“Not every day we have a pretty lesbian here in The Pub.”
Ugh.
“I’m not a lesbian,” I ground out with my teeth, gripping my beer bottle just a little too hard. “Why does everyone assume that? Just because I’m not dressed in a tank top and floral skirt!” Seriously, where did this weird stereotype come from? Did I just exude the aura that I was into chicks? Or was it because it was too unbelievable that a cool, pretty girl like Claudia would hang out with a fat loser like me?
Let’s not go down that road.
“No, I assumed you were a lesbian because you didn’t flirt with Don Franco over there,” the bartender nudged his head towards the booth, where Don was now sitting with two other girls, Claudia looking slightly annoyed as she crossed her arms over her chest and pretended to look interested. “But you’re apparently not.”
“Is it so hard to believe that a woman can walk away from a handsome guy?” I asked him, sipping my beer again. I guess I was parked at the bar now. “And Don isn’t that handsome to begin with!”
“Oh, not your type, is he?” the bartender asked in a slightly teasing tone. “Nothing wrong with a woman walking away. I just can’t believe he didn’t chase after you, that’s all.”
“Bea!” Claudia exclaimed, standing next to me like she’d been there the entire time. “What happened, you said you were just going to get a couple of…hi,” she trailed off when she laid eyes on Hiro Umeda and his muscular arms. Those tiny black t-shirts were going to be the death of me and Claudia. Hiro, who had his back turned to her, flexed the muscles on his back before turning to the direction of Claudia’s voice.
It was like a lightbulb was switched on in his mind. He simply lit up, and smiled at her for the first time. Claudia’s mouth hung open slightly before she caught herself and shook her bright, blonde hair from her face. The sigh was enough to make Hiro drop the beer bottle in his hands, making the four of us jump. Clumsiest bartenders ever.
“Hi,” Hiro said, stepping over the broken beer bottle to smile at Claudia. “I’m Hiro.”
“I’m Claudia,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
“I’m Benedick,” Ben suddenly said, like he was part of the conversation the whole time. A small, playful smile formed on his lips, and his little dimples were on full display. He really had to be careful with those. It took me a second to realize that he was looking at me. “Ben.”
“I’m Beatrice,” I said, laughing a little. “Bea.”
* * *
I snapped back to reality as soon as I realized that Claudia was panicking. I had not seen her so panicked since our first day at the National Stationery Show, when I was down with a fever and she had to run around to make sure that everything was running smoothly. I was so sick I thought there were two Claudias running around with her head cut off. At the time, she started wringing her hands, pulling at her hair. Now she just paced and paced and paced and paced.
“Claudia, stop that,” I said, pulling her arm to keep her from scuffling holes on the floor with her heels. “Are you panicking?”
“No, no, definitely not,” she said, walking back into the studio and bent to grab her purse. First she brought out the small mirror she kept in her bag. Then she started bringing out her makeup, lipstick, concealer, the works. She quickly spread some kind of primer into her hands and rubbed it all over her face.
“Claudia!” I repeated, watching her primp herself with shaky hands, tossing her hair this way and that, completely ignoring me like there wasn’t a crisis situation on our hands. “Calm down!”
“No, you calm down!” She practically shrieked at me, and I backed off a little. I never knew what could set Claudia spinning into her dark days, and sometimes I found myself tiptoeing around her. I didn’t mind, obviously, but it always made me slightly cautious.
Obviously these boys were testy subjects for the both of us. She turned back to her makeup and started touching up her mascara. “I can’t believe it; I knew there was something off about Don’s proposal! Do you think he did it on purpose?” “Uhhh no,” I said, suddenly feeling the room tilt. Oh god. I needed to sit down again before I passed out. “I think he really just forgot that we knew Ben…. them.”
“What are we going to do?” Claudia asked me with half her lips already smeared with caramel lip gloss. I knew her well enough to know she only used that for really big dates or important meetings. “Is it too late to back out?”
