Frankie sobered up and pointed at the waitress walking away. “Did you not just realize she was hitting on you?”
“She asked me if I wanted a box, Frankie.” I looked at the four beers she had drank and wondered if she was a lightweight.
She rolled her eyes and grabbed the last breadstick. “You’re so used to it, you don’t even see it anymore.”
What the hell was she getting at? “You lost me, doll.” I had a stomach full off pizza and beer topped off with a handful of pepper flakes and she was talking about the waitress hitting on me. “I’d much rather talk about you not hating me anymore and getting a plane ticket for you.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Plane ticket?”
“Yeah, a plane ticket to get you to Allenton before qualifying tomorrow.” It was too late to have Harlyn book something so I was going to have to do it.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just hold the phone here, Hulk. I never said I was coming back to work for you.”
I rested my elbows on the table and leaned toward her. “Uh, yeah you did.”
She mimicked me and leaned toward me. “You might need to refresh my memory. Just when did I say that?”
“I just ate a palm full of red pepper flakes, Frankie. Your ass is coming back to the crew.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Oh, Brooks, Brooks, Brooks. You are so wrong that I don’t think you will ever be right again in your life. I said I wouldn’t hate you anymore, I never said I would come back to work for you.”
“It’s one in the same, Frankie. If you don’t hate me anymore, then there isn’t a reason why you can’t come back to Cummings Racing.”
“It isn’t one and the same, Brooks. I don’t hate you, but I’m not going to come back to work.”
I hung my head, and groaned. “You’re killing me here, Frankie.”
Her laughter reached my ears, and I glanced up to see her scooting out of the booth. “I gotta pee. Try not to take that as me agreeing to come to Allenton with you.” Frankie once again burst out laughing and stumbled in the direction of the bathroom.
The waitress appeared at the table with a box in her hand. “Um, here’s the box you asked for.”
I reached out for it, but she kept it in her hand. “I’ll take it.”
She shook her head and brushed my hand away. “I’m supposed to do it for you.” She reached for the square spatula and loaded the pizza into the box. “Um, are you some race car driver?” she asked. She slid the last piece of pizza in the box and grabbed the empty tray from the table.
“Just on the weekends.” My lame answer I always gave when someone asked me that slipped from my lips without even thinking about it.
She laughed lightly and shifted from side to side. “So, what are you doing here?”
“Just visiting.”
She looked at the spot Frankie had been sitting in. “Your girlfriend?”
I cleared my throat and looked in the direction Frankie had disappeared, wishing she would magically appear. I was used to women being like this when they figured out who I was, but I honestly wasn’t interested. “Um, yeah. She just had to run to the bathroom.”
Her face fell, and she shuffled away from the table.
“Thank God,” I mumbled under my breath. I pulled two twenties out of my pocket, and tossed them on the table.
“Ready to go?” Frankie slid up to the table and looked down at me. “Just back to Luke’s, not to Allenton or anything like that.”
“Anyone ever tell you you’ve got a bit of a smartass in you, Frank?” I grabbed the box loaded with the leftover pizza and slid out of the booth.
“That’s what having three brothers will do to you, and it’s better than being a dumbass.” She elbowed me and grinned. “Get it? Smartass. Dumbass.” She laughed at her own lame joke and wove through the tables of the restaurant and out the front door.
“You didn’t seem to be the lightweight type, Frankie. Kind of surprised that four beers get you tipsy.”
“Pshaw. I’m hardly drunk. Just tipsy.” She pulled her phone out and swiped on the screen a couple of times then tucked it back in her pocket. “The Uber will be here in five minutes. I told him to look for the pretty girl and the douche canoe. There looked like there could be a language barrier though, so he might be thinking there’s a girl with a canoe needing to be picked up.” She burst out laughing at her own joke and held onto my shoulder so she didn’t fall over.
“Doll, you’re crazy.”
She sighed and looked up at me. “Hardly. If you want to meet crazy, then you need to hang out with Remy’s mom. Now that is one chick who is crazy.” She held up her finger. “But I love her though. She’s super cool.”
Note to self, four beers was three too many for Frankie. “That’s good to know.”
“Four minutes until the Uber is here. Come on, Mr. Canoe. We better wait on the corner. He’s looking for a pretty girl and her canoe.”
She grabbed my arm and led me to the corner. “You really told him to look for a douche canoe?” I asked.
She nodded and leaned against the streetlight. “Yep.”
“I thought since I ate the pepper flakes, you were going to stop hating me.”
She nodded again. “I am a woman of my word, Brooks. I don’t hate you anymore.”
“Then why did you just call me a douche canoe?”
She smiled goofily. “Because you can still be a douche canoe and me not hate you. My brothers are douche canoes, too. Totally love them still,” she said matter-of-factly.
“So that makes me like your brother?” The instant the words came out of my mouth, I hated the taste of them.
She wrinkled her nose. “Negative, Goose. You are not my brother.”
Well, I guess that was good. “So what does it make me then?”
“Brooks fucking Cummings.” A peal of laughter rang from her lips. “You should really put that on your car. It’s much more badass than just Brooks Cummings.”
I shook my head and smiled. “Pretty sure they would have to blur that shit out when they show my car on TV, doll.”
She nodded. “You’re probably right.”
A car pulled up to the curb and rolled down it’s window. “Pretty girl with a canoe? Have you seen someone like that?”
Frankie lost it completely and collapsed against me laughing uncontrollably. “Right here, brother,” I called.
I managed to get Frankie loaded into the backseat of the car, and we headed in the direction of I hoped was toward Luke’s.
“Who’s mixing your fuel for you?”
I looked over at Frankie. She was leaning against the window with her head face pointed at me. “Remy has been doing it.”
She nodded. “Good. He knows what he’s doing.”
“Worried about it, doll?”
She folded her arms over her chest and looked out the window. “No, of course not,” she lied. If she didn’t care, then she wouldn’t have asked.
“You come back with me, and you can take care of it yourself.”
“I’m not ready to come back, Brooks.”
She didn’t say she wouldn't come back, just that she wasn’t ready to yet. “I hear you, doll.” I wasn’t going to push her anymore.