The Boyfriend of the Month Club (11 page)

Grace and Penny had driven together to the restaurant, so they zipped back to Florida Charlie’s in Grace’s car. Ellen and Sarah stayed to pay the bill and have the food boxed up, but they were probably only minutes behind. The second they’d heard something was wrong at the store, they’d insisted on following to see what they could do to help. The front parking lot to the store was empty and the Closed sign was displayed on the door.

“What’s going on?” Grace asked, her heart thumping wildly. “Is anyone hurt?”

Mami was closing out the registers. Abuela held Gator Claus’s Santa hat in her hand. Both of them looked too calm for any real disaster to be occurring.

“This costume is getting old. I think the alligator needs a new Christmas look,” Abuela said, pointing to the loose pom-pom on the hat. “What do you think, Gracielita? Should I make the alligator into an elf?”

“
What
? An
elf
? No, Abuela, leave the alligator the way he is.”

Grace did a quick survey of her surroundings. Things looked perfectly fine to her, until she spotted her father in the Hemingway corner.

Water dripped from the ceiling down into a large plastic bucket. The bookshelves that had previously made a faux wall were now pushed alongside the real wall. Other than her parents and Abuela, the place was empty.

“Where are the cashiers? And Marty?” Penny asked. “He’s supposed to be cleaning out the stockroom.”

“I closed the store and sent everyone home when we discovered the leak,” Pop said. “Good thing your mother and I decided to stop by today.”

“Pop, please tell me you didn’t move those bookshelves yourself.”

“It was either that or let the water ruin the books.”

“What about your back?”

“What about my back? I’m strong as a bull! You’re beginning to sound just like your mother.”

Grace took a second to think. The leak was a setback, no doubt about it. But it wasn’t the disaster she’d been expecting. “Okay, the situation isn’t so bad. We don’t even have to close the store. I can rig up some sort of a barrier here until the roof gets fixed.”

“That’s a no-go, Tomato. For one thing, we can’t have customers getting rained on. Florida Charlie’s has an image to live up to. Folks drive down on their vacation, see our billboards and get all excited about the store. Word of mouth is what made us what we are, and if we aren’t one hundred percent, then we shouldn’t open.” He winked at her. “This will be a good opportunity to get that alligator tooth display done up right.”

Grace grit her teeth. Pop wasn’t going to be satisfied until the alligator tooth was done up in a gold-encrusted shrine. She studied the leak in the ceiling. “Pen, can you check the back storeroom and see if we have more buckets?”

Penny came back a couple of minutes later with a large plastic tub. “This might be better than a bucket.”

“Good choice,” Grace said, swapping out the tub for the nearly full bucket. If the rain didn’t stop soon, this was going to be an exhausting process.

The bell on the front door chimed, signaling a customer.

“Sorry, we’re closed,” Grace heard her mother say. After a minute or so, Abuela called out. “Gracielita! Come quick.”

Now what?

Grace, Penny, and her father all ran to the front of the store to find her mother holding a vase with what looked like at least a dozen red roses. “These were just delivered for you.” Mami thrust the vase in Grace’s hands.

“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone,” Pop said. “Who’s the lucky fella?”

“And why haven’t we met him yet?” Mami added.

“I told you,” Abuela said. “It’s the man I saw in my dreams. He’s the one who sent them!”

Ellen and Sarah chose that exact moment to walk through the door.

“I thought the place was under water,” Ellen said, sounding put out to discover it wasn’t as bad as they’d first thought.

“Forget about the roof. Look what Grace just got.” Penny counted each rose one by one under her breath. “Eighteen long-stemmed roses. From Benson’s!”

Benson’s was a seriously overpriced flower shop located on the beach. Grace had never gotten anything from Benson’s before.

“Why eighteen? Why not a dozen?” Ellen asked. “Does it mean something?” Everyone turned to look at her. “You know how different flowers signify different things? Like yellow roses mean friendship. Everyone knows red means romance, but what does the eighteen mean?”

“That he’s not cheap?” Penny said.

“How about we find out who the
he
in question is?” Sarah asked.

Grace pulled the card from the plastic holder and read to herself.

Grace,

I know I can never make up for my reprehensible behavior Saturday night, but I wanted you to know how sorry I am. You’re a terrific girl and I’ll always regret that I blew it with you.

