Authors: Kay Gordon
We just sat on the bench in the dark, the only sounds were muffled and coming from inside the house. Amanda always knew when I needed her to talk and when I just needed her to be there, and tonight her intuition was perfect. As the silent minutes went by, I tried to erase the image of Josh and Elizabeth from my mind, but it didn’t work.
A man’s voice sounded from our left, causing both of us to startle in surprise. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
We turned and Josh was standing near the back door, his hands in his pockets and a sad look on his face.
Amanda glared at him before standing and putting her hands on her hips. “You don’t deserve a minute, Josh.”
“I know,” he agreed softly. “But can I have one all the same?”
Amanda looked sideways at me for confirmation, and I shrugged. “Its fine, Amanda.”
She moved towards the door, and stopped when she was in front of him. “I never imagined I’d say this to you, Josh Richards, but you’ve definitely earned it. You’re an asshole.” She didn’t wait for a response before she stormed inside.
I didn’t move from the bench, and Josh stayed still and silent. After a few moments he sighed and walked to where I was, sitting next to me but leaving a small space between us.
“I’ve made such a mess of things.”
I didn’t respond. Propping my elbow on my knee, I cradled my chin in my hand. The silence stretched on and eventually I gave up. With a big sigh I moved to my feet.
Before I could take three steps, he was on his feet, too. “Don’t go.”
“I don’t know what you want from me!” I had to force myself not to yell, as I threw my hands in the air. “What do you want, Josh? Please tell me, because I don’t want to feel like this.”
Josh closed the distance between us quickly, and I took a surprised step back. It didn’t discourage him though, and he stared down at me with his face locked into a hard expression. He brought a hand up slowly and ran his fingers down my cheek, causing me to release a shuddering breath. The other hand tipped my chin up, and he paused for a beat, waiting to see if I’d object. When I didn’t, he bent down and brought his lips to mine, softly moving them against my unresponsive mouth.
I reached my arms up and entwined them around his neck before kissing him back. The kiss was tentative at first, and then our tongues met, dancing against each other. He moved one hand behind my head and dropped the other to wrap around my waist.
The kiss became frantic, and I poured every ounce of anger I had into it. I don’t know how long we continued on before the sound of the door opening caused us to jump apart, both breathless with our shoulders rising and falling.
Amanda stood there with annoyance on her face as she looked at Josh, but she turned her eyes on me and her features immediately softened.
“Melissa is wondering where you are, better hurry in.” She disappeared back inside and I stared at the door that she vanished through for a minute.
Reality started to seep back in, and I reached up to try to untangle my mask from my hair, where it’d been shoved during our kiss. Josh moved to help me, but I held up a hand, effectively keeping him at arm’s length.
“Don’t,” I warned, finally getting the mask free. I was furious with myself for kissing him, and even more angry with him for kissing me.
“Just don’t. You have a girlfriend and whether or not you choose to acknowledge that, I do. I won’t do this, Josh. Figure your shit out.”
I smoothed out my skirt and walked back inside, leaving him standing out there alone.
Chapter Ten
MMelissa stood in the back with Tim and Spencer, and when she saw me walking back in she rushed over to me. “Are you okay? I heard there was some sort of confrontation.”
I shrugged, and readjusted my hair. “One of the guests is dating a close friend of mine and she recognized me.”
Melissa didn’t accept the explanation, and she stood expectantly waiting for me to go on.
“Ugh. And apparently she doesn’t approve of our friendship and took great pleasure in attempting to embarrass me.”
She nodded and gave me a once over. “I’m proud of you for not reacting. Cara says she will stay out there for the rest of the night if you don’t want to serve anymore.”
I was immediately grateful, and I could have hugged my boss. “That’s great, thank you.”
I spent the rest of the evening filling trays with champagne, coffee, and desserts, while mindlessly chatting with Tim, Spencer, and Jamie.
Three hours later it was nearing 1:30 in the morning and the servers came back, one by one, and fell into the stools in the kitchen. Melissa collected our masks and met the House Steward, handing the basket back to him. They talked for a few moments before she came back to us, a tired smile on her face.
“You all did great tonight, I couldn’t have asked for a better staff. Obviously the hostess thought so too because the tip amounts to $200 a person tonight.”
That perked every one up a bit, as tips weren’t always given, and never in that amount that high. Melissa handed everyone an envelope with their tip in it, except for me, and she dismissed us.
“Maddie,” she frowned, stopping Amanda and I. “I was told to specifically give this envelope to you. “
She handed me an envelope that had ‘Madeline’ written in ridiculously girly handwriting. I took it from Melissa and rolled my eyes. “Thanks Melissa. We’ll see you next time.”
Melissa just nodded and Amanda and I walked to my car in silence, the only sound was our shoes crunching on the gravel.
I sank into the driver’s seat and sighed. “Can I just sleep here?”
Amanda let out a quiet laugh while kicking her shoes off and resting her feet on my dashboard.
“Are you going to open that envelope?” She glanced to where it sat in my hand. “The suspense is killing me.”
“It’s probably money shredded into confetti just to prove a point,” I said, turning the envelope over in my hand. “Let’s get it over with, shall we?”
I ripped open the flap and pulled out a note along with ten $100 bills.
Madeline,
You obviously need this, and I can definitely spare it. Maybe you should splurge and get a proper haircut.
xoxo
Elizabeth
I started laughing hysterically, and Amanda pulled the note out of my hand to read it. She broke into a fit of laughter too, and after a few moments we were both gasping for breath and wiping tears from our faces.
I started the car and left the monstrous mansion behind, heading back to our apartment. The roads were abandoned at the late hour, and we made it home quickly without speaking a word.
