Boycotts and Barflies (8 page)

Grace looked over at Bianca, who had just entered the room, and did a double  take. “Honestly, you are the only person I know who could wear that outfit and  make it look so damn hot! He’s going to die when he sees you,” she laughed. “That’s the plan,” Bianca said as she winked and proceeded to check her red  mane one last time in the mirror.

Bianca elected to wear her Seahawks half shirt/jersey from the football game.  This time, however, she  wore nothing under it, exposing the tanned skin of her  flat, bare stomach. She went with a jean miniskirt that made her already  perfect legs look five feet longer. She finished the whole ensemble off with the  black patent leather heels she’d bought when sh e skipped out on her date  weeks ago.

“Let’s go have some fun,” Meg said excitedly as they grabbed their purses and  headed downstairs to the parking lot. With the music cranked up all the way,  Meg pulled into traffic and they sped downtown to The Vault. Vicki told them

that the guys were working the later shift again, but Grace wanted to get there  a little bit before Michael arrived so they had time to safely get out of sight and  set the plan in motion.

55

When they walked into the bar, Bianca immediately became the center of attention. Cheers of “Go Seahawks!” followed her through the club. Anyone else would have been embarrassed at all the attention. But for Bianca, it was like air. She took it all in and it made her happier, more confident. Halfway to the bar, Vicki spotted them. “Ladies, how nice to see you again. I have a table ready for you. Come on, let’s get you three upstairs and let the games begin!”

She led Grace and her friends to the same spot they’d had the night before.

The little red reserved sign was already on the table when they arrived. The girls ordered drinks and an appetizer to tide them over until the boys showed up for work. Grace’s stomach was doing flips, but she couldn’t tell if it was from

nerves or the fact that her pants were so tight, the blood wasn’t properly  flowing to the lower half of her body.

Tired of checking her watch, Meg wanted to go downstairs and dance for a few  songs to kill some time until the boys arrived. Grace and Bianca followed he r  lead and they stayed on the dance floor until Vicki texted Grace.

They’re here!

The three women slid through the huge crowd and made their way back to the  table. Grace sat down and dialed the phone number that Michael had given the  night before.

“Mama Rosa’s Pizza. Will this be for pickup or delivery?” a voice asked.

Grace had to plug her ear so she could hear over the loud music of the club. “Delivery, please.”

“Address?”

“Do you know a place called The Vault?”

“Sure do.”

“Well, I work there and we are h aving a party for the staff. I need ten large  pizzas with everything but anchovies on them. You can drop them off at the  bar. Ask for Michael, and have the delivery guy tell him Suzy called the order in  for him.”

While she was placing the order, Grace couldn’t help but look down at the bar where Michael was working feverishly to serve drinks. He looked incredible in a tight black T-shirt with The Vault logo across the chest and a pair of snug fitting jeans. His hair kept falling into his eyes as he bent down so his hand was

constantly raking it back off of his face. Even when he was busy, he managed to

56

have the most perfect smile on his face. Grace was watching him take a drink of  water from a glass behind the bar when she was abruptly snapped back into  reality.

“Hello? Miss? Are you there? It will be there in twenty-five minutes, and I asked  if you wanted your total.” The person on the phone was clearly irritated.

“Not really, Michael can worry about that, thanks!” Grace quickly clicked the  phone shut and smirked at Bianca and Meg. “Now, let’s see if he has a sense of  humor.”

All of the dancing earlier had made the girls hungry and thirsty, so they easily  finished off the appetizers and drinks they had ordered. Vicki came over a

short while later and joined them. “I’m on break, so I thought I’d hang out up  here with my girls and get a better view of things down below. Can I just tell  you that I’ve been looking forward to this all day? My boyfriend thinks your  plan is genius.”

The next ten minutes were spent listening to Vicki’s stories from working at

the bar over the past year. Some of them were so funny she had them howling  at the ridiculous things that happened at  The Vault.

“How much longer until the pizza gets here, Grace?” Bianca asked, glancing  down at the front door, sipping on her second margarita of the evening.

Grace quickly checked her watch. “About five minutes, if they’re running on  time.”

Meg went to the rail to watch Ryan again. She had been sneaking peeks at him since he walked in the door. Abruptly, she turned around, her mouth open in visible horror. “That bimbo is hitting on Ryan!” Her hands were firmly planted on her hips as jealousy washed over her face.

Vicki stood on her chair and looked for herself. “Don’t you worry; they don’t call me the fly swatter for nothing,” she laughed and gave Meg an encouraging nod before heading back down the stairs. Grace and Bianca joined Meg at the rail to watch Vicki in action.

She stormed over to where Ryan was talking to the bimbo, slammed her notebook onto the bar, and started waving her arms wildly. Grace couldn’t hear any of the conversation over the loud music, but by the look on the girl’s face —and Ryan’s for that matter—Vicki was playing the part of bitchy girlfriend perfectly.

Meg started laughing when the girl tried to leave so fast that she stumbled over her own feet, falling and spilling a drink on her shirt. The last thing they saw was her scurrying to the restroom, glaring back over her shoulder at Vicki.

57

Michael and Jack were both doubled over in laughter while Ryan just stood there, still a bit shocked. He threw his hands into the air at Vicki, wondering what the hell that was all about, when Grace’s attention was pulled away by a guy in a bright purple jacket carrying a tall stack of boxes. As he moved through the club, he would occasionally disappear into the crowd, but the pile of pizzas stayed ever visible. He move d closer to the bar and Grace held her breath, waiting for their reaction.

