Breene, K F - Jessica Brodie Diaries 01 (15 page)

My turn for topic. “So what do you
do for fun?”

“Oh, I play role-playing games mostly.”
To my blank look, he elaborated. “Online games. I play with people from around
the world.”

“Oh wow, that sounds cool.”

“Yeah, I don’t go out much. It’s
comfortable at home.”

“Oh, uh huh.”

His turn for topic. “You?”

Cheater.

“Well, right now, I am just kind of
hanging with my landlady. We have drinks and dinner most nights. All my good
friends were left behind, and my new friend Candace—you know her—well, she met
this guy Ty, and they are attached at the hip!”

He reached smoothly for the bill as
it showed up, nodding all the while. He might not be a talker, but at least he
listened. That was nice.

Out in his car it was decision
time.

“So, where to?” I asked.

He shrugged. Not planning to
choose.

“This is your town, what do you
think?” I prodded.

He was looking at my lips. He
leaned in slightly. Going in for a kiss, I’d bet my life on it. It was our
first date, dinner had been conversationally tough, and he was giving me a
good-night kiss in the middle of the date. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like
this was slightly jumping the gun.

I took out my cell phone. “How
about we meet up with Candace and Ty? Have a few drinks? That might be fun. Get
a little dancing in?”

He backed off, getting the hint. Or
maybe getting knocked out of the mood. Slowly he nodded and turned toward the
steering wheel. “That could work.”

I could tell he wasn’t enthused
about it, but he was playing it cool. I was relieved because the atmosphere in
the car was getting too intense. I was starting to get nervous, memories
uncomfortably looming in my thoughts, and needed to keep things light. At least
until I got to know him.

“Are you okay?” he asked me,
looking concerned. Probably reading the tight expression.

I smiled hesitantly. “Yeah, sorry.
Yeah, I am. I just had kind of a crazy experience a couple weeks ago and I am
still working through it. Nothing to do with you.”

“I heard about that. Well, the
generalities…”

“Oh, yeah. Well, anyway, um, let’s
hit Froggy's, okay? Candace just text.”

His eyes lingered on mine, wanting
the full story, but thankfully, mercilessly, let it go.

We pulled up to an expansive
parking lot a quarter full. Granted, it was early, and the parking lot was
beyond enormous, but with the size of the building, it seemed like there
should’ve been more people.

Randall pulled into a space, put
the car in park, and gulped. “We’re here.”

I put my hand on his shoulder and
gave him a reassuring smile. “It’ll be fun.”

Before I knew it he leaned in to
kiss me. My heart pounded from the suddenness of it, but his lips were smooth
and soft and most of all, non-threatening. I let the touch of our lips linger,
until he tried to heighten the contact. Without finesse, and with his tongue
trying to get into my mouth, it was time to back-the-fuck-off.

So I did.

“Okay,” he said, pleased with the
outcome.

I almost felt like being that kid
that makes a huge show of wiping her mouth with her arm and saying, “Yech!”

As we walked to the front door, he
asked, “How did you like the meal?”

“It wasn’t bad. Chili’s is usually
about the same anywhere you go.”

“True. That’s what I like about it.
I moved around so much that nothing really seemed constant. The one thing that
was always the same was Chili’s. That Chili’s burger, to be precise. I kind of
latched onto it, I guess. I’m sure it isn’t the best food out there, but it’s
comfort food for me, so I like it.”

Ah. It was sentimental. He was
sentimental. That was sweet. My outlook changed. Not enough to dive at him with
my mouth open, but I’d give him more leeway when he tried again. Probably.

As we walked under the green,
fluorescent frog that could give Vegas a run for its money, I saw the red
carpet leading to a bouncer. There was already a line, but Candace said there
was a list, and we were on it. I went straight to the front.

“This is kind of a big crowd,”
Randall muttered uncomfortably.

“Randall, love, we are on the list.
We don’t worry about crowds!”

This was going to my head a little,
I’ll admit, but I totally looked better than the other girls in line!

The giant bouncer looked up as I
planted my strappy sandaled heels in front of him. My smile was sexy, my look
was perfect, and my hip was thrown. I was ready for the club.

