Overflow: The Carpino Series (8 page)

“Holy shit,” I whisper repeat, at the same time he whisper
repeats, “Fuck!” 

Jude, looking pissed off, puts his hands on each side of me
and performs a push up from the sectional, grabbing my hand to yank me up with
him.  Standing here in my shorts and pink bra, he tosses me my tank as he tags
his shirt. 

“Gabby, where are you?”  Tony yells again.

“Down,” my voice scrapes out, having to clear my throat I
repeat, “down here!”  I pull my tank over my head and try to right my clothes
and fix my pony tail.  “We’re moving stuff around!”

Jude comes closer to me looking straight in my eyes and
leans down to kiss me softly and just as softly rasps the word, “Beautiful.”

“Ohmygoodness,” I whisper as I hear Tony tromping down my
stairs. 

I take a step back and try and get my wits together at the
same time I hear Tony saying, getting louder with each step, “It’s Monday Night
Football, even though it’s preseason the first couple of quarters are still
good, I figured Jude would be around again so I thought we could watch the game
here.”

He said the last word as he took the last step, stills and stares
at us.  I don’t know what he saw, but I feel like I got caught with my hand in
the cookie jar, but a million times worse.  He looks at me and then he looks at
Jude standing behind me.  He looks back at me and says, “Or I could go watch it
with dad.”  

That’s when I feel an arm snake around me going across my
upper chest and I am jerked back into Jude’s hard one where he holds me tight. 
My eyes get big, looking at Tony, not really knowing what to say, so I go with,
“I’ll make popcorn!”  Tony grins at me at the same time I feel Jude’s arm
tighten around me. 

“Really, I can go,” Tony repeats.

“No, no!” I exclaim.  “I just made homemade salsa and I have
chips left.  Popcorn, salsa and chips!  And I’ve got beer!” 

I twist my neck as best I can and fake smile up to Jude.  He
narrows his eyes at me and shakes his head no, but says, “Sounds good, sugar.”

I turn back to Tony and say, “See?  I’ll go get the beer!” I
try my best to get out of Jude’s ironman hold, but he doesn’t let me go until
he leans down and kisses the side of my head.  I close my eyes, only to find
Tony staring us both when I open them.  Giving him a small smile as Jude
finally lets me go, I hightail my ass up the stairs as fast as I can to set
about making popcorn and getting everyone a beer.  I hope beer and popcorn are
a special potion for making weird situations less weird. 

A few moments later, I hear Tony and Jude tromping up the
stairs as I pull the popcorn off the burner, Tony saying, “We’re gonna have to
watch up here, it’s a mess down there.”

“Good idea,” I agree, as if I’m going to argue.  I really don’t
want to sit with my favorite cousin and my…well, whatever Jude is…on the same
sectional that I was just almost half naked on with Jude.  That would bring
things to a whole new level of weird.  I get everyone fitted with beer,
popcorn, laid the chips and salsa out on my super cool and very beat up coffee
table.  Tony settles in the club chair putting his feet up on the ottoman and
Jude collapses in the corner of his sofa, pulling me down right next to him. 
He slouches way down, lifting his feet up on my cool coffee table, puts an arm
around my shoulders and tucks me in tight next to him.  I almost start to argue
but it’s seriously comfortable, so I just sigh, take a swig of my beer and
settle in to watch preseason football that I don’t give one care about. 

My thoughts come back to present time and I look over at
Reagan, telling her about my previous evening.  She’s sitting there with her
mouth hanging open.  I say, “I know, right?  And now as one of my best friends
in the universe, you know all there is to know.”

“So what happened after football?” she asks.

“I fell asleep around half time, Tony said goodbye and Jude
told me to go to bed, slept on my sofa again.”

“Is he coming back tonight?” she keeps on with the
questions.

“I don’t know!  That’s the thing, we never make plans, he
just comes back every evening and leaves the next morning.  I assume he goes
home, showers, changes, goes to work, and does whatever else he does and then
he’s back again!”

“What does his tattoo mean?”

“I don’t know yet, but I’m dying to find out!  I’ll let you
know!” I say with a smile and wiggle my eyebrows at her!  “I think I’m done. 
There’s really no drying with the wax, so you’re good to go!  It’s so pretty!”
I say, letting myself admire my handiwork.

“Gabby, you’re awesome! It’s beautiful and just what I
envisioned!”

“Go buy your table, Reagan.  It’ll look great in here!”

“We’re going this weekend!  I can’t wait!” she says with
excitement.

