Got the Life (A Nicki Sosebee Novel) (14 page)

“Mr. Baker, I’d like to interview you regarding the Jason Edwards case.”

“Look, ma’am, I realize you’re just doing your job, but I’ve really had enough of the drama your town has brought me.  Oh, uh, that’s off the record.  If you want to quote anything from me, it can be ‘no comment.’  No offense, but I’ve had enough.”

Nicki was not surprised. 
“None taken.  Thank you for your time.”

Man, if she couldn’t get Melissa Jacobs to agree to an interview, she was back at square one.  She’d have to wait f
or Edwards’s trial or until the authorities
found Michael Sterne.  She
had no choice but
to sit in court tomorrow morning and hope for another promising story.

By the end of the evening, she’d had all the girl time she could stand.  She liked helping women make themselves look pretty, but so many questions and hesitations about what to buy and how much to spend wore her out.  All told, though, she earned about seventy dollars net on Sheri’s five friends, and Sheri scored a thirty-percent discount herself.  And, if these women were anything like the women from previous facial parties, at least two of them would also become loyal customers in the future.  So it was worth the time.

The next morning,
Nicki
sat in court and struck out.  She was getting discouraged.  That afternoon, though, she called Melissa Jacobs again.  When the woman answered the phone, Nicki reintroduced herself.  “Is there any way you would consider an interview?”

The woman hesitated but said, “Okay.  You can come over to my house tomorrow.  How about eleven?”

Nicki would have cheered out loud if it wouldn’t have made her seem unprofessional and then cause her to lose the interview.  “That sounds great, Ms. Jacobs.”  The woman gave Nicki her address and Nicki recorded it in her steno book.  Yes!

She started to dial Sean’s number and then hesitated.  Damn it.  It was just like the aftermath of The Night.  There was an awkwardness between them again, and she
felt
like she could
n’t
call him or go by and see him when something
cool happened like
she
used to
.  Part of her wanted to just decide that was it, that there was nothing to save there, but she really couldn’t bear the thought of Sean not being in her life at all.

Maybe tomorrow she’d just go over to his garage and try to break the ice.  Somehow.

Chapter Sixteen

SEAN TOOK THE
pressure off Nicki himself.  That evening, Sean and two of his close male friends showed up at
Napoli
and request
ed
Nicki as their waitress.  When Mandy told her she had a table of three (and had neglected to tell her they’d specifically requested Nicki as their waitress), she was surprised to see them.

This particular Tuesday night was slower than usual, so Nicki
didn’t have to make the table wait.  She came out of the server area and didn’t quite know w
hat to think when she saw Jesse
, Sean’s friend si
nce middle school, and Travis, one of his
biker friend
s
, one he’d hit it off with shortly after opening his business.

She spotted
Jesse
at her table first as he was facing her
and then
she saw
Travis, because she could see him in profile
, but Sean
’s back
was
to her.  It didn’t take her much time to figure out who
he was when she saw
Jesse
and Travis
, but she would have recognized Sean anywhere. 
Except
instead of wearing his hair slicked back like he did a lot of times, he was wearing it loose.  She hadn’t seen him wear it that way in a long time, so she was curious to see
how he looked up close
.

More than that, though, she thought as each footstep brought her closer to their table, what did it mean that he and his friends came to Nicki’s turf? 
It was already apparent to her that they’d asked for Nicki to be their waitress, so what did it mean?  Why were they there? 
Well,
stupid
, it didn’t mean a goddamn thing.  It wasn’t the first time Sean had been to
Napoli
, nor was it the first time he’d requested Nicki as a waitress.  In fact, just a few months ago, it had been with Kayla. 
Get over it.

And
be cool.
  She got to their table, her waitress smile on her face.  “What a pleasant surprise.  Good to see you guys.  Are you thirsty?”

Travis
grinned.  He had hair that was black as a raven
and
emerald green eyes.  The guy was an ass, as far as Nicki was concerned, but he was easy on the eyes.  He was the most heavily tattooed of the three at the table, and he wore a sleeveless shirt to show them off.  “Have you been outside lately?  I’d say me and the boys are dehydrated.”

“Then pick your poison.”

Sean spoke up.  “We’ll get a pitcher. 
Coors all right
, guys?”

“Yep.”  Travis looked up from the menu again.  “Just keep it comin’.”

Nicki smiled.  “I think I can do that.  Any appetizers?”

Jesse finally joined the conversation. 
“Why don’t we get some of that garlic bread with mozzarella?  That’s pretty killer.”
  Jesse and Nicki had always gotten along, even during that awkward period in high school when he kept hitting on her in spite of the fact that she had a
steady
boyfriend.  But Sean took care of that.  Jesse wasn’t a bad-looking guy—brown hair, brown eyes, with a similar build and stature to Sean.  He wasn’t as concerned about his looks as Sean, though—he seemed more laid back about it.  He had a couple of tats on his arms, a couple of ear piercings, and an eyebrow piercing that Nicki had told him was a great move right after he’d had it done.

Sean and Travis nodded.  “Okay.  I’ll get the kitchen on that, and I’ll be right back with your beer.”

As she stepped away from the table, she breathed a sigh of relief.  She’d done it and not freaked out.  But her hands started shaking, some weird
after-
adrenaline rush surging through her veins.  And she knew why.  Jesus, it was like Sean was a fucking
male
model.  His hair was perfectly tousled
, touching his eyebrows
without hanging in and covering up
his eyes
.
 
