I Survived Seattle (3 page)

“Here ya go, buddy. That’ll be forty bucks.”

“Great, thanks,” Justice said, and paid the man. Overall, it wasn’t a bad price for a ride all the way from the airport to the suburb north of Seattle. Back home, the same distance probably would have cost him at least a hundred.

He stepped out of the cab, grabbed his bags from the trunk, and, as the cab peeled off, turned to look at where he’d be staying for the next couple of weeks. Because Justice and Lara, the only other friend from college who’d been able to attend the out of town wedding, had traveled the farthest to get there and were in the wedding party, Rory had rented them a tiny little house in his neighborhood. Luckily it was within walking distance of Rory’s old townhouse, and the new house the happy couple would be moving into after the wedding.

It was a cute little bungalow-style house painted bright yellow. He loved it instantly. He found the key in the mail slot where it was supposed to be, so he assumed that Lara hadn’t arrived yet.

Good. He’d be able to straighten the place up and catch a nice quiet nap before dealing with Rory’s boisterous personality. He was completely charmed by the tiny, eclectically decorated, one bedroom cottage. They’d already agreed that Justice would take the bedroom because of his
issues
and Lara had willingly offered to take the pullout sofa in the living room.

Upon entering, Justice set about making the cottage livable for him and his neuroses. He went straight to the bedroom, threw his suitcase on the bed and began to unpack. He meticulously placed all of his casual clothes, socks, and underwear in the dresser drawers, then hung up his wedding suit and his nicer clothes in the closet and lined up his shoes on the floor.

Then, he arranged his toiletries just so in the bathroom so that he could go about his morning rituals with no snafus. Last, he found outlets for all his various electronics —Kindle, laptop, iPad, iPhone, and plugged in all of the chargers so that they would be ready for use.

Justice had no concept of packing light. One of the ways he kept a handle on his anxiety and obsessive-compulsive tendencies was to make sure he was prepared for any possible situation. It didn’t always work, but he did what he could.

After stowing his suitcase under the comfy looking queen-sized bed, Justice went into the kitchen to make things right. He emptied the cabinets —there wasn’t too much in them, since it was a rental house. Then he put the glasses where they belonged, moved the dishes to the right cabinet, and set the appliances in the appropriate places.

The fridge was next. The fully stocked refrigerator was part of the rental agreement, so all Justice had to do was rearrange the contents in a way that made sense, putting the things he knew he wouldn’t use in the very back, out of sight.

All that was left was to stack the magazines on the coffee table the way they should be, then he could finally relax. Spinning around, he surveyed his handiwork. When he could breathe easy, he knew everything was perfect.

Justice went back into the bedroom and put on the window fan to cool the room down. That was the one downside of the little house. He tended to like it frigid inside his apartment at home, but there seemed to be no air conditioning to speak of in Seattle. He’d been told that was because it was rarely needed. Unfortunately, this week, it was needed.

Even though he had everything arranged perfectly according to his standards, his anxiety was still pinging. Not only that, but he was exhausted, both from jet lag and his medication. He was still fighting off the overall queasiness that came with flying, and was certainly par for the course after multiple panic attacks.

It was kind of like a hangover, only without the pleasant release of getting shit-faced drunk the night before. He always called it his ‘flight hangover’ although he often got them after road trips as well.

He turned down the bed and sank into the glorious pillow-top mattress. The linens smelled clean and fresh, and that made him happy. He was just about to slip into blissful unconsciousness, lulled by the sound of the fan and the birds chirping outside, when his phone rang.

“Goddamn it all to hell,” he growled before answering the call. “Yeah?”

“Jus? Is that you? You sound like shit.”

“Christ, thanks, Rory. You know how I get after flying.”

Rory’s voice sounded contrite when he answered. “Yeah man, I know. I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this, but do you want to come over to the house and hang for a bit? You could meet my future wife and my future ex-roommate.”

Justice sighed, feeling guilty about the fact that his friend didn’t believe he’d say yes, but feeling even more nauseated at the thought of being around more new people so soon after flying.

“I’d love to, Ror, you know that. But I’ve got to crash for a bit.”

“Okay,” Rory said, sounding a little disappointed, and Justice felt even worse. “Well, how about coming over for dinner tonight?”

“Sure, I think I can handle that.” He hoped. “I should probably stick around until Lara gets here, anyway. Do you know when she’s due in?”

“I think her flight is supposed to land sometime mid-afternoon. She’s renting a car, so you don’t have to do anything but hang out and let her in.”

“Sounds good, man. And listen, you know I have a lot of trouble travelling, but I really am happy to be here for you, and incredibly honored that you wanted me to stand up for you.”

Justice could practically hear the blush in Rory’s voice after he cleared his throat suspiciously.

“I’m really glad you took me up on the offer. I know it’s a long way for you.”

“Well, like I always say, I love getting to see new places, I just hate the process of getting there. But I’m here now and I can’t wait to see you.”

“Me too, bro. So, we’ll see you at the house around seven?”

“Sure thing.”

“Great! I’ll text you the address. Get some rest.”

“Will do. Later.”

After he ended the call, Justice sighed as he snuggled back under the covers. Though the panic and exhaustion was starting to slide away, he could feel the edges of a migraine creeping along his temples, the all too common aftermath of his travel anxiety.

Before he drifted off, an image of Nic drifted across his mind. He’d been half-hard all morning, ever since he’d fallen into the guy’s lap, except maybe when he was puking. As he thought of the gorgeous, ripped surfer guy with the ocean eyes, his cock gave a half-hearted twitch.
Good effort,
he thought, but he was too exhausted even to beat one off.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate a nice fantasy as he was falling asleep. One that involved melted chocolate and handcuffs. There was a smile on his face as he finally sank into sleep.

