Stuck With You, page 4
‘That was nothing.’ I wave a hand. ‘I simply hugged the girl. Her mother received a death sentence; I feel like that’s hug-worthy.’
‘Agreed.’ Brooks nods. ‘But that’s not the part I’m talking about. It was a while after that, just before closing.’
With everything I have, I cannot remember leaving the bar that night. That’s not promising whatever I did was charming, cute, or even forgivable.
‘Keep talking…’
‘It was just the three of us.’
I shoot him a glare. ‘You’ll need to be more specific; currently, my role in life is the third wheel, remember?’
Brooks rolls his eyes. ‘You, me, and Mercy. You walked out behind us, dancing I might add, and Jade ran out, calling your name. Something about it sounded flirty, so Mercy wanted to eavesdrop.’
I scrunch my face. Of course she did.
‘You know you picked the weirdest woman on the planet?’
He beams. ‘Isn’t she awesome?’
‘Back to me.’ I snap in front of his face as he dreams of a girl who’s like family to me. No thanks to witnessing that. ‘So, I danced. That’s not terrible considering I’m pretty damn good. But, uh, what did I say?’ I ask, setting the hot dog in front of me, a little worried about the story I’m about to hear. Andrews seems into it, sitting with his elbows on the table, double-fisting his second dog, his full attention on Brooks. Lunch and a show at my ego’s expense.
Suddenly the scene he’s referring to flashes through my head. Shit. How did I forget this, and why has she never brought it up? First, I was very drunk – which happens about fifteen minutes before horny drunk, then leads to emotional drunk. When she burst out the bar door calling my name, I greeted her with an overly confident ‘Hey, pretty lady.’ I stepped closer to her. ‘You know what I was thinking earlier? We’re like nachos with jalapeños, you and I.’
‘Why?’ she asked, a coy smile on her face.
‘Because I’m super cheesy and you’re incredibly hot. Obviously, we belong together.’ I slung an arm over her shoulder as she laughed at my proving how cheesy I am. It wasn’t only that, though, I’m pretty sure I was wearing a T-shirt that said I’m a Barbie Girl that night. I’ve never been as aware of my obnoxious taste, passed down by my mother, as I am right now.
‘You are pretty cheesy,’ she said. ‘I just wanted to say thanks for earlier,’ she’d continued. ‘I guess sometimes a girl just needs a hug.’ She laughed shyly. ‘For the record, I like your brand of cheese.’
I remember going in to kiss her because I got the vibe that’s what she wanted. Hell, I was sure as fuck feeling it, but something stopped me. Ah, that’s right, Brooks and Mercy were dragging me away. ‘Come on, we don’t drunk kiss sober girls…’ they’d said in unison.
After that, I yelled my phone number into the dark streets, not giving a flying fuck who else got it, and to this day, I don’t know if she kept it. I’d guess not, as she’s never called me. Cheesy wasn’t even the right word. Jesus. Why does no one ever remind me that tequila is not my friend?
‘Is it all rushing back?’ Brooks asks suddenly, waking me from my day-mare.
I drop my head into my hands. How did I forget all this? ‘Yeah, yeah, no need to spell it out. At least verify she wanted me to kiss her, right?’
Brooks nods. ‘You don’t want your first kiss to be a drunk kiss, that’s what I know.’
Andrews slurps his now nearly empty soda. ‘As interesting as that was, story time is over. We got creeps to spy on.’ He stands from the table, heading to the garbage can, then to the unmarked police SUV they drive.
Brooks stands, shoving his hands into his pockets as he gets in line to buy his lunch. ‘My dad says I have to go back to work now. But I’m glad I could remind you that you’re an idiot when you drink.’
‘Thank you. Can ya make sure you spell my name right on my trophy?’
I can’t believe this. Why did I block this out? Was that my shot? Her giving me a chance that drunk me fumbled? That happened before her mom died. Before she met Conner. Crap, had I been sober, that night could have changed things between us, but Conner slid into her DMs first because I chose to get too drunk the night she hinted that she liked me.
