“Driving, how are you getting home?” he goes on.
“Oh, we’re calling an Uber. We’re gonna Google it on the TRD,” I announce, proud of myself.
“Ask him what his tattoo is,” Lilly butts in loudly.
“Shhh,” I hush into the phone at the same time waving my free arm around to shush her up. “Sorry about that, Lilly doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
“I’m coming to get you, take you all home. Do not call an Uber.” He’s back to bossy.
“No, no. We’re gonna split it. Plus, you don’t even know where we are,” I say, uppity-like.
“You just told me you’re at Bonefish. If you call an Uber, I’m not gonna be happy. I’m leaving your house in five, be ready to go in fifteen,” he keeps bossing.
“But, we still have one and one third drinks left. We can’t drink that all in fifteen minutes. We’ll be drunk if we drink that fast.” I defend my position.
“Fifteen minutes, Gabby.”
I can tell he’s getting ready to hang up, so I yell into my TRD quickly, “Wait, Jude?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, since you’re at my house, will you let Mia come with you? She really likes to go for car rides and it would make her happy.”
I barely hear him laugh in a low sexy rasp and responds quickly. “Sugar. No. I’ll see you in fifteen.”
And he hangs up.
I end the call, setting my TRD on the table with a sigh. “I love his voice. Really, he has the best voice. But he’s not letting Mia come with him.”
“I’ve never heard him say much more than ‘hi’ because after you saw us at church, you dragged him into the sanctuary away from us,” Reagan complains.
“At least you’ve seen him, I’ve never even seen him,” Lilly grumbles, clearly feeling sorry for herself.
“Well, tonight’s your lucky night, chickadees. He’s picking us up. He said he’d be here in fifteen minutes, and you heard me, I tried to buy us more time because we are really going to be drunk if we drink these drinks that fast. But I told you he’s bossy, so all he had to say was, ‘Sugar. No. I’ll see you in fifteen.’” I do my best Jude impression.
Lilly and Reagan start laughing, Lilly saying, “He does not sound like that.”
“But he does,” I argue. “It’s low and raspy. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
“Raspy? Like a smoker raspy?” Reagan frowns. “Please tell me he doesn’t smoke. He’ll never be able to be around Ben.”
“No, he doesn’t smoke. At least I’ve never seen him smoke and he doesn’t taste like smoke. It’s just low and sexy. I don’t know how else to describe it.” I think as hard as I can for a comparison. Finally, I throw my hands up. “I know! Okay, stick with me here.” I look to Lilly and Reagan for verification they’re paying attention. “Alright, if he sang everything he said, he would sound a lot like Nickelback.”
“He’s a singer?” Lilly asks, obviously not sticking with me. She looks at Reagan, who looks equally confused.
“No. But he sounds like that. That deep voice, ya know?” I take a big slurp of my drink.
“You mean like Nickelback Rockstar or Nickelback Photograph?” Reagan asks, needing clarification.
“Hmm.” I think, taking yet another big gulp. “I guess all Nickelback, but I’m thinking more Nickelback Lullaby or Nickelback Savin Me.”
“No way.” Reagan shakes her head. “No one can talk as good as Nickelback sings.”
“Whatever, you’ll see,” I say, high and mighty.
“Drink up, buttercup,” Lilly announces. “In T-minus ten we’ll get to experience the Nickelback-talking, mystery-tattoo-wearing, and ultra-sexy man that gonna get in Gabby’s pants.”
“Lilly!” I yell.
Then we all burst into a mass of hysteria.
I pull into the empty parking lot. It’s late, especially for restaurants in this city on a Tuesday, they’ve got to be closed by now. I don’t bother with a parking spot. I pull up by the curb, park, and head to the front door. It’s locked so I rap on the glass door with my fist.
A kid walks up and frowns. “We’re closed.”
I look beyond him into the empty restaurant and see three women, the back of Gabby’s dark blonde hair is one of them.
I point beyond him. “I’m here for them.”
He turns and looks at Gabby and her friends, then back to me, folding his arms over his chest. “They’re calling an Uber.”
I’ve lost my patience. I never do this, but it’s late, Gabby’s drunk, and I need to get her home, not stand on a sidewalk arguing with some punk through the fucking door. I pull out my badge and credentials, slam them up against the glass. “Open the door. Now.”
The kid looks at my badge then back to me. Shaking his head, he finally decides to throw the lock. I ignore him as I clear the door with my eyes on Gabby and make my way through the now empty restaurant.
As I near her table, I hear Gabby and her friends laughing. More like cackling. I recognize one of them from church but haven’t met the other. Gabby has one hand in her hair at the back of her head and is animated with the other. I give my head a shake and as I come up behind them, her two friends sitting across the table stop laughing as soon as they see me.
This should be fun. Since Gabby is alone on her side of the booth, I decide to join them. I haven’t seen her since this morning when I kissed her goodbye and left to get ready for work. She’s definitely getting under my skin. I can’t stop thinking about last night in her basement. Damn if she didn’t feel fucking great and I’ve hardly been able to concentrate on anything today thinking about having her under me.
As I slide in next to Gabby, she’s saying something about a hand in her hair when she senses me and looks over. Her eyes get big for a second and she give me her shocked as shit look she’s perfected, but then surprises me when she bursts into laughter. She’s beautiful when she laughs, too, and I realize this isn’t something she’s done much around me, but it’s been an intense few days.
I watch her as she starts to calm, throwing her hands up and slaps my shoulder and chest, looks up at me with tears of laughter in her eyes. “Ohmygoodness, that was funny!”
She’s wearing another tank top, but this one’s pink and has ruffles all down the front. I think she’s wearing another little skirt and her layers of silver beaded necklaces hang past her tits, matching her long earrings with about half a million thin silver, black, and beaded bracelets on one arm that jingled when she hit my chest. She’s wearing a little more makeup than I’ve seen on her and her hair is in in a mass of loose curls long down her back.
I can’t help myself, I’ve missed her. Putting my arm around, I put my hand down to the side of her sweet ass and when I give her a good yank into my side, she’s back to surprised.
“Hi sugar.” I lean in, not able to wait another moment to get my lips on her. Instinctively she kisses me back, her fingers pressing into my chest until I let her go. “You look like you’re having fun.”