by Jenna Baker
*****
By the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost seven, and we were all starving. We decided to stay local and try the pub at the hotel.
It was a typical pub with a dark wood bar trimmed with brass fixtures. The perimeter of the bar was lined with booths covered in green vinyl and the walls were covered with various Irish beer posters. There were only two other tables occupied, so the place was ours for the taking. We selected a table in the back of the restaurant with seating for six. The chairs were low and wooden with curved backs. I hated these types of chairs because the only way they were comfortable was if you leaned all the way back and stared at the ceiling. I was yearning for comfort, and I wasn’t going to get it here.
Foxy sat at the head of the table and Reid sat at the foot. I sat next to Reid with Mac next to me and Manny across from me. We all grabbed the menus and browsed them hungrily.
“Send the waitress over right away, would you, honey?” Foxy said to the hostess. “We’re hungry over here.”
It was a minute or so before the waitress came by, and when she got there, we were ready. She was in her fifties and a little overweight. She wore a black pair of jeans, a black polo shirt and an apron. There was a pencil tucked behind her ear. I knew she was the real thing.
“I hear we’ve got a hungry bunch. You set to order?” she asked.
“Yes!” we all said in unison. Foxy got a double cheeseburger and fries. I ordered a steak sandwich with grilled onions and melted cheese. Reid thought my order sounded good, so he got the same thing. Manny got the quesadillas because they were the most Mexican entree he could find on the menu, and Mac got a whole wheat turkey wrap with a side salad. We gave Mac some sideways looks about his order, but he brushed them off. We also ordered two appetizer samplers and asked the waitress to put a rush on it.
“Anything to drink?” she asked.
“Yeah, give me whatever stout you have on tap,” Foxy said.
“Two,” Reid said.
Mac and I looked at each other and shrugged. These were rugged guys – they could probably handle drinking ten beers before starting a shift. I decided if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em and ordered a lager. Mac and Manny ordered local ales, and we sent the waitress on her merry way.
There wasn’t much conversation as we waited for our food. Pretty much all anyone said was “The food is taking forever” or “I’m so hungry I could eat my hand.”
Finally, the waitress walked over carrying our two appetizer platters. The bartender followed behind her carrying a tray of drinks. We had only been waiting maybe ten minutes, but all of our faces lit up as they approached. I grabbed a hot wing, covered it in blue cheese dressing and gobbled it up. I knew if my sister could see me now she would have a heart attack. My dress had to be let out as it was – this would kill her.
“Those wings go well with your complexion,” Foxy joked.
I looked down at the orange wing and frowned. “Really? It’s still that bad? I washed it off…I thought.”
“He’s just messing with you Sharpe – it looks much better,” Mac said, placing an arm around my shoulder.
“Mac, any movement on the tracker?” Reid asked.
“Um, I don’t think so,” Mac said. He pulled his arm away from me to pull out his laptop and check the signal. “No, he’s still at home.”
“This is gonna be a long night,” Foxy said. “Reid, why don’t you shack up with Sharpe tonight. I’ll get Sherry’s parents to babysit and we can have a special night.”
“I’ll tell you what – if Kitt isn’t moving by ten, you have yourself a deal,” Reid said.
Suddenly all eyes were on me. “You’re not sleeping in my room,” I warned Reid. “I only have one bed.”
Reid slid his arm around my chair. “I know, Sharpe.” He leaned in and whispered in my ear. “I’ll sleep in the car.”
“Oh,” I smiled. Originally I had thought poorly of the chairs in the pub, but now I was starting to like them. I had felt more arms around me tonight than I had in months, and I was enjoying it.
“Thanks, man, this is awesome!” Foxy said. “I saved some of those condoms from the dead guy.”
“You’re gonna use a dead man’s condoms?” I asked. “Isn’t that a little sick?”
Foxy shrugged.
“Why you using condoms, bro? I mean don’t you get married so you don’t have to?” Manny asked.
“No, Manny, that’s not why you get married,” I answered. “But it does explain why you have five brothers and three sisters.”
We all sipped our beers and feasted on the appetizers. It wasn’t long before the plates were empty and our bellies were full. We were in much better spirits and looking forward to the events that lay ahead.
For the next few hours, Mac regaled us with war stories from the field. He told us about how he was bitten by a venomous snake in Australia while filming a documentary and how his producer had to suck the venom from his leg. Then he explained how he was separated from the rest of his crew in Africa during a colossal rainstorm and had to live off the earth for three days until they were able to locate him. Apparently, he was able to start a fire using his canvas belt and a miniature screw driver to send up smoke signals for help. He had to use all the clothes he was wearing to protect the fire from the rain, so when the rescue team finally found him, he was wearing clothes he had woven out of vegetation. Mac’s machismo could definitely get on my nerves, but at least the stories were helping to pass the time.
