The Dare (5 page)

Out of curiosity, and I swear it was nothing
more than that, I turned and stole one last glance at my one-night
stand also known as Thor or Mr. Senator. He was looking directly at
me, a small smile at the corner of his mouth. I wanted to run back.
But more than anything, I wanted to remember what it felt like to
have his lips on mine, because the memory from high school wasn't
enough. He'd been young, and years had a way of doing that to
people. Ripping away the memories of a person until all you
remember is the slightest of touches and how that one touch changed
you forever.

That one touch had destroyed my idea of what
a kiss should feel like. It took the movie-star and romance-novel
kiss and turned it into something suddenly achievable. In ten
minutes, Jace had taken my expectations and put them on a level
that no man would ever meet.

He'd made me want to wait for the prince or
the white knight. And every year that he'd been a no show, I'd
collapsed a little more into myself. Because unlike other women, I
knew it was possible. I'd experienced both the save and the kiss
that followed, and even though I'd been only eighteen, it had
stayed with me.

Hanging by a thread.

I hoped that this would banish the curse he'd
put on me since my senior year. See? Look Beth? He's not perfect.
If I looked really close I could see a slight limp, and I could
have sworn there was a tiny scar by his eyebrow., And let's not
forget that he probably has gas problems and halitosis.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I was going to give
him a damn incurable disease if it was the last thing I did! He
needed to be gone, so I could either move on with my own Prince
Charming or adopt Charlie, the calico cat.

If I didn't hurry up and get over him and
over the fantasy I'd created, I was going to turn into one of those
creepy girls who stalks celebrities and tries on all their clothes
and jewelry, convincing themselves that they're in a serious
relationship.

I wasn't going to be one of those girls.

I refused to be Warren Bates.

So I kept walking.

And I didn't turn around again.

Not even when my entire body felt like it was
shaking from the desire to do so.

My stomach clenched. Was it so wrong to want
the fairytale? What was so bad about striving for more? Was I being
punished for wanting the knight in shining armor to actually have a
soul? Most men I'd met were either so shy they cried when I said hi
or so boring that I did formulas in my head. The really
good-looking ones? Well, they acted a lot like Char's new husband,
Jake. Granted, he'd cured his own whorish nature by falling in
love, but still. If the good-looking ones weren't gay, they were
total players with no souls and the inability to attach to another
human being.

I wanted a good one. I wanted to experience
what it was like, just once in my adult life.

Just once before I finally gave up.

Thirty, but I figured if no man had been
interested in the real me by now, I may as well throw my entire
existence into my career, rather than waiting around for someone to
rescue me from my castle.

"Dick!" Grandma yelled at the top of her
lungs.

Horrified, I looked up.

The barista's name was Dick.

Heat flooded my face.

"Dick! Dick! Dick!" Grandma kept repeating as
I slowly stepped away from her embrace. Only her wiry arm came out
and pulled me against her body like glue. "It has been an age! An
entire age! How are the kids?"

"Good." Dick smiled and shrugged. He looked
around forty. "I can't complain. Now what can I get you lovely
ladies?"

"Two GNs, extra shot of you know what."

"Got it." Dick grabbed two grande cups and
began making the drinks. Then when the other barista wasn't
looking, pulled a flask out of a cupboard and put a shot in each of
the drinks.

My mouth dropped open. I'd thought she'd been
kidding. Joking. As in,
Hey, let's get wasted.
Ha ha. Not
seriously wanting to drink vodka!

He topped the drinks with whip and scooted
them toward us.

"What's the damage?" Grandma leaned over the
register and smiled.

"You know the special's always free, Nadine.
Always." He winked and grabbed her hand, kissing it gently before
nodding in my direction and asking for the next person's order.

Grandma handed me my drink and took a long
swig of hers.

"How is it possible that you just ordered
something that doesn't even exist on the menu?"

"Oh, but it does." Grandma placed her hand on
my arm. "It's just complicated. It's like a hidden menu only for
me. Howie knows what I like."

