Chapter 2
I arrive at my..........our loft at around eight. I had to make up for the lost time while I was shaking. I get up to the door and fiddle with the keys as I pray to God that Letty has cleaned up a little bit. We left the place in a wreck getting ready for work this morning. I really don't want this guy to think I'm a slob, even though I am. I open the door and I'm hit with the heavy stench of cooked meat.
"Fajitas," I say to myself and smile. I put my jacket and keys down on the chair in the foyer. I walk into the.......well I guess you could call it the kitchen/living room area. The thing about my apartment is that, the only real defined rooms are the bedrooms and the bathrooms. Everything else is just filled with big open areas that sorta run into each other. The place was about to be condemned when I found it. The owners renovated it, but before they did they offered it to me when it was still shitty. I saw its potential, well that, and the fact that I was tired of living on Jess's couch. It's so beautiful. There are these windows that are at least 12 feet high that span a whole 2 sides of the place. It has an awesome overview of the coast, but it's still inside the city. Everybody always asks me how I can afford such a posh place. I tell them that I run a small business on the side. That usually gets me a nod then they walk away thinking the worst. Truth is that the owners are family and friends from the islands. They gave me a good deal, because they knew me as a child, and it doesn't hurt that they're good personal friends with my parents. It's big and so far they haven't rented out either of the other 2 floors, so we pretty much have the run of the place. No nosey neighbors to deal with yet. Rooftop parties when we feel like it. It's entirely too much freedom for a young adult and her two friends. I walk in and Letty is standing at the counter, beer in hand, chopping peppers and onions.
"Fajitas," she smiles and nods, reading my mind and my smile. She sniffs between gulps of beer. I look over at Jess who is engaging in an intense game of Crazy Taxi. Now Jess doesn't live here, but he might as well. He'll end up staying tonight if he drinks. He'll stay even if he doesn't. Jess lives on the coast..........on the beach. He stays at his parents' beach house. Yes, you heard correctly, I said beach house. His parents are ridiculously wealthy. I didn't say Jess was wealthy, his parents. They wanted him to get out and be on his own, but they couldn't stand the thought of their baby helpless and homeless. Their solution was to give him their beach house, pay the bills, but still make him work for everything else he wanted. Jess wasn't gonna work. He figured he could just go home to eat, and he already had a car, but Letty and I convinced him to get a job with us at Treadmark's. He is a genius when it comes to cars. His mind is like a machine. He remembers everything about them, color, make, model, you name it, and can just spit out stats and all kinds of shit. Letty and me just listen only stopping to wipe the drool from our gaping mouths. It's amazing, and his parents dont even know how talented he is. They always treat him like he's "special" cause he has ADD. They act like he's retarded or something just cause he's hyper. They've done him like that since he was young. Everybody has. I remember the day Letty and I be-friended the lonely little blonde boy sitting in a patch of grass on the far end of the playground. We'd never seen him before. We found out later it was because his parents put him in the 'special' classes with all the slow kids because that's what they thought he was......slow. He sat picking at some clovers as pigtail clad Letty and I got up the courage to go over and investigate. We were all in the 5th grade. Letty walked right up to him and demanded that he shake her hand. Frightened, Jesse did as she said. She introduced herself then me. He told us his name, then Letty told him that we were all gonna be friends from now on. It was that simple. No one defies Letty, not even now. From that moment on we were 3 peas in a pod. We only played with each other. We didn't get to see all that much of Jess till summertime. He was still in those classes and they didn't let them out much. Well to make a long story shorter..........In Jr. High, his parents put him on Ritalin, but he started to lose too much weight so they finally switched him to Adderall, which is what he's been on for the past seven years. It calms him down so he can concentrate.
I walk over to the fridge and grab a beer. Just as I'm about to close it Letty yells and scares the living shit out of me.
"No!.......we're gonna do quarters and body shots later!" she yells at me taking my beer and placing it back in the fridge.
"I can do shots later if I drink a beer," I defend myself with my brow furrowed.
"Dont make that face," she winces then turns around. "I want everybody sober before we start," she finishes with her back turned to me. I pick up her beer on the counter and take a sip of it.