Mac was monitoring the tracking device, but so far, there had been no movement. I was having a nice time and not exactly looking forward to tonight’s stakeout. At the same time, I was racing against the clock to get this story done and needed everything to go down tonight if I wanted to have a chance at witnessing it. Every once in a while I would glance over at Reid, who seemed to be resting his hand on the back of my chair more often than not. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but I couldn’t help feeling like he was staking a claim over me in front of the other guys. Whatever the reason was, I liked having his hand there.
At around nine thirty, Mac’s computer started to beep.
“Oh man, come on!” Foxy said. “Sherry was just about to drop the kids with her mother.”
“Maybe he’s just running another errand,” I said.
“No, he’s coming here. Two months – two months and we were finally going to have our moment! Son of a bitch!”
We all stared at Foxy, embarrassed that we knew the details of his sex life down to the brand of condoms he planned to use. Foxy realized he had said too much too, so he stood up and stormed off towards the bathroom.
Mac was staring at the computer screen. “He’s heading towards the track.”
Reid and I nodded. This wasn’t necessarily a good or a bad thing, but we both knew the later we waited, the less chance we had of him coming.
Thirty minutes later, Kitt was still at the track and Foxy was back in business. Sherry was heading down, and Reid was officially without a hotel room. Foxy said goodnight to us and went to his room to prepare for his big night. Reid promised Foxy he would call him only if something serious came up. Manny went up to his room too, saying that he needed to catch up on his hotel porn, and asked us to call him if anything happened. That left me, Mac, and Reid. We had been sitting at the table for a long time, and any effects we may have felt from the first beer had certainly worn off by now.
“What do you guys want to do?” I asked.
“I can wait it out,” Mac said.
“Me too,” Reid said.
“Okay, then should we order another round?”
“Sure,” Reid said and signaled the waitress.
When I was in college, I never drank beer. I loved wine, and living so close to the Napa Valley, I had acquired quite a palate for it. My parents used to take my sister and me wine tasting when we were younger because my mother felt that an education in wine was equally as important as an education in math or science. I still lo
ved wine, but as I’d grown older I’d learned to appreciate pairing the right drink with the right meal. When you’re in Beverly Hills dining two tables away from your favorite celebrity, you go for the vino. When you’re at a pub twenty miles from the Mexican border, beer is the appropriate choice.
The waitress brought over my second bucket of suds, and I took a refreshing sip. The steak sandwich I had eaten was surprisingly good, and I decided this second beer was my dessert.
“You’ve been telling us your stories all night, Mac. I want to hear a good Sharpe story,” Reid said.
Mac thought hard, then suddenly snapped his fingers. “I’ve got one.”
Reid placed his arm behind my chair again and leaned in to listen to the story.
“We were up in Rochester, New York in the dead of winter shooting this show on ugly housewives.”
I smiled at Mac. I knew the story.
“It was close to midnight and we were still wrapping up some interviews inside this old house. I was shooting and Sharpe was asking the questions.”
“Producing, I was producing,” I corrected.
“Right. Anyway, we finally finished up and me and the sound guy started wrapping up the equipment. Sharpe was getting all pissy because it was late and she wanted to go back to the hotel, so she grabbed a few things and stormed out the back door of the house. It was pitch black out there, so dark that all I could see was the white trim on her jacket.”
“I was rushing but I couldn’t see a thing,” I chimed in. “I took a hard step and felt the ground give out from under me. I started falling and I couldn’t stop. Then I felt a rush of freezing water on my legs.”
“She walked right onto the cover of an in-ground pool!” Mac laughed.
Reid cracked a smile too.
“I lunged for the solid ground. I saw Mac and I grabbed his arm. Half my leg was in the pool at that point and it was so cold I couldn’t even scream – I was just gasping. Luckily, Mac was there and pulled me out.”
“You should have seen her afterwards. If she was pissed before, she was a maniac after!” Mac laughed.
“Well, who the hell has a pool in Rochester? It’s summer for like three minutes there. And where was the fence? Aren’t you supposed to have a fence around pools?”
Reid was laughing pretty hard. “I can picture you, Sharpe, getting all mad. Just like that day when you called me out in the parking lot.”
“She called you out?” Mac asked.
