Rock Chick 01 (42 page)

Lee was standing in the doorway to the
kitchen holding a coffee mug, jeans buttoned, eyes cold, face
blank.

Yikes.

This was weird.

Nobody moved, nobody said anything.

I decided to forge into the breach.

“Eddie, you want coffee?” I asked, sidling
around him and into the living room.

“Sure, three sugars and cream. Thanks.”

I tilted my head and said, “You like it
sweet.”

Damn!

Shit, shit, shit.

I’d flirted, I didn’t mean to, it just came
out.

Eddie looked at me, an amused twinkle in his
eye. “Yeah, I like it sweet.”

Shit.

“All righty then,” I said and hurried across
the room.

Lee was still standing in the doorway to the
kitchen and as I walked toward him, he didn’t move.

Moments before I’d have to stop, he stepped
to the side but just barely. I had to squeeze by him and I felt the
heat from his glare as I did so.

He moved out of the doorway and into the
dining room when I went into the kitchen.

“Eddie,” I heard him say, “what’re you doin’
here?”

“Lookin’ for you,” Eddie replied.

“You found me.” This was not said in a
welcoming tone and the bad vibes were snapping in the air.

“I heard about you and Indy being in a brawl
on Colfax last night,” Eddie said.

Uh-oh.

Not a good way to start.

I pulled out a coffee mug.

“We weren’t in a brawl. I was pickin’ up a
skip and Indy was supposed to sit in the car. She got a hankerin’
to test out her new stun gun so she followed me in, dropped anyone
who came near her, my back up came and we got out.” Lee waited a
beat and said, “She’s a new-found fondness for stun guns.”

There was silence and then Eddie said, “Yeah,
I heard that too. Willie saw her with it, said the floor was
littered with her victims.”

More silence.

I held my breath as I spooned sugar in
Eddie’s coffee.

Then I heard low chuckling.

I let out my breath.

Okay, they were bonding over my crazy antics
which was somewhat embarrassing but at least they were bonding.

I walked into the dining room and handed
Eddie his coffee.

“I’m going to go get dressed,” I told them
both.

Lee’s eyes moved over me and I couldn’t guess
what he was thinking.

“Bring my shirt back down when you’re done
with it, would you?” he asked.

I nodded, wondering at his mood, guessing it
was not good after the flirty incident and I scooted up the
stairs.

I put on the red bra, a pair of red track
bottoms that had a wide white stripe that ran from the side of the
ankle, up the leg, across my upper ass, and down the other leg. To
this, I added a thin, white, tank top that showed a bit of
cleavage. I spritzed on some perfume, rolled on some deodorant,
rubbed in some moisturizer and slapped on some powder, blush and
mascara, not feeling like the full treatment. I slid on some red
flip flops and headed back downstairs.

By the time I got there, Lee and Eddie were
both sitting, or, more to the point, lounging in king-of-the-castle
fashion, at my dining room table.

Jeez.

That didn’t take long.

I walked up to the table.

“It’s Tex’s first day with the morning crowd,
I need to get to work,” I informed them, walking to the table.

Lee’s eyes had moved over me again as I
approached and Eddie’s gaze came around, then dropped straight to
my chest.

I ignored Eddie, stopped and handed Lee his
shirt. He took it and shrugged into it.

“See you all later,” I said.

I started to go but Lee caught my wrist.

I turned back to him.

“You’re forgetting two things,” Lee said.

“What’re those?” I asked.

His eyes moved to my tank top. “First, you
need to change into real clothes.”

Um… excuse me?

“Sorry?” I said, just in case he hadn’t just
been totally out of line, I’d give him an out.

“You aren’t wearin’ that out of this house,”
Lee replied.

I hadn’t missed it, he had been totally out
of line.

I wasn’t sure if it was the room or just my
head that started rumbling, like in the movies before the
earthquake that swallows cars and whole buildings.

“Um,
sorry
?” I repeated, this time
chockfull of attitude.

Eddie lifted up his hand and started
inspecting his fingernails. I could mostly see just his profile but
I knew he was grinning because I could see his fucking dimple.

“Maybe we should have this conversation
upstairs,” Lee suggested when he saw my attention turn to
Eddie.