5
JADE
‘Where have you been?’ Kai, my best friend, asks when I finally show up to work thirty minutes late. ‘You’re never late; I was about to call your dad and ensure you hadn’t boarded the plane with Conner.’
Not sure he’d have allowed that considering he practically ran out of my apartment this morning. I thought about calling in sick tonight because lovesickness should count as a genuine illness. But I convinced myself to head to my happy place and shockingly, my job is my temporary happy place. As I fall asleep at night, I don’t count sheep. I pretend I’m lying on a white sandy beach, with the waves lapping at my freshly painted toenails, palms blowing in the gentle warm breeze, flamingos meandering in the surf, and a private bartender named Wells, who laughs at my jokes and reminds me of my worth. (Thank you, Bachelor in Paradise, for bringing us him.)
The first time I walked into this place, I felt like I was nine years old and revisiting Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room, which I sat in with my grandfather for an hour. I was officially in love with all things tropical. I even have a photo of him and me from that day on my fridge. My smile couldn’t have been bigger.
As a kid, I wondered if I was mistakenly born in the wrong part of the world, the rainy pacific northwest. I’m the type of girl that, with a hint of cold, I dress as if I’m headed into sub-zero temps, and currently, fall is upon us in the Rose City. I’m freezing and it’s only September. Fog, rain, cool temps, and falling leaves have me pulling out my vintage fur jacket, fingerless gloves, and scarf, which I’ve left in my locker in the back employee room.
‘I had a long night, an irritating morning, and then I fell asleep.’ I stash my phone under the bar top where we employees keep them because, inconveniently, grass skirts have no pockets.
‘You slept through Conner’s family dinner? I thought you’d walk in here on cloud nine after spending time with your new fiancé.’
I heave a sigh. ‘Conner canceled dinner. He canceled ring shopping. He even walked out on breakfast.’
Both Kai and Adam, our manager, turn my way, their eyes wide.
‘Did he also cancel the wedding?’ Adam asks.
‘You broke up?’ Kai’s question intertwines with Adam’s as he speaks over her.
I shake my head, but as I open my mouth to explain, Adam interrupts.
‘Wait!’ he commands. ‘First things first…’ He grabs three shot glasses, pouring a shot of Stolichnaya’s Elit Vodka – his favorite – for each of us. ‘Jade obviously needs to drown her salty heart, so she gets a double.’
He’s a mind-reader. This is our nightly routine – well, not the double shot. Usually, a single shot helps me get through my shift and gives me the courage to do our bar top hula dance. Even Adam wears the uniform, minus a bikini top (except that one night when he wore the souvenir coconut bra hanging from one of the walls as decor – he made bank in tips that night).
‘My heart is not salty.’
‘Sure it’s not,’ Adam says, lifting his glass for a toast. ‘To a good night.’
Kai lifts hers, tapping it to his. ‘One where Jade doesn’t mace some unsuspecting asshole guy because she’s in a mood,’ she adds with a smirk.
‘It was one time,’ I say defensively, knocking my glass against theirs before downing my shots. Yum. This vodka is velvety smooth, a bit sweet, and doesn’t go down like you just drank a cup of firewater. ‘He deserved it.’
Kai laughs. ‘The best part about that guy was when he asked if we were going to sixty-nine him.’
‘Then he fought with us when we told him it was eighty-six, which isn’t sexual, just a lifetime ban and your photo on the office wall,’ Adam says.
Finally, I crack a smile at the ridiculousness of that entire night. ‘I’m glad my presence can provide you two with such fun memories,’ I joke, grabbing a bottle of water to help wash down the vodka because, while it might be tolerably better than other booze, the aftertaste isn’t great.
‘The fact that he posed for his photo like it was going to be his new Facebook profile pic was the cringiest part. One day we’ll see that guy’s mugshot on the news.’
‘And he’ll be smiling.’ Adam grimaces as he finishes her sentence.
Those two are a lot alike; it’s why we’ve bonded so much since working here. We work well together and read each other easily. I explain the Conner thing vaguely to avoid making him look too bad, as I’m hoping this is just a hiccup in our relationship. We did move quickly, so the details of things haven’t been ironed out. That takes time; and apparently, Conner didn’t have any this morning.
