On the Rocks (19 page)

“It’s been interesting, that much I can tell you,” I joked. “Anyway, I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I’ll get through the wedding, and hopefully I’ll be able to locate the normal emotions that I should be feeling and actually find myself happy for her. But enough about me. How long have you been married?” I asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from myself and my demons and give Lara an opportunity to open up.

“Three years,” she said as she spun her watch around her impossibly thin wrist. I realized that I never really saw Lara eat anything, not that I didn’t snack enough for both of us. Still, it wouldn’t kill her to knock back a milkshake, or six.

“That’s great, I’m jealous. I’d love to meet him. Will he be down here this weekend? He should swing by and say hello.” I knew I was in dangerous territory. Lara never mentioned her husband, and while I had no idea what was going on with her marriage, I didn’t want her to feel like I was prying. Still, it was strange to pretend I didn’t notice, or worse, to have her think I didn’t care.

She sighed and waved me off. “No. He doesn’t come down here on the weekends. He works a ton, so he’s staying in Boston for the summer. I used to joke that he was cheating on me with his job. All work and no play,” she said as she once again fidgeted with her rings. She spun them so frequently I wondered if she had left a permanent groove in her skin. I figured maybe her husband was busy, not that he was living in another state. What kind of married woman lived apart from her husband for an entire summer? The obvious answer was, an unhappy one.

“So do you have any plans for the Fourth?” I asked, trying to turn the conversation back to neutral ground and finally beginning to understand why Lara was so eager to listen to me complain about my personal life––it distracted her from her own.

“No, I’m not doing anything special. I’ll watch the fireworks on TV at home. What about you?”

“My friends and I are going to some party down on the beach. Why don’t you come with us? It’s silly for you to watch the fireworks on the news when they’ll be setting some off a few blocks away. Come on, they’re nice people, you’ll like them.” I didn’t know who Lara spent her downtime with, but I was becoming more and more suspicious that when she wasn’t at the store she was home alone, or with her parents, and I wanted her to feel like she had friends in town. I wanted her to know that whatever was going on, she didn’t have to go through it by herself.

Lara hesitated a moment before she answered, as if she was afraid to commit to anything, even a party on the beach. “Maybe I’ll join you. Are you sure that’d be okay?”

“Definitely. It will be fun. It’s hard to believe June is almost over, isn’t it?”

“It is. Hopefully things will pick up in July,” Lara added, referring to sales, but I couldn’t help but hope the same was true for my dating project.

“I’m sure they will,” I said, believing myself for a change.

Lara smiled as she grabbed her bag off the floor. “It’s pretty quiet and I have a screaming headache. Do you mind if I cut out of here early? Can you handle the afternoon by yourself?”

“Of course.” I nodded and squeezed her shoulder. “Feel better, I’ll see you next week.”

“Great, thanks,” she said as she walked slowly out of the store and left me alone at the counter. I reached into the bottom drawer that I had turned into my personal vending machine and removed a bag of animal crackers. Not exactly healthy, but not a pint of ice cream either. I’d take my victories wherever I could find them.

I kept myself busy for the rest of the afternoon. I dusted the shelves in the store and sold a few trinkets to ladies who were in need of a hostess gift for a friend. Then I began to organize the top drawer behind the counter. When I finished that, I planned on rearranging the window display so that the lamp with the driftwood base would be more visible to passersby. I heard the bell ring from behind the register.

I smiled at the guy who had just entered, a stereotypical preppy New England guy who had no idea what he was doing in a store like ours. Like most men, it was pretty clear he needed help.

“Can I help you with something?” I said politely, without leaving the register. There was nothing worse than pushy salespeople, so I made it a point not to approach any of the customers more than once unless they asked for something specific. Even the cute ones.

“I’m okay for now, thanks,” he said as he roamed the displays in the store window, most of them containing picture frames covered with various sizes of seashells and kitchen towels etched with anchors. I nodded and continued to organize the receipts from the day before. Then I heard the little bell over the door ring again. When I looked up, Bobby was walking toward me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. Bobby had never come to visit me at work, and for a minute I was worried he was going to tell me that Wolf was in some kind of accident, or worse, that my sister had shown up at the house.