“Oh yeah, she called me an asshole and everything,” Reid laughed.
I smiled. “I call ‘em like I see ‘em.”
“Whoa!” Reid said. “I think that was a shot!”
“Oh yeah, that was a shot,” Mac agreed.
“Okay, okay, I’ve got one for you – a Mac story,” I said. “We were shooting a show in Las Vegas called Racing to Win about couples who competed in physical challenges like running to all the wedding chapels in Vegas or whatever.”
Mac was shaking his head. “Do not tell this story!” He tried to cover my mouth, but I fought him off.
“We were shooting the couples lounging by the pool and it was like over a hundred degrees out. So Mac over here decides that he wants to pull his camera’s power from the sun instead of the battery pack.”
“It was very green of me.”
“Yeah, so he jerry-rigs his camera with a coat hanger, some tinfoil and a piece of sheet metal.”
“I was bored and it worked,” Mac explained.
“Yes, a little too well,” I said. “He went to change the tape and electrocuted himself. The current went through his hand and out his leg. He was shaking so bad I had to rip his hand off the camera. Everyone at the pool was staring because Mac had a big spot on his pants where he’d wet himself.” I started laughing. “For the next few hours any time Mac saw something shiny he would bark like a dog and his left leg would shake like crazy.”
Reid laughed, but Mac looked angry.
“I could have died, Victoria,” Mac stated flatly.
“Yes, but it was funny, Hank,” I said, using his real name.
“Don’t get bent out of shape, bro,” Reid said. “I’ve had plenty of times when I pissed myself on this job.”
I leaned in, smiling. “Do tell.”
“No, I can’t,” Reid said, shaking his head. “I’ll never live it down.”
“Come on!” I said, placing my hand on Reid’s. “I’ve had plenty of embarrassing moments during this shoot already. You have to give us something.”
“All right. It was when I was a rookie. It was my second week on the job and I was doing patrol. I was driving around with my partner and we were cruising on the 405 trying to bust people for speeding.”
“Good luck. I don’t think I’ve gotten past twenty miles an hour on that road once.” I said.
“It was late and this red sports car speeds by me, so I turned on the sirens and pulled the driver over. I got to the car and the driver was this kid who was like ten years old. He told me that his father was the head of a movie studio and he was allowed to drive even though he was underage. He said he knew the mayor and then offered me a part in one of his Dad’s movies if I let him go. I told him I couldn’t do that and that I’d have to call his father.”
“How old were you?” I asked.
“I was like nineteen, all tough and macho. I wasn’t gonna let this little snot push me around. So the kid gets out of the car and says his father’s phone number is in his journal in the trunk. Next thing I know he pulls out a BB gun and starts firing at me!”
I cracked a smile.
“He clipped me an inch below my nuts and it scared the shit out of me. I pissed my pants so bad I had to throw them out afterwards. I started screaming like a girl and begging him to stop. I jumped into my car and took off at high speed. The worst was that my partner was sitting in the passenger seat the whole time, watching and laughing. He told everyone at the station and then I got the nickname.”
I grabbed Reid’s shoulder and shook him. “Come on, tell me!”
“Reid Peed,” Reid whispered.
I cracked up laughing.
“It’s not funny – that name stuck for a long time. I had to change districts.”
“That’s okay, my brother-in-law calls me Vapor Rub.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s a good one.”
“It’s okay, but it’s no Reid Peed,” I joked. I took another swig of my beer, enjoying the repartee with Reid.
“So what’s next for you, Sharpe?” Reid asked, pulling a hair away from my face that had come loose from behind my ear.
“I don’t have anything lined up yet, but I still have three more episodes to go after this one. I am sure you will be disappointed when we start following another team.”
Reid smiled but didn’t answer.
“I booked a gig for Wedding Belles after this show wraps – it’s about southern belles on their wedding days,” Mac said.
I realized that I had been sitting with my back to Mac during Reid’s whole story. It was rude, and I could tell by the tone of his voice that Mac was annoyed. I leaned back in my chair and faced him.
“Are you being serious, dude?” Reid asked.
“It’s not all action and adventure in this line of work,” Mac said defensively. “Sometimes you have to focus on paying the bills.”
“Living through my sister’s wedding is torture enough – I don’t think I could handle all those southern bridezillas,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
“I’ll pack lots of aspirin.”
“Who knows, maybe you’ll have a love affair with one of the bridesmaids. They’re usually pretty easy, right?” I said.
“I guess we’ll find out Sunday night,” Mac said, taking a shot at me.
