St. Helena Vineyard Series

by Lulu M. Sylvian

  “I pointed out how distractingly gorgeous she was in it. The dress sold itself. She got side tracked by her ex. Besides she’s getting married on New Year’s Eve at the Napa Grand. She doesn’t have time to shop. She’ll be back.”

  Lysia scooted from the booth, “Excuse me, I need to hit the room. If our waitress comes back I want another one of these.” She wiggled her glass.

  She washed her hands and splashed cool water on her face. This was a much better evening than sobbing to Josh would have been. She was glad Kathleen didn’t take the loss of the sale personally, or at least she wasn’t blaming Lysia. That would have been too hard, lost job, lost boyfriend, lost friend.

  She slid back into her spot in the booth. “I just saw the best t-shirt. It was ‘dont piss off a vet they know how to neuter.’ I should ask her if she can do that to e-boyfriends as well as dogs.”

  “That sounds like something the new intern at St. Paws would wear.” Sierra swiveled her head glancing around the restaurant looking for the owner of the shirt.

  “Speaking of, how did it go today at St. Paws?” Kathleen asked.

  “Honestly, I loved it. You have to kiss ass and deal with egos and big dresses all day, and I got love and puppy kisses. And tomorrow while you’re at work I’m helping to set up the float for the holiday parade. Unless Josie’s is also having a float, we could really use your help.” She directed the last comment to Lysia.

  “Anna was mentioning something about that the other day. It doesn’t matter if Josie’s is having a float or not. I have all the time in the world right now,” Lysia said.

  “Hell, I’m sorry Patrice dumped you like that, and then Josh. Now you can spend all your free time playing with puppies and sticking wads of tissue paper into chicken wire.” Kathleen’s assessment of Lysia’s future was a bit bleak. However, playing with puppies did sound like a good idea.

  Sierra cringed. “You got fired and dumped on the same day?”

  Lysia nodded. “I’m glad Josh only hoovered down seven weeks out of my life and not more. But hey, now I’m free. And I definitely know that Craig is maybe single…” She trailed off, hoping to figure out a way to run into Craig again now that she didn’t work at the shop..

  “Who is Craig?” Kathleen asked.

  “The tall skinny guy who your bride, Miranda, had that showdown with,” Lydia answered enthusiastically.

  “Wait, you think he’s hot? And what do you mean by definitely maybe?” Kathleen asked.

  “Definitely maybe means I know he’s not with Miranda. And yeah, I think he is totally hot. And funny. I made a lame joke, and he ran with it. And he is tall and thin and has big feet, and you know what that means?”

  “Oh, yeah. Tall skinny boys are supposed to have big appendages.” Sierra nodded. “Not that I would know what you are talking about.”

  “Well, then, you are going to want to hear about this.” Kathleen leaned in conspiratorially. “Miranda told me how they broke up. Apparently, it destroyed her. But clearly not too badly as she’s getting married already. But…”

  Kathleen paused as their waitress stopped by the table to see if anyone wanted more drinks and if they were interested in getting some queso for the chips. They did, plus guacamole and more drinks.

  With a fresh drink in hand, Lysia leaned back into the booth. “So, you were telling us how Craig and Miranda’s breakup nearly destroyed her.”

  “Apparently your skinny boy-toy was once rolling in it. Miranda said he had more money than he knew what to do with. All made from some little bit of tech that everyone needs to run their computers. She couldn’t marry him because he wouldn’t move to San Francisco. He wanted to give it all up and move here, get away from the stress of the rat race. Apparently, he put together this big elaborate flash mob wedding proposal, and she said no.”

  “That’s sad. She ditched him over money,” Lysia commented.

  “Oh, but it gets better. Apparently, the proposal made the rounds as a viral video a few years ago when it happened.”

  Sierra picked up her phone and focused on the screen. “Wait, I think I’ve seen that. You said this Craig guy is really tall and skinny? What does Miranda look like?”

  Lysia glanced at Kathleen. She should be able to provide a better description since she had been in the dressing room with the woman and had seen her half-naked more than once this afternoon.