Something inside of me snapped right then and there, and I found the courage to stand up again. I strode across the room to Claudia, and grabbed her by the shoulders, furrowing my brows and thinning my lips. I gave her my best ‘tough love’ face. I knew there were too many big things at stake. No way were we giving up, not on Liberty! I almost gave them my firstborn child!
“Claudia Jean Crowne,” I said in the most authoritative voice I could muster. “We are not going to give up. They are just boys. It’s just Hiro and Ben! They’re just dudes that we used to know! We will treat them with the utmost professionalism, and we will make sure they get the job done right. Then we will wow the people at Liberty, because we deserve this. We deserve this!”
Recognition dawned in Claudia’s eyes, and I could not be more relieved. Her panic slowly gave way to determination, and she put down the lip gloss. “You’re absolutely right, Bea,” she said, nodding. “We can do this, easy!”
“Yeah, easy!” I repeated, nodding so hard I thought my head would snap off of my neck. Who was I trying to convince? “Just remember, we’re professionals that are…professional. We will treat them with the utmost professionalism.”
Chapter 3
Benedick
Hiro and I pulled up in front of the address Don gave us, and I felt something cold run through my body. It wasn’t a sensation I was used to. I didn’t like it, not one teeny tiny bit. Nope. No sir. Why am I delaying this? I’d like to keep my head.
“Why are you nervous?” Hiro asked, coming up to stand next to me by the shop door. It was a pretty place; as much as pretty girly things could be pretty. I ran my hand over my lips, pulling it down over my jaw. Were my hands actually cold? I think my hands were actually cold. What the hell is happening to me, PULL IT TOGETHER BENEDICK PADUA JESUS CHRIST.
“We’re entering the Lion’s Den, Hiro,” I said in a serious, deadpan voice. I reached for the door. “Brace yourself.”
The door suddenly swung open (I may or may not have screamed), and I was met with my first glimpse of Beatrice Noble in three years. She was still pretty, pretty as the flowers she drew. Her laid-back, tomboyish style had become something of a trend since college, and she just looked absolutely cool. Her hair was longer now, but everything else was exactly as I had pictured it. Some things never changed, I guess.
Then her eyebrows furrowed into an angry frown and I was suddenly struck by the image of my sister’s cat that tried to maim me with its claws. There was a reason why I never liked my sister’s cat. This was new.
“You,” she said simply, her eyes shooting daggers at my chest. I may or may not have staggered backwards just a teeny tiny bit. What did that even mean, ‘you?’ Like I was a pox or something.
“Me,” I said back, finding a weird inner confidence in me that I hadn’t had before we got here. What was happening? “Gonna let us in?”
“I’m still thinking about it,” She sneered, standing straight before opening the door a tiny amount to accommodate her hips. “But I’m leaning towards no.”
There was a bit of commotion behind her, and I saw Claudia’s blonde head bobbing behind her. Claudia hadn’t changed either. Nice to know that I still didn’t see the appeal in the tall, fragile beauty of a blonde. Hiro, however, looked hopeless. I swear his uterus actually twinged at the sight of Claudia.
“But he’s—!” Bea’s half-hearted protest fell on deaf ears as Claudia grabbed the door and pulled it open, flashing me a kind smile and blushing coyly at Hiro. My friend was a now a puddle of love goo on the floor.
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“Hi guys!” Claudia said enthusiastically, gesturing us to come inside. “Don told us to wait for you, so have a seat.”
We shuffled into the flowery, white and every color of the rainbow you could think of store. I had to admit, it was all nicely laid out, and Bea’s art really shone through. The store was also full of people browsing and exclaiming over her designs. There were cards with cats painted on them, some with really corny things on it like ‘have a puuur-fect day!’ or ‘you + me = magic.’
I couldn’t imagine someone who glowered as much as Bea painting them. She was doing it right now, pretending that she wasn’t looking at me, and when she did, she scowled. Her eyes were seething, and just as lovely as I remembered them.
SHUT UP THEY ARE NOT.
“So…Ben-a-dick,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “How are things?”
