Page 9 of Whiskey & Honey
She laughs at me and swats me on the arm, “Oh hush up. You didn’t miss me, you missed my food. I know your mother must be thrilled to have you home.”
“What about me, Rosa? Am I chopped liver?” Jameson exclaims as he opens his arms for a hug.
“Jameson Strauss, you are in here at least five times a week, chopped liver my left toe. Give me a hug, you big lug.”
Once hugs are complete and orders placed, Jameson and I grab a spot at a corner booth. An awkward silence takes over our table.
“So things…”
“What are…”
We both say simultaneously and laugh. Jameson gestures for me to go first.
“So things with Owen are going well? Him working for you and all that?”
Jameson owns his own construction company, and when the market tanked it looked like his business would, too. Now that things are turning around, he’s been able to grow his crew, including bringing on our down-on-his-luck buddy, Owen. I don’t know how the two of them work together and maintain a friendship. Jameson can be a class A jerk and I’m sure one of us would be walking around with a black eye most days. More power to them, I’ll take thirty ten-year-olds any day.
“Yeah, it’s cool. We had a few issues in the beginning but worked through those. It helps that I put him with a different crew than I work with. He’s actually on a trial run as foreman on a project. If all goes well, it’ll allow me to take on more jobs with two of us leading a crew.”
“That’s good,” I say as our order is called out from the counter. I get up to grab the tray and return to the table. Neither of us talks for a good three minutes as we begin to devour our food. You’d think by looking at us that we hadn’t eaten in days. After the first three tacos I sit back a little and take a drink of my iced tea.
“So, as I was about to say before I was rudely interrupted,” he says. I offer a huff of minor annoyance in response. “What are you going to do about the Piper situation?”
The million-dollar question. “What do you mean? What situation?”
“Um, I mean the big game of tonsil hockey you played last night? What else do you think I mean? Ashton must be crazy pissed off.”
“First, tonsil hockey? What is this, 1978? Second, I haven’t seen Ash but I imagine she’s going to want to rip me a new asshole considering how she flipped out last night. You know, you could have told me it was Piper.”
“Could’ve, should’ve. Whatever. I wanted you to have some fun for a change. Shit, man, I know you loved Laurel but that girl is a total buzzkill. I figured if a girl across a bar caught your attention like that, why not let you have a little fun. And you did, didn’t you? Have fun?”
I did. I can’t deny it. And I was very much caught by that girl. Damnit, I’m getting hard just thinking about our kiss. Her lips - so plump, like little cherries ready to be sucked. Fuck, think of old ladies and cats puking. Anything to get this rapidly growing hard-on under control.
“Dude, you’re thinking about her right now, aren’t you? One kiss and you’re fucking whipped! I figured you’d at least wait a few months before you married up again.” Jameson’s hostility is not something I expected. I sit there for a few seconds as he gets up and tosses his tray in the trash, heading for the door.
I follow suit, but instead of being a childish ass I wave goodbye to Rosa and thank her for the delicious food. As I make it outside I find Jameson just standing off to the side, head thrown back facing the sun.
“What’s your problem, man? You’re acting like a jealous girlfriend.” He is, too.
“Look, I’m sorry. It’s just that I figured you’d come back to town and we’d have the crew back together. I guess I expected us all to hangout and enjoy the rest of summer. The lake, grilling out, the usual. Oh and maybe, call me crazy, maybe meet some girls…” He stops himself from finishing the statement and begins making his way through the parking lot. I fall in step with him.
“And?” I ask. There’s more and we might as well get it all out now.
“Fine. In there?” He motions toward Rosa’s. “You looked like a teenage girl thinking about her first crush. How long until you’re finding a way to start seeing Piper? I’m sure you’ll sweet talk your sister and it’ll be just like high school with me playing third wheel.”
“Okay first, your vagina is showing. Second, what the fuck are you talking about? I’ve been home like eighteen hours and you’re already marrying me off? And, to my little sister’s best friend? You and I both know that will never happen unless I want to lose my balls. Ash is going to lose her damn mind about this entire thing and won’t accept that I didn’t know it was Piper. Besides, I just got out of a relationship and have no business getting into another. So just relax will you and stop being a jealous girlfriend.”
We both start laughing, and he takes his ball cap off and rubs his hand through his hair before placing it back on his head and looking at me. “My vagina? You really are a pussy. Let’s go to Sully’s.”
And just like that, we’re back to normal. This is why I can’t be the guy who hooks up at a bar. There are far too many dynamics to consider and apparently feelings for everyone in a fifty-foot radius.
Three hours after Jameson picked me up from my parent’s house in his monstrosity of a truck, I have managed to secure a trade-in for my sedan with Sully. With an agreement to bring the sedan back tomorrow and promise to bring him a piece of my mom’s pecan pie, Sully granted me permission to drive my new-to-me truck home. Living in a city, having a truck never made sense, but here it is the only thing that does. The truck I found is actually the same one I had in high school; well, except about twenty years newer. It seems that every hour I’m home I’m one step closer to being me again, and being me never felt so good.
I pull up to the house and see that my sister’s car is in the driveway. I am so not ready for this conversation. I love my sister and she really is one of my best friends, she’s just a little spirited. Well, I say she’s high strung, feisty, and overly dramatic. My mother calls her spirited. I suppose there is no time like the present to face the wrath of Ashton Marie Sullivan.
With every step toward the house, I feel more and more like a man walking the plank. Something about the way Jameson reacted to my kissing Piper isn’t sitting right. I recognize that my kissing her, any woman for that matter, in a bar is completely out of character for me. I can’t even begin to understand my reaction to her. It was something I’ve never experienced and, quite frankly, if someone else had told me they had this response to a woman I’d probably demand he turn in his man card. I feel like one of those ridiculous Hallmark movies. Only, I don’t see how this story will have that cheesy happy ending each of those movies does. No, I imagine I’m going to walk through this door and my sister is going to rip me a new asshole and I’ll feel shitty and apologize and make promises that will suck. Promises I’ll probably hate making but I’ll keep because I’m the good guy.
I’m within four steps of the door when I hear Ashton’s sweet voice. My sister has a magnificent singing voice and can make a grown man cry with her rendition of Amazing Grace. When we were growing up my parents saw Ashton’s talent early on, and while I was running bases and practicing my swing, she was in voice lessons. Jameson and I used to joke when we were in high school that we were going to kidnap her one night, drive to the open auditions for one of those singing competition shows on television, and make her buy us extravagant gifts to thank us.