Summer Rental (22 page)

“Umm-hmm,” Ellis said, sipping her drink.

“I think he is totally hot,” Julia said, looking past Ellis at Ty moving up and down the bar, slinging drinks and making small talk with fluid efficiency. “Don’t you?”

Ellis shrugged nonchalantly. “I guess he could grow on you. It was nice of him to get us some food after the kitchen was closed.”

“I think he likes you,” Julia said, her tone lightly teasing. “I checked my watch. Happy hour ended half an hour ago, and he still gave us the special.”

“Oh, no,” Ellis said, busying herself by slathering the quesadilla with sour cream. “He was just being polite. But what makes you think he likes me?”

“I’m a witch, remember?” Julia said, resisting the impulse to admit that she’d seen Ellis and Ty in a moonlit clinch the night before. “I can read the future. And I definitely see a man in your future, Miss Ellis Sullivan.”

“Hope so,” Ellis said fervently.

“Since when are you looking for a man?” Julia challenged.

“You think I’m not interested in men?”

Julia shrugged. “Are you?”

“Well … why not? Look, I know we promised each other that this would be a chick trip. But to be honest with you, I haven’t really dated in a while.”

“How long a while?”

Ellis knew exactly how long it had been. Five years, give or take a month or two. She’d made a brief, disastrous stab at online dating. Nine dates with four different guys. She actually felt queasy thinking about it.

She toyed with a piece of lettuce on her plate. “Please don’t make me talk about this,” she said quietly.

“How bad could it be?” Julia asked.

“Awful,” Ellis said, taking a large swallow of her cosmo. “Soul-searing.”

“Which is exactly why you
should
talk about it,” Julia coaxed. “
Dorie and I are your oldest, bestest friends. There’s nothing you could say that would shock
me
, of all people, for God’s sake.”

It was true. If the game were truth or dare, Julia’s confession of the night before had raised the stakes for all of them.

“If I tell you about it, will you swear never to tell another living soul?”

Julia leaned in until her forehead nearly grazed Ellis’s. “Of course. But, you don’t even want me to tell Dorie?”

“No. Dorie wouldn’t understand. She’s so gorgeous, she’s never had to worry about meeting men. Not that you’ve ever had that problem either.”

Julia cocked her head. “Hey, don’t you remember what I looked like in junior high? That bad perm my mom gave me, the braces, the flat chest? And my God, my acne! I was the original pizza face. Not to mention I weighed, like, eighty-seven pounds and looked like a damned stork.”

Ellis sighed. “Yeah, but by the time we were seventeen, the braces were off, the acne cleared up, and you grew boobs. It was like revenge of the ugly duckling.”

“Turns out my mother was right,” Julia agreed. “I really
was
a late bloomer.”

“Not as late as me,” Ellis said, her voice low. “I’m thirty-four, Julia. And I haven’t really been with a man since…” She paused, and then forced herself to say it. “Since Ben.”

Julia’s eyes widened. “For real?”

Ellis took another sip of her drink and forced a smile. “Yeah. I’m a freak, right? Eleven years without sex. Not quite the forty-year-old virgin, but close.”

“You are not a freak, Ellis Sullivan!” Julia said fiercely. She gestured at the couples on the dance floor, and in particular at a woman about their age who was grinding her hips into her dance partner, her arms locked around his neck, eyes closed, lips apart. “The freaks are these chicks who’ll give a lap dance or a blow job to some asshole they just met at a bar while on vacation.”

“You’re just saying that,” Ellis said. “Although I appreciate the sentiment.”

“Okay, fine,” Julia said. “I’m not going to make you tell me.” She raised an eyebrow, as though daring Ellis.

Ellis slurped up the last of her cosmo and took the bait. “Oh well. I guess it won’t hurt. I mean, lots of people do it.…”

“I knew it,” Julia said triumphantly. “You were online dating, weren’t you? Come on. Out with it. eHarmony or Match.com?”

Ellis buried her face in her hands. “Match.com. It was the year I turned thirty. I made this stupid New Year’s resolution that I was going to really be out there, you know, in the marketplace. Never again. I’d rather die alone, the crazy lady living in a double-wide down by the river, with forty-seven cats and a houseful of hoarded tin cans and toilet paper, than try that again.”

Julia rubbed her hands in delight. “Tell me everything. Don’t leave out a single, grotesque detail.”

“I only did it for three months,” Ellis said. “Two different women I worked with met their husbands that way, and they were totally normal, average to above-average nice guys. But I think those women got the last two normal guys on the planet. Either that, or I’m just a major creep magnet.”