  “I’d say average height, average weight, bottom heavy. And huge cloud of blonde hair.”

  “I thought you said you didn’t look at her?” Sierra sneered at Kathleen.

  Kathleen tossed at chip at her girlfriend. Sierra giggled and held out her phone, with a video paused, and ready to play. “You know I’m joking, right? Is this them?”

  Lysia and Kathleen leaned in to watch the video.

  “That looks like him in the middle.” Lysia pointed at the screen and hit play.

  “Yeah, that’s Miranda,” Kathleen confirmed.

  In the video, Lysia watched as Craig led Miranda to a heart-shaped tuffet in the middle of a heart-shaped rug. It was hard to make out the details, but either giant confetti or flower petals covered the ground. Miranda was doing the surprised cover of the bottom half of her face. She appeared to be smiling whenever her hands moved. They were being filmed from above, from a balcony or a window, while they were below in an outdoor mall type area, lots of gray granite stones and low walls.

  Once Miranda was sitting, music started and the other people who had been in the area milling about turned, ripped off their coats, and began dancing. More dancers entered from somewhere off camera. They performed a choreographed routine with dancers moving in and out. Craig was always in the center, and he did some of the moves with everyone else. A dancer spun in, and Craig lifted her as part of the performance. He placed her back on the ground, and she spun away. Acrobats tumbled in with handsprings and backflips. It was an incredible circus-has-come-to-town flash mob performance. When the music ended everyone gestured toward Craig, and he lowered himself to one knee and presented something to Miranda. It was too small to make out the details, but the movement indicated he was presenting her with a ring.

  Miranda, who had been sitting still during the performance, recoiled, shook her head dramatically, stood, yelled what sounded like, “You always ruin everything,” before she ran off screen.

  Craig sat back on his heels. His arms dropped to his side. The video ended.

  Lysia covered her mouth in dismay. That was the single most perfect proposal she had ever seen. Miranda could have said yes to the spectacle but then turned him down privately later. But to yell at him like that in front of everyone seemed just cruel.

  “How did you find this?” Kathleen asked.

  “It showed up on one of my friend’s social media accounts. It’s making the rounds again,” Sierra explained.

  “Holy crap. So how did this destroy Miranda? Craig looks like the one who lost.” Lysia pointed at the phone.

  Kathleen chuckled. “Can you believe people actually thought she was a mean bitch? How dare they?” Kathleen fluttered her hand over her chest in mock indignation. “Uhm, I’ve seen her explode first hand. To me, it looks like she just got exposed for being who she really is.”

  Agreeing it was time to head home, they all stood in a circle next to Kathleen’s car continuing to chat. Kathleen finally slid into her car and started the engine. “I’ll see you at home Sierra.”

  Lysia turned toward her own car when Sierra stopped her. “Hey, I noticed your…“ She pointed to her own chin indicating Lysia’s monstrous chin zit. “Have you tried crushing up an aspirin and making a paste? I used to do that whenever I got severe acne.”

  “No, but I’ll try it. Did I tell you Josh thought this was contagious? It was kind of the last straw with him.” Lysia waved good night. She shoved a mannequin arm out of her way before slumping into the driver’s seat for the short drive home. Her car was still full of Patrice’s display crap.

  Chapter Three

&
nbsp; A loud banging woke Lysia.

  “Get up! If we’re gonna get in our run with the firemen, you need to get moving.” Samantha’s voice called in through the closed bedroom door.

  Once a week, Lysia and her roommate went for a run. It was her nod to exercising and not living a sedentary life. Anna always ran, every day. That was just too much work for Lysia. She needed the encouragement and reward of running behind the ridiculously gorgeous firemen of St. Helena. She and Samantha only stalked them for about half a mile before turning off onto the side streets, in a purposefully in a different direction. They had to give the rest of town the impression that it was merely a coincidence that their weekend morning jog took them on the same path at the same time as all of the delicious examples of male physique.

  With a groan, Lysia rolled out of bed. She hurried through her morning ablutions without looking at her self in the mirror. A late night of drinking and eating was never a pretty sight the next morning. She felt extra beat up after remembering the double blow to her ego she sustained. It was best not to face her reflection until she felt more invigorated.