* * * *

Justice awoke to a sudden dip in the mattress. He rolled over and rubbed his eyes before glaring at Lara’s perky self, bouncing on the bed and grinning.

“You people are determined not to let me get over my jet lag, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean, you people?” she said with mock affront.

“Well, lesbians, natch. What else?”

She cackled and smacked him with a pillow. “I’ve missed you, Jus. Bitchy personality and all.”

He pulled her into an awkward, one armed sideways hug, since he was still lying down. “I missed you too, girlie. How’s Sarah?”

“Sarah? Sarah? Sarah was two girlfriends ago.” She waved it off dismissively. “I’m with Kelly now.”

“Whatevs. I can’t keep up with the latest muff you’re diving in.”

“Gross!” she shouted, beating him harder with the pillow. “At least I’m getting some. At the rate you go, your dick might walk off and find a new home.”

“Low blow, Lara.”

“Yeah, yeah, well don’t talk about my sexual exploits and I won’t talk about yours, or lack thereof,” she said with a wink. “So are you ready to get your lazy ass out of bed and go over to Rory’s?”

“Look, I’m still not feeling well. I think I’m gonna skip it.”

“Rory told me you’d say that. He said I’m to force you by any means necessary. Besides, don’t you want to meet his douchebag roommate? He’s such an asshole.” Lara lived not too far away in Portland, so she’d visited a few times and met Rory’s friends.

“Well after that glowing endorsement, how could I say no? I’m just going to take a quick shower and make myself presentable.”

“Gonna take more than a quick one for that!”

“You’re such a bitch.”

“We all have our super powers,” she said with a shrug.

Chapter Four

Lara drove them to Rory’s small cottage in her rented Ford compact. Justice’s stomach was already flip-flopping at the thought of a room full of people. How the hell was he going to get through the next two weeks?

Justice knocked on the front door of the bungalow, similar to the rental house but painted a bright blue. The door quickly swung open to reveal an artificially tanned, meticulously groomed man with perfectly spiked black hair. While Justice had about an inch on him, the guy’s tailored black pinstripe suit covered exaggerated muscles that had to come from hours at the gym. Justice kind of hated him on sight. From the wary look and the poorly disguised sneer on the guy’s face, he guessed the feeling was mutual.

“Who are you?”

“Rich, you know damn well who I am,” Lara answered. “And this is Justice Crawford, the best man. Justice, this is Rich Langston. He’s Rory’s roommate, at least until the wedding night.”

“Nice to meet you,” Justice said, reaching out his hand to shake, and it was promptly ignored.

“Yeah. Rory’s out.”

“We’ll just wait inside,” Lara said, shouldering her way past Rich and grabbing Justice’s hand along the way to pull him inside.

She flopped down on the oversized red couch, and patted the cushion next to her, beckoning Justice to sit down. So he did. Rich sat in an armchair across from them and stared through narrowed eyes. Lara was right. He was an asshole —no ‘kind of’ about it.

He raised a brow and scowled at Justice as he looked him up and down. “You know you have to throw him a bachelor party, right?”

“I…what?” Rory hadn’t said anything about any bachelor party. Justice knew it was sort a traditional thing for the best man to do, but Rory had just said to get himself there, and he’d take care of the rest. Panic ensued. He could already feel the cold sweat and the bile rising.

“I
said
you have to throw him a bachelor party.”

“I heard you.” What the hell did straight people do for bachelor parties? “So…a strip club, then?”

Rich snorted and rolled his eyes. Justice wanted to rip them out…right after he threw up.

“Uh, no. Maia would
so
not allow that.”

“Maia?” Justice asked, but then he remembered the name of the girl Rory had been dating off and on for the past two years. “Oh.”

“Rory’s fiancée
.
Don’t you know anything?”

Not really. Now, having been reminded, he remembered Rory mentioning Maia by name, Justice just hadn’t retained the information. He still couldn’t figure out why Rory had wanted him as the best man. Clearly, Rich couldn’t either.

“Okay, well do you know what he wants to do?” Justice asked.

Rich heaved a put upon sigh, and examined his nails like he was deciding whether or not Justice deserved the information. “He said something about wanting to do one of those yacht charter cruises. You find a fancy boat to tool around Lake Washington while we all pretty much get wasted in the lap of luxury.”

“All right. Do you have the yellow pages or something?”

Rich walked into the kitchen and came back with the thick yellow book, handing it to Justice. “Good luck finding one. It’s Labor Day week. A lot of people take the whole week off for vacation, so the yachts will probably all be booked.”

“That’s helpful, thanks,” Justice replied, glaring at Rich.

Justice and Lara spent the next half hour calling every charter boat company in the yellow pages with no luck. All the boats were booked solid. He was about to give up when Lara pointed to a small ad.

“Here, we missed one.”

He leaned over her shoulder to read it. “Valentine Charter Cruises? Sounds right up Rory’s alley. I’ll call them.”

Dialing the number, Justice waited with nervous anticipation, hoping he got an answer.

“Hel —” someone picked up, but there was a crash and a muffled curse. “
Sonofabitch
. Valentine.”

“Um. Is this Valentine Charter Cruises?”

“Last time I checked,” the guy answered. He sounded kind of pissed off —or hung over.

“I know this is kind of last minute, but I really need to book a cruise for tomorrow?”

“
Tomorrow
? No can do, kid. We’re blocked off for the next couple of days. Captain’s on…vacation.”

Justice’s heart dropped. His first task as best man, and he was failing miserably. “Look, please hear me out. I’m the best man in my best friend’s wedding, and I just flew in from the east coast. I had no idea I was supposed to plan this cruise for him, so now I’m stuck trying to find a boat at the last minute. I really,
really
don’t want to let him down. Please, sir, is there anything you can do?”