Oooh, she knew I hated that little nickname. My brothers used to call me that when we were kids just to get a rise out of me. Fortunately, I was an incredibly mature adult who knew how to handle these kinds of situations.
“Wouldn’t you want to know?” I challenged, resisting the urge to stick out my tongue at her and blow her a raspberry. I saw Claudia roll her eyes behind Bea. This was going to be a loooooooong day.
“So, website!” Claudia said, clapping her hands to get rid of the tension in the room. Always the guy to ease the tension, Claudia. I had to love that about her. “Any thoughts, you guys?”
“Oh, I don’t really feel like sharing my thoughts to strangers,” Bea shrugged, her arms still crossed over her chest. Seriously, her problem with me is bordering on crazy territory, and I am the king of crazy. I was not going to let this…this…. woman take that title from me, not while I was alive. I mean, I knew we had a problem, but this was just too much.
“So Bea,” I said, throwing my professionalism out the window. “Dating anyone?”
I knew I was hitting below the belt with that. But it didn’t’t seem to phase her.
“Not really. I’m currently on an asshole-free diet, which includes former bartenders and art geeks that insist on using Salvador Dali as their phone’s wallpaper,” She said, raising her eyebrow like she had a leg over me. Not that I would have minded, since she had very nice, shapely legs. DAMN IT. How did she even know that was the wallpaper on my phone?
“Good to know that your inner bitch is still alive and kicking,” I said, the words falling out of my mouth out of their own accord.
“Well, there’s just something about you that keeps it alive,” she said instantly.
“Or maybe it’s because you haven’t been in a serious relationship for the last two years,” I pointed out, trying for a sting that would make her reel. Unfortunately, she didn’t even flinch.
“I’ve always thought that love was a stupid concept anyway. Certainly something I could live without.”
I nodded, pretending to be understanding. I had a witty comeback ready in my back pocket that needed really smooth delivery, and I was going to look so cool bringing her down. I needed perfect timing though. That will only be achieved if I say it in five…four…three…two…
“I already had a layout in mind, Hiro, can I show you?” Bea interrupted, throwing me off my comeback. Damn it. And damn her for being such a bitch.
Bea stood up, and oh crap, she noticed me looking at her.
Before I could come back with my comeback, she winked. It was like she was delivering her final killing stroke. I didn’t have time to react because she had already walked to one of the back rooms of the store, presumably to sacrifice a small child, before coming back into the store to sit next to Claudia.
Thankfully, Claudia and Hiro took over from there, while I preferred to remain silent and seethe. If Messina Designs didn’t need this job so much I wouldn’t have bothered to come here at all. I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about Beatrice Noble again. Like most things in my college life, she wasn’t supposed to come back.
* * *
“So, that magic trick earlier,” Bea said, sitting on the bar and swirling her third bottle of beer in her hand. The bar had actually closed about an hour ago, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her to go and Hiro probably would have snapped my neck with his giant arms if I made the super blonde Claudia go home.
Bea’s legs dangled over the edge of the bar, her head was tilted back, and the amber liquid of her apple beer hit the light just right. My fingers twitched, and I began to calculate which colors I needed to mix, what combination of light and shadow I needed to recreate her smile, her delicate fingertips, the shade of her lips.
“How did you make the toothpick thing fly off?” she asked, and the spell was broken.
“Ah-ah, a magician never reveals his secrets,” I said, balancing my own beer bottle in my hand. It had already almost slipped from my hand twice, and it was only my first drink of the night. Butterfingers strikes again. Not to mention I didn’t exactly love beer.
“Would you like me to get you a sippy cup?” She asked, turning her head to me and grinning. I ignored her, but looked at her again. The bar lights glowed behind her, everything else dimmed.
My hands twitched, and I dropped the bottle. Beatrice started laughing. From their little corner booth, I saw Claudia and Hiro snap their heads toward us too. He looked like he had eaten too many raspberries with the amount of lipstick on his mouth. Smooth.
Bea started watching them make out for a while. Her face was relaxed, pleasant, like she was just absorbing the whole universe with her gaze. I’m not going to take that back. That was what it was.