Brandon

“So?” Penny asked. “Who are the roses from?”

“Brandon Farrell.”

“How romantic!” Abuela said. “He must really like you, Gracielita.”

Sarah didn’t say anything. Not that Sarah had to say anything for Grace to know what she was thinking. It was obvious Sarah was impressed. But Sarah hadn’t been there Saturday night. Brandon Farrell’s bad behavior couldn’t be wiped out by a few expensive flowers. Especially ones with thorns.

“It’s no big deal,” Grace said, mostly for her parents’ and Abuela’s benefit. “I went out with him and he has a lot of money. He probably sends roses to all his dates.”

“Yeah, but why eighteen?” Ellen asked again.

Grace shoved the note inside the pocket of her khaki pants. “Will you
stop
with the eighteen already? Not everything has to have a hidden meaning.”

Penny pulled out her BlackBerry. “I’ll start looking up numbers to roofing companies.”

Grace threw Penny a smile, grateful for the change in subject. She patted her father on the back. “Pop, why don’t you and Mami take Abuela home? Penny and I will stay here and come up with a plan.” She could see by the expression on his face that he wanted to stay and help. “You made me manager so you wouldn’t have to worry about stuff like this. I have it under control.”

“Grace is right, Charlie. Let her handle this,” said Mami. “Remember your blood pressure!”

Pop looked like he was about to bust an artery. “Okay, but I’m just a phone call away if you need me. And don’t forget to double check the lock on the doors when you close up.” Pop always told Grace to double check the locks. It was a habit he couldn’t seem to grow out of. Grace was used to it so she just nodded.

Mami shuffled Pop and Abuela out the door but not before Grace could grab the Santa hat from Abuela’s hand. “I think the hat looks fine the way it is. Maybe you can make the alligator something new for Valentine’s Day,” Grace suggested. She’d never been crazy about the Cupid costume Gator Claus was forced to wear. It looked too . . . feminine. And Gator Claus was definitely all male.

“There’s a roofer who can come out tomorrow. That is, if it’s not raining,” Penny said, punching numbers into her BlackBerry. “I’ll call a few more companies so we can get more estimates.”

“Thanks, Pen.” What would Grace do without Penny? “And when you’re finished with that, call up all the employees and tell them that tomorrow we’ll be open for business as usual.”

“But I thought your dad said we should close the store until the roof gets fixed.”

“I know what he said, but every day we’re closed is a drop in revenue. Don’t worry, I’ll handle Pop. I’m going to put up the alligator tooth display right where he wants it. He’ll be so happy he won’t care what I do.”

Penny looked doubtful, but she went back to looking up numbers in her BlackBerry. Grace walked Sarah and Ellen out to their cars. Ellen handed her the takeout boxes with their lunch.

“Thanks for rushing over here,” Grace said.

“Of course,” Sarah said. “I love Florida Charlie’s.”

Ellen nodded in agreement. “This place is special. It would be terrible if anything happened to the store.”

Grace stood under the porch area and watched as they drove off. It was still raining, although it appeared to be letting up some, so maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all. Grace repositioned the Santa hat back on Gator Claus’s head.

“The roses don’t mean anything, you know,” she said, strategically laying the pom-pom to land next to Gator Claus’s jawline. Somehow it made him look jollier this way. Less . . . reptilelike.

“He probably has an account at Benson’s the same way he has an account at Chez Louis. He probably gets roses on discount, he buys so many. Besides, it doesn’t matter. Nothing in this world is going to change my mind about Brandon Farrell, so he might as well be dead to me.”

Gator Claus’s expression turned smug.

“Don’t look at me like that or I might let Abuela have her way with you. You don’t know it, but you’re just a few yards of green felt away from becoming an elf.”

The smug look immediately disappeared.

Thursday at Florida Charlie’s was business as usual. Which meant it was slow in the morning, picked up around lunchtime, and then died down by late afternoon. The rain stopped and two roofing companies came out to give estimates. Both agreed nothing short of a new roof would fix the problem. One company offered to do a quick patch up job at a reasonable price, but they couldn’t guarantee how long it would last. Grace decided to consult Charlie before doing anything.

