Brady was tall, built like an athlete. He knew how to hold a conversation and seemed as interested in me as I was in him. There wouldn’t be any strings. He knew I lived in LA.
Jay’s hand was on my thigh under the table before I could think of anything further. The shock of it flew straight to my core. “Babe, if you want a night out, I’ll take you out.”
I stared at him, the look in his eyes so full of concern, I almost gave in. This was Jay though, the man that would do anything for his friends.
I was falling for a man who’d put me back in the friendzone. We were both sober, we weren’t drinking and losing our inhibitions.
I crossed my legs so that his hand fell away. “I’m not looking to go out with a friend.” My words implied exactly what Brady and I wanted.
“I know the night scene in this city isn’t much but there’s a festival in a few days. I can take you, we can go through the fun house, have some funnel cake, see if Lorraine’s pie wins the blue ribbon this year. Spoiler alert: it wins every year.”
As if on cue, Lorraine waltzed back in with an apple pie in a brown bag. She set it down and ripped the bag from it to present us with a pie that had caramelized spun brown sugar arching above it like a carriage holding a delectable treat. It smelled like cinnamon and apples, like autumn in the warmest way. “I win because mine’s the best.”
“I’m not arguing that, Lorraine. Rosie might because she knows Paul is sweet on you. Either way, I like yours best.” Brady blatantly sweet talked the woman as she cut him a massive slice. He winked at me as she set it down on his plate. The warm feeling of having an admirer was back, like I wasn’t whole yet but I could get there. I knew it would take time, but having his attention might push me a little further on my way.
“Well, the festival sounds nice,” I said as I cut a piece of pie.
“You should all go, then,” Lorraine chimed in. “Brady can swing by and help us pack up some of the pies.”
“I’ll do that,” he said around a mouthful of pie.
Jay was unusually silent. Restraining myself from glancing over at him, I took my first bite of the pie. My concerns of whether or not Jay was frustrated with Brady coming melted away. My concerns over Dougie and my relationship ending melted away. My concerns about going back to LA and finding my own life melted away.
All I could wrap my mind around was the sweet taste of fall on my lips. It was like I’d disappeared into a place where colorful leaves floated through the sky and the scent of caramel apples filled the air while someone wrapped me up in a comfy blanket.
“Well, I know Mikka will vote for my pie too.” Lorraine chuckled. “It sounds like you think it’s as good as your mini wand.”
“What’s a mini wand?’ Brady asked.
“A vibrator.”
“Oh, jeez,” I mumbled.
Lorraine continued. “Mikka grew up in a porn shop. An official one. I looked it up on the world wide web.”
I smiled because I knew my mother’s site was a precise representation of how pristine and perfect her shop was. She and I had spent boatloads of time and money working with web designers to make sure her store was represented correctly and that people had a great online shopping experience.
When Lorraine offered to pull up the site on her phone, I was surprised at how savvy she was. She announced that she’d favorited the site. Jay snickered next to me and nudged my leg with his.
He sat there, completely relaxed and I wondered if I’d imagined the tension between Brady and him. He even jumped into the conversation to poke fun at my mom’s shop. Then he concluded with saying it had shaped a fine woman and was a really lucrative business.
Coming from any Stonewood, I knew that was a compliment. Brady nodded too, like he didn’t take the statement lightly. When we wished him goodbye, he hugged me and whispered in my ear, “Looking forward to getting you to myself for a few hours at the fest.”
I thought I heard Jay grunt but when I turned around he was waving goodbye to his friend and wishing him well.
We helped Lorraine clean and I got a phone call soon after.
Our company wanted another drug test.
After Lorraine excused herself to go to her downstairs portion of the home, I rinsed off and knocked on Jay’s door. It was cracked, like his life was open to the world but I didn’t want to invade his privacy. Movie stars didn’t have that much to begin with and his last name earned him even less.
“Door’s open.”
I stuck my arm in with the drug test package in my hand. “I come out of obligation to my job.”
I was pretty sure I heard him sigh, but when his door swung open, any frustration had disappeared. He looked like he had in his first movie. It was a rom-com where he and the actress cozied up with him shirtless in every other scene. With just some sweats on and no shirt, I knew I needed to get the test done quickly.
He took it from my hands without really meeting my eyes. “Bob call you?”