Page 71 of Lulu

“Welcome to the Hamburger Pit,” a pretty waitress said when she stopped at our table. She was young, maybe twenty, and her smile was genuine. “What can I get you folks to drink?”

“Beer,” we all three said at once, and then burst out laughing.

So did our waitress. “Three beers coming right up!”

We gave her our selections and she turned and rushed off.

“It’s been a while since I’ve chaperoned someone on a date night.”

Lulu waved Doc’s comment off with a sound of disbelief. “When have you ever chaperoned someone on a date?”

Amusement gleamed in his eyes. “I had a cousin who was going on her first date. My aunt asked me to go with them. Of course, I brought a date, too, so I wouldn’t be the third wheel.”

“So where’s your date now?” Lulu sassed.

The waitress came with our beers. “So what are we having?”

“Three Burger Pit specials,” I responded.

“Good selection,” she smiled. “How would you like those burgers cooked?”

“Medium rare,” Doc said first.

Lulu made a face. “No blood for me. Medium well.”

“I like the blood,” I said, gaining a horrified look from Lulu and a laugh from the waitress. “Medium rare.”

“Oh, my God, I don’t know what I see in you,” Lulu joked. “So--” she said, getting back to Doc. “You didn’t answer my question. Where’s your date?”

He shrugged. “Haven’t met anyone special to take on a date yet.”

“Brody!”

I searched out the caller of my name and swore. Lana was walking through the place as if she had a set destination in mind and wasn’t going to deviate from it. With her were two other women. All three of them were dressed to the nines and exuding more sophistication than a hamburger place called for. They were dressed to bring attention to themselves, and there wasn’t a male eye in the place that wasn’t eating them up. My first guess was that they were clubbing for the night and hitting up the casinos for a little gambling.

“I recognized your bike out front.” So that explained it. She stopped to smile down at me. “Where have you been hiding, baby? I’ve been to your house a couple of times but you haven’t been home.”

Jesus Christ, the woman wasn’t giving up. I was about to introduce her to Lulu and Doc, but changed my mind. We weren’t going to be friends and hang out or anything, and her visit to my house had been extremely dangerous and could have ended badly for her.

“What the hell did you go to my house for?” I scowled.

“Oh, honey.” Suddenly she glanced over at Lulu, as if she knew. “I left some things from the last night I stayed over.”

I caught Lulu’s gasp. Lana tried for an innocent laugh, but I caught the deviousness in her shrewd eyes. “Some, ah, intimate things.”

She was lying through her teeth, the bitch! And trying to stir up trouble. While she stood there, innocent-like, her two friends remained in the background, snickering. I should have expected that Lana wouldn’t just go away, but what she was doing now surprised me. She’d always been a first-class act.

“Excuse Brody’s manners.” She turned her attention to Lulu and Doc. “My name is Lana. Brody and I arerealgood friends.”

“We were never friends,” I corrected in a hard voice.

“Lovers, then—"

Thank fuck the waitress appeared with our food. She gave the three women standing near our table a disinterested glance as she set our plates down.

“Well, it looks like you’re busy with your friends,” Lana said once the waitress left. “Be seeing you again soon.”

Not if I had anything to say about it. I didn’t take my eyes off Lulu as the women walked away. Her silence made me wonder what she was thinking. It was hard to tell with her head bent slightly as she lifted the top bun to her hamburger and examined everything on top of the meat. She had to be curious about my relationship with Lana with all the innuendos the woman had thrown down.