Gabrielle Demonico (18 page)

“
Bye Jessi, see you tonight.” Theo said as the exited the restaurant.

“
Bye…” she replied. Jessi was so excited by it all that she was unaware of Megan staring at her.

“
What’s
tonight?” Megan said in a suspicious tone.

“
Huh? Oh nothing…” Jessi said quickly.

“
Are you meeting up with them Jessi?” Megan asked.

“
Yes. Is there a problem with that?”

Megan moved in closer to her little sister and said, “
Jessi, you don’t even
know them.
”

“
So what? Besides Kim is going with us.” Jessi snapped.

“
I dunno. Mom would be pretty upset if she found out…”

She glared at Megan and said, “
Well,
Mom
isn’t going to find out. Right?”

“
Just be careful please.” Megan begged.

“
I will. I promise.” Jessi replied.

After her sister
’s veiled threat, warning or whatever it was, Jessi shifted gears and tried to get back to work as best she could. Even so, the rest of the workday seemed to move slower than a herd of snails traveling through peanut butter. Her mind kept torturing her with one question after another…

Did
they
ask her out?

If not, which
one
of them did?

Was she even being asked out
at all
?

Despite wracki
ng her brain for hours she couldn’t come up with a single conclusion that made any sense. Eventually she decided to stop worrying about it altogether. After all, she’d been itching for an adventure and maybe one had finally shown up.

It was
possible
.

Wasn
’t it?

***

Jessi and her ridiculously beautiful human friend Kim arrived at the Sidewinder Bar at around nine o’clock. During the week, the crowd here was tolerable but starting on Thursday and running through Saturday it was basically a meat market. Jessi loathed the scene but she figured she could make the sacrifice this once if it meant getting to see the brothers in a more relaxed setting.

“
ID…” said the enormous man at the front door. If ever there was a job so perfectly suited for someone it would have to be him - for this.

“
Yep…” Jessi replied.

The women jostled about in their purses for their driver
’s licenses. After a few seconds, Jessi pulled hers from her wallet and handed it to him.

But not Kim. Ohhh no, no way.

There were a lot of things to love about Kim but organization was not one of them. The dark haired beauty fumbled about in what was arguably the largest ‘purse’ Jessi had ever seen.

“
Sorry…” Kim said with a sheepish grin. “I know it’s in here somewhere.”

As Kim searched, the man shined a sm
all flashlight on Jessi’s license.

“
Okay.” He grumbled as he handed it back to her.

As Jessi stepped aside, Kim finally produced her identification and as she did exclaimed, “
Aha! Found it!”

Jessi just stared at her friend and shook her head slowly in disbelief.

The barrel chested man looked at it under the bright light and then handed it back to her. “Alright, have fun.” he said.

“
Thanks!” Kim chirped.

Moments later, the duo entered the bar and checked out the scene, hoping to spot a two top or maybe a booth somewhere. It was already pretty crowded and by the looks of things, it was going to be tough finding a spot.

Suddenly, Jessi felt Kim tap her on the shoulder. “Over there.” She said pointing to an open booth on the far side of the room. Jessi nodded and they hurried over to try and grab it. Arriving at the booth, the women slid into either side and after a few minutes, a waitress came by with menus and asked, “Just the two of you tonight?”

“
No. Two more will be joining us.” replied Jessi.

The waitress nodded and said, “
Okay. Would you like to wait for them to get here or would you like to get something now? A couple of drinks maybe?”

The girls looked
at each other for a moment and shrugged in unison. “Sure. Uhhmm, we’ll have some drinks.” Jessi answered.

“
Alright, all of our house cocktails are listed on the back along with our beer and wine selections. I’ll give you a few minutes to look it over.”

“
Thanks.” Jessi said.

After the waitress walked away, Kim leaned in and asked, “
What time were they supposed to meet you here?”

“
Ten.”

“
Oh, alright.”

Jessi wasn
’t much of a drinker so she decided on a fruity cocktail concoction. It sounded more like a dessert than a drink anyway. She placed her menu on the table and surveyed the landscape. It was about what she expected at the Sidewinder. Guys fueled by liquid courage taking their turns hitting one female after another. She knew that with Kim here, it wouldn’t take long before a few of them made their way to their table.

After a few minutes, the waitress returned and took the women
’s drink orders. She then asked, “Do you want me to leave the menus for the people that are coming?”

“
Yes please. Thank you.” Jessi said.

“
No problem.” The waitress replied as she turned and walked away.

“
It’s been a long time since I’ve been here.” Kim said as craned her neck around.

“
Yeah, me too. It hasn’t changed much from what I remember.”

“
True.” Kim replied.

About five minutes l
ater, the waitress reappeared with their drinks and as she sat them down on the table she said, “Your… uhh… drinks are compliments of the gentlemen at the bar.”

Ugh. Here we go.

She stepped aside for a moment and gestured in the direction of a fairly large group of men seated on the side of the bar closest to them. As they looked, the man in the middle of the group raised his glass in their direction and winked.

