Inky Read online

  “Yes.” I said. That’s what happened. I wasn’t gonna lie about it, although I hadn’t planned on telling him. Evan wasn’t normally a jealous kind of guy but he might feel differently had he witnessed what happened.

  “Do you know what song it was?” he asked, taking the carafe from the coffee maker.

  “He said his Mom used to sing it to him. I didn’t recognize it.”

  “That’s too bad.” He said as he poured Lisa and me a cup of coffee.

  “Why?” Lisa asked.

  “Because it would be a good thing for me to know if you ever have another one. He’s not always gonna be around, but I will.” He handed Lisa her mug and wrapped me in his arms. Well, fuck me, it’s another glorious day in the arms of my man. That could’ve gone so differently.

  “I love you, Evan.” I said tipping my head back.

  “I know, baby.” He smiled.

  “Aimes is usually up by now. She must’ve had an even longer night than we did.” I stated.

  “Wow, Ink, you really are a heavy sleeper.” Evan laughed under his breath. It wasn’t long until I heard the last door open and a man, who can only be best described as a jar-head, swaggered into our kitchen.

  “Um, good morning everybody.” Our resident Marine said hesitantly.

  “Good morning, Gus. I guess you did get a chance to chat with Aimes,” I said smiling.

  “Shut up, Ink.” She pretended to be pissed off at me but not only could I hear it in her voice, I could see her grinning as she poured coffee for her and Gus. “Come on, Gus. Let’s enjoy these in my room.” No one said a word until we heard the door to Aimes’ room close again.

  Evan was the first one of us to speak, “I have to say, I really didn’t see that coming.”

  Apparently, Lisa had the inside information. “I overheard them talking last night and…”

  “Jesus, Lisa” I said. “Maybe we should let Aimes tell it.”

  “God, Ink, you’re no fun. Anyway…” she continued, leaning over the counter and speaking mostly to Evan. For someone as tight lipped about her own love life as she was, she gossiped about everyone else’s with glee. “He apparently only joined the Marines so he could get away from his parents’ farm. Oh, and he’d never seen the ocean before. He hadn’t planned on staying that long but when his tour was over, his wife asked him if they could stay here. He was already trained in aeronautics so he could’ve left California and gone anywhere. He wanted to go back home for a while. According to Gus, she was already having a relationship with that other guy by then. She’d been seeing him the entire time Gus was in Iraq.”

  “Wow, poor Gus.” Now I felt even guiltier for ever judging him and for listening to bar gossip. I should’ve known better. But Gus had already told me he and his wife had been finished for a long time.

  “Well, he’s rid of her now.” Lisa added. It seemed like she was trying to be sweet about the plight of Gus and his broken marriage. That’s what I thought anyway, until she spoke again. “I just hope Aimes doesn’t break his heart.”

  “What makes you think she would do that?” I asked. I felt my hackles rise. Lisa was a good friend but Aimes was my best and oldest friend. I knew her better than anyone so I immediately felt like I had to defend her.

  “Oh, come on, Ink, she’s never been serious about anyone. She’s happy being her slutty self, no strings attached, love ‘em and leave ‘em. ‘See ya later, Sailor!’ I kind of envy her. I could never do that. I’d feel…dirty or something.”

  She did not just say that.

  Every inch of me was starting to heat in anger. Evan squeezed my hand, “Come on, baby. Let’s go get ready for the day.” He led me into my bedroom and shut the door behind us, “Just ignore her.” He said. “I think she’s having a hard time with you guys both having a significant other. She probably just feels left out.”

  “Did she say that to you?”

  “Not in so many words, but you can just tell. Wouldn’t you feel a little left out?” I knew he was right but I didn’t want her talking about Aimes like that.

  “You’re right. I suppose if I was surrounded by all this lovey-dovey-ness I would be a little put out too. Maybe I should go talk to her.”

  “Nah, just let it go. She’ll be fine. She’s just…adjusting, baby.” He came toward me and put his arms out to invite me into them. I, of course, complied. “Just give her some time. She’ll come around.”

