After Hours Bundle (50 page)

B
ENITO
'
S WAS AN
Italian restaurant only two businesses down in the strip mall, and Alejandro, Peggy and Marly ordered food from there all the time.

The place was decorated with red-and-white-checked tablecloths, fake grapevines with clusters of rubber grapes and empty chianti bottles on the tables that served as candlesticks. Benito used to have full bottles hanging at intervals along the vines overhead, but since the Case of the Concussed Customer he'd taken those down.

Benito, a small round Italian man with thinning black hair, greeted him as soon as he walked in the door. “Alejo! You are working hard, eh? Keeping all those ladies happy?”

He nodded and smiled, pumping Benito's hand. “We try. How are you, Benny? I'm just joining my friend Luis at the bar this evening.”

“God has smiled upon my cooking again. Don't miss the fresh seafood cannelloni, my friend. In a white wine cream sauce that is a miracle of culinary perfection.” He kissed his fingers. “Even my wife stopped nagging when she tasted it. You believe that? For an hour straight! I said it's a miracle, no?”

Alejandro laughed and slapped him on the back. Then he moved into the bar and settled down opposite Luis in a banquette. “So, how's the real estate business?”

“Excellent. I cannot complain.” Luis picked up his glass and held it up. Alejandro followed suit and they did the traditional Peruvian toast. “
Arriba!
(Up!)
Abajo!
(Down!)
Al Centro!
(To the center!)
Adentro!
(Inside!)”

“And how is the spa business?” Luis asked. “Have you had your weekly mud bath and manicure?” He winked and laughed uproariously. Alejo's teammates loved to tease him about the feminine nature of his investment, but of course they didn't know the extent of his involvement.

Alejandro sighed inwardly, wishing that he could be done with all the pretense and sneaking around. But that was impossible. He waved a dismissive hand at Luis and shot him a friendly insult.
“Huevon.”

“I am not the
huevon,
my friend. It's you who are the lone testicle!”

“
Sí,
and I'll be laughing all the way to the bank when we franchise After Hours all over the nation.”

“Me, I am already laughing. South Florida real estate is a very nice business to be in.” Luis grinned and admired his new gold Rolex.

Alejandro didn't begrudge him his success. He toasted him with his
pisco
sour.

“So, I want to get my girlfriend a gift, Alejo. You have a good all-day package at your spa?”

Mid-swallow, Alejandro choked at the question. All he needed was Luis's girlfriend booking anything with Señor Manos. It didn't bear thinking about.

But he nodded. “
Sí,
of course we do.” He dug a card out of his wallet and handed it to his buddy. “You call and ask for Shirlie. She'll set it all up for you. I'll tell her to give you a good deal.”
And I'll arrange to be gone that day.

“
Gracias.
So, any
carne fresca
at the salon? Since you ended things with the woman in the twelve-step program for shoe addiction?”

Alejo grinned and stared down at his glass. He swirled the last inch of
coktelito
in it. “Yes. Her name is Kate. She is very intriguing. And she owns fewer shoes than any other woman I've ever met.”

“To Kate.” Luis held up his glass, and they toasted.

“Arriba! Abajo! Al centro! Adentro!”
Both of them drank and then ordered another round.

“So tell me about this Kate. She has
tetas grandes?
”

Alejandro shook his head.

“She is a former Miss Universe?”

“No. She is beautiful, but in a different way. She's…unique. Very refreshing.”

“Where did you meet her?”

“Business school. And she's not at all the sort of woman I usually date. She needs a manicure desperately, she has crazy hair and she wears shoes that are falling apart.”

“Okay,” said Luis. He cocked his head and looked at him for a moment. “This doesn't bother you?”

“No. But she's too rich.”

Luis went into peals of laughter. “Alejo, there is no such thing as too rich.”

“No, you don't understand—her family is a dynasty that owns entire towns.”

“Excellent. When's the wedding? You'll be set for life.” Luis chuckled. “Get a nice, cushy job with Papa's company and learn to play golf. Join one of the, how do they say? Ritzy country clubs.”

Alejandro didn't laugh with him. He thought instead about spending the rest of his life with people such as Wendell the fourth. He shuddered. There wasn't enough money in the world worth that.

“I see you're thinking very hard about it, my friend.” Luis took a long swallow of his second whiskey, leaned back in the booth and fished a cigar out of his pocket.

“Benito will have a coronary if you light that in here. You have to go outside. And, no, I'm not thinking about marrying Kate for her money. You know the old saying—people who marry for money end up earning it.”

Luis gnawed on the end of the cigar, looking very much like a camel with his long, blunt-tipped nose. “
Muy profundo,
Alejo. Well, don't get so involved with this girl that you don't make it to practice. We need you scoring goals in the Weston game.”

Alejandro just shot him a look, as a female voice behind him said, “Oh, yeah, this looks like quite the emergency.”

Heather Carlton had come into Benito's for take-out.
He stared at her stupidly for a moment. Then he said, “Heather! It's not what it looks like. My friend Luis, here, just had tragic news.”

Luis's eyebrows shot up and he took the cigar out of his mouth, but Alejo kicked him in the shin before he could say anything. “His father died suddenly of a heart attack. He is heartbroken. I had to comfort him.”

Luis obliged him by doing his best to make his face look properly lugubrious. He even pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. Luis could lie to women with the best of them. And he didn't even work in the beauty industry.