I gather all my stuff up, pull my phone out to text Jude. 
This is the newest thing he’s been bossy about.  He’s still concerned about
Trevor Harper and said they don’t have any leads on him, although they haven’t
heard much more about me on the wiretaps, which is a really good thing.  He
said he wants to know where I am all the time, so now I have to text him when I
leave somewhere and when I arrive at my next destination.  He really wants me
to go and hang out at my uncles offices or with one of my aunts at home, but I
refuse to sit around telling him I have work to do, so texting was as good as
he was going to get. 

“I’ll see you soon, Reagan, we need to find a time to go out
when John isn’t on call.” I say. 

“I can’t wait, I haven’t been out in for-e-ver!  I’ll call
Lilly and Leigh and we’ll set up a girls night!”  She says and I lean down and
kiss baby Ben on his soft little head that smells like yummy baby. 

“Perfect, bye!” I turn and head to my car. 

It’s early afternoon, so I head to Target to grab some
groceries.  I have only been here for twenty minutes when my phone rings and
when I see the caller, I sigh.  “Hey, Lilly.”

“Tonight!” she exclaims, planning my evening again.  “Reagan
just called.  You’ve obviously had a busy few days and there’s shit I need to
know.  Leigh can’t go, that jackwad of a husband has other plans for them.  I’m
worried about her, but until we can get Leigh figured out we've gotta figure
you out!     Bonefish at seven and you can share over Raspberry Vodka Collins! 
Lots of them!” she says with enthusiasm.  “It’ll be great!  John’s not on call,
so he’s gonna take us and we can share a taxi home.  Okay?”

“I don’t know, Lilly, I might have plans tonight,” I say
thinking about what my plans might be for tonight after last night.  I stop my
cart dead in the middle of the cereal aisle and it occurs to me that Jude might
have plans for me tonight that include lulling me into a Jude coma that always
makes me okay with his plans.  I change my mind immediately and say, “You know
what?  I’m hungry for the Salmon Asparagus Salad and I could use a couple of
those drinks.  Sounds like fun to me!” 

“Yay!” she cheers.  “Be ready at six forty five, the minivan
will be by to pick you up!”

“Okay, see you then,” I say hanging up.  Then I look down at
my phone and decide to do something I’ve never done before.  I’ve been texting
Jude on a normal basis, but for some reason calling seems different, more
familiar.  I hit call and put the phone to my ear, half praying I get his voice
mail.

Of course I do not.  He answers on the second ring and
simply rasps, “Sugar.”  Hearing his voice over the phone calling me sugar makes
me freeze up.  His voice over the phone sounds great.  I hesitate a couple
beats and hear him again, this time biting out, “Gabby, are you there?  Are you
okay?”

“I’m here. Sorry.  Fine.  I’m fine,” I ramble on.  “I got
distracted for a second.  Um, I’m at Target and got a call from Lilly who got a
call from Reagan and they’ve planned a girl’s night tonight.  See, Lilly is
pretty persistent, but I can still say no to her.  But Reagan has a baby and
her husband is on call a lot, so it’s harder for her to get out, but she can go
tonight.  I don’t know what…I mean if we had plans…well, if you had plans…” I
pull in a big breath and try to finish strong, “anyway, I’ve got girls night
tonight?” 

Damn.  I totally did not finish strong. 

“Sounds good, Gabby, I’ll wait on you,” he returns quickly.

“You’ll wait on me?”

“Yeah, at your house.  You still shouldn’t stay alone and I’d
like to see you even if it’s late.  Is that okay?”

“Um, sure.”

“Works out, I think we have a few leads on Harper.  I might
be working late tonight,” he informs me.

“Okay.  Well, you know how to get in and everything right? 
I mean if you get home…well, to my house before me?” I stammer on.

“Yeah, babe.  I know how to get in.  You go and have fun.”

“Okay, Jude.  Thanks.”

“See you tonight, sugar, but keep texting me.  Call if you
need something.”

“Oh, okay,” and I hear him disconnect.

As I stand next to the Fruit Loops staring at my phone, I
realize that it’s getting less scary all the time.  Shaking off my latest Jude
trance, thinking that they are so powerful they even work over the phone in the
middle of Target, I head to the granola.  I have an evening out to get ready
for, so smiling to myself, I make my way through Target quicker than normal to
get myself home and start my getting ready to go out routine.  Happy, excited
and a little nervous, I didn’t realize until later that as I drove home, parked
my car, got my things in, finally let Mia do her thing that my chest never
tightened like it usually does coming home.  I reset my alarm, texted Jude that
I was home and skipped off to my shower to get ready for girls night!