‘That’s a big ol’ red flag, Jade. Don’t let those stack up, or you’ll end up miserable,’ Kai says.
‘Thank you for the advice, but I’m not calling any flags on the field yet. It’s one mess up.’
‘Besides the time he got your name wrong while publicly proposing in front of everyone you know,’ she reminds me.
I blow a long breath out. ‘I’m pretending that didn’t happen. He was nervous; really, it’s kind of a cute story. Now let’s get to work, can we? I’m not really in a chatty mood.’
Kai and Adam don’t push the conversation, and we part ways to get the place ready to open. There’s never a night we’re not busy, so keeping on task is vital to not getting overwhelmed and quitting on the spot. (It’s only happened a couple of times in two years.) I’m so glad these two have a way of lightening any mood. I couldn’t ask for better friends or co-workers.
Kai is twenty-six, like me, and is originally from Maui, not like me. She has long black hair, naturally tanned skin, and is as gorgeous as women come. She calls the garbage ‘rubbish’ and the refrigerator an ‘ice box’. Little details I’ve come to love. She’s an inch taller than my five-five, slender, with hips that don’t lie.
Her family moved to Oregon when she was thirteen after her parents divorced. We met on the first day of eighth grade. When I got to my locker, I discovered I’d been partnered with the new girl. I’d requested to be locker mates with Josh Jericho, our class’s most desirable thirteen-year-old boy. Now that he’s married to a lovely man named Stefan, it makes sense that he denied my request all those years ago. I may not have realized it then, but partnering with Kai was the best thing to ever happen to me. We instantly became best friends.
Adam is thirty-one and he’s originally from Haiti. A local family adopted him when he was two. He’s got dark brown skin, short shaved black hair, and more abs than are natural. Let’s just say beer goggles aren’t necessary when admiring Adam; he’s always gorgeous. The women who come in don’t miss that little detail either.
The three of us bonded almost immediately, and we now work the same shifts every week, along with our bouncer, a giant of a man named Roman. He ensures those unruly asshole men Kai mentioned keep their shenanigans to a minimum.
I am the sole white hula girl on our shift. I’m thin but not perfectly smooth in the places society thinks I should be (damn thighs). My boobs could be bigger, and my belly button is an outie, so no shots off me. Kai is the body-shot girl, and let me tell you, men will pay decent money for anything if a woman in a bikini top is doing it, no matter how stupid.
If anything, I’m overly average and good with it. What’s there to hate? I’m a human with flaws, but I also have really good hair. It’s my best feature by far. It’s thick, lustrous, long, caramel-y brown with golden highlights that I wear in big beachy waves and get compliments on daily. ‘What hair products do you use?’ is often asked of me. It’s all-natural, sweets, just like my itty-bitty titties (thank you, Laney for calling me that all through my teen years – she was wearing a training bra at nine – a gift not passed down to me). I don’t even buy expensive shampoos; I just got good hair. Laney has to work at the hair thing. YouTube videos, an entire cabinet of hair gadgets, extensions, and a countertop of products that precariously line the edge of her bathroom sink. One wrong move and you send them over the edge like a hair product bottlefall.
Spray tans keep me at a consistent level-two glow, so it always looks like I’ve just come home from a weekend vacation in the sun, even though I never have. Anytime someone asks if I went somewhere fun to achieve my bronzy glow, I make something up and keep going until they smile.
I was on a tropical cruise where I had the love affair of a lifetime.
I spent the weekend in sunny Las Vegas, and you know what they say about Vegas – what happens there, stays there.
I had a bikini photo shoot in southern Cali and will soon grace the pages of some Instagram swimsuit designer.
None of it’s real, but who cares if I made it up? It’s not like I’m ever going to see that stranger again. As my grandfather once said, ‘The smile you put on someone else’s face might be the only one they have all day.’ Granddad was wise, so now I attempt to make people smile just because that’s what he always did.