  ***

  An hour later, Evan left to hang out with his roommates. I sat on the floor with a huge art pad and charcoal in a bowl. I looked down at the empty page and made the decision not to take Evan’s advice and give Lisa time. When the sloshing feeling of a stomach filled with only coffee hit me, I decided to stop brooding, holed up in my room and face her. I was certain that Aimes and Gus had gone out for the day, since she didn’t have to be in until six that night. My shift began at four, giving me plenty of time to clear the air with Lisa.

  Lisa sat in the kitchen, reading a book for her accounting class. I was actually surprised she wasn’t some sort of CEO by now. She understood the ins and outs of the business world. I heard her throw around words like, ‘NASDAQ’ during conversations with customers. Personal relationships however…not her strong suit. Whatever she ended up doing, she was going to be a piranha. I was nervous around her now. I noticed she’d been making bitchy comments here and there so something was definitely bothering her.

  I stood up, opened the door and made my way toward the kitchen.

  “Hey, Lisa. You gotta minute?”

  “Yep. What’s up?” Her bright blue eyes darted at me as she placed a pen in her book as a page marker.

  “I just, I wondered if everything’s okay with you. You just seem a little…” I thought I’d let that hang out there for a second and see if she had anything to add.

  “Pissed?” She returned.

  “Yeah, a little bit.” I said quietly. I really hated confrontation. This was mostly due to the fact I was able to hold it together for only so long until I blew my top.

  “Look, everyone is all lah-lah happy and I get it. It’s wonderful. I’m really happy for you and Evan and Aimes and Gus but dude, what the fuck happened with that guy yesterday, Ink?”

  So this has nothing to do with Lisa and everything to do with me? Great.

  “What was that all about?” She asked, more like demanded. Again, not at all what I was expecting.

  “I really have no idea what you’re talking about, Lisa.”

  “I think you do. You would never let a customer touch you like that. I’ve never seen you even hug a customer. I have a pretty good idea why you’re not big on being touched like that. But then this strange guy comes along, not a regular, not even an acquaintance, and he’s holding your hands and singing to you and you don’t even flinch? You don’t think that’s weird?”

  “Well, I guess I didn’t give it much thought. Maybe it doesn’t bother me like it used to. Why is this bugging you so much?”

  “Because you’re engaged,” she stressed. “The little thing with that guy was not okay, not for you and if Evan had seen it, I don’t think he would’ve been cool with it either.”

  “Is that why you ratted me out to him?” My voice becoming more terse. “I didn’t hide anything from him, Lisa. I wasn’t sneaking around. I was right there in the bar where everyone could see and, by the way, when it was happening I didn’t really have it in me to stop and say, ‘hey, ya think you not help me while I hyperventilate?’ I’ve wanted to be with Evan for years. I waited to be his and watched him fuck every other girl around me. You think I would screw that up for some guy I don’t know who happened to help me? Help I didn’t ask for? You know me better than that, Lisa. I’m not some helpless little broken bird. I’m not that girl.” I felt my shoulders rising up and down, trying to wrap my head around what felt like an attack from Lisa.

  “Look” she made her voice more level, attempting to diffuse the situation, “calm down, Ink. I just think you need to ask y
ourself why you reacted the way you did to him, because that guy left this for you.” She handed me an envelope.

  “What is it?” I asked calmly. “I know you read whatever’s in here so what is it?”

  “His name is Cole by the way. He just said if you ever need him, to call him and made sure to add that in case you lost his number, he put another business card in there.”

  Oh, fuck, I forgot about that. The business card and the c-note. That’s why she was suspicious. Deep breath, Ink.

  “Lisa, I know you and Evan are friends, good friends and I assure you I would never do anything that would screw up my future with him. Not ever. I forgot about his card. He left it with his tip and I never gave it a second thought. Is that what’s been bugging you? Really?”

  “Well, kind of. But it’s not important. I’m just trying to look out for you and Evan and Aimes. Maybe I’m just a little jealous, that’s all.” She looked away, over me. I knew there was more to it, something she wasn’t telling me but as usual, I would not be getting anything more from her.