“Its last call ladies, we’re already closed but the
bartender stayed late for you.  So this is it, one more round?” 

This came from our super cute and young waiter, Cody.  I bet
he’s barely old enough to serve us our drinks.  He’s been flirting with us all
night, telling us about his muscle car he’s rebuilding and how it’s going be a
chick magnet.  Not surprisingly the longer we’re here, the three of us agree
more than ever that yes, indeed, his muscle car is definitely going to win him
a boat load of chicks!

“One more round!  I’m pumping and dumping tonight!” Reagan
announces to little Cody, who probably has no idea what pumping and dumping
means.

Lilly leans over so far she’s in danger of toppling out of
the booth and whispers super loud, “She’s nursing, like, her baby!  And we all
want her baby to be smart when he grows up so he can drive muscle cars like
you, Cody, and nail hot chicks because of his hot car.  So she has to ‘pump and
dump,’” Lilly uses her fingers to make air quotes, “so he’s smart and not
stupid because she fed him Raspberry Vodka Collins when he was a baby!”  Lilly,
happy with her explanation, smiles like she’s just explained the meaning of
life to young Cody.  Then all of a sudden Lilly has an epiphany, “We should get
two rounds since they’re closing!”

Not knowing where my reasoning is coming from since I was
way past my normal level of imbibing, I say, “I think one more’s enough for
me!” slurring my words a bit.  “How bout we get four and share the last one?”

“Perfect!  We’ll take four!” Reagan agrees and Cody heads to
the bar.  He’s not quite as friendly now that we explained how breasts are used
for feeding small human beings and not just for the pleasure of the male
population. 

“I can’t believe we couldn’t find his tattoo on the
internet,” I almost whine.  Looking down at our brown paper tablecloth, I see
scribbles all over it drawn by me trying to replicate Jude’s tattoo to share
with my girlies.  Then, even though they have never laid eyes on Jude’s tattoo,
Lilly and Reagan try to correct me and start to draw their own imaginary
replicas.  We’ve Googled it, taken pictures with our phones and have even tried
to upload it to some ‘Name That Tattoo’ website that Reagan was sure she
thought existed because she saw an infomercial for it in the middle of the
night when she was up nursing Ben.  But, nada!  Not one clue to his super cool
winged tattoo!

“Give it up on the tattoo, Gabby,” Lilly says.  And then she
continues with a sly smile, “Maybe you’ll figure it out when you get to lick
it!”

“Shut up, Lilly!” I say smiling, beyond being embarrassed
about anything at this point.  “But, I bet it tastes really good!” Lilly and
Reagan agree with sage looking faces.

“Here are your drinks, ladies, and I’m tabbing you out,”
Cody says.  “You’re calling a cab, right?  I mean, I don’t want to have to
wrestle you three down for your keys,” he says, back to flirting. 

“We’re callin’ a taxi!” I exclaim.  And then my phone which
is sitting on the table since it was being used as a Tattoo Recognition Device
starts crankin out “All Summer Long” by Kid Rock.  We’ve all decided my iPhone,
from this time forward, will always be referred to as a Tattoo Recognition
Device.  I look down at my Tattoo Recognition Device, also known as the TRD,
and it says Jude Ortiz Calling. 

“Oh shit!  It’s Jude Ortiz!” I say, reading the screen of my
TRD!  “He’s never called me before!” I go on, sitting here staring at my TRD.

“Well he’s had his tongue down your throat and your shirt on
the floor, you’re gonna miss the call, answer the freakin TRD!!!” Reagan
pleads!

I slide my thumb across my TRD and say in a voice way too
high to be my own, “Hi!”

“Gabby?” Jude rasps.

“Hey, yeah, it’s me!  Sorry,” I apologize for something. 

“Are you okay?  You still at the restaurant?” he asks.

I sigh big into the phone listening to his voice, “I’m
great, still at Bonefish, just got our last round and, oh, thanks Cody, we’re
just getting our bill.  Whatcha’ doin’ Jude?” I say as I hand over my Visa to
Cody.

“Who’s Cody?” Jude asks tersely. 

“He’s our waiter.  He’s gotta muscle car and I’m pretty sure
he’s hoping to nail some hot chicks with it,” I pause and put my hand up to cup
my mouth around my TRD and talk lower, “but I don’t know how well that’s gonna
work out for him, if you ya know what I mean!”

“Sugar, how much have you had to drink?”