“Nothing.” He smirked and put his hands in the pockets of his board shorts as if he was trying to decide what to say. “Why does something have to be wrong? I just came in to say hi. You’re closing soon, right?”

I looked at my watch and realized it was almost six. “Yeah, probably after this customer leaves.” Bobby and I both glanced at the guy who was still roaming aimlessly around the front of the store, casting glances back toward us every few minutes. For a second I wondered if he was some kind of preppy shoplifting bandit.

“Okay, why don’t we go into town and get a drink after this? I’m getting antsy sitting around at home, plus it’s hot as hell and the ceiling fans aren’t doing jack to cool off the house.”

“My house or your house?”

“Both of them, actually. Come on, my treat.”

Apparently having found what he was looking for, the preppy guy walked up to the counter. Bobby stepped to the side and leaned against a large china cabinet that held stacks of colorful ice cream bowls and water pitchers.

“I’ll take this, please,” he said as he placed the giant cheese board with the three-dimensional boat on it on the counter.

“Great, is it a gift? I can wrap it for you,” I offered.

“Uhh no, you don’t have to. Well, yes, I mean, it’s a gift, but you don’t have to wrap it.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

“Umm, yeah. Thanks, and you know what? I’ll take one of these too,” he said as he reached over and pulled a small wooden sign that said I’
D RATHER BE FISHING
off a hook on the wall. Bobby raised a lone eyebrow as he looked at the guy strangely.

“Sure, not a problem,” I said as I began to peel the price tag off the back. “Do you fish?” I asked as I continued to pick at the tag like it was a scab.

“Oh no. I don’t,” he replied, still looking a little nervous and jittery.

“Smooth,” Bobby muttered under his breath as he turned and walked toward the door to wait for me to finish up.

“Oh, well . . . it’s still a nice little accessory for someone.” I placed the cheese board and the sign in a shopping bag and swiped his credit card. When it went through, I handed him his card and smiled at him again. I know I didn’t know a lot about the way people flirt with each other, but if he wasn’t going to knock over the store, then the only other logical explanation for his behavior was that he was stalling to talk to me. If that was the case, I wanted to show him a little encouragement, let him know that I wouldn’t be against talking to him. I wanted to prove to myself and to Bobby that I had learned a few things over the past month, even if I hadn’t managed to actually go on any real dates yet. “Here you go, . . .” I said as I gave him his bag and scanned his credit card receipt for his name, “. . . Tom. Thanks for coming in. I hope you’ll come back again soon.”

“Umm, yeah. Okay, bye,” he said as he turned and left the store, forcing Bobby to step out of his way and onto a basket of needlepoint throw pillows.

I eyed Bobby suspiciously. He and I had never gone out in public alone together, but I had to admit that the concept of getting out of the house wasn’t a bad one. “Okay, Bobby,” I said, “you’re on. Wait for me outside while I lock up.”

“Cool,” he replied as he headed outside, leaned against a street sign, and smoked a cigarette while he waited for me. I locked the register, turned off the light in the storage room in the back, made sure that all the receipts were tucked away in the bottom drawer behind the counter, and closed up the shop for the night.

Bobby and I walked a few blocks to the Landing, which had become our regular watering hole, headed to the corner of the bar where we usually congregated, and grabbed two stools. We flagged down Jane, the pretty blond bartender who had become friendly with our group and now knew our drink orders by heart, and settled in at the waterfront bar that was easily one of my favorite spots in town.

“So this is overdue,” he said as he slugged the beer Jane put in front of him. “You and I have never gone out solo before,” he said.

“I think that’s because we’re afraid we’ll kill each other.”

“Could be. I think it’s a bit silly, though, don’t you? You and I aren’t all that different, you know.”

Well, that was an odd thing to say, since I couldn’t really think of anything we had in common other than our friendship with Grace. “You don’t think so?” I said. “For starters, I’m looking for someone special, and from what I can tell, that’s the furthest thing from your mind, so I don’t think our going out together makes a whole lot of sense.”

“How do you know I’m not looking for anyone?” he asked, pretending to be offended.