Ryan and Vicki were still in the middle of a heated conversation when the delivery guy set the pizzas on the bar and pulled out a long strip of paper, no doubt with Michael’s name o n it, and the total for the order. Jack walked up and asked the guy something, then pointed to Michael who was busy pouring a drink. Jack must have called Michael’s name because his head snapped up and his eyes got big when he saw the huge pile of pizzas sitting on the bar. Slowly, he walked over and started talking to the delivery guy.

Vicki saw the pizzas and looked up in the girl’s direction and laughed, but then quickly covered her mouth with her hand so no one noticed. Grace looked back at Michael who  was now shaking his head no over and over again. The delivery guy leaned over and showed Michael the piece of paper and whatever he said made Jack and Ryan explode into laughter. Vicki ran her fingers through her hair and when her hand was hidden beside her head, she flashed the girls a big thumbs-up.

Mission accomplished.

Meg, Bianca, and Grace started laughing as Michael threw up his hands in frustration and pulled out his wallet, tossing the guy a wad of cash. The delivery guy looked like he was apologizing, but Michael had already walked over to the pizzas and shook his head, probably wondering what the heck to do with them.

Ryan and Jack seemed thrilled by the whole situation. They threw open a box and began happily eating. Michael stood there, rubbing  the back of his neck over and over again in obvious anger.

“He’s so cute when he’s frustrated,” Bianca whispered to Grace.

“Yeah, he is cute, isn’t he?” Grace’s eyes were following Michael as he started moving the boxes of pizza off the bar top one by one  and onto a nearby table.

He looked inside the first one then made a face. He moved on to the second and made another face. After looking in the third box and rolling his eyes, he sulked away, apparently not a fan of pizza with ‘the works.’

y

58

Onions. Why did it have to have onions? Michael asked himself as he shook his head in disgust. He looked over at Jack and Ryan who were thoroughly enjoying the little gift from the elusive Suzy.

Does this mean she likes me or hates me? Michael asked himself. I gave the

stupid number last night to Vicki … She was the one who asked for it and

mentioned Suzy.

Michael saw Vicki looking up to her area of tables upstairs and she was …

laughing? “Vic!” he cal ed sharply. She turned to face him and immediately

wiped the smile off her face, trying to play dumb.

“That was really nice of you to get pizza for everyone.” The twinkle in her eyes

gave her away.

“Anything you want to tell me? I know you’re up to your eyeballs in this.

Trying to teach me a lesson or something?” Michael pointed a thumb at the

pizzas. “Did I do something to piss you off?”

“Me? No. I swear. I didn’t make the call.”

“But you know who did …”

She shifted her feet as Michael watched her intently, picking up on  the tension  in her body language and the guilty look on her face.

“Maybe I have an idea,” she mumbled, then nervously glanced up to her serving  area with a smirk on her face.

That’s when it hit Michael. “She’s here, isn’t she!”

It all made sense. She’d been here yesterday—Suzy. She’d sent Vicki for the  number and she decided to teach him a lesson about giving out a fake phone  number to girls. When Michael turned back to Vicki, she had taken off like a bat  out of hell up the stairs to her tables.

“Jack, Ryan, I need to take a quick break!” Michael shouted down the bar to his  friends, as they continued stuffing their faces with pizza.

“Wait, where are you going, Michael?” Jack asked.

Michael wanted to chase after Vicki and find Suzy, but first he needed to

explain to his friends why he was ditching them behind the bar. “Suzy’s here.

I think Vicki has made a new friend. I need to run upstairs and see for myself if

it’s her. I’ll be right back.”

y

The women had watched helplessly from above as Michael went over to Vicki

and started waving his hands furiously at the pizza. “Uh - oh. This can’t be good,”

Meg said as she tapped her fingernails on the handrail.

59

The girls exchanged anxious glances and quickly sat down. They tried to peer through the bars of the rail to get an idea of what was going on, but when they looked back at the bar, Vicki was gone.

“Where did she go?” Bianca asked, trying to get a better look down at the floor level. All of a sudden, Vicki ran over to the table.

“Our cover’s blown! He saw me laughing and looking up here; he knows  something’s up. He’s coming up to my section of tables to look for ‘Suzy.’ Run,  ladies, run!”

Faster than Grace ever thought possible in three inch heels, they leapt out of  their chairs and hurried down the set of stairs that were farthest away from  the bar but led down to the dance floor. There were tons of people packing the  floor so they assumed they’d be safe and almost impossible to find.

By the time Michael made it upstairs, Vicki was calmly helping a table in the  corner, but he could feel her watching his every move. He scanned the room:  two old guys, some older women, and a bachelorette party. Those were her  only tables, and no Suzy in sight. As Michael was about to go back downstairs,  he noticed one empty table with a reserved sign on it. They hardly ever used  those; only for special occasions. Vicki saw Michael walking toward that table  and ran over to intercept him.

“Michael, don’t spoil their fun. You’ll see her when she wants you to. And trust

me—she wants you to see her. Go back to work.” She gave him a playful shove,

and then walked away.

He went to the rail near the reserved table and looked down at the bar. Jack

and Ryan looked up trying to get an indication if he’d found her, but Michael

just shrugged and threw up his empty hands.

y

While the girls were dancing, they each took a post to watch. Meg kept an eye  on the bar, so she could tell when Michael went back to work … and keep an  eye on Ryan at the same time. Bianca watched the staircase in case he decided  to search the dance floor, and Grace kept her eyes fixed on the railing near  where they had been sitting, the scene of the crime.

After their narrow escape from Michael, Grace saw him lean over the rail very close to where their table was located and begin looking down at the dance floor. Thankful y, they were across the room where the lighting wasn’t the greatest 60

so he wouldn’t be able to see them. Still, Grace ducked her head down, letting  the long waves of her hair fall over her face to hide, just in case. He didn’t look  nearly as mad as Grace had thought he might after her little prank.