“That will be fine. And Stone will be with me.”
I wasn’t sure if he would be but I said it anyway as another hurdle to push her back from that line I had been easing her over.
She gave me a tight smile that didn’t meet her eyes and went back inside. Her back was straight and her stride would have been determined but she seemed to be limping slightly. I’d ask about that later. Not right now. She needed some space and so did I, because all I wanted to do was go after her and make her laugh, smell her hair, and feel how her body would mold against mine.
Fuck. I needed that alcohol now.
Beulah
PEOPLE WERE FILLING THE BACK yard before five in the evening. I’d been working with the caterer since two-thirty, preparing the poolside and stocking the bar. The caterer wasn’t ready for the crowd last time. Monique, the owner, said she had things under control for tonight. I was sure Jasper was paying extra for that.
Jerry, the bartender, was taking college classes here in Savannah. It was his junior year, and this was his extra job. He also worked on a construction crew that was building the new condos in town. He’d left his home over five hundred miles away in south Alabama to attend college here on a partial scholarship. He needed the cash to pay for his books, lodging and food, but his tuition, was paid.
He was a business major. His goal was to open his own restaurant and eventually have a chain of them throughout the southeast. I knew all this because Jerry was also chatty. I didn’t mind. We had to do a lot of prep work outside in the bar area. It was nice to talk while we worked. Jerry was also six-foot-three and had a runner’s build. Stood to reason his scholarship was for track. His almost black hair and olive complexion was striking set against his crystal blue eyes.
Jerry also informed me he was single. I told him that he’d enjoy tonight because most of the females here would be topless by nine o’clock and they all looked like models.
Jasper had a very elite group of friends. I thought all of his friends looked as if they had just stepped out of a magazine. It was intimidating and overwhelming.
“Take these out to the monsters,” Monique said as she handed me a tray of food I didn’t recognize. “You don’t have to walk around with them. Jasper said that was unnecessary. Just place them over by the bar on the table I set up. We will keep food fresh in that area all night.”
I nodded, I already knew this. She’d told me the plan several times. I let her keep telling me because either she was worried about my memory or she was forgetting herself. I didn’t look for Jasper or make eye contact with any of the people as I walked to the food area. Seeing Jasper with whatever female he was with tonight wasn’t appealing. I didn’t want to subject myself to that, which made me pathetic. But at least no one was aware of my feelings for him. I could suffer and save my pride at the same time.
“Beulah,” Jerry called after I sat the food down. I walked over to him because the music was too loud to hear from any distance.
“You need something?” I asked him.
“Could you tell Monique that the ice is already melting. We need a cooler out here.”
“I’ll get you one.”
“Thanks.”
Jerry was pleasant to work with. If Jasper was going to have these parties often I hoped he used Monique. The three ladies cooking in the kitchen with her inside didn’t speak much English, but they were nice. When I asked if it was feta cheese or blue cheese crumbled over a vegetable on a piece of toasted bread because a girl outside had asked me, all three of them just nodded and smiled. I realized then that only Monique could answer questions about the food.
“Why are you limping?” Monique asked as I walked back into the kitchen. “Did you hurt yourself or is that an affliction I didn’t notice last time.”
The shoes were taking their toll. My toes were bruised, and it was harder to walk without limping. I needed to use some of my next paycheck to buy shoes that fit. I’d been putting it off thinking I could just deal with it, but as soon as I had Heidi’s month paid for, I’d shop for new shoes.
“It’s the shoes. I’m getting new ones soon. I’ll try not to limp.”
Monique frowned and looked down at the tennis shoes I was wearing. “They’re not heels, darling. Why would tennis shoes make you limp? They don’t look new enough to give you blisters.”
I needed to get Jerry that cooler and I didn’t want to talk about it. “Just uncomfortable,” I replied. “Jerry needs a cooler for the ice. Do you have one in the van outside?”
She was still frowning at me. My answer hadn’t been sufficient. “Yeah. I meant to grab it. Go ahead and take that next tray of food out, and I’ll get the cooler,” she said glancing down at my feet one more time before walking away.
I picked up the tray of what I recognized as calamari and headed for the door. One of the ladies called out something to me in Spanish, and I stopped to find out what she wanted. She was running after me with slices of lemon, and placed them around the calamari on the tray as she continued to speak in a language I wished I understood. Then she smiled at me, and gave me a nod and a wave of her hand that it was okay for me to go now.
When I stepped back outside this time, I was careful not to limp or wince. Which I wanted to do both. I thought about putting on my flats that fit me, but they wouldn’t work coming in and out of the house carrying food. I could slip and fall. They had no traction and the area around the pool was wet from all the splashing.
I dropped off the tray, then stopped to let Jerry know a cooler was on its way.
“Monique is getting the cooler,” I told him as he was shaking a cocktail.
“Great. Thanks,” he said as he handed me a can of cherries. “Could you open those and put them in that bowl over there that only has one left.”
“Sure.” I did as I was told, and just when I was about to toss the empty jar I heard a female squeal Jasper’s name. I looked up, I didn’t mean to. It was an impulse.
Jasper was carrying a gorgeous blonde around the pool that he had tossed over his shoulder. He had a hand on her bottom that was bare due to the thong she was wearing. She was enjoying it while she slapped at his back. My chest ached. If I could make it not feel anything that would make life so much easier.
“You’re so much more appealing than her,” Jerry said snapping me out of my thoughts. I had been caught staring.
“Do you need anything else?” I asked him not wanting to focus on what he’d just seen.
Jerry smiled then. He had a dimple in his left cheek. “Guys like that aren’t good enough for someone like you. He’d never treat you the way you deserve. I’ve been around you for a couple hours, and I have spent ninety percent of that time trying to figure out how to ask you on a date or if you were already taken. That guy sees you all the time and he doesn’t notice you. And that’s because he only sees himself. It’s how they are.”
I opened my mouth to say something. Although I wasn’t sure what.
“That’s beautiful. Now Romeo, if you could get me a Maker’s Mark that’d be great,” Stone’s annoyed voice stopped me from having to say anything at all.
“Sure thing,” Jerry said with his easy smile. He’d just bashed Jasper and the rest of them, but he was smiling at Stone like he’d said nothing wrong.
“Don’t you have a job to do?” Stone asked me. His tone condescending as usual.