by Rosa, C.
“Lex.”
I turned slowly, leaning my hand against the frame of the door.
“Nice hair.” He smirked and returned his eyes on the computer.
Chapter 5
Home Alone
I FLICKED THE note mom taped to the fridge, listing all of the do’s and do not’s while she was away on her cruise. I couldn’t believe when she told me she would be away for four weeks, touring Spain, Italy, and Greece on a European cruise with aunt Carol. I thought it would mean I would have access to her car for the next few weeks until I remembered she would be driving it to meet Aunt Carol in Pittsburgh.
I swung open the refrigerator door, grabbing the ingredients to make myself something to eat for dinner. After two weeks slaving away at the Mug, I decided to splurge at the grocery store. I set a pan on top of the stove and let it warm while I sliced the pancetta. It sizzled when I dropped it into the pan, and the steam rose to my nose, filling it with a mouth-watering aroma.
I drained the pasta in the sink and tossed it all together with a bit of freshly shredded pecorino cheese, peas, and a few sprinkles of chives and parsley. When I sat down with a bottle of red wine I found in my mother’s pantry, I exhaled, chewing in total bliss. The house was quiet, and I was alone; just me and my pancetta.
After I finished washing the last dish, I put the leftovers in the fridge. I planned on cruising through the selection of movie rentals on TV and topping off my glass of wine. I plopped down on the couch, holding my cell phone out to see if anyone had called.
No one.
A few seconds later a text message from Nick appeared.
Nick: House to urself! Let’s celebrate!
Me: What did u have in mind?
Nick: The Mug?
Me: Not on my day off! : (
Nick: Mom’s house it is then!
Me: ??
Halfway into the movie, I quit looking at my phone, waiting to hear back from Nick. I figured he had made other plans. When the old grandfather clock in the corner chimed at eleven, I peeled myself off the couch and started to head to bed.
Passing the front door, I heard the knob jiggle. In came Nick with Mia right behind him. They both held on to brown bags, bottles of liquor peeking through.
“Thirsty?” Nick asked as he headed towards the kitchen.
“Hey girly!” Mia said, giving me a half hug.
“Nick…what the hell?” I asked, yawning. “I was just about to go to bed.”
“What?” he cried. He emptied each brown bag, laying everything out on the table. “But I brought drinks!”
I shuffled towards the kitchen, scoping out the wide selection. “Damn...what’d you do? Rob the bar?”
Mia chuckled as she sat in one of the kitchen chairs. “They were donated.”
Nick rummaged through the cabinets, trying to find anything resembling shot glasses.
“Who’s in?” he asked, pouring tequila into mismatched cups.
“Me!” Mia said, raising her head.
“Lex?” Nick asked. He didn’t bother with waiting for me to answer before he poured for the third time.
We each grabbed a glass and swung them back, slamming them back down on the table.
“Yeow!” Nick cried, pouring another round.
I swiped the edges of my mouth as the door bell rang in the background.
“Who else did you invite?” I said.
“A few people.”
I headed to the door, preparing myself to spend a night with the three stooges. I let the door swing open and walked away, not even bothering to see who was behind it.
“Is that the way you greet all your guests?”
I cut around only to see Ricky standing at the threshold of the door. He stared back at me in tattered dark wash denim and a nicely fitted navy tee shirt, a brown belt peeking through at his waist.
“Ricky…I didn’t expect it to be you,” I said, walking back towards the door. “Come in.” I waved him in. “They’re in the kitchen.”
Ricky followed close behind me, and I couldn’t help but feel his eyes checking out the curvature of my ass as I walked. I did a quick peek back at him surprised, and a little disappointed, that he was more occupied with staring at the pictures on the wall.
* * *
After too many shots of tequila, I called it quits, and left the drinking to Nick, Mia, and Ricky. Charlie and the rest of the trio never bothered showing up which was a big relief. Nick had enough trouble holding his own without their help, let alone when they’re around to egg him on.
“I’m starving!” Nick said as he opened the fridge door. He rummaged through the drawers until finally discovering my leftovers from dinner. “Oooo,” he said, pursing his lips. “This looks fucking awesome.”
“Hey, that’s mine!” I yelled.
Nick grabbed a fork out of the drawer and stabbed at the pasta, shoveling it into his mouth. “Oh my God,” he said with a mouth full of food. “Lex, this is so good!”
“I want some!” Mia whined.
Nick grabbed another fork and tossed it on the table when he sat down. Mia dug in, her face happily contorting as she chewed.
“Ricky…you gotta’ try this,” she said, handing him a forkful of food.
I watched as he grabbed the fork and popped it into his mouth, letting it slide out clean. “Damn,” he said, cocking one eyebrow. “That is good.” He grabbed another forkful out of the bowl while Mia pouted about her stolen utensil.
Nick and Mia ate until they cleaned the bowl. We all ended up on the front porch so Ricky and Nick could smoke. I sat on the first concrete step, watching Mia plant pecks on Nick in between puffs. Ricky sat on one of the patio chairs, one leg hitched over the other. I tried not to notice Ricky’s eyes settling my way. I caught him staring more than once, and each time I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment.