  She stepped into the living room, pulling her hair into a ponytail. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”

  “Oh, Lysia, ah, you see yourself in the mirror this morning?” Anna made squiggly little gestures with her finger, not quite pointing at Lysia’s chin.

  “That bad, huh?” Lysia trudged back to the bathroom expecting to see a raccoon’s worth of makeup left on her face.

  “Holy crap! It’s gotten bigger!”

  She stomped back into the living room. “Vesuvius is on my face. I swear to God, it’s bigger than it was yesterday.”

  “Just pop it, and let’s go,” Samantha said.

  “I did pop it, like three times yesterday. And I did the aspirin paste thing last night.” Lysia poked at her chin, recoiling every few pokes. “Give me a minute.”

  She retreated into the bathroom to excise the mountainous growth. She flinched and cringed at the results. It felt like there was still more under the skin, but she did not have time to deal with it right now. She covered the blemish with another bandage and headed into the living room.

  “Maybe a good sweaty run is what it needs to clean out,” she announced.

  “Let’s go, let’s go. There are men out there that need to be followed, but not obviously.” Samantha laughed.

  “Cause you’re not stalkers?” Anna asked.

  “Cause we’re not stalkers,” Lysia chanted back.

  They started jogging as they left the stoop. Up and over, they cut across Main Street, and then headed in the opposite direction of the daily fireman display. Women were already gathering at windows and other key vantage points for the morning run. She and Samantha had plenty of witnesses who could claim they were already out there jogging before the men hit the pavement. They passed the fire department, looped around the block, and stopped to stretch. They needed to pace themselves. It didn’t do any good to come out ahead of the guys. Half the point of running this time of day was to run behind the collection of well-built bubble butts.

  They started to jog slowly so they could make sure the men had begun their group outing. Lysia smiled when they turned the corner. Perfect timing. An entire brigade of the finest examples of male physique cleared a path for them. All those perfectly tight butts in grey sweats were a lure to continue the run.

  Lysia began to be hypnotized by the bouncing glutes. She was losing focus. The butts were not doing it for her this morning. They were not enticing. It wasn’t like she was trying to catch one of them, and what would she do if she did? She wasn’t some dog with a bone. She couldn’t chew on it or carry it off the bury for later. She stopped running and braced against her knees. She waved Samantha on, calling after her, “I’ll catch you at home.”

  Lysia didn’t want to run after butts, no matter how perfect. This moment in time was somehow a metaphor for her entire life, chasing after something she knew she wouldn’t get and didn’t really want. If she were honest with herself, she preferred skinny asses, not the bubble butts of bodybuilders. She still had residual visions of Craig’s ass in her brain. It wore clothes well. It probably did other things just as well. Besides, she was more interested in a guy who could think, and he looked like a real thinker.

  Lysia pulled her earbuds out, and checked the back of her phone. Usually she shoved her ID in the carrying case, but today she had the bank card, too, that meant access to money.

  She stepped into Picker’s Produce, Meats and More. She was going to need ice cream, chocolate, and cookies. It was going to be a long, miserable day. The cookies should get her through talking to the roomies about having lost the job, so she headed to that aisle first. She wanted shortbread or Nilla Wafers. A box of each found their way into her basket. She wandered up and down the other aisles deciding if she needed anything else. A large jar of hazelnut and chocolate spread called her name. She decided she needed bananas. Chocolate, bananas, and Nilla Wafers, the combination sounded divine.

  “S’up?” Josh’s voice sounded like rough sandpaper to her raw nerves. “Should you be touching the fruit, you know, if you’re contagious?”

  “I’m not contagious, Josh.” Lysia didn’t meet his eye. He had no idea how hurtful he had been last night. What was he even doing in the grocery store? Buying food, but did he have to be there at the same time as she was? The tension in her shoulders drove them higher toward her ears.

  “Look, Lees, I’m gonna have to get tested, and if you gave me herpes—”

  “For God’s sake, Josh, I did not give you herpes.”

