When it left him, he tipped his head back down again, his face still holding a wide grin. “We should probably get you some alcohol then.”
“Sweet Jesus, that was beautiful,” Maude gasped, her hand shooting out to grab Tabby’s.
“Jarrod’s hot, but when he’s laughing like that, he’s seriously fucking hot,” she added, her eyes still on him.
Stunned for other reasons, Ren said to Cole, “Jarrod laughs? I thought he just did a smile or those little huh huh chuckles.”
Relieved that the focus wasn’t on my trip to the stage, I moved to my chair and then looked around for another one for him to sit on. Unfortunately, the place had been full before, but with the men here now it was definitely full, so there were no free seats to be found. Jarrod didn’t find this to be a problem, though, because he sat down and then tugged me until I was sitting on his lap, and wrapped his arms around me, holding me close.
“She needs booze,” he told the table, and the women all held their hands up at the same time to get the waitress’s attention.
The woman who’d been serving us all night did a skip walk up to the table and shot us all a huge smile. “What’ll it be?”
She was seriously the happiest person I’d ever met in my life. All night she’d been friendly and skippy, and I had no idea how she was doing it. If I had to deal with a bunch of women getting rowdy over guys ripping their clothes off, I’d be hiding in a corner praying for it to be over.
Gesturing for her to get closer, I laid out my order. “Ok, I’m relatively shy and I got carried up to that stage with a sloppy buzz going on after a lot of shots and pitchers – which were drunk by just me, FYI. So, I need enough replacement booze to numb the pain and embarrassment of socky cockies. Can you do that?”
The woman’s head jerked slightly hearing this, and then she looked at me wide eyed and nodded. “I gotchu, boo,” she assured me, and then skip walked away.
And indeed she did have me. Within minutes she was back with two pitchers with straws in them and five different colored shots that were in glasses slightly larger than the ones before.
Placing them down on the table in front of me and passing Jarrod a beer, she explained, “Got Larry at the bar to put double in the pitchers and the shots are what I call brain blasts. They’re double measures, too, but if you start from left to right and finish with the pitchers, you’ll be a new woman.”
Reaching into my purse, I pulled out a twenty and passed it to her. We were running a tab that we’d split at the end, but every time she’d brought us a round, we’d tipped her. “You’re a good woman, a good, good woman. You deserve fifty of those for what you’ve done for me here, but I didn’t bring that amount with me.”
I heard her say thank you and laugh, but I was already making my way through the shots. The first one burned, the second one stoked the burn, the third one added more kindling onto the burn so that it started to flame, the fourth one was like pouring lighter fluid on those flames, and the fifth one – which was cinnamon – turned it into an inferno. Because of that, I reached for the pitcher and took large pulls on the straws to put the flames out. Also, because of all of this, my sloppy buzz came back, left the building, and was replaced by a blottola buzz.
Halfway through the second pitcher, Maude went up on stage to have her photo taken with the men who were now done with their show. As they picked her up and held her so that she was laying across four of them, she screamed, “Now this is the happiest moment of my life.”
After she’d had about twenty photos taken in different poses, we paid the tab and the men helped us out to the cars. Because she lived close to Jose, Ellis was driving Maude home, so with dramatic farewells where we acted like we wouldn’t see each other for five years – i.e. “Oh my god I’m going to miss you.” “You better call me, ok? Don’t leave it as long as you did this time.” “I can’t believe I’m not going to be sitting across the table from you anymore. This sucks so hard!” - Jarrod put me in his Explorer, and off we went with us all waving at each other until we were too far away to continue.
That’s when I realized exactly how drunk I was.
“I can’t feel my lips,” I giggled, making ‘puh, puh, puh’ noises.
“Exactly how drunk are you, honey?” Jarrod asked, thankfully sounding amused by it all, but this was Jarrod – he found most things amusing.
“I’m sloppy.”