  “I’m sorry I snapped at you, Lisa. You’re beautiful, you know? You could have any man that walked into the bar, or anywhere. You have that thing about you that most girls would kill for. The brain, the body, the legs. If you weren’t my friend, I’d hate you for how beautiful you are with no effort on your part at all. Do you not know that?”

  “I guess. But that’s not what I want.” She said, still gazing beyond me.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “I’m working on that. We’ll see if it works out.”

  “Well, if you need me, I’m not going anywhere and neither is Aimes. Unless you’re not cool with Evan and me being here. But, just tell me, okay? I don’t want that tension between us.” I suddenly remembered I needed to say something in support of Aimes too. “And do you think you could give Aimes a break? It’s different with Gus. I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more of him around here.”

  “No probs.”

  “I better get ready. I have to be at work in an hour. See you there?”

  “See you there, Ink. And sorry about before. Just forget I said anything at all. I misunderstood.” This time she looked me in the face.

  “You don’t need to apologize, Lisa. I get it. I’ll see you there.”

  “See you soon, Inky.” She called as I made my way once more to my room. I closed the door behind me and looked around. I was looking forward to drawing today. I purposefully told Evan to hang out with his roommates so I could have some time to myself. Now I felt a weight on my shoulders. I didn’t feel any better since Lisa and I spoke and my alone time had been fruitless in the creativity department. Unfortunately I didn’t have the luxury of wasting any more time or I’d be late for work.

  Chapter 5

  A couple of hours later, I was stocking extra bottles of beer into the ice. With the weather warming up, we drew in the tourists now too. The locals, the tourists and the Marines all made for an interesting mix. It certainly made the night go faster. I told Jesus I was going out back for a few minutes and made my way toward the break room.

  I grabbed my purse and went into the bathroom, reapplying lipstick and smoothing my hair back into a tidy ponytail.

  “Inky, you in there?” I heard Evan from the hallway.

  “Be right out.” I shouted and smiled into the mirror at the sound of his voice.

  I opened the door to his smiling face as he leaned against the brick wall of the hallway. “Hey, beautiful. How was everything after I left?”

  “Oh, well…” I hesitated.

  “What did you do, Inky?” He asked with a small smile.

  “I decided not to let it go. Sorry, baby. Lisa and I had a chat.”

  His brows knitted together. “What did you talk about?”

  “My bad fiancé behavior. She thought it was weird I didn’t freak out when that customer tried to help me. She was really pissed about it.”

  “Did she explain why?” He asked.

  I didn’t want to talk about this before I started my shift, especially if he reacted the same way as Lisa. I would have to spend the next seven hours or so watching him brood about it.

  “Well…” I hesitated.

  “Just spit it out, Ink.” He wasn’t mad, not yet anyway so I decided to rip off the Band-Aid and just tell him.

  “She was pissed because that customer left me his card. That combined with him holding my hands and singing to calm me down, well, she had a problem with that. It’s not the first time a male customer has left their card for me. I think she thought there was more to it than that but I assured her there wasn’t. I hope you don’t think I would ever encourage another guy, Evan. I waited too long for the love of my life to love me back. I can’t believe she would even think that about me knowing our history.”

  I kept my eyes fixed on his shirt while I explained.

  He took my hand and lifted it to his lips. “Inky.” I heard the smile in his voice as he kissed my fingers. “I would never think that, baby. Don’t worry about Lisa.”

  “I was worried you were gonna be mad.” I said.

  “Because some guy gave you his card? Big deal. It sounds like I need to thank him for taking care of you when you needed it.”

  “Full disclosure…he did sing to me though. We shared a ‘moment’ I guess but it was not only something I didn’t invite or ask for, once that panic attack hit me, Evan…I couldn’t have stopped him if I wanted to.”

  “Inky, you don’t have to explain. I trust you.” He kissed my hand again and slowly put it back to my side. “You better get out there. It was starting to pick up when I came back to find you.”