“I dunno.  I’m gonna have to check my bill, but Cody just
took it away with my Visa.”

“Gabby, who’s driving?”

“Huh?” he sure is asking a lot of questions and it’s hard to
concentrate when his voice is coming through the TRD so close to my ear.  It’s
like he’s only talking to me. 

“Driving, babe, how are you getting home?” he asks again.

“Oh, we’re calling a cab.  We’re gonna Google one on the
TRD!” I say, really proud of myself!

“Ask him what his tattoo is!” Lilly exclaims, too loudly.

“Shhh, Lilly!” I say into the phone at the same time waving
my free arm around to shush her up.  “Sorry about that, Lilly doesn’t know what
she’s saying!”

“I’m coming to get you, take you all home.  Do not call a
cab,” he says, back to bossy again.

“No, no!  We’re gonna split a cab.  Plus you don’t even know
where we are!” I say, all uppity-like!

“Sugar, you just told me you’re at Bonefish.  If you call a
cab, I’m not gonna be happy.  I’m leaving your house in five, be ready to go in
fifteen minutes,” he bosses me again.

“But, we still have one and one third drinks left!  We can’t
drink that all in fifteen minutes!  We’ll be drunk if we drink that fast!” I
say, defending my position as best I can.

“Fifteen minutes, Gabby.”

I can tell he’s getting ready to hang up, so I yell into my
TRD quickly, “Wait! Jude?”

“What do you need, sugar?”

“Well, since you’re at my house, will you let Mia come with
you?  She really likes to go for car rides and it would make her really happy! 
Please?” I ask, using my best manners.

I barely hear him laugh into the phone in low sexy rasp and
all he says to me is, “Sugar.  No.  I’ll see you in fifteen.”  And he hangs up.

I end the call on my TRD, set it on the table.  I sigh again
and say, “I love his voice.  Really, he has the best voice.  But he’s not
letting Mia come with him.”

“I’ve never heard him say much more than ‘hi’ because after
you saw us at church, you drug him into the sanctuary away from us,” Reagan
complains.

“At least you’ve seen him, I’ve never even seen him,” Lilly
says, clearly feeling sorry for herself.

“Well, tonight’s your lucky night, chickadees!  He’s picking
us up!  He said he’d be here in fifteen minutes, and you heard me, I tried to
buy us more time because we are
really
going to be drunk if we drink
these drinks that fast.  But I told you he’s bossy, so all he had to say was,
‘Sugar.  No.  I’ll see you in fifteen!’” I do my best raspy Jude impression.  

Lilly and Reagan start laughing their asses off.  Lilly
says, “He does not sound like that!”

“But he does,” I argue!  “It’s low and raspy, I mean, I
don’t know how else to describe it!”

“Raspy?  Like a smoker raspy?” Reagan asks frowning and
super confused now.  “Please tell me he doesn’t smoke! He’ll never be able to
be around Ben!”

“No he doesn’t smoke!  Well, at least I’ve never seen him
smoke and he doesn’t taste like smoke,” I say, defending my Jude, whatever he
is to me.  “It’s just low and sexy.  I don’t know how else to describe it,” I
say, thinking as hard as I can at the moment for a comparison.  “I know!” I
say, throwing my hands up because I thought of something good!  “Okay, stick
with me here,” I look to Lilly and Reagan for verification they are paying
attention.  “Alright, if he sang everything he said, he would sound a lot like
Nickelback!” I slam my hands on the table, proud of my awesome comparison!

“He’s a singer?” Lilly asks, obviously not sticking with
me.  She looks at Reagan, who looks equally confused.

“No, ding dong!  But he sounds like that.  That deep voice,
ya know?” I take a big slurp of my drink.

“You mean, like Nickelback ‘Rockstar’ or Nickelback
‘Photograph’?” Reagan asks, needing clarification.

“Well,” I think taking yet another big slurp, “I guess all
Nickelback, but I’m think more Nickelback ‘Lullaby’ or Nickelback ‘Savin me.’”

“No way,” Reagan says.  “No one can talk as good as
Nickelback sings.”

“Whatever, you’ll see!” I say all high and mighty.

“Drink up, buttercup,” Lilly announces.  “It’s T minus ten
until we get to experience the Nickelback talking, mystery tattoo wearing and
uber sexy man that gonna get in Gabby’s pants!”

“Lilly!” I yell.  Then we all burst into a mass of hysteria!