“There’s a line," he snarled.
The man was big, in charge, been doing this a while based on his tone, and used
to girls approaching to skirt the line. But as Ty and crew would say, “This
wasn’t my first rodeo!” I knew I didn’t need to wait. And I didn’t plan to.

“We should be on the list. Jessica
Brodie…” I flashed him my sexy, smoldering smile, just in case Candace was
mistaken.

All business, he scanned his slip
of paper, then nodded. Two wristbands were procured and fastened to our
outstretched wrists. Without a word, Mr. Macho turned in his cheap suit and
opened the door for us. Enter.

“Well, he thought he was
holier-than-thou, huh?” Randall muttered, slinking in behind me.

“That’s just how it’s done. His
first line of defense is intimidation. It means less work in the long run.”

After the narrow tunnel of doorway,
in which we flashed our right to drink in the form of a license, there was a
small entryway that opened out into an area with a bar on the right and some
tall tables to the left. There was a wide berth directly through the middle for
those not planning to stop at the bar.

I took a moment to get my bearings.
It was always an important step while still sober. After the drinks were
flowing and strangers became long-time friends, you ended up in random spots
that you then had to navigate out of. Already having the layout lodged in your
sober brain, which I always managed to call up somehow, was a time saver.

After I was pretty set, we moved
on, my eyes always roaming so I could assess the digs. The bar area looked like
a Las Vegas lounge in the 1970’s, with browns and oranges and retro
decorations—and I didn’t mean retro as in, old style but new stuff and super
hip—the place was in bad need of renovation. The ceiling was low, the tables
dingy, and the bar needed to be re-lacquered. Still, it had alcohol behind it,
so I figured we would stop for a beer so we didn’t look stupid wandering around
looking for Candace without a prop. We might as well wander through screaming
that we were lost!

“Let’s get a beer!” I yelled over
the noise and distant music to my date, who was hunched and sunken, imploding.

“What?” he shouted back, looking at
the bar and its patrons like they had just landed from another planet.

I mimed beer by bringing an
imaginary bottle to my mouth. His eyes dipped to my mouth and stayed, losing
interest in what I was saying. To prevent another attempted kiss, I leaned in
quickly and shouted, “What do you want?”

He shrugged and stepped closer,
misinterpreting my lean. I darted off to the bar and hailed the bartender with
my cle**age—it was faster to wave the chest than the arm. His body appeared a
second later, his chest skimming my side. I took that as a cue to text Candace.
This guy’s dive into intimacy was freaking me out, making me constantly break
out in sweats. I wasn’t ready for it. I needed a slow ascent. I needed time to
get to know him, to trust him. My mind kept flashing back to unwanted hands
between my…

“Let’s go!” I shouted, turning from
the bar abruptly with beers in hand and a large tip left behind.

Through the rabbit hole of the bar,
the place opened up into a freaking gi-normous dance club! Holy hell there was
a lot of room. It must have been as big as an empty warehouse! To the front was
a long stage atop a shiny, empty dance floor. Other than that, if they weren’t
aisles, it was a sea of round tables and chairs, booths to the back and around
the sides.

“Does this place get busy enough to
fill this place?” I asked in a moderated tone. Randall shrugged.

The DJ was just setting up, which
meant some random, and fairly quiet, country music was playing in the
background. There was only a smattering of people so far, which would’ve filled
an
L.A.
club half-full.

Land was cheap here in
Texas
.
Go big or go home. I was standing in proof.

“Well, their air conditioning bill
must be enormous!” I said noncommittally as I turned to the back wall and
looked at my phone. “She said she was in the back…”

The back tables were all bare.
There wasn’t even a kissing couple. I glanced at my phone again, sidestepping a
leaning Randall.

“Oh, upstairs in the back.” Our
heads started swiveling on our necks like fools. This was exactly what I had
been trying to avoid.

Randall threw up a finger and
pointed with his whole arm. I kept a groan at bay as I reached out and slammed
his arm down to his side while following the initial point.

“We don’t want everyone knowing we
don’t know where we’re going,” I said quietly, noticing a steep stairwell both
to the right and left of the stage. It led to an open upper level that wound
around the outside of the square building.