“Did Pop okay this?” Charlie asked, inspecting the makeshift rope-off job Grace had done around the Hemingway corner. Although it wasn’t raining anymore, she didn’t want to take a chance it would start up again.

“Have you had a chance to look over the store’s finances?” she countered.

“So Pop didn’t okay it. I hope you know what you’re doing. And no, I haven’t had a chance to look over the numbers yet. Work has been a bitch.”

“Tell me about it.”

“You don’t have to work here, you know. Pop would understand.”

“Right.”

Charlie had the grace to look embarrassed. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his tan trench coat. Underneath he wore a fancy looking gray wool suit. He looked every inch the successful attorney that he was, and Grace was proud of him. But at the same time, she couldn’t help but be envious. Charlie had had no problem telling their father that a career at Florida Charlie’s hadn’t been for him. So it had been up to Grace to come through. Felix was wrong when he’d said Grace hated working for her father. She didn’t hate it. She just didn’t love it. But if she didn’t work at Florida Charlie’s, what would she do?

“I’ll look over the figures tonight,” Charlie said.

“How’s the Phoebe situation?”

“There is no situation. I told you, it was no big deal. We talked. She was cool.”

Grace remembered the look on Phoebe’s face during dinner. If Charlie had been dessert, Phoebe would have gobbled him up in one bite.

“So what should I do about the roof?”

“Off the top of my head, I’d say get the quick patch-up done, then we’ll worry about getting a new roof later. I’ll look into the insurance policy but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t cover normal wear and tear.”

“Okay, that’s what I was thinking.”

As soon as Charlie left, Grace took off for her Thursday evening Zumba class.

Sarah met her at the entrance to the gym. “What are you going to do when you see Brandon?” she asked.

“Absolutely nothing. Just because Brandon Farrell sent me roses from Benson’s doesn’t mean anything.”

Sarah rolled her eyes.

“Okay, so maybe I’m a little nervous,” Grace admitted. But it was only because of the awkwardness of the situation.

In the end, her worrying was for nothing. Brandon never showed up to Zumba class, which only confirmed Grace’s opinion of him as a wuss. He could spend a hundred bucks on roses, but he was too much of a coward to face her in person.

It was better this way. Now she could go to Zumba class and not have to worry about what he might say to her or what she might say to him. Daytona Beach wasn’t a large city, but it was big enough that she could likely avoid him if she wanted to. Probably forever.

7

Hopelessly Attractive Men

It was the first official meeting of the boyfriend club. Besides the four of them, Ellen’s friend Janine was present, along with five other women who worked at the college, making a total of ten members. Ellen passed around her legal pad to get the new members’ e-mail addresses. They were meeting in the Hemingway corner, like they normally did. In the past, when the club had focused on books, the Hemingway corner had seemed inspirational. Strangely, even although the focus of the club was now men, it still seemed appropriate.

A roofing company had come out yesterday and done a patch-up job, so Grace wasn’t worried about the roof leaking if it should happen to rain again. Yesterday, as predicted, a cold front rolled in, dipping temperatures into the forties. For the first time this season, the heat was on in the store. Grace wore a leather skirt that fell to mid-thigh with her knee-length high-heeled boots and a black turtleneck. She’d pulled her hair back into a high ponytail, giving her a fun sort of retro sixties look. She hadn’t realized until she’d started getting dressed for the evening how much she was looking forward to tonight.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome all of you,” Grace began. “The purpose of this club is to educate and empower one another. Between us, we’ve probably dated a lot of eligible men here in town—”

“And some ineligible ones too!” a woman with curly red hair blurted.

Everyone laughed politely.

“Exactly,” Grace said. “For practical purposes, I think we should limit our discussions to one boyfriend per meeting. Two, if we have time. And afterward, we can go to Coco’s for drinks, because this should also be fun! Now, I suggest that we begin by going around the room and introducing ourselves.”

After they’d made their introductions, Ellen stood, her trusty legal pad in hand. “I’ll start with a recap from last week. I’ve already made a file for our first two reviews. Those members who join tonight can access them online once they accept the invitation I send out.” She cleared her throat and swept her gaze over the little group causing everyone to still. Grace had to admit, Ellen was good at working a room. “Our first review was Felix Barberi, aka Peter Pan.”