Strawberry Wine (11 page)

Greg reached the bathroom just as Alli was stepping out. “Whoa! Serves me right for surprising a woman. Doing a little spa treatment?” Greg was holding a bouquet of roses which he presented to Alli with a flourish. “For the birthday girl.”

Alli smiled her thank you. “They’re lovely. That’s so sweet.” Alli leaned in, threatening to kiss him, but Greg backed away before she could assault him with her messy face mask. He laughed, then stopped, looking closely at Alli’s eyes. “Hey,” He cajoled. “Has someone been partaking of a little birthday herb?”

“Huh?” Alli was confused by the question.

“Your eyes, Babe. You’ve either been smoking a blunt or you have pink eye.” Greg stepped back from her a bit farther. “In which case stay far far away from me. Seriously. I can’t afford to have pink eye. I have court!”

Alli waved away his worry. “Oh, that. It’s not pink eye.” She scowled at him. “And I haven’t been smoking marijuana. It’s my allergies. It must be a crazy pollen count today.”

Greg relaxed. “Oh, thank God. I was scared there for a moment. Conjunctivitis is not my friend.” He frowned in thought for a beat. “Why don’t you put some cucumbers on those suckers or drop some Visine.
Something
before dinner. I don’t want people thinking you’re unrested.”

Alli gave a mental eye roll. “Aye aye Captain.” She saluted him, using sarcasm to mask her continuing anxiety over Jason’s negative reception.

Alli latched the gate to the goat pen, and rinsed the bottles in the utility sink by the grain barrel. Setting them on a shelf to dry, she flipped off the light and closed the door.

She had happily volunteered to feed Frick and Frack tonight, knowing Jason had plans with a friend. It was her wicked self doubt that reared her ugly head as Alli crunched along the gravel path toward home.

Plans with a friend?

Yeah, a friend. So what.

A
female
friend?

He didn’t say.

He didn’t
not
say either.

Alli pursed her lips. Why wouldn’t he have a female friend? It’s not like
she
was offering him anything. In the two weeks since she had told him she wasn’t interested in a serious relationship, Jason had been a perfect gentleman.

He didn’t avoid her, like she had feared he would. If Alli was being perfectly honest, she reveled in the fact that she would occasionally catch him looking at her like a starving man would look at a feast, but he hadn’t kissed her again. It was those looks that had her hoping fervently that her self doubt was wrong.

By ten thirty Alli had lost her mind with curiosity. Not being able to stand one more minute of Matlock reruns with Gran, she heaved an overly dramatic sigh and flopped over on the couch.

“What is it, dear?” Gran asked, taking the bait.

Alli sighed again for good measure. “I’m just bored, Gran. Can I take the car into town?”

Gran cocked a brow in surprise. “It’s so late, dear.”

Alli sat up and tried to look sage. “Not really, Gran. It’s only ten thirty. I was hoping to go down to the soda shop. A bunch of kids I know from camp hang out there. They’re open til midnight.”

Gran appeared to mull this information over for a minute. Alli had a long track record of being impeccably responsible, and one of the benefits of that was Gran’s willingness to indulge her more unorthodox requests.

“Well, alright. I guess there’s no harm in a little late night ice cream stop. Use your high beams, and go easy on the clutch.”

Alli mouthed “go easy on the clutch” along with her Gran, causing both of them to laugh.

Jason watched the foam settling on his beer. Doug kept shifting in his seat, peering around Jason as if waiting for someone. “Are you expecting someone?” He finally asked.

Doug looked abashed. “No... This is a boys’ night, right? So,” He said, changing the subject, “What’s up with you and that nineteen year old chick? Did you hit that yet?”

Jason rolled his eyes in exasperation. “No. And I have no intention of ‘hitting that’ as you so delicately put it. Alli and I are just friends.”

Doug looked surprised. “Oh? It sounded like it was more than that last I heard.”

Jason shrugged. “We decided to keep things platonic.”

“Oh,” Doug said, understanding, “She dumped you. Jeeze. That’s a first for you, isn’t it Taylor?”

Jason scowled. “She did not dump me.” He insisted emphatically. “We mutually agreed that a serious relationship wasn’t in either of our best interests.”

“Yeah,” Doug nodded. “like I said, she dumped your ass.”

Doug’s eye lit up, and Jason followed his line of sight. Two women were sashaying into the bar. Jason recognized the silicone parrot from the last time he was drinking with Doug. The parrot’s equally cheap girlfriend was unfamiliar to Jason.

Doug leaned in conspiratorially. “Listen, since you mutually agreed not to tap that nineteen year old’s ass, why not do me a solid tonight?”

Jason gave Doug a long suffering glare. “I thought this was a boys’ night.”

“Please?” Doug pleaded. “Just make small talk with her friend so I can have some quality time with Tawney.”

“
Tawney?
Her name is Tawney?” Humor danced in Jason’s eyes. He was feeling piqued over Doug’s accurate assumptions regarding Alli’s dumping him. “She had to have picked that name out of The Stripper’s Handbook.”

Doug frowned. “You wound me. Tawney’s a nice girl.”

“I’m sure she’s got a dazzling wit.” Jason conceded sarcastically. “But I’ll bet you cash money her parent’s didn’t come up with that name. You don’t name your daughter ‘Tawney’ unless you want her to be a dancer.”

Doug jumped on Jason’s offer. “I’ll bet you your services as a wingman for the night that they
did
.”

Jason sighed. “Fine.”

Doug stood and waved the girls over.

“Hi Dougie,” Tawney purred. “Hi Dougie’s friend.”

Jason stood while the women took their seats. “It’s Jason.”