“Details,” Julia interrupted. “Gimme.”

“Gawwwwd,” Ellis moaned. “I’ve spent years trying to forget all this stuff. And now you want me to dredge up all the dirt again. Isn’t it enough that I admit I made a major mistake?”

“No,” Julia said. “Quit stalling.”

“Okay,” Ellis said, wincing at the memory. “The first guy—his name actually was Guy—seemed nice, at first. We e-mailed back and forth for a couple weeks, until I convinced myself he wasn’t some kind of psycho axe murderer. We met at a coffee shop on a Saturday morning. He was wearing jeans, a polo shirt, well-groomed, nothing scary at all about him. Until he ordered.”

“What? What did he order?”

“It wasn’t what he ordered, it was
how
he did it. I mean, he made the waitress repeat our order back twice to him, and then when she brought the coffee and his danish, he made this big stink about how she’d screwed it up, and insisted he’d asked for decaf. And I heard him. He did not ask for decaf! And then he said the danish was stale, and it tasted fine. He harangued this poor girl for five minutes, until she was in tears, and when we finished, he left a penny for a tip.”

Julia rolled her eyes. “I can’t stand a waitress baiter. Or a stingy bastard. I’m guessing you never saw Guy again.”

“Never,” Ellis agreed. “But the next guy was worse.” She shuddered. “I’ve blocked out his name.”

“No you haven’t.”

“Okay. It was Bart. Or Barf, as I came to think of him afterwards.”

“What was wrong with Bart?”

“He was maybe the best-looking guy I’ve ever gone out with. I mean, gorgeous. Tan, muscular, elegant manners. He took me to dinner at this really nice Italian restaurant. And of course, he ordered in Italian, which was a little bit of a turnoff. I mean, who gives an entire order in Italian?”

“You can’t hate the guy just because he spoke Italian.”

“He did kind of remind me of Kevin Kline in
A Fish Called Wanda,
but it wasn’t the Italian that was the turnoff. It was the fact that he took me on a date—commando!”

Julia guffawed. “Seriously? How do you know? Maybe he was just wearing, like, you know, low riders.”

Ellis blushed beet red and giggled. “I know, okay? He was totally commando.”

“I don’t believe it,” Julia said, taking a long sip of her drink.

“No, Julia,” Ellis said, leaning forward again. “The way his pants were cut, sort of loose, you know, I could tell he was, you know…” she whispered, “free balling. That’s what Baylor used to call it. But Baylor only did it at the beach, when he was a teenager. Not on a first date at a nice Italian restaurant!”

Julia’s face contorted, and she pressed a paper napkin to her face. “No fair! You made me snort gin out my nose. What did you do when you realized he wasn’t wearing any underwear?”

“What could I do?” Ellis said. “I didn’t realize it until he got up to go to the men’s room, and he was walking back across the restaurant, and you know, his goods were kinda jiggling around as he walked.”

“Oh no,” Julia laughed. “Eeeeww. Poor Ellis.”

“It wasn’t that funny at the time,” Ellis said, laughing now. “
I just had to get out of there, but I’d already ordered dinner. So I scarfed down my entrée, then I faked a migraine, told him I was so nauseous I’d better leave immediately. I literally ran out of the restaurant, hailed a cab, and hightailed it home. And that was it for me and online dating.”

“Oh my God,” Julia giggled. “I’ve been with Booker so long, I had no idea things were that awful out there in the dating world.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Ellis agreed.

“So what changed your mind about dating again?” Julia asked.

“Nothing,” Ellis said. “And everything. Losing my job—it’s corny, but I think it’s time to take stock. And I’ve decided it’s now or never. If I meet a nice guy, who knows? Anyway, Ty’s not really a bartender. He’s a day trader. He’s just moonlighting here because the stock market is so crappy right now.”

“I’m no snob,” Julia said. “I wouldn’t care if he really was just a bartender. He seems like a nice guy. I think you should go for it, Ellis. Come on, a little summer fling would do you a world of good.”

Ellis toyed with her second drink. “You think?”

The waitress was back with another round of drinks, and this time she didn’t look happy. “Ty asked me to tell you ladies that he gets off in thirty minutes,” she said. “He was wondering if you’re going to stick around that long.”

“Oh,” Ellis said. “Well, sure. I mean, does that sound all right to you, Julia?”