“Maybe we should have this conversation in an
alternate universe where Alternate Indy gives a shit what Alternate
Lee wants her to wear.”

No way to miss the attitude in
that
.

Eddie stood. “I’ll just top up my
coffee.”

“I’m sorry, Eddie,” I said to him as he
walked into the kitchen.

“Don’t mind me,” Eddie returned, making a
beeline to the coffee.

Once Eddie disappeared, I hissed at Lee,
“Tell me you just didn’t tell me what to wear in front of
Eddie.”

“I’ll tell you that when the image of you
flirting with him isn’t freshly burned into my brain,” Lee
replied.

Yep, I was right, Lee was not in a good mood
about my flirting with Eddie.

I ripped my wrist out of Lee’s hand.

“It’s okay Eddie,” I called, “you can come
back. I’m leaving.”

“You try to leave, I’ll carry you upstairs
and change you myself,” Lee threatened.

Eddie leaned his shoulder in the doorway of
the kitchen. “I’m thinkin’ you aren’t quite finished.” Then Eddie
decided to throw down. “For what it’s worth, I’m with Lee. If you
were my woman, there’s no fuckin’ way I’d let you out of the house
wearin’ that.”

I glared at him. “Did someone ask you?”

“Nope. Just tryin’ to be helpful,” Eddie
answered, grinned and walked into the room.

I opened my mouth to, I don’t know, scream,
shriek, talk in tongues, when a sound came from the backdoor.

“Yoo hoo!”

Tod came in wearing his flight attendant
uniform. “I saw Chowleena healthy and happy out there and your door
open. I knew you’d have coffee, you always have coffee and I need
coffee. The Beemer’s in the shop so we only have one car. I have to
stay awake and go back to DIA and get Stevie later this morning and
I’m dead on my feet. Your coffee’s so strong, you could melt nails
in it and…”

Tod had been talking while he entered the
kitchen through the backdoor and grabbed himself a mug o’ joe. He
stopped dead in the kitchen doorway and his mouth dropped open. He
stared between Lee and Eddie. Back and forth. Back again, and
forth.

Then his eyes swung to me.

“What’re you doing? Collecting the straight,
super-macho Village People?”

Eddie burst out laughing and Lee looked down
and to the side but I caught the fact that his eyes crinkled.

I clenched my teeth.

Once Eddie quit laughing I said, “Tod, Eddie,
Eddie, Tod.”

They nodded to each other.

Then I didn’t hesitate, I was being ganged up
on, I needed back up.

So I asked Tod, “What do you think of my
outfit?”

Tod looked around again, but this time only
between me and Lee.

“Uh-oh, is there trouble in paradise?”

“Just answer the question,” I snapped.

“Okay, girlie, keep your pants on.” Tod went
into assessment mode, looking me up and down. “Very cute pants. You
know
I’m not fond of flip flops but they work. Pretty bra
but I only say that because I can see every inch of it. Normally,
my motto is, if you got it, flaunt it, but with your bazungas, you
really
got it. You in that top and bra might cause traffic
collisions. Are you prepared to live with that on your
conscience?”

Great.

I avoided looking at Lee and turned in a huff
and headed to the stairs. “Fine. I’ll change. I wouldn’t want to
cause bodily harm.”

I went back upstairs, changed the track
bottoms for jeans, put on a fitted, plaid, cuffed-short-sleeved,
Western Style shirt with pearl snap buttons up the front and on the
two breast pockets and switched out the red flip flops for brown
leather ones and stomped back down the stairs and into the
kitchen.

Tod was now sitting with the boys at the
table, enjoying his coffee, Chowleena lying beside him on the
floor. Chowleena followed me into the kitchen and I threw her a
biscuit for her show of camaraderie.

“We girls have to stick together,” I told her
as I rifled through my junk drawer looking for my crazy,
thick-gold-Elvis-framed sunglasses that would be kickass with my
shirt.

I found them as Lee walked into the kitchen.
I threw him a glance that would pulverize rock and slid my glasses
into the mess of hair on my head.

“Later,” I said, intending to walk right by
him.

