I bring her a glass of water and a box of tissues and set them down on the coffee table. “I’ll go help get ready for the lunch crowd. You just relax and I’ll bring you up some food.”
“Thanks, Luna.”
“We’ll figure it out, okay?”
“Sure.” She smiles at me weakly and it makes me sad that she’s so beautiful and that the man who slept with her and left her in the dust with his babies on the way will never even know. We looked for him for months. He was blond and handsome and had a cool, surfie vibe—Josie’s absolute weakness. I didn’t mean to have unprotected sex with him, she sobbed after she peed on the stick and those two unmistakable blue lines showed up. He told me he wasn’t looking for anything serious. And neither was I! We just got carried away.
It happens.
They will have made some beautiful babies.
But even though we wandered the streets and the hotels and the bars and asked around for a tall, sandy-blond Californian named Noah, he was already gone. The only thing our online searches revealed is that there are a lot of people named Noah in California.
And I don’t like the defeated edge to her voice today.
I leave her to her phone call and walk past my tiny yoga studio where I do my practice every morning at sunrise. I go into my bathroom where I start stripping off my dirty clothes. I take a quick shower and pull on a sleeveless yellow sundress. I run a towel through my hair, which is dark and cut into an angled pixie bob. It has a wave to it that has a mind of its own. Even if I try to straighten it, within around five minutes it’s starting to curl again, especially in the Florida heat, so I comb it into place and leave it at that. Then I head back downstairs to help Rico and the kitchen and waitstaff.
I don’t care that our bar isn’t the fanciest in town. It has character. It’s funky and fun. Original and old school. It was a case of buying the worst business in the best location, because it was all we could (barely) afford. All the tables and chairs on the deck are colorful and festive, an effect that’s enhanced by the shimmering blue water behind. We have a small beach and a dock where our customers can tie up their boats or park their jet skis. Our menu is basic American fare done well.
Maybe we could get another investor. Someone who has an interest in contributing money from afar, so Josie and I can continue to run our business without too much interference. We were only just getting going when Josie found out she was expecting. Her enthusiasm hasn’t been quite the same ever since, with the morning sickness and the fear, but she’ll come round again, once she has her babies and settles into a routine. We’ll figure out how to grow the business and raise her little boys.
Everything will be fine.
My phone rings in my pocket. I don’t recognize the number but I answer it anyway. “Gage McCabe.”
“Hi, Gage! It’s Crystal.”
Crystal. Fuck. Which one was Crystal? “Hi,” I bluff, trying to make my voice sound at least mildly enthusiastic. “How are you?”
“I could be better …” Her voice lowers breathily. “ … if you were doing that thing to me that you did in the back of your limo last weekend.”
Ah. Now I remember. I picked her up at a fundraiser I went to last Saturday night. Blond. Fake tits. About as riveting to talk to as a doormat. I try not to focus too much on the flaws but there were a lot of them. As there always are.
I hadn’t been interested at all until I was practically inebriated. Martini goggles changed my mind. “Yeah, that was fun.” I run my fingers through my hair as I try to tone down my boredom. I need a haircut. Why the fuck did I give this girl my number? I think she might have insisted somewhere in the middle of round two of that thing I did to her in the back of the limo. The details are hazy at this point.
“God, Gage, you’re so freaking hot. I want to see you again. Come visit me.”
Fuck no. “I can’t. I’m working.”
She giggles, like she hasn’t heard me correctly. “Just for the weekend. It would be so fun.”
“No, I—”
“Guess where I am?”
I sigh. I’m not in the mood for this. “Where are you?”
“Poolside in my very skimpy bikini … in Key West!”
Yawn. “That’s great. Well, hey, it was nice talking to you.”
“Don’t be so boring, Gage. Come visit. Live a little.”
This almost makes me laugh. Give me a break. Live a little? Living a whole damn lot isn’t my problem. I live in the fast lane and always have. The last thing I need is this silicone-enhanced bimbo telling me what I should or shouldn’t be doing.
“It’ll be fun,” she coos.
I don’t sleep with women beyond one night. It becomes tedious. They start thinking about commitment, it happens that fast. They latch on like barnacles if you let them get too close or start allowing them time. And commitment is very definitely something I don’t want anything to fucking do with. “Listen, uh …” What did she say her name was again? “Crystal. I’m on my way to a meeting, so I’ll—”
“Remember those cuff links you were wearing last Saturday? The ones with the rubies embedded into two linked circles?”
My father’s cuff links. Given to him by my mother.
My fingers touch the cuff of my sleeve.
Fuck. I hadn’t noticed they were missing. “You stole my cuff links?”
“I didn’t steal them! I found them in my clutch. Remember one of them fell off when I tore off your shirt? I put them in there to keep them safe.”
She stole my fucking cuff links. The only thing I own that has any real sentimental value. “I can’t believe this.”
“Gage, I did not steal them, you jerk! Come on. Come to Key West and get them. And have fun with me for the weekend while you do. It’s a win-win.”
A win-win. “Just have them couriered to me.”
She giggles again. “Nope. You have to come get them.”
“Look—”
“Gage, I’m lonely. And it’s a long weekend. Don’t tell me you’ve got meetings over Thanksgiving. That’s a lame excuse. I’ve got a room with a view and I’m all alone. Pretty please?”
Goddamn it. I really don’t want to lose those cuff links. And now that I think about it, my cousin Travis emailed me a few days ago, saying he and his brothers are going to be in Key West this weekend. Their band is doing a tour and they have a private gig. They’ve been playing together since we were kids, but over the past two years they’ve skyrocketed to the big time. They’ve got the look. And their country-rock sound is distinctive. They sell out stadiums but every now and then they play smaller venues because they like the vibe, Travis said. He mentioned they’ve booked some off-the-beaten-track bar in Old Town and are closing it down for the night. When I got his email I didn’t think much of it since I wasn’t planning on being anywhere near Key West. But we’ve been talking about getting together for ages and this could be a good opportunity to catch up with them.