"You're drinking," I whisper smugly. She turns around and gives me an evil look. I back away and retreat to the couch to pester Jess. Like I said, you don't defy Letty. I mean yeah, I can hold my own, but Letty can drink Irish men under the table. Letty will still be sober after a case of beers. My stomach starts to flip flop when I remember the reason we're having a night full of fajitas and Jose Cuero. I sit and fidget on the couch next to Jess as he yells obscenities at the screen. I wonder what he'll be like after a few shots. Will he still be all bashful like he was today at the shop? What a kick ass name.......Dominic......Dom. It sounds so fucking east coast, Italian, mob boss-like. I wonder if he knows anybody in the mob. Oh, God if he's Italian.......then he, more than likely, has a big.......
"Fuck!" Jess yells and interrupts my thoughts. He throws down the joystick and turns the game off before returning to the couch to pout. That kid and video games. Yeah, we all take our games serious but guys are so much more intense. I just shake my head as he lights a cigarette. I bolt from the couch when I realize that I just came home from work. This guy is gonna walk in pass out from my stench of paint, fumes, and sweat. I run into the bathroom and start the shower. I quickly get in not even bothering to close the door. What's the point? I mean it's not like Jess and Let haven't seen all I got. Same for them. A bare cheek, or a boob doesn't even phase us anymore. I finish and grab a towel from the linen closet in the hall when I hear a familiar deep voice.
"Shit," I whisper to myself as I scurry to my room. I dry off and fling my towel to the floor. Great........I get to make an entrance. That was sarcasm folks. I hate being the latecomer. I quickly slip on some underwear and a black sports bra. I take a look at my extensive wardrobe in my closet.......sarcasm again. I pull out the most comfortable pair of gray, cotton, drawstring pants ever made and slip them on. I go over to my dresser and pull out one, of a thousand wife beaters that I practically live in, and put it on. I quickly look in the mirror in disgust. At least I'll be comfortable. I walk out of my room and down the hall. I stop right before I get to the end and take a deep breath before walking into the kitchen type area.
"There she is," Letty smiles.
"Hey," Dom says to me smiling.
"Hey," I smile back. He's wearing a black long sleeve button up shirt tucked into black slacks cinched with a silver buckled belt.
"I feel a bit overdressed," he smiles looking at me up and down. I almost begin to blush.
"Oh.....you're fine," I stumble over my words. Jess shoots me a smile. "I mean......you look fine........umm your clothes are........really nice." I finally blurt out embarrassed. He smiles bigger and Letty rolls her eyes. He turns to Letty and offers to help. She puts him to work toasting tortilla shells. I go over to Jess, who is in what we like to call the "dining nook". It's really just a bay window that we stuck a table and some chairs in but we really like saying the word 'nook'. I help him put out the plates and cups. You dont really need silverware for fajitas. Every now and then I sneak a peek at Dom. He looks so damn good in black. His skin is just this perfect color and it looks so amazing under black cloth. I know I'm only torturing myself by entertaining these thoughts. As much as I hate to admit it, there's no way in hell he would ever go for someone like me. Just by looking at him, I figure he's into the beautiful, slutty type. I'm not saying that Letty is slutty, but he probably had a momentary lapse in judgment. He met her, and despite the fact that she wasn't his type, he went for her anyway. I know, I'm a horrible person. I'm passing judgment on the guy and I dont even know him, but doesn't everybody? From the stranger you pass on the street to the person sitting across from you on the bus, we all pass judgment and figure types before we learn about a person. Maybe I'm just trying to set myself up for the disappointment that he's not the charming, intelligent, beautiful man I want him to be. Maybe he'll be everything and more. Maybe he'll hook back up with Letty tonight and leave me sulking on the couch with Jesse and a bottle of Vodka. Maybe I need to shut up and have a drink.
We finish setting the table and I walk back into the kitchen. I go into the fridge and sneak a beer behind Letty's back. What she dont know can't hurt her. Just as I pop the top off the bottle Jess rats me out from the nook.
"She's got a beer, Let!" he yells. Dom starts laughing and I shoot Jess a look. He smiles smugly.
"If I can't, neither can you," he tells me. Without even looking at her I return the beer to the fridge.