“You’ve told me,” I said.

“When have I done that?”

“Maybe not in so many words, but I can tell. You’re not serious about finding anyone, and don’t get me wrong, that’s fine. You’re a young guy, you have plenty of time. I just don’t feel like being single anymore. I was used to being in a relationship. It’s what I’m good at. I miss it.”

“How can you miss being in a relationship with a guy who did God knows what to you? And I mean that, because no one will tell me what the hell happened, so now I’m imagining the worst. Like, was there bondage or something involved?” he asked, the glint in his eye still visible beneath the brim of his baseball hat.

“You’re sick. No.”

“Did he want you to move to a commune Waco-style and live with him and seven other wives?”

“You’re terrible at this game,” I joked as I playfully smacked his arm.

“Then tell me. Come on, it’s just us girls here.” He leaned his chin on his hand and smiled shyly while he batted his eyelashes.

“I really don’t want to get into it, it’s nothing I want to relive and . . .” Before I could say another word, a portly, middle-aged man entered the bar, glanced in our direction, and veered our way, stopping between Bobby and me to order a drink and taking a moment to stare at Bobby and his batting eyelashes in confusion. The strange man ordered a beer before he turned to me and flashed a smile that only a mother could love. I shot Bobby a disgusted look, and he returned it with one of bemusement.

“I’m Victor,” the guy said, as if I had bothered to ask his name. “My friends call me Vic.”

“In that case, hello, Victor,” I said. Bobby flashed a quick smile, but Victor didn’t pick up on my subtle insult. In fact, I don’t think this guy would pick up on anything less subtle than a cartoon-style frying pan to the head.

“Are you from the area? Or just here for the summer?” he asked as he angled himself so that his back was turned toward Bobby, almost boxing him out of the conversation entirely. Every guy I’d met this summer had used some version of that as his opening line. Someone really needed to come up with better material than “Are you from around here?” or “Come here often?”

“Just for the summer. What about you?” I glanced at Bobby. At least now he’d fully understand my unique ability to attract weirdos.

“I live here year-round. I’m a postal delivery professional.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” I said, trying to be polite. I couldn’t have cared less if he owned half the mansions in town. He was creeping me out big time.

“Has anyone ever told you that if you had brown hair you’d look like a cross between Sophia Loren, Rachael Ray, and J Lo?” He smiled wide, genuinely impressed with himself for coming up with what he perceived to be a staggering compliment. He probably expected me to stand and tell him to take me home at once, because lines like that actually worked once upon a time. Bobby choked on his drink and raised his eyebrows while Victor continued to pretend he didn’t exist.

“No, Victor. I can honestly say that no one has ever told me that before,” I replied, still trying to be polite but starting to fail. I briefly wondered if there was a difference between being told you looked like J Lo, Jenny from the Block, or Jennifer Lopez. I was pretty sure in one of those versions you had to wear velour sweat suits and hang off Ben Affleck like a hood ornament. I made a mental note to check the Internet when I got home to see which one was which.

“Well, it’s true. You should know that.”

“I don’t think she can cook, though,” Bobby chimed in. “She ruined pasta the other night, so maybe she could do thirty-hour meals, but thirty-minute meals is out of the question unless you just want her to boil water.”

Victor shot a glance at Bobby, letting him know he didn’t appreciate the interference, which was hysterical since he was the one who had interrupted us to begin with. I was beginning to wonder if this guy was playing with a full stack of envelopes.

“Thank you, that’s a nice compliment.”
In a parallel universe where it makes sense that you and I are even having this conversation.

“How about you let me show you the island?” he asked, flashing his creepy, yellow-toothed smile for the second time in as many minutes.

“I’ve been showing her around actually,” Bobby said. It was kind of fun feeling like two guys were fighting over me, even if I wasn’t interested in either of them.

“On land?” Victor asked.

“Yeah, my seaplane’s in the shop, and she left her magic flying broom in the city,” Bobby shot back, proving that his wits were sharper than most.

“I have a boat, and I’d be happy to take you out on the water and show you the island that way. It’s pretty amazing,” Victor said.