Doug jumped in. “Jason, you remember Tawney, from last time, and this is...” He motioned to Tawney’s friend.

“Crystal.” Crystal was smacking gum loudly. “I’m Tawney’s roommate.”

Crystal looked over Jason with appreciation. As the girls settled, Jason turned to Tawney. “Tawney, what a lovely, unusual name. How did your parent’s come up with it?”

Tawney beamed under Jason’s scrutiny. “My mutha was a very spiritual woman. She said she dreamed it befoah I was bowen.”

Tawney had a distinctly odd accent. Jason couldn’t place it. It reminded him of a cross between Boston and Brooklyn. It grated on his ears like finger nails on a chalk board.

“AH!” Enthused Doug. “So,
your mother
chose the name Tawney.”

“Yeah...” Tawney answered. Jason took a large swallow of beer in defeat. “She said it was the perfect name for a dance-ah.” Jason choked on his beer, spraying a little of it across the table in an effort to control his laughter.

Crystal pounded him on the back with comic enthusiasm. He nodded his thanks, trying to get her to stop. As his breathing calmed, he regarded his table mates and shuddered inwardly, knowing that it was going to be a long night. Suddenly Crystal loomed into his field of vision. She was chomping animatedly at her gum and chewing her bottom lip simultaneously. She had a serious tweaker vibe going on.
What the hell is this chick on?

Alli pulled into the soda fountain parking lot and spotted Jason’s truck almost immediately. Feeling more than a little like a stalker, she went into the soda shop and managed to secure a seat near the window, giving her an almost entirely unobstructed view of Jason’s truck. She was on her second root beer float when his tall frame cut into her line of sight from the direction of the bar. He wasn’t alone.

She watched rapt as he bent his head in conversation with another man.

HA!
She crowed.
His friend is a MAN.

Her jubilant glee was cut short as a pair of women ambled over to meet them.

Both of the women seemed a bit wobbly on their feet, one more so than the other. Alli’s jaw clenched as the drunker woman draped her arms around Jason’s neck and sagged against him. Jason caught the woman before she fell. He maneuvered her sloppy body around his truck, passing under a streetlamp.

Alli wrinkled her nose at the short skirt and trashy metallic top straining against the drunk woman’s ample chest. “Ugh. What is he
thinking
?” Alli said with disgust.

Jason poured the woman into the passenger seat of his truck and returned to the other couple. After a brief back and forth, the other couple ambled off toward another vehicle, and Jason got into his truck and slowly pulled away. Alli frowned, noting his direction.

“Hey Alli! How’s it going?” Alli jumped out of her skin. Her eyes refocused from the parking lot outside to the reflection in the window. A transparent Josh Saunders was standing at her table.

Alli hid a cringe and turned to acknowledge him. “Hi Josh.”

Josh looked extremely happy to see her. “I thought it was you! Everyone has been saying how you’re back in town for the summer, but I haven’t seen you around.”

“Yeah... I’ve been laying pretty low...” Alli was calculating how much time she had to waste pretending to care about this conversation before she could excuse herself without seeming too rude.

“...so do you mind if I join you?” He was asking.

“Uh... actually Josh, I was just leaving.” Alli braced her hands against the table to stand up.

“But you haven’t finished your float yet.”

Alli slumped back into her seat. He was an insistent little thing, wasn’t he. Well, Alli amended, he’s not exactly little. He was actually quite tall. Alli took in his short auburn hair and friendly brown eyes. Josh had perfect teeth and an easy smile.
Why can’t I like you?
She thought.

Alli spent the next twenty minutes doing her best to look interested in what Josh was saying, but her mind kept wandering.

Jason should be home by now...

If he was even going home.

The quiet at the table brought Alli back to the present. Josh was looking at her as if he was expecting her to say something. She stared at him blankly.

“Hello? Earth to Alli.” He laughed a little uncomfortably. “Is anybody home?”

God he’s annoying.
“Oh, sorry. I’m a little preoccupied.”

“That’s okay...” He shrugged. “I understand. I was just saying how it looks like that new Pixar movie might be pretty good...”

“Yeah. Pixar has a great track record.” Alli slurped up the last of her root beer as loudly as possible and stood up before Josh worked up the nerve to ask her to another movie. “It was good to see you, Josh. Thanks for the chat.”

Alli could tell Josh was flustered by her rapid departure. He managed to smile and nod enthusiastically, but he couldn’t make his tongue cooperate enough to utter an actual sentence. She could feel him watching her leave. He waved to her through the window as she stooped to get into her car. The engine rumbled to life as she turned the key in the ignition. Alli felt mean, as if she had just kicked a puppy.

Sleep did not come easily to Alli that night. She lie awake, staring at her ceiling, unable to stop the thoughts playing on a loop in her mind.
What is Jason doing right now? Is he kissing that drunk woman? Is he running his expert hands over her cheaply clad curves? Arrrgh!

Alli would never understand men. How could Jason be attracted to her, and then go and consort with a woman like
that
? That woman looked like a walking hepatitis factory.

Alli turned around huffily and punched at her pillow a few times. Swiping angrily at the hot tears running down the side of her face into her hairline, she grabbed her ipod headphones and stuffed them into her ears. Hopefully the Black Eyed Peas could drown out her thoughts. It was going to be a long night.

“Happy birthday Alli!”

Alli smiled brightly and greeted her gathered friends. They had taken over a back room at an obscure asian fusion restaurant. It wasn’t Greg’s first choice of venue, but Alli’s girlfriend Ellen had demanded hosting privileges, and Greg didn’t have the energy to argue with that woman.