  “Thanks for being so cool, Evan.” I punched in the code and Evan held open the break room door while I put my purse into a locker and closed it.

  “It’ll be fine, baby. Don’t worry about it, okay?” He pulled me in for a quick kiss as the door closed behind us and went out front.

  ***

  I was happy about two things: The night did go quickly and Lisa was totally cool, like nothing ever happened. Because we were busier than usual, Rusty asked if I could stay longer which was just as well; Ten minutes before last call, I noticed Lisa wasn’t feeling the best.

  She was moving slowly and stopped, crouched in front of the cleaning supplies under the sink.

  “You alright?” I asked.

  “No” She said weakly. “I think I’m coming down with something.”

  “Why don’t you go home? Aimes and I can close up. Just cash out and I’ll do everything else, okay?”

  “I can wait. I didn’t drive anyway. I’ll wait until you and Evan or Aimes and Gus leave. I can last another hour.” She stood up, taking her time.

  “No, Lisa, it’s cool. You’re sick. It’s slowed way down, we already announced last calls for alcohol. Hang on a minute.” I saw Evan shake hands with his roommate, Josh. He said goodbye to him and headed in our direction. I could’ve asked Gus who had camped at Aimes’ section of the bar all night, but I figured they’d want to be alone as soon as possible.

  “Hey baby, what’s going on?” He sauntered over.

  “Can you do me a favor?” I asked.

  “Anything. What can I do for you?” He winked at me.

  “Nothing like that. Well, later. Later, something like that. Can you take Lisa home? She’s sick.” His smiling face turned to concern. My man was a nice guy.

  “No problem.” He leaned in close and said quietly, “Maybe she’ll tell me what’s going on in her love life.”

  “Maybe. Hang here. She’s just taking her drawer back to Rusty and she’ll be out.” I went to find her out the back. When I saw her in the break room, she was holding her head in her hands. “Hey, Evan said he’ll take you now if you want.”

  “Really? That would be great. I’m fading fast over here.”

  “He’s waiting at the bar when you’re ready.” I gave her a sympathetic smile and went back out the front.

  �
�I’m ready.” She appeared a short time later. “See you when you get home, Ink. Thanks for asking him.”

  “Hope you feel better.” Evan blew me a kiss as they walked away. I turned to go back to finish my cleaning and serve the remaining patrons. I thought she’d already gone but Lisa was still standing there.

  “Hey Ink?” She asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Sorry I was a bitch this morning. I shouldn’t have doubted you.” As cold and no-nonsense as she could sometimes be, her apology was warm and sincere.

  “It’s okay, Lisa. I understand.” Ours eyes met for a beat before she turned and followed Evan out the backdoor.

  ***

  I finished cleaning her part of the bar. Rusty’s was a pretty big place. The bar had three of everything: three registers, three sinks, three fridges, three sets of taps. We each had our own set of basic spirits: gin, vodka, rum, whiskey and tequila. The only thing we shared was the top shelf liquor but we rarely were under each other’s toes.

  I was closest to the door and hadn’t noticed a man in a suit sitting there.

  “Hey, sorry I didn’t see you. We already announced last call but I think we can swing one more drink. What can I get you?”

  “I’ll take a gin and tonic.” His voice slithered like a snake crawling up my spine and moving back down again.

  “Coming right up.”

  I set his drink down, trying not to show my nervousness or make eye contact.

  “Aren’t you Marla’s girl?” My heart jumped right into my throat. When he spoke again, I knew it was him.

  “Sorry, you must have me mixed up with someone else.” I said as calmly as possible.

  “I’d know those grey eyes anywhere. You’re Annie.”

  “Sorry sir. I must have one of those familiar faces.”

  He wasn’t buying it.

  It had been years, but I would never forget him. If I didn’t hate him with every fiber of my being, he might have been attractive but he was pure evil. I could never quite place his ethnicity but he had a slight accent. I assumed he was Italian since he sometimes called me his ‘Serena.’ He had black, slicked back hair with a receding hairline, black eyes and was now sporting a goatee that made him look even more like Satan himself.