Shooting me a quick glance, watching me play with a button that made my chair back go down, then come back up again, then down again. I’d thought it was the one for the window, so this was even more confusing for me. “Sloppy?”
“The sloppiest sloppy in the history of slop,” I muttered, pressing harder on the button. Then something hit me and I burst out laughing, with the seatbelt digging into me because my seat back was so far forward. “I’m a slopapotamus.”
And then I did something I didn’t even know was possible – I laughed myself to sleep. The next morning he’d describe how he looked over and there I was, face hanging down as I used the seatbelt to support my body because of the forward position of the back of the seat. In fact, apparently I’d let out a giggle every so often, too, even though I was out cold. Because he was afraid I’d be sick in my sleep or fall down the stairs for some reason, Jarrod slept beside me again. This time I didn’t sleep on top of him, but I did wake up the next morning lying on my back sideways across the bed, with my feet on his chest and my head hanging off the bed.
Thirteen
Jarrod
One week later…
It had been two weeks since our first date, and since then I’d spent pretty much all of my time with Katy. Working together and living next to each other might have been a problem if we weren’t so busy with our families and friends.
On Wednesday, her uncle had dropped Elodie back because he’d gotten called away on business. Katy had discussed the bear thing with him prior to him coming over and he’d been onboard with our idea, preferably ASAP. So, after work we’d gone back to her place, and I’d sat on the couch waiting for them to arrive. Normally he carried her in, but this time she wanted to walk in on her own, which she did, carrying the bear under her arm the whole way.
Duke had been stoked to have his little buddy back, which was great to see because he’d been acting weird lately, almost like he was on guard, and we’d found some blood around his mouth but couldn’t see any injuries on him anywhere. Apparently, having his bud back was what he needed because he turned back into the happy dog he was, instead of the tense dog who lay down watching the door all the time.
When she’d seen me sitting there, Elodie let out a little shriek and had run over to me, something that I absolutely loved and had shown her the same excitement at seeing her back when I’d picked her up and blown a raspberry on her stomach. Like all kids, she’d noticed the box immediately, so with Leo and Katy watching, I’d let her open it and held my breath for her reaction.
I really needn’t have worried because she looked at her bear, down at my bear, back to hers, and then she’d lifted the new one out of the box, placed the old one in it, and had wrapped her arms around the new bear with her head resting on top of it. With those innocent actions, she’d stolen my heart all over again.
The bear issue was still getting to me, and I guess I felt guilty about taking her mom’s bear away from her. I really wasn’t doing that, it was just that it was rough, as in scratchy rough, and even though Leo had his friend fix the eyes, I was still scared she’d swallow one or it would fall apart and she’d be left with nothing of her mom’s. Doing it this way guaranteed that she had a bear she loved to cuddle, she wasn’t at risk of choking, and we could put the other bear somewhere safe so that nothing happened to it. Until Katy figured out where that was, it was in the box the Steiff bear had come in on top of the shelves in Elodie’s room.
That was drama number one done and dusted. Drama number two came on Friday – my birthday. I hadn’t told Katy it was my birthday because we
were new, and honestly, I didn’t really care about it. Somehow she’d found out, though, so that morning she’d woken me up by making me breakfast, then she’d given me my presents. We’d discussed our favorite cars one night while we were watching a movie, and I’d told her about my love for Vipers. So, for my birthday, she got me a t-shirt with a 2010 Viper SRT10 (in black because that was my dream car), a book that basically covered anything mechanical to do with a Viper, a keyring with the Dodge Viper emblem on it, a pair of pajama bottoms that had the mushroom from Mario Bros on them on them, and a book about Port Royal where Mom was from. She’d been worried I wouldn’t like it, but I loved every last bit of it.
