loves me? What's up? Can you believe that we are actually going tonight? Hopefully there won't be any bullshit this time."

Although she did not say it out loud, Kate secretly hoped there would be a little bit of it, just for fun, just for old times sake. It was that one night, nearly eight months ago that had set her life on such a downward spiral, but at the time it seemed so wonderfully blissful, so completely
perfect, that she had not seen herself plunging into the grayness currently enveloping her mind. (M)

"HELLOOOO????" rang Julianna's voice into the receiver "Where are you zoning off to over there? I just asked you if Daniel was coming out with us tonight and you're not answering"
"oh" muttered Kate "I'm sorry, I was just thinking about that last night in Atlanta when I bumped into that bass player.... Jake"(C)
"Really?" Julianna said incredulously. "Seriously, Katie."
Kate absolutely hated being called Katie. But wouldn't you know it, that is what people loved to call her.
"You can't date people whose names rhyme with yours." Julianna carried on. "Besides, Daniel is hotter."
There were times were Kate wanted to throttle her friend. Julianna was incapable of seeing the bigger picture. She lived in the moment and that was one thing Kate was super jealous of. It was also the one thing that drove her absolutely mad, because it made it impossible to talk about things that she was holding onto from her past. She sighed.
"I know." She said resignatedly. "Anyway, I was calling to see what you were wearing." (B)

Kate slipped into a pair of low-slung jeans and as she did so, she let her mind wander. Jake was the most beautiful person she had ever laid eyes upon. She knew Julianna did not agree, and perhaps stepping outside of herself she, too, could see that his was not a traditional beauty. It was his deep sapphire eyes that looked almost black to the general onlooker, the way his arms swayed when he moved like they were precious instruments playing the sweetest song, and more to the point, it was his bass guitar. He played that guitar so lovingly, so knowingly and with such fiery emotion, that the second Kate spied him in that hot, Atlanta club, she knew she wanted to be played too. She knew that she would give herself over completely to him, she would beg for his touch.

As it turned out, Kate would not have to beg. The moment she had entered the club he saw her too, through the smoke and the crowd. In fact it was he who laid eyes upon her first. What was it that drew his gaze to her? Was it her long chestnut hair, pretty but not remarkable? Was it her deep brown eyes that seemed to burn right through a person? Her figure was trim, yet curvy, but that wasn't it either. It was the want in her, it exuded from deep within her soul. It was all about her, in her eyes, her mannerisms. She wanted something desperately and he knew he wanted to give it to her.
(M)

And that he did... Kate tried not to dwell on the details of their sordid encounter in the men's bathroom that hot night in the seedy Atlanta lounge.
The strong grip he had on the back of her neck as they kissed, the way he pulled back violently to look into her eyes as if he couldn't believe what she was triggering in him and the inexplicable shivers that ran through Kate's body as she tore free from his grip. She knew then that she was asking for trouble and wouldn't walk down that lonely road of abandonment again. She kissed him that one last time, leaving a trace of salt on his lips from her tear. Neither of them could explain what had just come over them or why they were left with such a feeling of despair at not being in each others arms anymore, after all, they had just met. At least, that's what they led everyone else to believe.

Kate pulled herself out of her daze and zipped up her sleek camel knee high boots, glossed over her finished hairstyle w/a bit of silicone gel and dashed out the door. She knew she was playing with fire in coinciding the evening's plans with stopping by Jake's new bar for a drink. Of course Julianna didn't know the details involved in this bar that Kate was urging her to meet at because if she did, she would definitely have put a stop to it. Julianna knew that something was brewing for the evening but wasn't sure what it was. She knows Kate enough to know that she never worries this much about what she's going to wear out or primps this much. Something was going to happen tonight. Now if she only knew what, she might be able to spare Kate the sobriety of an impending heartache and such a blow to her
fantasy world.(C)

Julianna worried about her friend. She'd never seen her affected as she was by Jake. She threw on her jacket and grabbed her bag as she walked out the door of her apartment into her car. Her cell phone rang as the engine sprang to life. It was Daniel.
“Where am I meeting you guys?”
Julianna gripped the phone with her shoulder and threw her BMW into gear and shot down the street. “We are going to grab a drink at that new bar on Windsor and Ivy. I don’t think we will be there for more than an hour.” She said. “I’ll bet it’s pretty packed.”
“Does she want me to show up?” He asked, worried. Daniel had had a crush on Kate from the first time he saw her ordering a quadruple shot espresso at Joe’s Java House. He thought maybe she was tired, but it was a typical order for her. But her response to him had always been friendly, at best.
Julianna was silent. She knew her friend was not romantically interested in him, but she thought they would make a great match. Besides, he was fun to hang out with and always paid for their drinks. “Um, sure.” (B)