"Are you talking about Howard Shultz?" She
was kidding, right? Was I getting punked? Light bulb. I was on the
show
Off Their Rockers
! It was the only explanation.

"Oh look, there they are! And just in
time."

Grandma took another sip as Travis, Kacey,
Jake, and Char briskly walked through the airport, all of them
totally oblivious that shit was about to not only hit the fan but
fill the airport to the brim, until everyone within the vicinity
suffered a slow smelly agonizing death via Grandma.

"And there he is…" Grandma's voice dropped as
Jace walked briskly behind them, paparazzi taking pictures of him
until Travis and Jake basically rescued him. Airport security
removed the remaining paparazzi.

"What did you do?" I asked.

Grandma took another sip of hot coffee. "He
still don't want me."

"Who?"

"The man upstairs." She sighed. "It seems my
work isn't yet done. You'd think He'd be pleased. I mean, I
basically saved the world."

"How do you figure?" This I had to hear.
After all, I was curing cancer, how could what she'd done be any
better than that?

"I saved the world from STDs. The way that
grandson of mine was going, he was going to be solely responsible
for coming up with a new strain. Mark my words. The little slut."
She sighed. "But I love him. I may have ruined him, but Grandma
fixed all the broken, whorish little pieces, and now look at him."
She pointed. "Happy as a clam."

"Right." I backed away slowly.

Grandma's hand shot out and grabbed my arm.
"Now drink your coffee and follow me."

"Do I have a choice?" I asked, looking around
for a quick escape that wouldn't end up with me being hit by
oncoming traffic.

Grandma paused and looked directly into my
eyes. "My dear, we always have a choice. The question is never if
you have a choice. It's whether your options are better on your own
or with my help. Choices come and go. But chances? Only once in a
lifetime." She winked. "So why don't you jump?"

"I don't like heights."

"I don't like loud breathers. Doesn't mean I
smother people with pillows when I'm irritated," she joked.
"Sometimes, my dear, we need a little push."

"Is that what you are? A little push?"

"Hell no." Grandma snorted. "The little push
is your conscience. I'm a damn atom bomb. Now are you coming or
not?"

I could go home. I could choose safe. I could
choose white walls and a sterile environment. What I should choose
was the exact opposite of what she was offering. But she was right
about one thing: I'd probably regret not taking that old wrinkled
hand in mine. So even though I was pretty sure I was making the
biggest mistake of my life, even counting the time I tried to dye
my hair bleach-blond, I grasped her like a lifeline and prayed to
the Man upstairs that I wasn't going to be sent home in a body
bag.

****

"I need to disappear for a while." Shaking,
Jace let out a loud curse and looked like he needed Grandma's
special coffee more than I did.

Grandma released my hand and pushed through
her grandsons. "Did I hear someone say something about escape?"

A resounding groan was followed by four
horrified faces as Grandma walked up to the ticket counter.

Grandma started firing off questions about
her grandsons' honeymoons. I say honeymoons because Travis and
Kacey had just gotten married, and in a very strategically set of
planned events, so had Char
—
to Jake, the
one she constantly referred to as the whorish grandson. Money had
exchanged hands; a preacher, who will have to face consequences
once he gets to heaven, married the couple without their knowledge.
And the weird part? Jake and my sister Char were so happy it made
me a little nauseated.

Char had gotten fired from her job, not that
it mattered since the Titus family had more money than God, and now
she was taking a honeymoon with Jake Titus, reformed playboy and
GQ's Man of the Year.

Clearly, she'd gotten the looks in the
family.

Whereas, I'd gotten the brains and
less-than-stellar vision. Yay me.

"Beth! Beth dear! Come over here. I need your
ID."

All eyes turned to me. Whoever said doing the
walk of shame was, well, shameful, lied. This? Walking by both
Titus brothers the morning after the wedding, looking like I hadn't
slept and being with Jace? Let's just say it wasn't something I
ever wanted to repeat. I felt naked. And not a good naked, where
you feel free and happy and at peace with the world. No, it was a
bad naked. The type of naked where people point and laugh, and you
have nothing to cover yourself up with but your hands, and even
then you only have two of them, so where's the justice in that?