"It's ready," she announces to us. We all help carry the food over. We sit at the round table with Letty across from Dom and Me across from Jesse. I say grace and we begin eating. We're all quiet for the first few minutes as we stuff our faces.
"So.....Dom........you just moved here from where?" Jesse mumbles between bites.
He swallows then answers. "New York," he nods. Letty dishes out more steak and veggies onto Dom's plate.
"And you and Let used to date?" Jess asks again. Dom looks shyly at Letty.
"Yeah," he nods.
"Were you a grease monkey there?" I ask taking a bite of my heaping fajita.
He wipes his mouth and swallows again. "Yeah.....I worked in a family owned shop with my uncles and cousins," he answers. I nod.
"So........Dom....," Jess starts again.
"Jess, stop with the questions," Letty tells him.
"I'm just making conversation," he tells her.
"It's okay Letty," Dom tells them both. "Go ahead Jesse," he tilts his head to him.
"Oh.....I didn't really have a question," he says slowly and embarrassed. We all roll our eyes and shake our heads. Well, the rest of the meal was not as eventful as the first few moments. Dom started to open up and told us more about himself. The guy can bench press 310..........310. That's like 3 of me. He told us about New York and he and Letty talked about when they were together. I just sat back and listened to his voice, trying not to stare at the exposed skin lurking under the opening in the top of his shirt. He talked about cars, which got us all pretty hyped up. We were past done eating, but we just sat, talking, laughing. Like he was one of us, we just immediately felt comfortable around each other. I smile slightly at the thought of him being a new addition to our daily routines. As the conversation slows to a halt, we begin to clean up, picking up our dishes and carrying them to the sink. As the guys.................I'm already calling them "the guys"..............as Dom and Jess weasel out of doing the dishes, by running to play video games, Letty and I stand at the sink, rinsing for the dishwasher. She nudges me lightly.
"What?", I ask putting some cups in.
"I noticed you staring at Dom", she turns the faucet off.
"Letty, I swear.....it was only because I really liked.....his necklace...and.....", I start to deny my wandering eyes.
"J.........it's okay", she tells me smiling.
"That was a long time ago.........a long time ago", she puts a dish in the machine.
"I was gonna tell you.....", she looks over her back to check that the guys are still in game mode, and then clears her throat, " that you should.........go for it", she says softly, raising an eyebrow. She knows me all to well.
"Dom?", I ask innocently.
"No, Jesse.........yes Dom!", she spits sarcastically. I go back to putting diishes in the machine.
"No", I tell her coldly. I dont have the best record with guys. I just cant seem to keep away from all the selfish-domanant-pigheaded assholes in the world. I'm just not the type of girl that nice decent guys, with all their teeth, flock to.
"And why not?", she asks trying to keep her voice low. I see the guys getting up. I shove the last dish in the machine and slam the door shut.
"We'll talk about it later", I whisper to her. She looks confused for a moment until Jess walks in and sits on the kitchen island. I look at a sulking Jess, and a grin on Dominic's face.
"He kicked your ass?", I ask Jess sympathetically. He just rolls his eyes and smiles.
"Well, enough chit-chat.......let the games begin!" Letty yells, pushing everyone back into the dining nook. I lag behind and give her a look.
"What?", she asks cluelessly.
"Let the games begin?.........Chit-chat?..............lame ass", I laugh at her. She gives me an evil look. We all sit down at the table with all my favorite guys........Jack, Jim, and Jose. Let, breaks out the shot glasses and pulls a silver coin from her pocket. My mouth drops. She would do this to me.
"First game..........Jamie's fav", she smiles at me, I flip her off.
"Quarters........and for that......You go first", she grins, sliding the coin to me. I look at her with disgust. She knows how bad I am at quarters. Leave it to my best friend to embarass the hell out of me in front of an exceptionally beautiful man, that I just met. I take the quarter relunctantly and hold it for a second. I position it between my thumb and index finger. I look at the glass then try to figure the half-way point on the table. I take a deep breath as I see Letty grinning like an idiot out of the corner of my eye.
"Here goes nothing", I mumble to myself, almost inaudible to anyone else. Yeah, here goes nothing.
