After Hours Bundle

by Karen Kendall

  They scheduled their weekly manicures, pedicures, eyebrow waxes and haircuts on Thursday evenings, and enjoyed them with a considerable amount of After Hours wine. The Fab Four were wild, unpredictable and hard to handle.

  The last time they’d been in, they’d gotten too drunk to drive and he’d been hornswoggled into taking them partying on South Beach, instead of to their homes.

  So far, today was relatively peaceful. He was giving his sixth pedicure, to a sweet client who was not, thank God, wearing a miniskirt. Alejandro was just finishing up her foot and calf massage when Shirlie knocked and stuck her head in.

  “Al-aaaay-ho,” she sing-songed, snapping her gum. “There’s some girl up front named Kate—”

  “What?”

  “—asking a bunch of questions about the business. Peggy said you’d want to know.”

  Alejandro leaped up from the pedicure seat as if it were burning his butt. “Carajo!”

  “Perdon?” said his sweet client, Dana Gomez.

  “Mierda!” He stared down at her and clutched at his hair, getting lotion into it so that it stood on end. “Oh, sorry. Ah…will you excuse me for one moment?”

  She nodded.

  Shirlie snapped her gum again, eyeing him avidly. “Problem?”

  “Yes! No! Yes!” What the hell was he going to do? Kate couldn’t see him like this. But he couldn’t walk out on his appointment…

  “Shut the door,” Alejandro said to Shirlie.

  But she was talking into her earpiece. “After Hours, may I help you? Yes, she’s here. Just a moment.”

  “Carajo! Shut the—” He started to get up.

  “Is that Alejandro I hear?” Kate’s voice traveled to his ears from the hallway, and then her crazy mop of hair came around the corner, followed by the rest of her. “Hi, Alejo! I didn’t expect to see you—”

  He was still bent over Dana’s foot, caught red-handed unless he could think of some way to avoid disaster. Beauty Boy! Beauty Boy! The old taunts echoed in his ears, and he imagined Kate’s contemptuous expression if she found out he was licensed to file.

  He thought wildly, then said in a loud voice, “Just keep this foot elevated, Señorita Gomez. I’ve had some medical training, so I know what I’m doing.”

  “What?” Dana stared at him as if he had nine heads.

  “I don’t feel any broken bones, but it’s probably best to get it X-rayed.” He aimed a benevolent smile at her and patted her knee before looking up. “Oh, hello, Kate. What are you doing here?”

  “I just came by to get started on the marketing project. I figured I’d ask Peg and Marly some questions.”

  Conveniently, his two partners popped into the hallway behind Kate and he sent them a death stare. They threw up their hands silently, denying any wrong-doing. “We had no idea she was going to stop by. Isn’t it a nice surprise?”

  “Yes, very nice,” he said breezily. “That’s, uh, great, Kate. Very proactive of you. I do wish I could stay and help. But unfortunately, we’ve had a small accident here—Miss Gomez has twisted her ankle. I’m going to have to run her to the minor emergency center.”

  “You are?” Dana asked.

  Alejandro turned, met her bewildered gaze and sent her a look of desperate entreaty. “Yes, I’m afraid it’s necessary. Just to make sure that there isn’t some kind of hidden injury.”

  Dana played along, to his everlasting gratitude. “Well, if you think so…”

  Shirlie snapped her gum and looked at her watch. “But Alejo, you have another—”

  “Shirlie, I think there’s a customer up front.”

  “Oh, okay, but—”

  “Looking very impatient.”

  “Well, I was just going to tell you that—”

  “And isn’t that the phone ringing again?”

  “Uh-huh, but—”

  Marly dragged her away, thank God.

  “You never told me you’d had medical training,” Kate said, admiration in her tone, while a muffled snort came from Peggy’s direction.

  Alejandro ran a hand along the back of his neck. “Um, yeah. I was pre-med for a while in college.”

  “But you switched?”

  He nodded. “To finance.”

  “With a minor in undertaking,” Peggy added helpfully. “He really enjoyed dissecting the corpses in his medical classes.”

  “Ew,” said Kate and Dana at the same time. Then Kate frowned. “I didn’t know the University of Miami offered a minor in undertaking.”

