LOVE: EVERYTHING OR NOTHING

Keith was about to say something but Andy grabs his arm and speaks for him. "He doesn't always treat women the way they should be but he doesn't insult, belittle, or make them feel beneath him. Yes, he left a bad first impression but was willing to do the right thing and make it up to your friend. Keith doesn't take the easy way out. He admits his faults and takes whatever he has coming. I'm proud to call him my friend and I'm a better person since I met him my freshman year of college. So before you go off on him in public and embarrass yourself and Jackie, get to know him first and tell if he is still an asshole."

Melissa looks stunned at what just happened to her. She didn't know what to say but thankfully she didn't need to worry because the chef came out ready to make their food.

The chef quickly pointed to each person at the table and made sure he had everything he needed for everyone's entrée order. He starts off by putting a huge pile of rice on the flat top and cooking it. On the other side of the top he starts cutting onions for the fried rice but first makes a little mountain out of the rings. He pours some liquid into it, lights it on fire and makes an onion volcano. Everyone smiles and Melissa claps in appreciate of the show. Next the chef cracks a few eggs and mixes them in with the rice. A few minutes later he serves everyone their rice. Next he starts making everyone's entrées and enough shrimp for each person to have two. After he cooks everything to perfection, he serves everyone their food and everyone enjoys what is served.

"Melissa, you should try this salmon, it is delicious," Jackie says with a piece of her salmon on her fork. Melissa opens up her mouth and takes the bite.

"Oh my! That is delicious!"

"Can I try a piece?" asks Keith.

Jackie turns to him surprised. "Umm, sure." She puts another piece on her fork and puts it on Keith's plate. Keith uses his fork to scoop it up and puts the piece in his mouth.

"That is pretty good. Maybe I'll get this next time."

Andy looks over at Keith with a grin on his face. "You never deviate from what you like."

"And I do like this salmon so I am not deviating at all," Keith responds back.

Jackie looks over at the two confused. "What do you mean deviate?"

"Don't worry about it. Andy just likes to make fun of me because I usually order the same thing when I go somewhere I like."

"Oh, ok," says Jackie not convinced. She wants to push but decides not to.

Not a single piece of food is left on anyone's plate and Andy lets out a little burp. "Excuse me," he says.

"I'll excuse you only because you're paying," Keith responds causing the women to laugh.

The waiter comes back with the bills and those who are expected to pay do. Everyone is getting ready to leave when Keith turns towards Jackie. "Can I talk to you for a minute before you leave?"

"Sure."

They walk over to a more private area. "I just want to apologize again for last night. I should have stopped saying what I did and I shouldn't have walked out on you either. I just hope you can forgive me."

Jackie gives a warm smile. "I forgive you for both things. I know I pushed you a little to tell me what you saw in me. I'm sorry for pushing you into that situation."

Keith smiles back. "I forgive you as well. So...would you like to get drinks with me this Saturday? I know a great bar and the bartender a friend of mine."

"I appreciate the offer Keith, but I actually have a date on Saturday. But maybe I'll run into you because I'm meeting the guy at the Brownstead. You can give me your very honest opinion of him afterwards."

"I will most certainly do that if I see you two." Keith and Jackie hug and meet back with their respective friend. They head off out to their cars and start driving.

"So, what did Keith want to talk to you about?" Melissa asks.

Jackie knows Melissa is not letting going to let it go so she just decides to give it up. "He apologized again to me for last night and also asked me to have drinks with him on Saturday."

"Did you say yes?"

"No...I actually already have a date on Saturday with a guy from Match.com."

"You're on Match.com? What other secrets have you been keeping from me?"

"Nothing that I can think of. You know my biggest secrets already."

"Jackie, are you sure you're ready to go out with a guy you only know online? If I were you, I'd cancel on him and go out with Keith."

"I thought you didn't like him."

"That was before his friend stood up for him. It's one thing to stand up for yourself, but it is something else when someone else stands up for someone else like he did. Plus he manned up and apologized to you. While you two may not get married or anything, that is more that most guys have done for you."

"I know...but this guy seems nice too. Maybe I'll give Keith a shot if this date goes bad."

"Do what you want, but I think you'd be happier with Keith and he would unknowingly help you out at the same time."

"Melissa, I know you're trying to help, but please, don't push this."

"Fine, I'll drop it for now."