I arrive at my..........our loft at around eight. I had to make up for the lost time while I was shaking. I get up to the door and fiddle with the keys as I pray to God that Letty has cleaned up a little bit. We left the place in a wreck getting ready for work this morning. I really don't want this guy to think I'm a slob, even though I am. I open the door and I'm hit with the heavy stench of cooked meat.
"Fajitas," I say to myself and smile. I put my jacket and keys down on the chair in the foyer. I walk into the.......well I guess you could call it the kitchen/living room area. The thing about my apartment is that, the only real defined rooms are the bedrooms and the bathrooms. Everything else is just filled with big open areas that sorta run into each other. The place was about to be condemned when I found it. The owners renovated it, but before they did they offered it to me when it was still shitty. I saw its potential, well that, and the fact that I was tired of living on Jess's couch. It's so beautiful. There are these windows that are at least 12 feet high that span a whole 2 sides of the place. It has an awesome overview of the coast, but it's still inside the city. Everybody always asks me how I can afford such a posh place. I tell them that I run a small business on the side. That usually gets me a nod then they walk away thinking the worst. Truth is that the owners are family and friends from the islands. They gave me a good deal, because they knew me as a child, and it doesn't hurt that they're good personal friends with my parents. It's big and so far they haven't rented out either of the other 2 floors, so we pretty much have the run of the place. No nosey neighbors to deal with yet. Rooftop parties when we feel like it. It's entirely too much freedom for a young adult and her two friends. I walk in and Letty is standing at the counter, beer in hand, chopping peppers and onions.
"Fajitas," she smiles and nods, reading my mind and my smile. She sniffs between gulps of beer. I look over at Jess who is engaging in an intense game of Crazy Taxi. Now Jess doesn't live here, but he might as well. He'll end up staying tonight if he drinks. He'll stay even if he doesn't. Jess lives on the coast..........on the beach. He stays at his parents' beach house. Yes, you heard correctly, I said beach house. His parents are ridiculously wealthy. I didn't say Jess was wealthy, his parents. They wanted him to get out and be on his own, but they couldn't stand the thought of their baby helpless and homeless. Their solution was to give him their beach house, pay the bills, but still make him work for everything else he wanted. Jess wasn't gonna work. He figured he could just go home to eat, and he already had a car, but Letty and I convinced him to get a job with us at Treadmark's. He is a genius when it comes to cars. His mind is like a machine. He remembers everything about them, color, make, model, you name it, and can just spit out stats and all kinds of shit. Letty and me just listen only stopping to wipe the drool from our gaping mouths. It's amazing, and his parents dont even know how talented he is. They always treat him like he's "special" cause he has ADD. They act like he's retarded or something just cause he's hyper. They've done him like that since he was young. Everybody has. I remember the day Letty and I be-friended the lonely little blonde boy sitting in a patch of grass on the far end of the playground. We'd never seen him before. We found out later it was because his parents put him in the 'special' classes with all the slow kids because that's what they thought he was......slow. He sat picking at some clovers as pigtail clad Letty and I got up the courage to go over and investigate. We were all in the 5th grade. Letty walked right up to him and demanded that he shake her hand. Frightened, Jesse did as she said. She introduced herself then me. He told us his name, then Letty told him that we were all gonna be friends from now on. It was that simple. No one defies Letty, not even now. From that moment on we were 3 peas in a pod. We only played with each other. We didn't get to see all that much of Jess till summertime. He was still in those classes and they didn't let them out much. Well to make a long story shorter..........In Jr. High, his parents put him on Ritalin, but he started to lose too much weight so they finally switched him to Adderall, which is what he's been on for the past seven years. It calms him down so he can concentrate.
I walk over to the fridge and grab a beer. Just as I'm about to close it Letty yells and scares the living shit out of me.
"No!.......we're gonna do quarters and body shots later!" she yells at me taking my beer and placing it back in the fridge.
"I can do shots later if I drink a beer," I defend myself with my brow furrowed.
"Dont make that face," she winces then turns around. "I want everybody sober before we start," she finishes with her back turned to me. I pick up her beer on the counter and take a sip of it.