  “That was a joke,” Alejandro said quickly, his eyes narrowed on Peggy, conveying promises of torture later. “Peg has a strange sense of humor. It gets her in trouble a lot.”

  His partner shrugged and returned his glare blandly.

  “Well, gosh, here we are standing around chatting while poor Dana is in such pain,” Alejandro said. “We really should go.”

  His client produced a creditable moan and laid a limp hand on his arm. Excellent. He’d have to give her a free mani and pedi for her good sportsmanship.

  “Do you need some help?” Kate asked, not looking exactly thrilled as he slipped one hand under Dana’s knees and the other around her waist to hoist her up. Was she jealous? The thought pleased him.

  Dana moaned again, a little too dramatically, and clutched at his chest.

  “No, no, that’s okay. But thanks.” And feeling like the king of all idiots, Alejandro strode out of After Hours with his armful of woman.

  “Look at him. He’s such a white knight,” Peggy called after them. “Isn’t that just the sweetest thing?”

  He gritted his teeth. He’d deal with Peg later, when he had more time to kill her in slow, imaginative ways. For now, he had to concentrate on spinning yet another lie—this one to convince Dana that he wasn’t certifiably insane.

  He deposited her into the passenger seat of the Porsche, having no idea where to take her, what to do with her, or how to explain to his next appointments why he was standing them up.

  Alejandro sighed. At least his day couldn’t get any worse.

  IT WAS WITH a sense of total injustice and panic that he heard Shirlie’s words a few hours later.

  “Al-aaaaay-ho! There’s a guy up here for you. Name’s Luis.”

  The goalie from his soccer team. Mierda! Alejandro scrambled to his feet from the pedicure stool. What have I done to piss off God today? I can’t even buy a break!

  “He said he saw your car out front as he was headed over to Benito’s and he wants to see you.”

  “Tell him—” Alejandro thought frantically. “Tell him I’m on the computer. And I’ll be right there.” He turned to his client. “Mi corazon, will you excuse me, just for a moment? My apologies.”

  She nodded, and he sidled carefully out of the room and darted into the salon’s men’s room, where he brushed nail particles off his shirt and scrubbed his hands to make sure there were no traces of nail polish anywhere. Then he took a deep breath and went to greet his visitor, a stocky man of about six feet who seemed entranced by Shirlie’s bosom. A lot of men found Shirlie’s terrain luscious, so Alejandro couldn’t blame him. He saw no reason to ruin his fantasies by telling him that she wore a water bra that sloshed audibly when she ran for the phone from across the salon.

  “Luis!” he said in deep, hearty tones. “Como estas, my friend?” All Luis knew was that Alejandro had a part interest in a spa and supervised the accounting and business decisions. He intended to keep it that way.

  “Bien, y tu? What are you doing, working at eight o’clock at night? Come have a coktelito with me over at Benito’s.”

  “Eh, Luis, I have far too much to do.”

  “Sí, and it will all still be here tomorrow. Come on, have a pisco sour or two with your teammate.”

  Alejandro hesitated, but he needed to get Luis out of the spa right away, before his next client came and blew his cover. “Okay. You go on over there, and I’ll shut down the computer and join you in a moment.”

  Behind the counter, S
hirlie opened her mouth to remind him of his next appointment and Alejandro sent her a death stare. Shirlie didn’t always play with a full deck, but even she caught his meaning this time: shut up.

  “Will you order for me, Luis? Be right there.” He waved him out. As soon as the door shut behind him, Alejandro turned to the receptionist. “Shirlie, you will have to cancel my next appointment.”

  “You’ve already missed two today and it’s Heather Carlton. She’s on her way to some party and she’ll be really pissed off!”

  “I can’t help that. It will look too weird to Luis if I don’t join him. And he cannot know, do you understand, Shirlie?”

  “What about—”

  “Can Peggy finish up with my current appointment? It’s just the polish. It’ll take her five minutes.”

  Shirlie sighed. “Okay. Yeah, she can probably do that. She won’t be happy, though. She’s got her own clients.”

  “She deserves it,” he growled, thinking of retribution. “Say I was called away for an emergency. I’ll see you in a bit.” And he was out the door.