Très
sexy.
  How did he do that?  How did he manage to up the hot factor every time she saw him?

She punched in the order for the chees
e bread, then went to the bar.

Only tonight she was stuck with the lame bartender.  Nicki didn’t mind getting her own drinks, but it pissed her off when it wasn’t necessary.  Tonight Amy was the bartender and she was sitting on the customer side of the bar flirting with the one guy there, watching the big screen TV on the wall with him.  Nicki pulled a pitcher out of the freezer, noting that the poor guy didn’t seem to be enjoying her company.  Unfortunately
for him
, Nicki didn’t want to waste time helping
to extricate
him
from Amy’
s verb
al clutches
.

Amy noticed Nicki.  “Hey, I can get that.”
  And…how long would Nicki have to wait?  No thanks.

“No worries.  I got it.”  If Nicki were slammed with tables, she would have insisted.

“Suit yourself.”  Amy turned her attention back to the customer.  That was
not
what they meant by customer service, but she wasn’t Amy’s boss.
  And she didn’t want to be.  She saw the shit the supervisors had to put up with here, and she wanted no part of it.  But the crappy supervisors allowed people like Amy to get away with murder.
 
And in spite of supervisors,
Nicki had learned over the years that there were a variety of people she would always be stuck working with: 
slackers
who only did the least amount of work they could get away with (Amy was half slacker);
reverse golden rulers
who asked what was in it for them (this was Amy’s other half), as though their paycheck wasn’t enough;
Nazis
who wanted things done one way and one way only, even if there were multiple ways to do a particular job; and
whiners
who would do their job but complain about how hard it was.  No matter where she’d worked, she always had to deal with these personalities.  The customers were easy; the coworkers were not.  And the less she had to deal with the slackers, reverse golden rulers, Nazis, and whiners, the better.  So she poured the beer herself.

When she got back to their table, Sean, Travis, and Jesse’s menus were closed, indicating to Nicki that they were ready to put in their pizza order.  As she slid the tray on the table to pour them their first beers, she asked, “Did you guys already hear the specials or do you even care?”

She handed the first
glass of
beer
she poured
to Travis, since he was seated the farthest away, then Jesse to her left and Sean to her right.

“No, we’re ready to order.”  Sean looked up at Nicki, his eyes and smile relaxed.  He seemed
different
.
  His hair, maybe?

“Shoot.”

“We’re gonna have a large double pepperoni
.”

“Thick or thin?”

Sean raised his eyebrows and looked over at the other two.  Jesse said, “Thick.”

Sean nodded and handed the menu to Nicki.  She took the other menus as we
ll.  “I’ll get that out as soon as it’s ready
.”

And then business picked up.  She didn’t have time to talk much, but she brought out their appetizer and then their pizza, followed shortly by another
pitcher of
beer.  As the evening
wound
down, they asked for
yet
another pitcher and had her box up the last two slices of pizza.  But they stayed, nursing one pitcher of beer after another.  They started getting a little louder but not rowdy.  Finally, they were the only table left in Nicki’s section, and she and the other two waitresses had finished almost all their closing duties except for the floor, which had to wait until all customers were gone.

Since everything was done, Nicki decided she could spend some time with Sean and his friends.  “How’s everything, guys?”

They were all feeling good, had just finished a good laugh, and all had wide smiles on their faces.  “Great.”

Sean asked, “Are we keeping you from getting your stuff done?”

“Nope.  You can stay here till ten, and then I’ll kick your asses out.”

All three laughed.  Oh, yeah, they were feeling pretty
damned
good.  Jesse asked, “What time is it?”

“It’s about nine-thirty
.  You still have time.”

“Should we get one more?”

Sean waved his hand close to the table.  “No.  I’m good.”

“Me too.”  Travis picked up the pitcher.  “Besides, there’s still a little left.”

Jesse held out his glass.  “Then it’s mine.”  While Travis poured the remaining beer in his glass, Jesse looked back up at Nicki.  “Why don’t you join us for a little bit?”

It was tempting.  She didn’t usually sit down with customers, but it was dead and there was nothing left to do.  And God knew where the other waitresses were.  Probably smoking behind the restaurant.  And if any customers came in, she could stand and take care of them before they even realized she’d been sitting down.  “Okay.”
  She pulled out the chair and sat.  “So what are you guys up to tonight?”

Sean wasted no time answering.  “Just hanging out.”

“Ah, a little guy time and here I am messing all that up.”

Jesse slammed his glass down.  He might have been a little drunk, but he managed to play sober well…except for slamming the glass.  “We invited you.  I’d ask if you wanted a drink, but…”

Nicki smiled.  “I can’t drink on the job anyway.”

Sean said, “I told the guys about your front-page article.”

Nicki felt her cheeks grow warm.  “I’m pretty proud of that.”  Jesse shifted in his chair and his knee started digging into the outside of her thigh by her knee.  She scootched the chair over a little to break the contact.

Travis said, “Yeah, I saw that article and read it
,
but I guess I didn’t catch that you
were the one who
wrote it.  This was your first one?”

“Yep.
  Well, first time on the front page.
”  There was Jesse’s knee again.  What the fuck?  She got ready to move her chair over again
and give him a dirty look
but
turned her face to him first
.  He had a shit-eating grin on his face; he was
fucking
with her
—actually,
flirting
might be a better way to describe it
.  But to what end?  So instead of moving her chair, Nicki playfully pushed his knee off
her leg
by pushing her leg against his with force.  They smiled at each other
and he winked at her
.