Keith does his best not to let Jackie's rejection get to him. "She said she had a date Saturday, she never said she never wanted to get drinks with me," he said to himself. After he got home from the restaurant he tried to calm himself down by watching TV, however nothing was on that interested him. He goes into his bedroom, takes off all his clothes and puts on shorts so he can try to sleep. He tosses and turns for about for a good while, unable to get to sleep. He looks at the clock on his nightstand and it says 11:54. "Keith, stop it. You're thinking way too much about this. She likes you enough to discuss the date if you see her with him. She doesn't think you're a jerk or a creep. Everything will be fine. Just go to sleep," he tells himself.

His alarm goes off at 6:30 to wake him up for work. He does his usual morning routine: eat breakfast, shower, brush his teeth and shave, get dressed and be out the door by 7:30. He has to be at work by 8:00am but it only takes him twenty minutes to drive there from his apartment. The day just seemed to drag on for him and he knew why. He still couldn't get Jackie off his mind. He tries his best to focus on the tasks at hand but didn't end up getting a lot done.

He is happy when 5:00pm finally rolled around and can leave for home. He gets back to his apartment a little after 5:30 and sits on his couch turning on the TV and tuning into ESPN to watch Pardon the Interruption, also known as PTI. During the commercials he heats up a frozen TV dinner and eats while watching his show. After PTI is over he thinks about what to do next, but his thoughts just come back to Jackie again. Frustrated his gets his cell phone out of his pocket and calls Andy.

"Hey Keith, what's up?

"Andy, I got it really bad."

"Come on over. The door will be unlocked and a beer will be waiting for you."

"Thanks Andy."

Keith leaves his apartment and walks down the hall to Andy's apartment. He enters seeing Andy on his couch with a beer on the coffee table waiting for him. "How bad is it this time?" Andy asks, worried about Keith.

"I couldn't stop thinking about her last night or at work today. Every time I tried to switch to a different thought process, my mind would just go back to her." Keith sits on the couch and takes a sip of his beer.

"What is it that you are focusing on about her? The date rejection?"

"That is part of it. Also thinking about how nice she was with the rejection making sure that it wasn't because she didn't like me but because she already had a date. My mind keeps wanting to go to the extreme that she wants nothing to do with me but I know that isn't true. Why else would she ask for my opinion of the guy if I saw them at the Brownstead?"

"Well, maybe she knows that you can look into the guy's soul like you did hers' and tell if he is a douchebag or not," Andy says jokingly. Keith gives off a small smile knowing Andy is trying to help.

"That could be true ya know."

"I know, but I think your brain is just overanalyzing everything again. It's not your fault, just the way you process everything."

"Sometimes I wish I was normal and wouldn't hyper focus so much on stuff like that. It would be nice to not feel tortured like that," Keith says sounding depressed, taking more sips from his beer.

"Don't forget your ability to overanalyze is also what makes you so good at your job. When you're zoned in, nothing can stop you. Remember three months ago when you stayed there until almost nine?"

Keith lets out a chuckle. "Yeah, the cleaning crew came into my office asking why I was still there. I looked at the time on the computer and didn't realize how focused I was. I'm just happy my boss wasn't mad at me for staying so late."

"Why would he have been? He knows you well enough to let you focus on something and get it done. That's one reason why you got a nice pay raise last time."

"He did give me quite the raise," Keith said with a big grin on his face. "A lot of people were mad at me and said that I kissed his ass to get it. If they only knew what happened the previous month when I chewed him out and nearly got fired."

"Why didn't get you fired?"

"Because I stood up to him when he was wrong. He only admitted that to me Thursday. He said that while he needs to be respected, he needs to be shown when he is wrong. He did say also that I should email him next time instead of going off on him in person."

Andy laughs at that last statement. "Yeah, that sounds like some good advice. You do go off quickly on people sometimes."

"You know as well as I do Asperger's doesn't help me in that department either."

"Oh I know that much better than your boss does."

"Yes you do," Keith says, laughing a little, thinking about their first arguments when they were roommates and how quickly he went off on Andy. "I must have been that much of a help to you in class."

"You were and once you finally told me that you had Asperger's, we were able to deal with those situations a lot better."

"Yes we were. Thank you Andy. You helped me again."

"Anytime." They both stand up and give each other a hug. "You know I'm always here to help you talk things through and focus on what is important."