Julia finished off her drink. “You stay, Ellis,” she said casually. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take the car and go on back to the house. I think I feel a migraine coming on. Maybe Ty will give you a ride home.”

“No!” Ellis said, feeling panicky. “You can’t go already, Julia.”

“You can stay,” Julia said, reaching over and patting her friend’s hand. “You’re a big girl. You can do this.”

The waitress cleared her throat to let them know she was waiting.

Ellis gulped. Her heart was racing. She looked up at the waitress. “Tell him I’ll be here.”

Julia stood up and put a twenty-dollar bill on the tabletop. “
There’s the tip,” she said, nodding at the money. She dropped a kiss on the top of Ellis’s head. “Have a good time,” she whispered. “And don’t worry. I’ve been watching Ty all night. He does a lot of bending and stretching, getting beers out of that cooler on the back bar. I’m a hundred percent sure he’s wearing underpants.”

22

“Strawberry Shortcake is staying, but her friend is outta here,” the waitress told Ty.

“Nella!” Ty said reprovingly. “Don’t be mean. It doesn’t suit you.”

“Can’t help it,” Nella Maxwell said, dumping her tray full of dirty glasses into the bar sink. “It’s my nature. Who is she, anyway?”

“Her name is Ellis,” Ty said, filling a shaker with ice and vodka. “She’s a friend.”

“Doesn’t look like your usual variety of ‘friend,’” Nella pointed out. “The hottie who left is more your type.”

“Julia?” Ty frowned. “Not really. Anyway, I like Ellis. She’s … different.” He gazed over at Ellis, sitting alone at her table, chin propped up on her fists, watching the swirl of people around her. She was wearing a girlish pink-and-green sundress, and with her hair swept off her neck, he could see a sprinkling of freckles on her sunburnt shoulders and chest, and a surprising amount of cleavage, especially from a woman whose bathing suit looked like something you’d wear to a swim meet. Nella was right about one th
ing, Ty thought. Ellis looked just like a sweet, pink confection. Totally out of place in a bar like Cadillac Jack’s, with its writhing mass of on-the-make college kids and black-clad hipsters. He wanted to sweep her up and out of there, maybe back to the beach, someplace quiet, someplace without the throb of music and din of shrill voices.

He’d been unaccountably thrilled to look up an hour ago and see Julia towing Ellis along in her wake, steaming towards the bar. He’d never expected Ellis would actually take him up on his invitation to drop by the club. She didn’t seem like the type to go club hopping, but maybe it had been all Julia’s idea. Not that he really cared. He was happy Ellis had come and even happier that Julia had bowed out.

Ty looked down at his watch and frowned. “It’s after nine, and I’m supposed to be off. Angie told me Patricia was coming in to work the rest of the shift. You seen her?”

“Nope,” Nella said. “But I need two frozen ’ritas and a Natty Lite for one of my tables five minutes ago.”

“Patricia better get her butt in here,” Ty said darkly, dumping ice and margarita mix into the blender jar. “I’m tired of covering for her. Do you have her cell number?”

“Patricia’s?” Nella hooted. “Get serious. Even if I had her number, she wouldn’t answer. She and Jason had a big fight last night, and he threw her out of the apartment. And you know that piece-of-crap car of hers quit running a week ago, so with Jason out of the picture she’s either gotta ride her bike or thumb a ride to get here.”

“Swell,” Ty muttered, looking around the bar. It was a typical summer Sunday night at Cadillac Jack’s. The place was jammed and people were still coming in. Patricia Altizer was a sweet kid, in her midtwenties, but she had terrible taste in men, and worse luck when it came to managing her own life. When she made it in on time for her shift, she was a hard worker, but Ty had already had to fill in for her the past couple of times she was supposed to work, and he had the sinking feeling that tonight would be another of those nights.

Sure enough, at 9:30, Angie, the club owner, slipped behind the
bar, a look of chagrin on her face. “Patricia’s a no-show, as I’m sure you already figured,” she started. “Ty, honey, I hate to ask, but can you stay ’til closing?”

“You can’t get anybody else?” he asked. “I’ve kinda got something to do tonight. And you swore you weren’t going to keep asking me to close.”

Angie turned and looked in the direction of the table she’d seen Ty gazing at as she approached the bar. Ellis had finished her drink and was fiddling with her cell phone. Ty had been so busy, he hadn’t even had time to send over another drink—or an apology for keeping her waiting.

“Yeah, Nella told me you’ve got a new friend,” Angie said, a note of sarcasm in her voice.