“I can’t believe I haven’t made it to the beach all summer,” Mia huffed as she sat down beside me.
“I haven’t been to the beach in like two years,” I said.
“We should go this weekend!” she squealed.
“I don’t have a bathing suit.”
“You can borrow one of mine!” she said, without missing a beat.
I reluctantly agreed before Ricky made some smart remark about Mia taking off from work.
“Since when did you become so serious?” I replied, not looking back at him.
Mia ended up on Nick’s back as he pranced her around the yard. I laughed as she swung her arm in the air, pretending to throw a lasso. Nick ran up the porch steps, still holding Mia on his back, nearly missing my fingers with his foot.
“Watch it!” I called back to them. They disappeared into the house, Mia’s giggling resonating down the hall.
I heard the chair scoot behind me and assumed it was Ricky heading back into the house. I saw his shoes planted next to me on the step as he sat down, our bodies just inches apart.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, lighting another cigarette. He offered me a drag, and I accepted it, feeling the tip of the cigarette wet from his lips. The smoke coated my lungs before I let it go in a drawn out breath.
“It’s just pretty shocking that you actually own your own business.”
“And why is that?” he said, scratching above his eyebrow with the lit cigarette still in his hand.
“Because…” I tried to rack my brain for something to say that wasn’t too insulting. “I just never pictured you as the business owning type.”
Ricky laughed. “Oh yeah? And what type did you picture me as?”
“Hmmm,” I said, tapping my chin. “The see you in three to five years for disorderly conduct type.”
Ricky’s laugh subsided, and for a second I thought I had actually insulted him. But that wasn’t the Ricky I remembered. He was too good to be insulted, his fuck-off attitude a trademark characteristic.
“Well, what about you?” he said, smacking a mosquito off his arm. “Five years after graduation and here
you are…working for me.”
“Yeah…how fucked up is that?”
“Oh, come on,” he said, bumping my shoulder with his. “I’m not so bad.” He smiled, and I looked away to prevent it from letting it work it’s tricky hypnotism on me.
“So why did you come back anyway?” Ricky asked.
“It’s a long story.”
He nodded his head, picking up on the sullen expression on my face.
“Hey,” he said. “Remember that time senior year when my mom got sick again? You came over with some food from the restaurant, and I said some really dickhead stuff to you.”
“Yeah?” I replied.
“I’m sorry.”
His eyes flickered to mine, and the only noise around us was the chirping of the crickets.
“It’s...it’s okay,” I said, half stunned that he would actually remember that. “Your mom was sick. Your dad left. You had every right to be a dick.”
Ricky laughed, and his stellar smile lit up his eyes.
“That’s what I always liked about you Lex,” he said, looking away from me. “You never were afraid to give it to me straight.”
Suddenly, I felt the energy between us shift, and just before I mustered enough drive to move myself from Ricky’s stare, Nick called my name from inside the house.
“Lex! Your phone is ringing.”
I trotted inside, Ricky close behind me, as my heart sunk at the only possibility of who would be calling me at this hour.
“Who is it?” I asked Nick as he handed me the phone.
“I dunno. There’s no name, just a number. They called like five times.”
I read the numbers across the screen, clicking the top button of the phone to send the call to voicemail.
“Shit,” I said under my breath.
“Who would be calling you now?” Mia asked.
“Nick,” I said. “I need you to give me a ride tomorrow so I can change my number.”
“Can’t,” he replied, rummaging through the fridge again. “Got class all afternoon.”
“Mia?” I said, giving my best pouty face.
“Work,” she said, puffing out her lower lip. “I have to open.”
“I can take you.”
I turned around to look at Ricky, both hands leaning against the back of the other chair.
“You sure?” I asked.
“Yeah, why not? I don’t have anything to do tomorrow.”
I hesitated with a response, not sure I should take the offer. Getting myself involved with Ricky was the total opposite of what I had promised myself. If nothing else, I didn’t want to lead him on. Maybe in high school I made it clear to him that I wasn’t interested in being his next one nighter.
“Okay,” I said, hopeful that his intentions were pure. “Thanks.”
“No problem beautiful,” he said with a wink.
Maybe not.
After a while, we splayed out in the living room as the alcohol started to clear from our heads.
I watched as Mia laid in Nick’s lap, his fingers gently combing back her hair. Ricky found a seat on the floor, his back towards them, while I settled into dad’s old recliner that my mom could never let go.
“I have to work tomorrow,” Mia said, giggling. “Maybe I should call my boss and tell him I’m sick.” She reached out and haphazardly patted Ricky’s head.
He laughed and batted her away. “You do and you’re fired,” he replied.
“You would never fire me!” she said, appalled. “You wouldn’t last one day in there without me.”
“Sure I would,” he said. “I got Casey, remember?”
Mia squealed in a fit of drunken giggles. “Yeah, Casey. You’d be closed for business in under a week!”
I chuckled, happy to hear the playful bickering of siblings who weren’t me and Nick. Soon after, Ricky headed back outside to smoke another cigarette.