So, in essence, the whole building
was a big box. The area I was standing in was a hollow to that box, reaching up
to the top of the structure. Then the second floor sat over the first around
the perimeter, reaching back to the outer walls. The place was even bigger than
what I first thought.

“Is there, like, a code to going to
one of these places, or something?” Randall said in a huff.

“Is there a code to your online
games? Rules?”

“That is a game.”

“So is this, doll.”

I started toward the left with
purpose, choosing that stairwell for no reason whatsoever, but it looked like I
had a reason. That was the only important thing. Then, as I approached the
bottom, Randall got his wish for contact. They were much too steep for me to
clamber up gracefully in the four-inch heels I’d chosen.

I reached out my hand.

He stared at it.

“Randall, can you escort a lady
up?”

“Oh, yeah, of course!”

He grabbed my hand with his.

“No, like this.” I positioned his
arm like the guys had at the rodeo. “It is a firmer base. Otherwise it looks
like you are leading an old woman.”

Randall nodded, focusing much too
intently on getting it right. I needed to figure out how to turn this first
date around. It was going down the crap shoot much too fast. Faster than normal
for me, which was saying something.

The brief stint in acting class,
where we had to walk up and down stairs without looking at our feet, really
paid off in these situations. I kept my head up and my focus off my steps as we
made our way up the wide, carpeted staircase. Once at the top, we wound around
to the side, passing a smaller bar and stopping at a barrel chested man in his
forties with a no-nonsense face.

“Jessica Brodie and guest,” I
announced, looking around like I was checking out the place, even though all I
could really see were shadowed areas, a banister, and a whole lot of empty
space.

“Yeah, c’mon.” He tossed the list
to the side, took a mental picture of my face, of Randall’s face, then unhooked
the red rope and waved us through.

“Oh my God, Randall—VIP area! This
so rocks!” I squeezed his arm happily.

“Uh, yeah.”

“It’s okay to be excited. It’s like
getting to the last level and rescuing the princess.”

Randall snickered. “Haven’t played
video games since the 90’s, huh? Since the main character was a little Italian
with a mustache?”

I laughed and hugged his arm
because it was so true. “I did win the game, though.”

“By cheating?”

“No!” I laughed. “But the shortcuts
were helpful.”

We passed a waitress with a snotty
expression, teased hair, and an empty tray. We also passed a lot of sections,
mostly empty at this point, for other VIP’ers. But we were in the back! That
must be prestigious!

“It looks like a large party,”
Randall said, his playful mood faltering.

I followed his eyes to the back of
the building—wait, it was the front. It was the direction we came in—stored in
sober brain—and saw a large roped off area housing a team of guys. They were
standing in groups or sitting, all with a beer, laughing and causing a ruckus,
as boys did.

Big party, but also roped in, so
definitely prestigious! If only the girls could be here! They’d go bananas!

I spied Candace leaning against the
railing with the pretense of looking for me, but constantly sidetracked by a
joking Ty. When he pointed, as yet another bouncer was opening the roped off
section and waving us through, she jumped and screamed.

“Oh God.” Randall rolled his eyes.

“She’s excitable.” I laughed,
getting a bear hug from a bubbly, buzzed Candace.

“I am so glad you made it!” she
exclaimed. “There are way too many guys, and I know you can put them in their
place.”

“Hardly.” Ty grinned. “Hi ya, Jess.
Whose your friend?”

“Oh yeah, that’s Randall, from I.T.
Hi Randall,” Candace said.

“Hi Candace. How long have you guys
been drinking?” Randall asked in a somber tone.

“Oh, since work ended. Not
straight, though. I had two then went home to change and Ty came to get me.
Then we came here and met everyone. That’s Ty, by the way.” She threw a finger
over her shoulder.

Before I could lose my lunch on the
everyone comment, I saw Adam in the far corner. Knowing he was probably here
with his bud, William, a chill went up my spine and tingled my hair follicles.
It was like a turkey waiting in a line at Thanksgiving, wondering when it would
get the axe. I nearly turned and ran!