"You're drinking," I whisper smugly. She turns around and gives me an evil look. I back away and retreat to the couch to pester Jess. Like I said, you don't defy Letty. I mean yeah, I can hold my own, but Letty can drink Irish men under the table. Letty will still be sober after a case of beers. My stomach starts to flip flop when I remember the reason we're having a night full of fajitas and Jose Cuero. I sit and fidget on the couch next to Jess as he yells obscenities at the screen. I wonder what he'll be like after a few shots. Will he still be all bashful like he was today at the shop? What a kick ass name.......Dominic......Dom. It sounds so fucking east coast, Italian, mob boss-like. I wonder if he knows anybody in the mob. Oh, God if he's Italian.......then he, more than likely, has a big.......
"Fuck!" Jess yells and interrupts my thoughts. He throws down the joystick and turns the game off before returning to the couch to pout. That kid and video games. Yeah, we all take our games serious but guys are so much more intense. I just shake my head as he lights a cigarette. I bolt from the couch when I realize that I just came home from work. This guy is gonna walk in pass out from my stench of paint, fumes, and sweat. I run into the bathroom and start the shower. I quickly get in not even bothering to close the door. What's the point? I mean it's not like Jess and Let haven't seen all I got. Same for them. A bare cheek, or a boob doesn't even phase us anymore. I finish and grab a towel from the linen closet in the hall when I hear a familiar deep voice.
"Shit," I whisper to myself as I scurry to my room. I dry off and fling my towel to the floor. Great........I get to make an entrance. That was sarcasm folks. I hate being the latecomer. I quickly slip on some underwear and a black sports bra. I take a look at my extensive wardrobe in my closet.......sarcasm again. I pull out the most comfortable pair of gray, cotton, drawstring pants ever made and slip them on. I go over to my dresser and pull out one, of a thousand wife beaters that I practically live in, and put it on. I quickly look in the mirror in disgust. At least I'll be comfortable. I walk out of my room and down the hall. I stop right before I get to the end and take a deep breath before walking into the kitchen type area.
"There she is," Letty smiles.
"Hey," Dom says to me smiling.
"Hey," I smile back. He's wearing a black long sleeve button up shirt tucked into black slacks cinched with a silver buckled belt.
"I feel a bit overdressed," he smiles looking at me up and down. I almost begin to blush.
"Oh.....you're fine," I stumble over my words. Jess shoots me a smile. "I mean......you look fine........umm your clothes are........really nice." I finally blurt out embarrassed. He smiles bigger and Letty rolls her eyes. He turns to Letty and offers to help. She puts him to work toasting tortilla shells. I go over to Jess, who is in what we like to call the "dining nook". It's really just a bay window that we stuck a table and some chairs in but we really like saying the word 'nook'. I help him put out the plates and cups. You dont really need silverware for fajitas. Every now and then I sneak a peek at Dom. He looks so damn good in black. His skin is just this perfect color and it looks so amazing under black cloth. I know I'm only torturing myself by entertaining these thoughts. As much as I hate to admit it, there's no way in hell he would ever go for someone like me. Just by looking at him, I figure he's into the beautiful, slutty type. I'm not saying that Letty is slutty, but he probably had a momentary lapse in judgment. He met her, and despite the fact that she wasn't his type, he went for her anyway. I know, I'm a horrible person. I'm passing judgment on the guy and I dont even know him, but doesn't everybody? From the stranger you pass on the street to the person sitting across from you on the bus, we all pass judgment and figure types before we learn about a person. Maybe I'm just trying to set myself up for the disappointment that he's not the charming, intelligent, beautiful man I want him to be. Maybe he'll be everything and more. Maybe he'll hook back up with Letty tonight and leave me sulking on the couch with Jesse and a bottle of Vodka. Maybe I need to shut up and have a drink.
We finish setting the table and I walk back into the kitchen. I go into the fridge and sneak a beer behind Letty's back. What she dont know can't hurt her. Just as I pop the top off the bottle Jess rats me out from the nook.
"She's got a beer, Let!" he yells. Dom starts laughing and I shoot Jess a look. He smiles smugly.
"If I can't, neither can you," he tells me. Without even looking at her I return the beer to the fridge.
