"Chase? Where are you going?"
Chase looked over his shoulder. Kathy stood in the doorway with her arms folded over her brown vest. Selena's chin rested on her shoulder. She snickered. He rolled his eyes. These women drove him borderline insane with their constant prying around in his business-in or outside of the bar.
"You know, my dying wish is to be left alone for just thirty seconds. Thirty seconds and then I can die happy."
Kathy disregarded his comment and walked up to him, lifting the plastic dome he had used to cover the cake in his hands.
"Hey...!" He protested, elbowing her hand away.
"Where are you going with that?"
"...I'm going to eat it in the Watery Cave and share it with my bat friends. Bye."
"Yeah right!"
The rusty back door squeaked, and the two of them gawked at Owen as he approached. Behind him, Selena gave a thumbs up and closed the door as he exited the bar. Chase turned to Kathy. Her face was twisted with some foreign emotion, a cross between surprise and anger.
"Owen?"
He fiddled with the unbuttoned cuffs on his white shirt. "Hey Kathy..."
Kathy stomped up to him and slapped him square in the jaw. Owen slowly raised his hand to his face, not quite believing what had just happened. Chase chuckled. He decided he didn't want to miss this. Akari could wait a few more minutes.
"What was that for?" He cried.
"You hurt my best friend! Explain or we'll kill you right now!"
Owen's eyes darted towards Chase in acknowledgement and then returned to Kathy's beet red face. Chase didn't kid himself. He was decently built, sure. But Owen smashed rocks all day...Chase tossed stir-fried vegetables.
"I know, I know," Owen admitted. "I just talked to her..."
"Did she dump your sorry ass?" She spat.
"No..." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "Look, Kathy, I came here to ask you for a favor."
She gaped in response to his audacity to ask for a favor, of all things.
"Could you...could you tell Hayden not to serve me any drinks?"
"...Excuse me?"
"Could you tell him not to give me any?" He repeated. "I made a promise to Akari that I wouldn't drink anymore."
"You did what?"
Chase slapped his forehead and groaned. Was his friend this dense or did she purposely act like a ditz?
"Yeah," Owen responded, clearly not as aggravated as Chase. "She's probably going to drop in later to ask if I came by, so can you tell her what I told you?"
Chase scoffed. It was obvious to him that Owen was putting on a front. Sure, maybe he wouldn't order any cocktails from the bar, but that didn't mean that he couldn't get them from somewhere else. Owen often went out for drinks with his uncle Ramsey as well as his friends Dale and Cain, all heavy drinkers and frequent residents of the bar. If they wouldn't give him any, he probably had a stash in his room. Chase knew. He had seen this sort of thing before, and it wasn't as easy as just saying, "I quit."
Owen looked at Chase with a raised eyebrow. "Do you have a problem? Why are you here anyway?"
Chase relaxed his face, unaware that he was scowling. Those subconscious memories had a way of resurfacing at the most inopportune times. "Oh, don't mind me. Yeah, I don't know why I'm here either." He turned on his heel when Kathy grabbed his wrist. He tried to tug his hand free from her grasp.
"Wait," she demanded without removing her eyes from Owen. "Chase went to visit Akari last night, and she told him that it was always the same thing with you. Why should I believe you now?"
Chase winced at Kathy's careless use of his name. He was not a part of this. Owen glared at Chase, a dark cloud settling over his already tense features. "Why were you visiting Akari?"
"Blackmail," he replied innocently.
"What?"
Kathy pressed her lips together, trying to suppress a laugh. "Doesn't matter. The thing is, Akari's tired of you acting like a fool. If you ever, EVER hit her again, I'll report you for...for domestic abuse!"
To what authorities? Chase thought.
Owen exhaled deeply as if he were trying to release his inner angst. He put his hand on Kathy's shoulder and tucked her under the chin. "Kathy, this is me you're talking to. You're like a sister to me. I trust you to straighten me out...okay?"
Kathy swiped at his hand. "Get off me." She dabbed at her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffed. Unconsciously, she released the grasp she had on Chase's wrist. He withdrew it quickly and massaged it with his other hand.
"I just really love her. I don't want her to get hurt, and I don't want you to act like this."
Owen nodded. "I'll do better, I promise."
At this point in the conversation, Chase left them with the cake still in hand, the vanilla icing dripping onto the China plate under the summer heat. He shielded his eyes from the sun with his free hand and glanced around the small town. It was relatively quiet. Luna and Julius were shouting in front of the Tailor shop with a timid Candace looking more distressed than ever. Jake and Colleen shared glasses of lemon water underneath an umbrella outside the Inn, and Irene rang out a stringy mop in front of the Clinic. He turned his attention to the ocean, glittering as if millions of diamonds hid beneath its surface. A small woman sat on the edge of the pier with her legs dangling over the water. Chase began to whistle as he strolled over.
When his tune reached her ears, she whipped her head around in surprise. He grinned at the sight of her. While she never looked as glamorous as, say, Julius, she looked nearly unkempt today.
"My, my, don't you look lovely. With that manure on your shoes and that greasy shirt. Real sexy, you know."
Her face fell as her cheeks turned cherry red. "I can't deal with you today, so could you please leave?"
"You're not that great at dealing with me any day."
She ignored him and continued to stare out into the ocean. Pascal's ship was floating about a mile away, a net hanging over the railing. Chase sat at the other end of the pier and placed the cake beside him. He removed the dome, slid his finger across the cake's icing and placed it in his mouth, sucking it and smacking his lips. Akari sighed.
"Do you mind?"
He smirked. "Am I distracting you? You don't seem to be doing anything."
She looked at him, and her eyes lowered to the velvet cake crumbling to its death. "...Your cake is melting."
"I know. You want it?"
Akari laughed and threw her hand over her mouth. When she removed it, she was frowning again. She extended her hands to accept his offer. Without leaving his spot, he pushed the plate to her. It stopped a couple of inches away. She rolled her eyes as she leaned over to grab it. Chase smiled to himself and watched her. She pinched a piece of the cake with her fingers and popped it in her mouth. Her face lit up as she chewed. Whose wouldn't? Chase waited until she was one-fourth into the cake before he brought up the news, but not after she was finished chewing.
"So, you got back together, huh? Figures. Guess I overestimated you."
Akari coughed, pieces of red cake spewing from her mouth. Embarrassed, she scrubbed her lips with her sleeve. "Where'd you hear that!?"
"He came by to talk to Kathy."
"About what?"
"Like I was listening," he lied. "But I heard him say something about not drinking anymore so you would take him back. Ha. You don't actually believe that BS, do you?"
He already knew the answer. She wouldn't have taken him back if she didn't believe it. But he just wanted her to say it out loud, so she could hear how ridiculous she sounded. She returned to her zombie-like state, staring out at the ocean with her toes swirling the surface. Still expecting an answer, Chase placed his chin on his knees and watched her. White, hungry seagulls began to fly overhead, their intent on stealing Chase's cake. Akari finally stood, her expression shifting from hurt to blankness.
"I don't know." She grabbed the cake and began to walk away. She stopped and turned to see Chase's slumped back facing her. "Hey..."
"Hey," he mocked without turning to look at her.
She smiled sadly. "Thanks for the cake."
He listened for her footsteps to leave the pier, and then he turned around. She was on her horse's back, heading down the path to her house.