A LITTLE BIT OF SUGAR (9 page)

“Maybe that’s how he affords to drive a nice car,” I suggested with a grin. “Feeding his dates off the dollar menu.”

“He didn’t feed me. He ordered his meal and then paid for it. I ordered mine – and paid for it.”

Alisa and I gasped.

I sat up in my bed. “You mean he asked you out and then made you pay for your own food?”

“Yep.”

“What a jerk!” I was offended for her.

“Oh, and that’s not the best part,” Carlina continued. “He asked me for gas money.”

“No way!” Alisa exclaimed.

“I kid you not.”

What a jerk! “What did you say?”

“I told him he should have enough gas after eating the four burritos he’d bought himself. Then I got out of his car and walked home.”

My night sounded great compared to hers.

“Good for you,” Alisa said.

“Guys, I really need to get to bed. I have to work in the morning.”

“At the restaurant?” Carlina asked in surprise.

“No,” Alisa answered for me. “She’s talking about her new job.”

“What new job?”

“I’m delivering telegrams.”

“In costume,” Alisa added.

I frowned. “Tomorrow morning I get to deliver one at the country club in a clown suit.”

Carlina snorted. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Wish I were,” I sighed. “It’s not my dream job, but it’ll help pay my portion of the rent and utilities when I move in with you guys. I think I could handle the costume part of this job. It’s the singing part I dread.”

“You’re going to be singing?” Carlina said in that same shocked tone my family had responded to the news with.

“Don’t even say it,” I warned. “It’s a done deal.”

“You know what this means for us, don’t you?” Alisa said happily.

“She’s going to be stressed to the max with this new job,” Carlina replied. “And when she’s stressed, she bakes. Endless cupcakes for all of us!”

I was so glad my friends lived for my misery.

CHAPTER NINE

I awoke feeling exhausted. You would think that the thought of having to dress up like a clown and sing in front of people would be what had kept me up all night, but it wasn’t. It was Anthony!

I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss we’d shared the night before. His nickname, Tiger, had taken on a whole new meaning as far as I was concerned.

With a glance at my alarm clock, I slid out of bed and made my way down the hall to the shower. Then after drying my hair, I tucked it up under the clown wig I’d been given to wear. New, thankfully. I could never wear a wig someone else had worn before me. Eeew.

Next step was applying my makeup according to the instructions I’d been given with the costume. ‘Proper clown face’ application. Who knew there was a right way and a wrong way to cover your face in makeup consisting of only primary colors and one big, red, spongy nose?

“Look out! We’re being invaded by evil clowns!”

Startled, I jumped and spun around, losing my nose in the process. “Carla, you nearly scared the crap out of me.” I bent down to pick up my oversized nose.

She leaned against my bedroom doorframe in her favorite pair of Garfield pajamas, grinning. “Hmm...clown crap. Now there’s an interesting thought.”

“Shut up,” I muttered as I stuck my fake nose back on. “It’s too early in the morning for me to appreciate your smart ass sense of humor.”

Crossing her arms, she arched a neatly plucked brow. “Uh-oh. I do believe some little clown got up on the wrong side of the circus bed this morning.”

Okay, so that was funny. I managed a smile under the makeup I’d caked on my face. “Sorry. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night.”

“Because of this?” she asked, nodding at my not-so-professional makeup job.

“No. Because of Anthony.”

Her eyes rounded. “You snuck him into your bedroom last night? Though I have to say I’m not surprised after that make-out session I saw you two in yesterday.”

I walked over to grab my clown suit from my closet where I’d hung all my costumes. “Anthony didn’t spend the night here.”

“But you said he kept you up all night.”

“Thinking about that kiss kept me up.”

“Understandable.” Carla stepped into my room and settled herself on the edge of my bed while I dressed. “I’m glad you’re finally giving him a chance.”

Was I?

* * *

I sat in my car for nearly twenty minutes before I gathered up the nerve to show myself in public. With one final glance in the rearview mirror to make sure my red rubber nose was in place, I stepped from the car.

Grabbing the handful of helium-filled latex balloons from the backseat, I headed into the country club. Several passing cars on the main road honked their horns at me.

Let the humiliation begin.

I made my way, balloons and all, into the restaurant area of the clubhouse, garnering a lot of really strange looks from the members having breakfast there.

“Can I help you?” the hostess asked, her gaze moving over me.

“I’m here to deliver a message to a Vinnie Smoldino.”

She called her manager over, and, after a quick whisper session, the woman led me back to the back of the dining area where a group of businessmen sat eating breakfast.

“Vinnie, you’ve got a special delivery.”

He turned in his chair to look at me while his companions looked on with wide grins.

I forced a smile. After all, what was a clown without a smile? “Your co-workers at Districh and Myers wanted to wish the ‘office clown’ a happy fiftieth birthday.”

Announcement made, I burst into song. It was one of several given to me by my employer at Wacky Willy’s. The song all depended on the occasion.

It was so bad I waited for glasses to start shattering all around me. And halfway through my nose fell off. I finished the song, picked my nose up off the floor, and then raced out without bothering to wait for a tip.

Unfortunately, I forgot to leave the balloons, so I stood outside in the parking lot debating what to do. I didn’t want to go back inside.