  “Well, things started itching, and you know. If you gave me herpes, I’m gonna have to sue you.”

  Lysia cackled. “Holy crap, Josh. I did not give you an STD. If you have anything, you had it before me, and you had better tell me.”

  He pointed at her face. “That’s herpes and if you gave it to me—” His voice was loud, and heads turned to face them.

  “Would you keep your voice down? It’s a freak-of-nature zit. Stop being an idiot.” Lysia slammed a bunch of bananas into her basket. She was going to need a lot of ice cream and some booze to make it through the rest of today.

  Josh sneered at the contents of her basket. “I see you’re mood eating again. Do you PMS like every other week?”

  Lysia closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “Leave me alone, Josh.”

  She heard click-click-click of uneven shopping cart wheels as he left, and she hoped he rolled out of the store altogether.

  “You okay, Lysia?” A yummy, soothing deep voice made her heart skip.

  Lysia bit her lips together and turned with a false smile plastered on her face. She blinked tears out of her eyes. A tick in her cheek threatened to take over. That typically happened when she tried not to cry.

  “Hi, Craig.”

  His smile made her knees feel weak.

  “Are you okay? Rough morning?” He glanced into the basket hanging off her elbow.

  Lysia shrugged. He nodded with understanding. Could he actually be sympathetic to the comfort food needs of a woman? Damn. He must live with a woman to actually get it.

  “I’m sorry I ran out on you yesterday. I need to swing by the shop and finish that fitting. Are you working this afternoon?”

  Lysia gave him a small grin. Today he wasn’t dressed much differently than anyone else—faded jeans, an old T-shirt, denim jacket. Lysia guessed he’d had the T-shirt for a very long time, at least since before his last growth spurt as a teenager. The hem barely covered the waistband of his jeans. If he moved too much she could catch a glimpse of…

  Lysia swallowed hard. Ginger hairs trailed down into his jeans. The hair on his head was sandy. He would totally grow a ginger beard.

  She took a big steadying gulp of air. “I don’t work there anymore, but I pulled a suit for you. You should be able to go in anytime and try it on.”

  “Oh,” Craig said, apparently taken aback. “I hope that had nothing to d
o with that little ordeal with Miranda, did it?” He grimaced.

  Lysia nodded. “Yeah, it kind of did.”

  Craig slapped his hand on his forehead and pushed his hair back, messing up any semblance of a style he may have had. “She destroys things wherever she goes, and I stumbled right into that. I am so sorry you got caught in the backlash. Can I take you to dinner tonight? I feel really guilty about this. How can I make it up to you?”

  Lysia stared at him. Had he just asked her out? She found herself nodding before she could speak. “Yeah, I’d like that.” She smiled at him. His return smile grew larger and showed more teeth. She felt her own smile get bigger.

  He was cute, he had to be smart if he had made millions as Kathleen reported, and he’d offered to help. “How are you with resumés?”

  ***

  “Can I ask what that was all about? Or is that exceptionally rude?” Lysia asked.

  Craig raised his eyebrows. She asked her question and dropped her focus to her salad. The salad was fairly straightforward. Lettuce, shaved carrots, purple onions, croutons, and dressing. It did not require nearly as much attention as Lysia was giving it.

  Craig shifted, expecting to feel more uncomfortable that he did. Being around Lysia was amazingly easy. He felt relaxed and excited at the same time. Her presence made his nerves dance, but for once he wasn’t awkward or nervous as he was around attractive women. And Lysia was beautiful. He had been on edge the entire time he had been with Miranda. Waiting for her to change her mind, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But she’d stayed, she’d moved in, she’d dropped very detailed hints as to the future she wanted with him. He owed Lysia an explanation. After all, his past caused her to lose her job.

  “No, I think you deserve that.” Lysia’s big green eyes flashed up at him. Damn, if that upward glance of hers wasn’t hot. “I guess you gathered that Miranda and I have history.”

  Lysia nodded. A small smile played at the corner of her lips. His anatomy pulsed in appreciation. There’s the uncomfortable. But that was physical and needy, not the social awkwardness Craig expected.