“
Oh dear… Uhhm, okay.” Jessi said.

“
Yeah, thanks.” Kim said.

The women smiled courteously and th
en Kim turned back towards Jessi and groaned, “
Yuck.
It’s never the cute ones you know?”

She nodded in feigned understanding. The truth was that Jessi didn
’t know what Kim meant at all. Men didn’t buy her drinks. But it wasn’t like she could explain that to Kim. As much as she loved her friend, she knew that Kim had long ago gotten fed up with Jessi’s self loathing.

Jessi knew that she was always going to wind up with someone of her own kind anyway. So in that respect her shape didn
’t matter. Well, it was more accurate to say that it didn’t matter to anyone but her. The truth was that for as long as she could remember it
had
bothered her.

Growing up, she was always envious of her human friends. She always thought it was a cruel joke when they complained abou
t being fat or not being able to lose weight. As much as she loved her family and
what
she was, it was the one thing that hurt her the most. She knew that no matter what she did, she would always be large.

Kim interrupted Jessi
’s train of thought and asked, “So what are they like? The brothers? Details, details…”

Jessi squinted a little and replied, “
Uhhm, it’s hard to explain…They aren’t like anyone in our town - either humans or bears.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Well, aside from their looks which are just…
yum
… there is something… I dunno…
mysterious
about them.”

Kim
’s eyes widened and she said, “Ahhhh, I see now… You like them don’t you?”

“
No!” Jessi fired back.

“
Jessi, I’ve known you since we were no taller than a redwood stump. Don’t lie to me.”

“
I’m not!” Jessi huffed.

“
Bullshit.” Kim scoffed.

“
It doesn’t make any difference anyway.” Jessi replied.

“
What doesn’t?”

“
Nothing…” Jessi said as her voice trailed off.

“
No, not this again Jessi.” Kim said sharply.

“
Not
what
again?”

“
Jessi, don’t play dumb. You know how I feel about you putting yourself down because of how you look.”

Jessi grimaced and replied, “
I didn’t say a word about
anything
Kim.”

“
Jessi… Look all I am saying is that you have so much to offer. You are a wonderful friend with a tender, loving heart. I just want you to be happy.”

Jessi paused for moment and let her friend
’s words sink in. Logically, she knew that what Kim said made sense but emotionally, the self defense walls she’d built up were just about too high for her to see over any longer. Anyway, she knew that there was no way to explain it to Kim that she could understand. Instead, she decided to try to get past it for the moment for Kim’s sake and replied, “I know. I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

Kim reached across the table, squeezed Jessi
’s hands in hers and said, “It’s okay. You
know
how much I love you don’t you?”

“
Yes. I love you too.”

Kim leaned in winked and said, “
Okay, so which one of the brothers do you want?”

“
Screw you!” Jessi replied sharply as she snatched her hands back.

Kim laughed out loud at her friend
’s shyness over the question. Deep down, Jessi knew that Kim was only teasing and after a few moments, a smile came across her face.

“
I hate you sometimes.” Jessi sighed.

“
I know.” Kim said with a laugh.

As Jessi shook her head, she leaned down to take a sip of her drink when suddenly she heard Kim say, “
Oh… Shit…”

Jessi looked up and asked, “
What?”

“
They’re coming over.”

“
Who is?” she turned her head to see what Kim was referencing. In a split second, she could see that indeed
they
were coming over.

“
The guys that bought us the drinks.” Kim exhaled.

Sure enough, the gang of four that had purchased their cocktails came over to try a
nd see if their gamble had paid off. As Jessi suspected, their interest was in Kim.

“
Evenin’ ladies…” said a large man in the center of the bunch. They all appeared to have come straight from work to the bar. By the looks of them, Jessi supposed that they were either loggers or ranch hands.

The women smiled but did not speak. Kim was about as close to being a professional at handling these situations as could be imagined. Jessi decided to follow her lead. A few seconds of awkward silence rolled by when the
same large man, who was the apparent leader of the bunch, stepped forward and said once more, “I’ll try that again.
Good evening ladies…
”

His attention was focused squarely at Kim but she was completely unaffected by the dourness of his speech. She shook h
er head slowly for a moment, then turned in his direction and said, “Look, thanks for the drinks but we’re really not interested. We’re here waiting for our friends to arrive.”

It seemed as though it took several seconds for the meaning of her words to per
meate his liquor-fueled awareness. Finally, he turned back towards his friends and said, “Hey boys, she’s not interested. I suppose that means we should just head back over with our tails between our legs.”

A mild cacophony of stilted laughter ensued among
st the lesser men.

Kim snapped back, “
Listen. I
said
thank you. Don’t be a dick about it okay?”

He turned back towards her and slammed his hands down on the table. “
Don’t you tell me what to do lady.”

Kim recoiled.

Jessi spoke up and said, “Hey jerk off, why don’t you just leave us alone. We can pay for our own drinks.”

He turned towards her and said, “
Pipe down
lardass… Who the hell do you think you’re talking to anyway?”