He stepped in front of me, advanced and
backed me into the corner next to the fridge, by the coffeepot, a
corner that you couldn’t see from the dining room.

“We haven’t talked about the second thing you
forgot,” he said to me, his hands settling on the counter on either
side of me.

Ignoring his fencing me in, I planted my
hands on my hips. “And what’s that?”

His arms wrapped around me and kissed me.

After he finished, trying to recover from the
kiss and not let it show, I said, “Move back.”

“You’re pissed,” he stated the obvious.

“Damn straight,” I said.

“We’ll talk about it tonight.”

“No we won’t, tonight is girl’s night out.
I’m busy.”

“I’ll come and get you for lunch.”

“No lunch, no dinner, no tonight, today, you
and me, we’re on a break. No talking, no seeing, no nothing. Maybe,
if I’ve cooled down, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Indy, you can have space today but you’re in
my bed tonight.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I’ll be here tonight when you get home.”

“I’m not coming home.”

His eyes got kind of scary and he leaned into
me a bit. Considering he was pretty damn close to me, leaning in
was seriously invasive.

“Honey, you forget, part of my job is findin’
people. Do you think you can hide from me?”

No, I didn’t think I could hide from him, but
I was going to try.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I repeated, shoved
through his arms, huffed through the living room giving a wave and
a farewell to Eddie and Tod, who both wisely kept quiet, and soared
on my anger all the way down the block towards Fortnum’s.

Friendly Neighborhood Serial Killer

I almost made it to the door of Fortnum’s
when I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that stapled to every
telephone and light pole down Broadway, for as far as the eye could
see, was an acid green piece of paper with what looked like a photo
with some writing underneath.

I thought someone really, really wanted to
find their missing cat so I stomped up to check it out and stopped
dead at what I saw.

It was a picture of Tex, no night vision
goggles (thankfully) but with wild hair, a crazy-ass smile on his
face looking like your friendly neighborhood serial killer. The
picture was obviously color, copied in black and white which made
it blobby and grainy and even more frightening.

Underneath his picture it said, “Tex” and
underneath that it said, “New Coffee Guy” and underneath that it
said, “Fortnum’s”.

Holy crap.

I snatched the flier off the telephone pole
and prowled into Fortnum’s.

There were five customers, three standing in
line, two waiting at the other end of the counter for their coffee.
Tex and Jane were behind the counter.

I shouted, “What the hell is this?”

Then I waved the acid green poster
around.

Tex looked up at me, then looked out the
window, then looked back at me and pointed the portafilter at me.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t pounded out the used coffee grounds so
they went flying in an arc in front of him and the customers
stepped wide on either side to avoid them.

“What’re you doin’, woman? That was prime
advertisin’ space, right outside the store. Why’d you pull it
down?”

I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t want to
tell him he looked like a serial killer.

But, for God’s sake, he looked like a serial
killer.

“Tex, you look like a serial killer in this
picture!” I shouted.

“Yeah, so?” Tex answered.

I stared.

“You think people wouldn’t pay good money to
have a serial killer make them coffee?” he boomed.

He had a point. This was America, people
would stand in line to touch the swastika on Charles Manson’s
forehead.

I stomped to the back to get the mop to clean
up the grounds. After I did that, I spelled Jane behind the
counter. Tex cursed, banged, slammed and crashed through every cup
of coffee he made, as if each creation had to be wrenched by force
out of the seven thousand dollar machine. I tried to put this down
to the fact that he was making coffee one-handed, due to the sling,
but it took all my willpower not to put my hands to the sides of my
head and scream bloody murder.

“What’d you…”
Bang!
“get up to last
night?”
Clank!
Tex asked.

“Bar brawl…”
Smash!
“stunned-gunned a
few people…”
Kablam!
“Lee caught some guy who jumped bond,
then we came home.”
Crash!
I answered then asked, “You?”

“After doin’ the posters, the cats and me had
a quiet night.”
Bam!

The morning passed relatively normally, not
counting Jane and I jumping every time Tex bashed the espresso
machine or cursed (which was a lot). I spent the morning trying to
decide where I should go to avoid Lee for the night, because, let’s
face it, telling your girlfriend what to wear was bad enough, doing
it in front of someone else was a serious transgression.