“Very funny. I’ll be lucky if I can stay awake at Ginny’s wedding – I’m so exhausted.”
“Well, sometimes when you drink too much…”
I raised an eyebrow. “Sometimes what?”
Mac loo
ked over at Reid. “She told you what happened between the two of us, right? The kiss.”
My face went white. I could not believe he was bringing this up after all this time, in front of Reid no less. I finally had a man paying some attention to me, and my good buddy Mac was determined to ruin it.
“That was years ago, Mac. I barely even remember it,” I said dismissively.
“I just noticed that you were getting a little friendly with the detective here and I wondered if it was the beer talking.”
My eyes almost popped out of my head – was he seriously saying this right now? I tried to stay calm but I felt my blood boiling and my hands starting to shake. “Don’t try to paint a bad picture of me because of one mistake I made with you. Believe me, that would NEVER happen again.”
“Look it sounds like you two have some unresolved issues and I don’t want to get involved,” Reid said, removing his arm from the back of my chair.
“No, you’re fine,” I said to Reid. “Mac just has his panties in a bunch for some reason.”
“I’m gonna get a room for myself at the front desk. Just call me if Kitt starts moving,” Reid said, quickly standing up and walking away.
When he was far enough away I turned to Mac angrily. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you say all that?”
“What? We were joking around. Besides, you told him about my accident in Vegas – that was uncalled for.”
“So what? He told us that he had the same problem. I know you’re Mister Perfect and everything, Mac, but not every story can be about how you created a shelter from your jock-strap or dismantled a bomb using a toothpick and dental floss!”
“I never said that!”
“Don’t make me look stupid in front of Reid, okay? I’ve been gaining his respect, and I need it to get this story.”
“You just want to get in his pants.”
I stood up in a rage. “That is none of your business, Mac, so why don’t you just shut up!”
“Whoa, Sharpe, calm down. I just don’t want you to get hurt, okay?”
“Well, you have a lousy way of showing it.” I didn’t know if it was the two beers or my exhaustion, but tears started falling out of my eyes. “You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince, you know! My sister is getting married on Sunday – she found happiness, don’t I deserve that too? You think I like being thirty and still single? I don’t!”
Mac’s face dropped once he realized he had made me cry.
“You’re thirty-five and you’re single too. Don’t you ever get sick of it?” I asked through my tears.
Mac stood up and put his arms around me. “Yeah, I get sick of it, of course I do. Look, I’m sorry, okay? Sometimes I just get a little territorial with you.”
I let Mac hug me for a while as I gained my composure. I looked up to see Reid standing a few feet away from us.
“Uh, they need the credit card number at the front desk.”
I wiped my tears away. “Oh, okay.”
“I can share with Manny if you guys want to be alone,” Reid said to us.
“No, man, it’s not like that. Not at all,” Mac said. “I’ll take care of the front desk.” Mac patted Reid on the shoulder and walked past him.
“What the hell was that about?” Reid asked me.
“Mac likes everyone to think he’s like this lion tamer, and it upset him that I told a story that made him look weak.”
“Seems to me like the guy has a thing for you,” Reid said.
“No, he was just trying to embarrass me,” I said.
“That must have been some kiss.”
“I hardly even remember it,” I said.
I glanced at Mac’s computer, which was still sitting on the counter. “He’s still at the track. I’m gonna head up to my room and lie down. If he seems like he’s heading this way, I’ll have Mac call us.”
I gave Reid a weak smile and walked past him. I was exhausted mentally and physically and upset with Mac for ruining what had started out as a very enjoyable night. I passed Mac at the front desk and motioned to him that he should call me if anything came up, and he nodded. I headed towards the elevators and up to my room.
As I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, I started to think about Reid. Maybe all the talk about him being my boyfriend was affecting me because I was starting to like the idea. Tonight had been fun for me. It felt nice to have a guy putting his arm around my chair and laughing at my jokes. Of course Mac managed to ruin the evening, but before that, things had been good. Maybe I was a fool – this guy didn’t like me from day one, and I didn’t like him. Still, maybe if I was softening, so was he. I remembered him brushing my hair behind my ears – that was a sign of affection, right?
I decided to put aside my concerns about whether or not Reid liked me and focus on something more fun – sex. I fantasized that he’d knock on my door in the middle of the night looking all hot and bothered. His hair would be tousled and he’d wear a tight black t-shirt. He’d ask if he could come in and before I knew it, his lips would be locked with mine. I got to the part in the fantasy where I was running my hands across the rippling muscles on his chest, then I drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 11.