That night we’d gone to my parents for another BBQ, this time it was my favorite meal my mom made: Jamaican escovitch snapper, rice and peas, bammy which was a flatbread, patties with ground beef in them, and she’d made a rum cake for dessert. These were all the things that the four of us asked for every year on our birthdays because they were so fucking great. The only thing that came close to it was the seafood you got at a restaurant called Gloria’s in Port Royal (not related to Mom) and a chain restaurant across Jamaica called Island Grill – we didn’t tell her that, though. All that Mom needed to know was that her food was the shit.
Mom had invited Katy’s family again, but this time only Major, her parents and Maude came because Ammon had gone to visit his friend in Colorado, and Aura was in Georgetown visiting one of hers, too. The night had gone well until Mom started reminiscing about the four of us – and to a parent, reminiscing means sharing the most embarrassing stories you can think of about your kids.
The one that made everyone laugh the hardest was the time she found a bra in Canon’s bed and thought he was hiding his “inner woman”. So, being the supportive mother that she is, she’d sat him down and started doing his makeup for him, and then added one of her wigs which was long and curly. After that, she’d decided that he suited fall colors better because they were warm and would bring out his eyes more. Amazingly, through all of this, Canon had sat still, wondering what the hell was going on, and because we all adored her, he let her get on with it in case she was sad about the fact she never had a daughter. Ironically, Mom had been thinking that she finally got a daughter, so she’d been close to tears with happiness.
When she’d made him sit down at dinner like that, all of us had been sitting staring at him while she was serving food onto our plates. Dad had asked what the hell was going on, Mom had explained which ended up in a food fight between us all because we called him a liar when he denied it, even though we knew the bra belonged to Jenny Briggs who he’d sneaked into his room two days previously.
Then she’d brought out the baby albums, and I’d lost the will to live and had gone inside to play with Elodie for a while. One of Mom’s wigs was a freaking awesome afro styled one that she hadn’t worn since 1989 (she claimed), and I’d put it on Elodie’s head to show everyone along with these huge sparkly chandelier earrings. The women had melted, and from there they’d taken her back to Mom’s dressing room (aka Bond’s old bedroom), tried every wig she owned on the baby, and then taken photos of her wearing them with a pair of Mom’s shoes.
As gratitude for my distraction technique, Dad had promised me half of Bond and Canon’s inheritance on top of my own. The best bit for me, though, was all the photos we now had of Elodie laughing, so into it that the few teeth she had were on display as she did it. And never once did she let go of her purple bear.
Going into work this morning hadn’t been fun, but I finished at four and Katy had finished at one, so it wasn’t technically a full day because we hadn’t started until ten. Katy hadn’t mentioned doing anything together tonight, so for the first time I had nothing to do – and I didn’t like it. I felt kind of lost without her.
At a red light, I pulled my phone out and looked for a song that had been on my mind since Maude had mentioned it. The one that Katy loved by Eric Clapton, My Father’s Eyes. Finding it, I hit play and listened to the beginning with Clapton playing the strings of his guitar perfectly and I could see why Paul got carried away with his air guitaring to it. For the next five minutes and twenty-three seconds (I checked how long the song was on the screen), I got sucked into it. By the time it was over, I was singing and air guitaring my ass off. Totally got how Paul got carried away with it, it would be an insult to the legend of Clapton not to do it.
Next up, I put on Tears In Heaven. Normally I was more of a rock type of guy, preferably classic rock, but this song… there was so much said in it. I vaguely remembered it being written for his son who’d died in a tragic accident, and that got me thinking about Elodie. Ever since I’d heard about how uninvolved Effie had been, it had been weighing on me. Did I want to be a father one day? I hadn’t ever really thought about it. I’d just taken the fact it would happen for granted, if I was honest. I loved my friend’s kids and spent a lot of time with Olivia, but I’d never had that urge to have one of my own. Again, I just assumed it would happen at some point.
What got to me was the lack of appreciation it appeared Effie had for her daughter. Here was this beautiful little girl, so full of life and love, and she hardly saw her, almost like she was a blip in her life. Everyone has a different story; I came from a stable, loving home and family with parents who adored me and my brothers, and not once had we ever felt anything other than that adoration. Katy had the same with her family, and they all worshipped the ground Elodie walked on. How do you get to the stage where a hit is worth more than your child? How do you push out a baby and then walk away from it without even making sure someone was there to look after it?
