Japanese place in the West Village, I can’t remember the name. The eel rolls were really good and I usually hate eel—it’s so gooey. You and Andy should go there sometime.”
“I doubt that,” Katie said.
“Why?” Susan asked.
Katie paused, considering telling her what had happened. It would be good to get another opinion on the whole thing because she knew she was being very emotional right now and she still wasn’t sure whether she was making too big a deal about it—if it was Andy’s fault, her fault, or no one’s fault. But Katie knew that Susan was the absolute wrong person to get advice from. She’d been with her boyfriend, Tom, since high school and she knew zero about dating and complicated relationships. She was also from Greenwich, went to prep schools, and everything had always been perfect in her life. She sometimes got uptight when Katie talked about anything personal, especially sex, and Katie decided there was no use even bringing it up.
“Andy’s just not very into sushi,” Katie said.
A few minutes later, Katie went online and did a search for date rape. She didn’t find out anything she didn’t already know. All the articles and posts talked about guys who keep going even after girls say no, and guys who act much more aggressively than Andy had acted. Katie was starting to feel guilty, wondering if she’d been too harsh with Andy this morning. He’d probably never want to see her again, and last night might’ve been more her fault than his. If she’d said, “I’m not ready yet,” or “I have a headache,” or just, “No,” he definitely would’ve stopped and she wouldn’t be feeling the way she did right now.
Although it was still very early—not even nine o’clock—Katie decided to call Amanda. Amanda had a lot of dating experience and she’d be able to give solid advice.
But before pressing the last digit to Amanda’s number, Katie had second thoughts and clicked off. She rememberedhow Amanda had acted on the phone yesterday, putting down Andy and his roommates for being frat boys, and Katie knew Amanda would tell her that she had been raped and to never talk to Andy again, and maybe even to call the police and try to press charges. Besides, Katie didn’t think Amanda would give her an honest opinion because she had been date-raped in college and she was always “anti-guy” in these types of situations.
Now, even more confused, Katie decided to try to forget about it for a while. She had a quick breakfast of coffee and a slice of raisin bread toast with fat-free cream cheese, and then put on her gym clothes. She needed to de-stress on the treadmill for a while, maybe go to a yoga class.
She left her apartment and crossed Second Avenue, then went up the hill on Ninety-third Street, toward Third Avenue. Her legs felt heavy already and she didn’t think she’d have a good workout today. Then she started panicking, remembering how Andy had mentioned that he was going to go to the gym this morning, too. He’d never mentioned which gym he belonged to, and she was pretty sure that there was a gym in Normandie Court, where he lived, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have joined an outside gym. The last thing she wanted was to run into Andy at the gym and have to work out next to him.
She entered the gym cautiously, looking around for Andy. If she saw him and he didn’t see her, she intended to do a one-eighty and hightail it out of there. She didn’t see him on any of the machines on the main level, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t in one of the weight rooms. She headed toward the desk, where she had to scan her membership card, when someone said, “Katie?”
For the second time this morning, she jerked her head quickly, and she felt the strain again in her neck, but she relaxed when she realized it was just the guy at the desk who had spoken to her.
“Yeah?” she said, wondering if something was wrong with her card.
“You don’t remember me, do