I nuzzled into the chair, knowing I was going to regret this whole episode when I would wake up with a hangover. I closed my eyes for just a few brief moments when I heard the stomping of Ricky, bursting through the hallway.
“Fuck!” is all I heard as Ricky came storming back in the house, still on the phone. My eyes popped open, seeing Mia and Nick already up and off the couch.
“What’s going on?” Mia asked, all trace of drunken giggles gone.
“Dad’s in jail,” he said.
“What? Why?” Mia asked.
“DUI,” he said, rubbing the top of his head. “I gotta’ go bail him out in the morning.”
“I said alright,” Ricky yelled into the phone. His face was flush and his jaw clenched. He hung the phone up and started out the front door.
“No!” Mia yelled right behind him. “Ricky…not again!”
“I can’t just leave him in jail!”
Outside, Ricky headed towards the black Range Rover parked in front of the house.
“Where are you going?” she called out.
Without saying another word, we all watched as he climbed into his car and squealed out of the driveway.
Chapter 6
Drawing the Line
I HAD JUST finished brushing my teeth when I heard the doorbell chime over and over. Peeking behind one of the sidelight curtains, I bobbed back when I saw Ricky, hands on hips, waiting for me to open the door.
“Ricky,” I said surprised. “I didn’t think you’d make it.”
He smiled, but it hung low on his face. His eyes were bloodshot and shadowed with dark circles.
“Did you get any sleep? You look like shit,” I said, grabbing my purse from the credenza in the hall.
“No, but thanks for the compliment.”
“If your not up to going-”
“Who said that?” he asked. He made his way towards the car. I shrugged, following behind him.
Ricky opened the car door for me, which was a little weird considering this was the farthest thing from a date. The Range Rover was spotless inside, and hanging off the rear view mirror was a blue set of Rosary Beads, attached with a small picture of his mom.
We drove in silence for a few minutes as Ricky glared out of the windshield, the muscles in his jaw clenched. He was gripping the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were white.
“So, how’d it go with your dad?”
“Fine. Went this morning. Posted his bail. Again. They’re never going to give him back his license after this one…no fucking way.”
“How many times has he done this?”
Ricky glanced over at me. “Three and each time it takes more money to bail him out.”
“How much was it this time?”
Ricky paused. “Three grand.”
“Holy shit,” I muttered, looking out the window. “Why do you do it? Especially after what-”
“He’s my blood. My family. The only family Mia and I got left.”
Clearly, he and Mia felt very differently about their father. Mia would rather let him rot in jail, while Ricky had probably spent a small fortune keeping their father out of jail.
We rolled into the mall parking lot, and Ricky led me in the right direction to have my number changed. The sales girl’s eyes lit up at the sight of Ricky like she had Christmas lights for brains. I lost count at the number of times she flipped her blonde hair back. After ten, I just stopped counting. They exchanged playful quips as Ricky tried to prod her about her plans later on.
“How do you do that?” I asked him when Amber went in the back to check something for a customer on the phone.
“Do what?” Ricky asked in complete oblivion.
“Make every girl around you act like you’re…Justin Beiber.”
Ricky chuckled hard, his eyes widening with laughter. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m serious,” I said, holding back a laugh. “It’s like they all hand their panties and dignity over on a silver plate without you barely having to ask.”
“Not all of them,” Ricky said, staring right at me.
I turned my face away from his, relieved when I saw Amber’s bouncing blonde hair rounding the corner.
“Okay Ricky…you’re all set.”
“Thanks,” I said. I grabbed the piece of paper with my new number on it from her hand. “You’ve been so helpful.” I shot her a quick grin as the smile dropped from her face.
I turned to head out of the mall, hearing Ricky coo a good bye.
I hadn’t planned on doing any shopping, but Ricky convinced me to help him shop for some clothes.
“I need a girl’s opinion,” he insisted.
“I don’t think that should be a problem for you.”
“An objective opinion…from someone who isn’t afraid to give it to me in between the eyes.”
I bounced around with him in the store, picking things I liked off the rack. I held them up, and when he actually liked something I chose I hung it on his arm for him to try on.
“What about these?” he asked, opening the dressing room door. I sat up straight in the leather seat, watching him look down at the dark wash denim jeans he was wearing, shirtless with the band of his Calvin Klein boxer briefs peeking out. A tattoo dedicated to his mom of elaborate script swirled around the lower part of his ribs, just grazing his perfectly toned stomach.
“Those,” I cleared my throat. “Those are good…nice. They fit well.”
Ricky smiled and gave me a wink, and for a split second I suspected he was doing it all on purpose.
Two hours and five stores later, Ricky had seven new shirts, three new pairs of jeans, fresh sneakers, and a new bottle of cologne, spending well over what I would probably make at the Mug in two weeks.
“Smell me,” he said as he sprayed the cologne of his shirt.
“I told you I liked it. I’m the one who picked it out.”
“But that was different. You smelled it on a piece of paper. You gotta’ smell it on my body now.”
I rolled my eyes and held my nose close to the collar of his shirt. He was so tall that I had to stand on my tippy toes to get that close.