Just then a little girl and her mother got out of a nearby car and started for the clubhouse. I hurried toward them.

“Little girl,” I called out in my best ‘clown’ voice imitation.

She turned and looked up at me. Then her blue eyes widened and she screamed so loud I was sure my curly red wig was going to shoot right off my head. A second later, she burst into tears.

“She’s afraid of clowns,” her mother said as she quickly led the terrified kid away.

I couldn’t really blame her. There was nothing normal about someone who had their face painted all creepy-like, wore an oversized polka dot shirt and yellow and red striped pants that were puffed out with a wire hoop. And let’s not forget the professional basketball player size shoes. If I wasn’t wearing the costume, I’d probably be scared too.

CHAPTER TEN

The doorbell rang, echoing in the hallway. I dropped the cereal bowl back into the sudsy dishwater. “Anthony’s here.”

My aunt smiled. “You’d better go intercept him before your father gets a hold of him. All he’s been talking about this week is having little Italian grandbabies.”

And he had no idea Anthony was taking me out. I’d kept that from my family, my Aunt Lorna aside.

“Oh, no,” I gasped as I hurried to rinse the suds off my hands. Then I raced out of the kitchen, shaking the water from my hands as I went. I had to answer the door before my father did.

Unfortunately, I was too late. My father had already dragged Anthony into the family room and was offering him a cup of coffee when I got there.

“Hey,” Anthony said, shooting up from the sofa the moment I stepped into the room.

“Hey. You ready to go?” I asked, wanting to get him out of there as quickly as I could.

He looked to my dad. “I’ll have to pass on that coffee, Mr. Stewart. Gina and I have a hot date today with a few roller coasters.”

That’s what he thought. Being on a roller coaster with Anthony was the last place I was going to be. At least, not without a full body rain suit.

“Date?” my father repeated with a widening smile. He had this weird, ‘here’s a good catch for my daughter’ kind of look in his eyes. He’d long ago decided that I would be his means to adding some true Italian blood to the family. And he’d always liked Anthony. Luckily for me, my father had only recently started pushing at a relationship between us. Anthony had always been
too
old.

Funny how things changed. Four years didn’t seem to be that big of a deal to my father now that I was out of school.

“Yes, sir,” Anthony replied.

My father put a hand to his heart and looked up at the ceiling. “Grazie a Dio!”

“What are we thanking God for?” my Aunt Lorna asked as she joined us, settling into the rocking chair by the front window.

“For sending Tony here to date my daughter.”

“Well, he didn’t have to send him very far,” she pointed out. “His mother lives next door.”

My mother’s gaze flitted from me to Anthony and then back to me again. “You’re going on a date? You never mentioned anything about going out on a date with Tony.”

“It’s not a date,” I told them, not wanting to get their hopes up.

“Sure it is,” Anthony argued with a smile. “I asked Gina out. She accepted.”

“Sounds like a date to me,” Aunt Lorna said with a wink Anthony’s direction.

“I promise you,” Anthony said. “It’s definitely a date.”

No, it wasn’t, but I wasn’t going to get into that with my family. Anthony would get what was coming to him for giving my parents false hope, and I was going to enjoy every moment of teaching him a lesson.

* * *

“You look great,” Anthony said as he opened the passenger door of his truck for me.

I was dressed in a pair of stonewashed denim jean shorts and a light blue, floral, gauzy spaghetti strap top with a solid, dark blue tank underneath it. My usual summer attire.

“Thanks,” I said. So did he, but I wasn’t about to feed into his already over-inflated ego.

We pulled away from my parents’ house and headed for the interstate.

“How’s your mom doing?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“Pretty good,” he said, glancing my way. “You know she and Lance broke up.”

“No way,” I gasped. “What happened?”

“She met some guy her own age at a business luncheon and they hit it off.”

“So she gave Lance the boot?”

“She didn’t have to. He decided to go off on some backpacking trek in the Rockies and since she refused to go with him, he broke things off.”

“Talk about perfect timing.”

“She’s happy,” he said. “That’s all that matters.”

I smiled at him. “I’m glad you’ve finally accepted your mom dating.”

“It’s a little easier when the guy’s not just a few years older than me.”

I nodded, understanding completely.

Conversation flowed easily between us, as it always had. Before I knew it, we were turning into the parking lot at Cedar Point. It was already half full and the park hadn’t even opened yet.

“Looks like it’s going to be packed today,” I said as we followed the line of cars in front of us to our parking space. “You sure you want to do this?

Anthony shut off the engine and turned to me, sliding his arm across the back of my seat. “Gina, if you don’t want to do this, just say so.”

“What?”

“I thought you liked this place,” he said with a frown. “You’re the one who picked it.”

He was so hot, even when he was upset with me. “I do.” My friends and I usually hit the park two or three times every summer. “It’s you I’m worried about.”

“Me?” He appeared genuinely surprised by my reply.

I nodded. “I know that you and amusement park rides don’t mix well.”

Anthony laughed. “Who told you that?”

“You did.”

“Gina, I never said that.”

“Maybe not in so many words, but I saw you when you came home from this place a few years ago. You were sicker than a dog.”

“You saw me that night?”

“Yeah, I was sitting on my front porch when your friends brought you home.”