"It's ready," she announces to us. We all help carry the food over. We sit at the round table with Letty across from Dom and Me across from Jesse. I say grace and we begin eating. We're all quiet for the first few minutes as we stuff our faces.
"So.....Dom........you just moved here from where?" Jesse mumbles between bites.
He swallows then answers. "New York," he nods. Letty dishes out more steak and veggies onto Dom's plate.
"And you and Let used to date?" Jess asks again. Dom looks shyly at Letty.
"Yeah," he nods.
"Were you a grease monkey there?" I ask taking a bite of my heaping fajita.
He wipes his mouth and swallows again. "Yeah.....I worked in a family owned shop with my uncles and cousins," he answers. I nod.
"So........Dom....," Jess starts again.
"Jess, stop with the questions," Letty tells him.
"I'm just making conversation," he tells her.
"It's okay Letty," Dom tells them both. "Go ahead Jesse," he tilts his head to him.
"Oh.....I didn't really have a question," he says slowly and embarrassed. We all roll our eyes and shake our heads. Well, the rest of the meal was not as eventful as the first few moments. Dom started to open up and told us more about himself. The guy can bench press 310..........310. That's like 3 of me. He told us about New York and he and Letty talked about when they were together. I just sat back and listened to his voice, trying not to stare at the exposed skin lurking under the opening in the top of his shirt. He talked about cars, which got us all pretty hyped up. We were past done eating, but we just sat, talking, laughing. Like he was one of us, we just immediately felt comfortable around each other. I smile slightly at the thought of him being a new addition to our daily routines. As the conversation slows to a halt, we begin to clean up, picking up our dishes and carrying them to the sink. As the guys.................I'm already calling them "the guys"..............as Dom and Jess weasel out of doing the dishes, by running to play video games, Letty and I stand at the sink, rinsing for the dishwasher. She nudges me lightly.
"What?", I ask putting some cups in.
"I noticed you staring at Dom", she turns the faucet off.
"Letty, I swear.....it was only because I really liked.....his necklace...and.....", I start to deny my wandering eyes.
"J.........it's okay", she tells me smiling.
"That was a long time ago.........a long time ago", she puts a dish in the machine.
"I was gonna tell you.....", she looks over her back to check that the guys are still in game mode, and then clears her throat, " that you should.........go for it", she says softly, raising an eyebrow. She knows me all to well.
"Dom?", I ask innocently.
"No, Jesse.........yes Dom!", she spits sarcastically. I go back to putting diishes in the machine.
"No", I tell her coldly. I dont have the best record with guys. I just cant seem to keep away from all the selfish-domanant-pigheaded assholes in the world. I'm just not the type of girl that nice decent guys, with all their teeth, flock to.
"And why not?", she asks trying to keep her voice low. I see the guys getting up. I shove the last dish in the machine and slam the door shut.
"We'll talk about it later", I whisper to her. She looks confused for a moment until Jess walks in and sits on the kitchen island. I look at a sulking Jess, and a grin on Dominic's face.
"He kicked your ass?", I ask Jess sympathetically. He just rolls his eyes and smiles.
"Well, enough chit-chat.......let the games begin!" Letty yells, pushing everyone back into the dining nook. I lag behind and give her a look.
"What?", she asks cluelessly.
"Let the games begin?.........Chit-chat?..............lame ass", I laugh at her. She gives me an evil look. We all sit down at the table with all my favorite guys........Jack, Jim, and Jose. Let, breaks out the shot glasses and pulls a silver coin from her pocket. My mouth drops. She would do this to me.
"First game..........Jamie's fav", she smiles at me, I flip her off.
"Quarters........and for that......You go first", she grins, sliding the coin to me. I look at her with disgust. She knows how bad I am at quarters. Leave it to my best friend to embarass the hell out of me in front of an exceptionally beautiful man, that I just met. I take the quarter relunctantly and hold it for a second. I position it between my thumb and index finger. I look at the glass then try to figure the half-way point on the table. I take a deep breath as I see Letty grinning like an idiot out of the corner of my eye.
"Here goes nothing", I mumble to myself, almost inaudible to anyone else. Yeah, here goes nothing.