I’m also the only bartender enrolled in a bi-weekly hula class. Jameson, the owner, insisted (and he covers the cost) because those hip movements didn’t come naturally to me. Shakira, I am not. The fact that all my classmates are teen girls isn’t at all embarrassing (sarcasm), but the recitals they requested I take part in were, so I skip those. You’ll never find me participating in the Miss Aloha Hula like Kai’s mother once did, but I can sell the fact that I can do the hula for tips once a shift.
Just after ten, and long after Conner’s plane has landed, my phone finally rings. I race to the back room to hear through the chaos of the bar.
‘Hi!’ I say enthusiastically, even though I’m mad at him for bailing like he did. ‘You made it?’
‘I did. I’ve only got a few minutes, though. Blake got us on the list for a club that’s impossible to get into as a welcome back. The place is lit, Jade. No Portland bar could compare.’
‘Look at that rack,’ I hear in the background, from someone close enough it sounds like he’s on the phone too.
‘Can you shut—’ Suddenly, there’s a jostling sound, as if Conner is shoving the phone into his clothing.
‘I don’t know why you’re wasting time with that wannabe diamond when this sparkling masterpiece is right here.’ The same voice complimenting someone’s rack a moment earlier comes through clearly.
‘Who is that?’ I ask, hoping it’s just some douche in the same line as him.
‘Blake, ignore him. He’s kind of—’
The phone jostles again. ‘Is this Condor’s PDX lady?’ This time the voice is on the line and speaking directly to me.
‘Condor?’
‘He-he. Is your name really Jade?’
He told his friend about me. That’s a good sign. The bad sign is that he’s slurring his words and just called me Conner’s PDX lady. How many other cities does he have ladies in is all that makes me wonder.
‘Yep, my name is really Jade.’
‘Huh. Why not Diamond?’ he says. ‘Parents afraid you wouldn’t live up and went semi-precious instead?’
Irritation bubbles in my gut like lava. How rude is he? ‘You must be Masterblake? Conner told me nothing about you, but now I understand why,’ I snap, my father’s quick wit surfacing without me even trying.
His smarmy laugh pisses me off. ‘Darlin’, occasionally I may take care of business myself, sure, but when you look like Conner and me, women volunteer more often than not.’
Gross. ‘Can I talk to Conner?’
‘Hey,’ Conner says again, a little more sheepishly than before.
‘That’s the guy you ran back to?’
‘He’s a little rough around the edges at times, but he’s also got a couple of drinks in him.’
He doesn’t apologize, just excuses his behavior.
‘The rock is making you less fun,’ Blake says. ‘Hang up; we’re headed in.’
‘Conner, that’s your best friend? He’s a douche.’
‘Dude, we’re in, lose her. Here – psshht, sssshhhhcccchhhh.’ Someone attempts to disguise what I’ve already heard by pretending the line is static-y like I’ll buy it. ‘Connection’s not great. Sssscht.’
‘You do realize it’s no longer 1999, right? Cell phones rarely sscchht anymore.’
‘Don’t worry, Jade.’ Conner is back on the phone. ‘Blake can be a tad obnoxious, but you know I’m all in with you. Don’t be insecure already, or this will be a miserable engagement. I’m just out experiencing life like you are. Men ogle you all night at your job. You flirt for tips. Should I be jealous?’
‘Maybe,’ I retort. At least jealousy would make me feel like he cares, because nothing he’s done today has succeeded at that. I feel as if he just wants to escape me.
‘Hello?’ Kai’s voice echoes through the small kitchen when she walks in. She spots me in the walk-in. The door is open, but even so, it isn’t making me warmer. ‘Are you trying to freeze or transport to Boston via the walk-in? We need you out front.’
I sigh. I feel no better talking to Conner tonight, so what’s the point of continuing? We’ll fight, and we can’t fight the first day he’s gone. That has to be a bad omen of things to come.
‘I gotta go,’ I say. ‘Call me tomorrow morning?’
‘Yep. Talk later,’ Conner says.
‘Love y—’ As the words leave my lips, I realize he’s already hung up. Nice. It’s been one day, and this is already going disastrously.
‘Was that your boy toy?’ Kai teases. ‘Is he all settled in and studying his nights away?’