*****

I pull into the empty parking lot.  It’s late, especially
for restaurants in this city on a Tuesday, they’ve got to be closed by now.  I
don’t bother with a parking spot, I just pull up by the curb, park and head to
the front door.  It’s locked so I rap on the glass door with my fist.  Some kid
comes up and says through the door, “We’re closed.”  I look beyond him into the
empty restaurant and see three women, the back of Gabby’s dark blonde hair was
to me.

I point beyond him and say through the door, “I’m here for
them.” 

He turns around and looks at Gabby and her friends, then
back to me and says, “They’re calling a cab,” folding his arms over his chest.

I’ve lost my patience.  I never do this, but it’s late,
Gabby’s drunk and I need to get her home, not stand on a sidewalk arguing with
some punk through the fucking door.  I pull out my badge and credentials, slam
them up against the glass demanding, “Open the door.  Now.”  The kid looks at
my badge then back to me.  Shaking his head, he finally decides to throw the
lock and opens the door.  I don’t say another word as I clear the door with my
eyes on Gabby and make my way through the now empty restaurant to her table. 

As I near her table, I can hear Gabby and her friends
laughing.  More like cackling.  I recognize one of her friends from church but
haven’t met the other.   Gabby has one hand in her hair at the back of her head
and being animated with the other.  I give my head a shake as I come up behind
her and her two friends sitting across from her stop laughing as soon as they see
me and look up at me with big eyes. 

This should be fun.  Since Gabby is alone on her side of the
booth, I decide to sit down.  I haven’t seen her since this morning when I
kissed her goodbye and left to get ready for work.  She’s definitely getting
under my skin.  I can’t stop thinking about last night in her basement.  Damn
if she didn’t feel fucking great and I’ve hardly been able to concentrate on
anything today thinking about her. 

I slide in next to Gabby.  She’s saying something about a
hand in her hair, when she senses me and looks over.  Her eyes get big for a
second and she give me her shocked as shit look she’s perfected but then
surprises me when she bursts into laughter.   She’s also beautiful when she
laughs and I realize this isn’t something she’s done around me very much, but
it’s been an intense few days.  I watch her as she starts to calm down,
throwing her hands up and slaps my shoulder and chest, looks up at me with
tears of laughter in her eyes and says, “Ohmygoodness, that was funny!” 

I look down at her and she’s wearing another tank top, but
this one is pink and has ruffles all down the front.  I think she is wearing
another little skirt, but black.  She has lots of layers of silver beaded
necklaces on, one hanging past her tits, matching long earrings with about half
a million thin silver, black and beaded bracelets on one arm that jingled when
she hit my chest.  She’s wearing a little more makeup than I’ve seen on her and
her hair is in in a mass of loose curls long down her back.

I’ve had enough. I haven’t seen her since this morning, so I
put my arm around her back and my hand down to the side of her sweet ass and
give her a yank into my side and she’s back to surprised again.

“Hi sugar,” I say, and lean in to kiss her.  Instinctively
she kisses me back. “You look like you’re having fun.”

“Um, yeah, fun,” she says on a sigh and then turns back to
her friends, settling into my shoulder. 

I look across the table and say, “Hi.  I’m Jude.”

Gabby comes alert again and talking quicker than normal,
rambles, “Oh sorry!  Jude, this is Lilly Sutton.  We went to high school
together.  And you met Reagan Ford at church, well sort of.  Lilly, Reagan,
this is Jude Ortiz,” annunciating my last name for some reason.

Lilly looks straight at Gabby, and for the second time, I
hear, “He’s way hotter than James!” 

Gabby, who is obviously appalled, yells, “Lilly!”

“He is Gabby,” Reagan agrees.  And now I really want to know
more about this James.

Lilly and Reagan give me drunken looking grins and start
giggling again like five year old girls.  Okay, it’s time to move this along,
“Are you all ready?”  All three of them nod while giggling.  “All right, let’s
get you home,” I look over at Gabby’s friends and go on, “if you can remember
where you live, that is.”

Gabby raises her hand immediately, and says, “I know where
they live!  I can lead the way!”

Grinning and shaking my head, I respond, “Good babe.  Let’s
go.”  I stand and grab Gabby’s hand and pull her out after me.  She stumbles a
bit.  I look down and she’s wearing very high sandals that are black that tie
with ribbon above her ankle that have to boost her up just shy of six foot. 
Trying to keep my eyes off Gabby’s legs and ass, I hold out my hand for her
friends to go ahead of me.  I hold Gabby’s hand to keep her close to me when I
hear her friends start yelling out their goodbyes.