Addiction. I’d only ever smoked pot, and even then it was when I was in high school and did it because everyone else was doing it. What makes someone go for a drug that changes them and that they then rely on to survive? I understood how bad addiction could be because I’d looked it up after Katy had told me about Effie, but it made me wonder if something had happened to her at some point that she wanted to escape from? If that was the case, should I speak to the family and see if we could track her down to get some help? Leaving her to wander lost and reliant on drugs that could kill her at any moment didn’t feel right, but I wasn’t sure I was at the stage with Katy to raise something like this.
I was going to have to soon, though, because it was weighing on me.
Pulling into my drive, I looked over and saw Katy’s car in her driveway and cut the engine. Seeing it sitting there, I said fuck it and decided to just go over and see her. Just as I’d climbed out of the car and was shutting the door, I got a text from her.
Katy: Come over. I’m just doing something so you can use your key. K x
Seeing as how her keys were now attached to my own, this was no problem.
With a grin on my face, I jogged around the fence this time, and then down the path to her door.
Katy
Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god. This had seemed like such a good idea on Tuesday, but now I was so anxious it felt like I was about to have a heart attack.
Gloria had called me on Monday to ask me to Jarrod’s birthday dinner… a birthday I had no clue was happening. Thinking on it, that was a stupid move of mine because obviously everyone has a birthday so I should have asked, but it just hadn’t occurred to me that it would be anytime soon. So, I’d played it off like I’d known about it, and then freaked the fuck out. Literally!
Maya had told me this played into the GYMP perfectly, because it meant I got to do something special for him to make him feel special and show him I got him. I liked to think that I got Jarrod, but I had no clue how I was meant to show him that. By Wednesday I was a nervous wreck, I’d covered his gifts, but her words about showing him he was special kept going round in my head. Books, t-shirts and Viper stuff didn’t show a man you got him and that he was special – although, I obviously wasn’t a man, so what did I know? So the question was, what did? And that’s when Maya had introduced me to her friend Tony, who’d b
een busy with his daughters up until then. Apparently he knew exactly what to do.
An hour later, I was standing in the middle of Scarlett Treasures wanting to die of embarrassment.
“You want something sexy slutty, not slutty slutty, you dig?” he’d asked, standing with an item that to me went with the latter of those descriptions.
“Not really,” I’d replied hesitantly.
“Ok, so here we have a satin number which would hardly cover your vagina,” he said patiently, getting a glare from Scarlett. “That says slutty sex. This one here,” he picked up a burgundy one made of a stretchy transparent material that had a thick lace band over the boobs and on the hem at the bottom, “says sexy slutty and invites him to tear it off your body.”
Scarlett apparently had to concede with this one. “It pains me to say it, but he’s right. That one really does invite him to do that.”
Nodding, he passed her the slutty slutty one, and then held the sexy slutty one against me and closed one eye as he looked at me. “That color is a hell yes with your coloring, Katy. And with you being all tiny and fit in your pocket like, he’s gonna see you as his little sexy pixy wearing it.”
Looking between the two of them, I’d gulped at that description. “If you say so.”
With a long drawn-out sigh, Tony nodded slowly. “I do, I really do. Now, what else can we find?”
The answer was: the burgundy nighty, a pale pink version in the same style, a navy satin nighty that had slits up either side of the legs that were trimmed with lace, another one that again he’d gone for the same style but with burgundy satin, and a white satin one in the same style that had a wide band of transparent lace under the boobs, too. As if that wasn’t enough, I’d also ended up with ten new pairs of panties in different styles, along with five bras that matched them (two styles of panty for each bra).
Talk Flirty To Me: Cheap Thrills Series Book 4 Page 15