Heather put her hand to her mouth and gasped. “Oh, you poor thing! I'm so, so sorry.” She put her hand on his shoulder and kissed his cheek.

Luis stared straight into her cleavage as she did so, his interest sparking. Shirlie went by the wayside. Alejandro didn't want him and Heather to get any better acquainted, though. So he said, “Luis doesn't speak any English, but he knows what you mean. He thanks you for your sympathy.”

Luis opened his mouth to deny his ignorance of English and perhaps ask for her phone number, but Alejandro kicked him again, hard.

“Aaaggh.”

“That's Bolivian for
beautiful,
” Alejo told the client.

She put a hand to her heart. “Oh, how sweet. Too bad he doesn't speak any English. He's so cute…”

Luis sat there doing his best not to look gratified at her words since he wasn't supposed to be able to understand them. Luis was a good friend, taking one for his wingman.

Thanks be to God, Benito called Heather's order number and she told Alejandro to tell Luis how nice it had been to meet him, even under the terrible circumstances. Then she turned and walked away to the takeout window.

Luis watched her ass covetously, like a cat watches a goldfish. “A hell of a time for me not to speak any English, Alejo! What was that about?”

“She's a psychopath,” Alejandro whispered. “You can't believe anything that woman says. And trust me, you do not want to date her. Besides, what about your girlfriend?”

“Who?” Luis sucked on his cigar. “Oh. Her. Right.”

By the time Luis was ready to leave, they'd each had three
pisco
sours and Alejandro was in danger of missing a fifth appointment. As it was, he was going to need to drink a quart of mouthwash. But hell, most of his clients would be tipsy, too, so he hoped no one would notice.

Unfortunately, Peggy did notice. It took her about two seconds to assess his general sobriety, and she hauled him into the kitchenette to talk. “Alejo!”

“Sí?”
He tried to focus on her red hair, which she'd piled on top of her head. It was better than meeting her eyes. “Don't you look pretty tonight.”

“Save the blandishing for the customers, honey. Did you just blow off an appointment to go drink with your friend?”

“
Shoccer
team,” he said solemnly. “Had to get him out of here. Can't know truth.”

“Alejandro. If I had done that, you'd never let me hear the end of it. That's terrible business practice. Heather Carlton screamed blue murder at Shirlie and accused us of trying to ruin her evening since she had two broken nails and couldn't go out like that. Shirlie said she even threatened to sue.”

“
Sue?
For what?”

“Breach of contract or something crazy. I finally had to do her manicure myself. Oh, and she thinks you're avoiding her.”

Alejandro sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face.

“You're going to have to call her and apologize.”

“I, er, bumped into her at Benito's. Everything's fine.”

“Look, Alejandro. We all think you're being ridiculous about keeping your work here a secret. Why don't you just tell people?”

“Are you
insane?
”

“No. Are you so insecure with your manhood that you can't handle people knowing the truth? That yes, you're a partner but you're also doing your best to make the place a success—so you take appointments. Where's the shame in that?”

“I am not the least bit insecure in my manhood,” Alejandro declared.

“Yeah? Then why do you care what anyone says?”

“You don't understand Latin—and especially Peruvian—culture. It's simply not acceptable for a straight man to be a manicurist.”

“That's so silly!”

“It's not. They will think I'm gay, like Nicky. The soccer team—they wouldn't allow me in the locker room or the showers.”

“But why not, if you explained?”

“I am telling you, there
is
no explaining!” Alejandro searched for a way to make her understand. “It would be like…like…a church finding out that its head Sunday-school teacher was also a dominatrix and wore black rubber panties with a slit crotch.”

“Oh,
puh-lease,
Alejandro. It couldn't possibly be that bad.”

“It is. I don't know how to make you believe me. But it is.”

“Whatever.” Peggy put her hands on her hips. “But you can't go canceling appointments every time someone who knows you comes into the spa. You wouldn't let me do it, and I'm not going to let you do it. Understand?”

He stared at her, trying to remember why he was angry with her to begin with. Because he was, and it didn't have anything to do with tonight, but the
pisco
had fogged his brain. “Fine.”

Then he remembered, and glared at her. “But by the way, we need to have a little talk, Miss Underwood. I can't believe that you and Marly actually suggested to Kate that we use After Hours as the business for our marketing class project! Are you deliberately trying to embarrass me in front of her?”

“If you hadn't lied to her in the first place, you'd have nothing to be embarrassed about,” Peggy said, with maddening logic.

“That is not the point!”

“Isn't it?”

“No. The point is that you two maliciously plotted to make me crazy, and I don't appreesh—appreeski—
mierda!
It wasn't very nice.”

Peggy neatly sidestepped that issue. “If Kate truly cares about you, then the fact that you give manicures and pedicures shouldn't bother her.”

“Well, what if it does?” he asked belligerently.

“Then you're better off without her and we've only done you a favor.”

Alejo frowned. He didn't think he agreed. But he decided he needed more rum in order to make sense of it all. He looked at his watch. Only ten, damn it. He still had two appointments to go before they closed for the night. “Peggy, sweet Peggy?”

“No,” she said, without turning around. She was, disturbingly, pouring water into the coffeemaker.

“Have I mentioned that you look
partickly
lovely this evening?”