I took a few steps toward Grandma and Jace.
He looked too worried to be irritated that Grandma was
manipulating. Maybe that's how she worked. She wore you down so
much by the time she offered the little crumb that I'd like to
refer to as the gateway drug into crazy land, you were so desperate
to escape you didn't just take it and examine it. You freaking ate
it and asked for more.

Damn.

I was eating her crumbs.

So was Jace.

"ID?" Grandma snapped.

I pulled my driver's license out of my purse
and handed it over.

Jace rubbed his face with his hands.

"It seems the only seats we have next to one
another that are available are in the back of the plane."

The ticket lady's pinched expression gave me
the impression that they were bad seats.

"We'll take them," Grandma announced. "And
I'll take first class with the honeymooners."

I wasn't really sure what was so bad about
the back of the plane. I looked to Jace for help, but he was busy
scrolling through text messages like someone who'd just taken a
shot of espresso and didn't know how to handle the jolt of
adrenaline that followed.

"Thank you, Ilene. As always you're so
helpful." Grandma patted the lady's hand and smiled.

"Do you know everyone?" I whispered so only
Grandma could hear.

"Oh, honey," Grandma handed me my ticket,
"what's the use in doing the Lord's work if you don't have the
connections needed to pull it off?"

Sound logic. Damn her.

"Yoohoo!" Grandma called and then
whistled.

I winced. Travis cursed. Jake shook his head
and seemed to be speaking in a different language, and Kacey just
laughed.

"It's time to go through security." She
turned her attention to Jake. "Son, hide your drugs."

"What?" His eyes widened.

"Kidding." Grandma pinched Jake's cheek and
let out a giggle.

Nobody joined in. That shit could get you
arrested.

"Sense of humor!" Grandma slapped her leg and
laughed again. "Oh sometimes I just kill myself."

"I've tried," Travis grumbled. "No
cockblocking."

Did he really just say that? Out loud? To his
grandmother.

Embarrassed, I looked away. Who spoke to an
elderly woman like that? Did she even know what that meant?

"Sweetie," Grandma dug through her purse and
pulled out a tube of red lipstick, "I'm already finished with you.
You can have all the sex you want. You too, Jake."

The last time my face had felt this red was
when I was in the sixth grade and accidently tucked my skirt into
my tights.

"Uh, thanks?" Jake answered.

"Besides, I'm finished with you two. My work
is done. Now your wives can continue in my footsteps. Actually,
that's not true. If I don't see great-grandchildren in a year, I
may have to re-evaluate my five-year plan. At any rate. My eyes or
the eye of Sauron
—
"

"Ah,
Lord Of The Rings'
quotes… of
course," Travis interjected and pointed a finger at Jake. "That's
what you get for making her watch all the movies after the wedding.
You get an eighty-six-year-old woman thinking she has some sort of
wizardly magic."

"As I was saying, the Eye is on these
two."

Grandma pointed in my direction, and I could
have sworn I felt the laser beam from her polished nail.

I stepped behind a very pale Jace, hoping
that the whole finger-pointing magic would drain directly into him
and leave me the hell alone.

I peeked around him, only to find both Titus
brothers giving Jace knowing grins.

"Word of advice." Travis walked up to Jace
and slapped him on the shoulder. "Don't drink it if it tastes
funny."

"Also," Jake chimed in, "the law doesn't
apply to her. So if you call the cops, know it will probably be you
behind bars before it will be her."

"She likes Benadryl," Kacey added.

"And she will win." Char nodded.

"This game isn't about skill." Jake put his
arm around Char. "It's about knowing when to admit you've
failed."

"And failure?" Travis laughed. "To that one?"
He pointed to a silent-yet-smiling Grandma. "Isn't an option."

"Best bet." Jake sighed heavily. "Put all
your chips on the table."

"And then what?" I asked, curiosity killing
me from the inside out.

"Oh that." Travis grinned. "You still lose.
But at least by putting it all out there ahead of time, you know
what you're losing."