“Hey, are you an art major?” I asked suddenly and randomly. I wasn’t really sure why I wanted to know, but my mouth had always had a tendency to act on its own. Bea’s eyes flickered with surprise at the question, but she didn’t lose her cool at all. I would find out eventually that she never would.
“No, I’m in Women’s Studies,” she replied, leaving a pause to wait for my reaction. I didn’t really have one. “Are you?”
“Yeah, Visual Art,” I said like it was no big deal. “Do you…. like…art…though?” What a time to sound like a two-year old. I was just trying to see if our interests matched, that’s all!
She must have sensed my anxiety because Bea turned to me completely, sitting Indian style on the bar table. She brushed her hair all to one side, and I found myself turning to her and sitting Indian style on the bar as well.
“Are you trying to see if we have things in common?” She asked. My heart skipped a beat.
“Yes,” I said. “Do we?”
“I love art,” she enthused, her eyes sparkling like floodgates had been released in her mind. “I grew up exploring the National Gallery in DC.”
“I dressed up as Da Vinci for Halloween.”
“I wanted to be a ballerina because of Degas.”
"I want to go to Paris to see the Musee D'Orsay."
"I cried when I heard about the Boldini portrait they found in the abandoned apartment in Paris."
“I’m actually an art major.”
We stared at each other for a while, sharing the tiny smiles that were on the corners of our lips. She raised her beer bottle to toast, and I clinked it with a bottle I grabbed from behind the bar. Beatrice Noble, what have you done to me?
* * *
Claudia made a point of taking a photo of us in the middle of heated discussion about site hosting before we left, which was an odd thing to do, I thought. She wanted to celebrate our new partnership/deal by going out for drinks. I had a feeling that this was not going to end well for me, or for anyone for that matter.
Plus, Hiro had this thing where he hated other bartenders, and I always had to pry him off from them. There was one night where I ended up dragging him with one arm and Don on the other after a girl he was flirting with turned out to have a boyfriend. Things were not going to end well if I was the most mature adult in the room.
“Don’s coming by, and Leo said I could go, so let’s go!” She exclaim
ed, and I had no idea why her older brother’s permission mattered when she had to go on a night out.
“Claudia…” Bea began, but Claudia shut her up with a glare. Bea matched her best friend’s glare like she had answered her question. How did women communicate without saying a word? Because Bea and Claudia were having a full conversation without a sound passing through their lips. I glanced at Hiro who shrugged at me. But I could tell that he was game to go out tonight. As much as Hiro complained about other bartenders that were neither him nor me, seeing Claudia again had opened the floodgates in the poor guy’s inner romantic.
* * *
So there we were, sitting in a loud, bass thumping bar with a round of beer (for Hiro), a cranapple martini (for me because I am man enough to admit that I loved fruity drinks), rum and coke for Bea (because she’s too cool for fruity drinks, apparently) and a cosmopolitan for Claudia. Hiro almost had to grab the bartender by the collar to get his attention.
Claudia slid in the seat beside Hiro, and I could swear the poor guy’s back suddenly stiffened at the contact of her thigh to his. Then she rested her hand on his lap for a second, and the boy was gone. Bye, Hiro. It was nice knowing you while you had your head on straight.
“I hate bars,” Bea declared, sipping her drink anyway. “Especially the kind with really loud music. If you’re going to play something loud, I’d rather it be good songs!”
“Oh please Lady Disdain, do entertain us with a list of all the things you love to hate,” I yelled over to her, and almost nodded at myself with satisfaction. Score one for Benedick Padua.
“With you on the top spot? I don’t think your precious pride could take it,” Bea countered. DAMN IT. When did Bea become Miss Witty Comeback Extraordinaire? I could swear she was laughing at me. But her gaze seemed fixed on something in my cheek. God, stupid dimples.
Then she leaned forward and pat Hiro’s arm. “I’m so sorry you have to put up with him, Hiro.”
We Go Together Page 3