  11

  BENITO’S WAS AN Italian restaurant only two businesses down in the strip mall, and Alejandro, Peggy and Marly ordered food from there all the time.

  The place was decorated with red-and-white-checked tablecloths, fake grapevines with clusters of rubber grapes and empty chianti bottles on the tables that served as candlesticks. Benito used to have full bottles hanging at intervals along the vines overhead, but since the Case of the Concussed Customer he’d taken those down.

  Benito, a small round Italian man with thinning black hair, greeted him as soon as he walked in the door. “Alejo! You are working hard, eh? Keeping all those ladies happy?”

  He nodded and smiled, pumping Benito’s hand. “We try. How are you, Benny? I’m just joining my friend Luis at the bar this evening.”

  “God has smiled upon my cooking again. Don’t miss the fresh seafood cannelloni, my friend. In a white wine cream sauce that is a miracle of culinary perfection.” He kissed his fingers. “Even my wife stopped nagging when she tasted it. You believe that? For an hour straight! I said it’s a miracle, no?”

  Alejandro laughed and slapped him on the back. Then he moved into the bar and settled down opposite Luis in a banquette. “So, how’s the real estate business?”

  “Excellent. I cannot complain.” Luis picked up his glass and held it up. Alejandro followed suit and they did the traditional Peruvian toast. “Arriba! (Up!) Abajo! (Down!) Al Centro! (To the center!) Adentro! (Inside!)”

  “And how is the spa business?” Luis asked. “Have you had your weekly mud bath and manicure?” He winked and laughed uproariously. Alejo’s teammates loved to tease him about the feminine nature of his investment, but of course they didn’t know the extent of his involvement.

  Alejandro sighed inwardly, wishing that he could be done with all the pretense and sneaking around. But that was impossible. He waved a dismissive hand at Luis and shot him a friendly insult. “Huevon.”

  “I am not the huevon, my friend. It’s you who are the lone testicle!”

  “Sí, and I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank when we franchise After Hours all over the nation.”

  “Me, I am already laughing. South Florida real estate is a very nice business to be in.” Luis grinned and admired his new gold Rolex.

  Alejandro didn’t begrudge him his success. He toasted him with his pisco sour.

  “So, I want to get my girlfriend a gift, Alejo. You have a good all-day package at your spa?”

  Mid-swallow, Alejandro choked at the question. All he needed was Luis’s girlfriend booking anything with Señor Manos. It didn’t bear thinking about.

  But he nodded. “Sí, of course we do.” He dug a card out of his wallet and handed it to his buddy. “You call and ask for Shirlie. She’ll set it all up for you. I’ll tell her to give you a good deal.” And I’ll arrange to be gone that day.

  “Gracias. So, any carne fresca at the salon? Since you ended things with the woman in the twelve-step program for shoe addiction?”

  Alejo grinned and stared down at his glass. He swirled the last inch of coktelito in it. “Yes. Her name is Kate. She is very intriguing. And she owns fewer shoes than any other woman I’ve ever met.”

  “To Kate.” Luis held up his glass, and they toasted.

  “Arriba! Abajo! Al centro! Adentro!” Both of them drank and then ordered another round.

  “So tell me about this Kate. She has tetas grandes?”

  Alejandro shook his head.

  “She is a former Miss Universe?”

  “No. She is beautiful, but in a different way. She’s…unique. Very refreshing.”

  “Where did you meet her?”

  “Business school. And she’s not at all the sort of woman I usually date. She needs a manicure desperately, she has crazy hair and she wears shoes that are falling apart.”

  “Okay,” said Luis. He cocked his head and looked at him for a moment. “This doesn’t bother you?”

  “No. But she’s too rich.”

  Luis went into peals of laughter. “Alejo, there is no such thing as too rich.”

  “No, you don’t understand—her family is a dynasty that owns entire towns.”

  “Excellent. When’s the wedding? You’ll be set for life.” Luis chuckled. “Get a nice, cushy job with Papa’s company and learn to play golf. Join one of the, how do they say? Ritzy country clubs.”

  Alejandro didn’t laugh with him. He thought instead about spending the rest of his life with people such as Wendell the fourth. He shuddered. There wasn’t enough money in the world worth that.

  “I see you’re thinking very hard about it, my friend.” Luis took a long swallow of his second whiskey, leaned back in the booth and fished a cigar out of his pocket.

  “Benito will have a coronary if you light that in here. You have to go outside. And, no, I’m not thinking about marrying Kate for her money. You know the old saying—people who marry for money end up earning it.”

  Luis gnawed on the end of the cigar, looking very much like a camel with his long, blunt-tipped nose. “Muy profundo, Alejo. Well, don’t get so involved with this girl that you don’t make it to practice. We need you scoring goals in the Weston game.”

  Alejandro just shot him a look, as a female voice behind him said, “Oh, yeah, this looks like quite the emergency.”

  Heather Carlton had come into Benito’s for take-out. He stared at her stupidly for a moment. Then he said, “Heather! It’s not what it looks like. My friend Luis, here, just had tragic news.”

  Luis’s eyebrows shot up and he took the cigar out of his mouth, but Alejo kicked him in the shin before he could say anything. “His father died suddenly of a heart attack. He is heartbroken. I had to comfort him.”

  Luis obliged him by doing his best to make his face look properly lugubrious. He even pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. Luis could lie to women with the best of them. And he didn’t even work in the beauty industry.

  Heather put her hand to her mouth and gasped. “Oh, you poor thing! I’m so, so sorry.” She put her hand on his shoulder and kissed his cheek.

  Luis stared straight into her cleavage as she did so, his interest sparking. Shirlie went by the wayside. Alejandro didn’t want him and Heather to get any better acquainted, though. So he said, “Luis doesn’t speak any English, but he knows what you mean. He thanks you for your sympathy.”

  Luis opened his mouth to deny his ignorance of English and perhaps ask for her phone number, but Alejandro kicked him again, hard.

  “Aaaggh.”

  “That’s Bolivian for beautiful,” Alejo told the client.

  She put a hand to her heart. “Oh, how sweet. Too bad he doesn’t speak any English. He’s so cute…”

  Luis sat there doing his best not to look gratified at her words since he wasn’t supposed to be able to understand them. Luis was a good friend, taking one for his wingman.

  Thanks be to God
, Benito called Heather’s order number and she told Alejandro to tell Luis how nice it had been to meet him, even under the terrible circumstances. Then she turned and walked away to the takeout window.

  Luis watched her ass covetously, like a cat watches a goldfish. “A hell of a time for me not to speak any English, Alejo! What was that about?”

  “She’s a psychopath,” Alejandro whispered. “You can’t believe anything that woman says. And trust me, you do not want to date her. Besides, what about your girlfriend?”

  “Who?” Luis sucked on his cigar. “Oh. Her. Right.”

  By the time Luis was ready to leave, they’d each had three pisco sours and Alejandro was in danger of missing a fifth appointment. As it was, he was going to need to drink a quart of mouthwash. But hell, most of his clients would be tipsy, too, so he hoped no one would notice.

  Unfortunately, Peggy did notice. It took her about two seconds to assess his general sobriety, and she hauled him into the kitchenette to talk. “Alejo!”

  “Sí?” He tried to focus on her red hair, which she’d piled on top of her head. It was better than meeting her eyes. “Don’t you look pretty tonight.”

  “Save the blandishing for the customers, honey. Did you just blow off an appointment to go drink with your friend?”

  “Shoccer team,” he said solemnly. “Had to get him out of here. Can’t know truth.”

  “Alejandro. If I had done that, you’d never let me hear the end of it. That’s terrible business practice. Heather Carlton screamed blue murder at Shirlie and accused us of trying to ruin her evening since she had two broken nails and couldn’t go out like that. Shirlie said she even threatened to sue.”

  “Sue? For what?”

  “Breach of contract or something crazy. I finally had to do her manicure myself. Oh, and she thinks you’re avoiding her.”

  Alejandro sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face.

  “You’re going to have to call her and apologize.”

  “I, er, bumped into her at Benito’s. Everything’s fine.”

  “Look, Alejandro. We all think you’re being ridiculous about keeping your work here a secret. Why don’t you just tell people?”