I pulled into my parking spot and turned off the car before glancing to Amanda. “I don’t want this money. You should take it and buy a treadmill.”
She shook her head quickly, and scrunched her nose in disgust. “No way. I don’t want it either.”
Once we got inside, we kicked off our shoes and stood in the living room as I pulled Amanda’s braided up-do out of her hair.
“I think I’m going to do something good with it. That’s the best way to spite her,” I said, my fingers working at a sluggish pace. “Maybe donate it to the women’s shelter, or use it to buy things to make care packages for our boys in Iraq.” The last of her red hair fell on her back, and she ran her fingers through it while groaning in relief.
“That’s a fantastic idea, Mads. Really.” She turned and grabbed my pony tail. “But… what about the proper haircut you need?” We burst into a fit of giggles again and fell to the couch.
I opened my mouth to respond, but were interrupted by a noise at the door. Before we had a chance to investigate it, the door flew open and a guy basically fell in with Sydney’s legs wrapped around his waist and her face attached to his. He stumbled for a moment, and when he regained his footing he kicked the door shut and pushed her up against it, pulling her shirt over her head. Amanda and I stayed glued to the couch, torn between making ourselves known, and hoping they’d go to her room without seeing us.
The only noises in the apartment were the sounds of their lips smacking, but they were quickly joined by the distinct noise of a belt buckle being undone.
“No, not here. You’ll wake my roommates.” Sydney breathed out as her head fell back against the door. “Room’s on the- ahhh- left.” He lifted her from the door and took three steps before he tripped over his loose pants and fell to the ground.
I clapped my hand over my mouth as I tried to contain my laughter, but a loud and very un-ladylike snort slipped through my fingers. Amanda burst out laughing and Sydney shot to her feet, surprised by our presence.
Her shirt was gone and her bra unhooked, but she stood there unashamed and grinned at us.
“Enjoy the show, skanks?”
It just made me snort again, and soon all three of us were laughing hysterically. The guy stood up bringing his pants with him, clearly confused and obviously drunk. When he noticed us on the couch he smirked. “You must be the roommates.”
Sydney grabbed his hand and started to pull him back towards her room, waving at us.
“Goodnight!”
I choked out something that resembled ‘goodnight’ in return as I continued to laugh.
We sat where we were, too tired to move, until Sydney and Random Man’s sounds became audible and we decided to go to bed.
–––
I woke up Sunday morning to an obnoxious sound that my sleep addled brain couldn’t identify. I sat up groggily, and the noise suddenly stopped. I checked the clock next to the bed and groaned when I saw it was only 7:00 am. I moved to lie back down and the noise started again, but this time I realized it was the muffled ringing of my cell phone. I shuffled around until I found it in the apron of my work uniform. I held it up to see who had interrupted my sleep after four short hours, and the screen flashed Josh’s name. I didn’t answer it, but instead looked at it and debated whether or not I wanted to talk to him. Absentmindedly, I bought my fingertips to my lips and held them there, remembering the feeling of Josh’s against mine. I definitely couldn’t do the friends thing with him.
Before I had made up my mind about answering it, the ringing had stopped for the second time. I waited for it to ring again, but instead I heard knocking on the front door. I pulled myself out of bed, and padded down the hall with my phone still in my hand. I had almost reached the door when my phone rang again, startling me.
“Hello?”
“It’s me, can we talk?” Josh sounded breathless, and almost desperate.
I didn’t respond for a moment, but then I sighed. “Okay. So talk.”
“Can you let me in, please?”
I frowned and moved to the front door to look out the peephole. Josh stood there, wearing a pair of cargo shorts and a Sierra View University t-shirt, the phone still to his ear.
I pulled open the door and just stared at him in surprise, pressing end on my phone. “What are you doing here?”
His gaze traveled down my body, and I was suddenly aware of how short my nightshirt was, only coming down a little on my thighs. I tugged on it a quickly, and his eyes moved back up to meet mine. A soft smile touched his lips.
“Can I come in?”
I nodded and moved backwards so that he could step into the apartment. I closed the door and went into the kitchen to turn on the coffee pot.
“This couldn’t wait until I had slept more than a couple of hours?”
He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t like how we left things last night.” He paused, looking down to my legs again. “Is that my shirt?”
My eyes went wide and I glanced down at the shirt, the faded logo of the Sacramento Kings was barely visible, and quickly shook my head. “No, I’ve had it for years.”
He chuckled and tugged on the sleeve. “Yeah, two to be exact. This is my shirt, and I’ve always wondered what happened to it.”
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Fine, it’s yours. My mom made you leave it for her to wash after you crawled under the house to fix that leaky pipe. She sent you home in one of Matt’s.”
Josh’s smile grew and he nodded slowly. “I remember that. And I gave Matt’s shirt back, you little thief.”
I shrugged and turned to face the counter as the coffee maker sizzled, signaling it was done. “You left it. Your loss is my gain.”
I slowly reached up on my tiptoes into the top cupboard to grab some mugs. I knew the shirt would rise and I happy I was wearing a pair of my sexier underwear, because I felt like being mean.
I heard Josh suck in a breath behind me, but then another deep voice said, “Wow, good morning to you.”
One of the mugs fell from my hand and hit the counter in several pieces. I whipped around to see the guy Sydney had brought home last night leaning against the wall behind Josh, wearing only his tight briefs. I put down the one mug I was still holding and pulled my shirt down with both hands. Josh stepped in front of me, and turned to shoot the guy an angry look.
“Whoa,” he held his hands up in surrender. “I was just enjoying the free show.”
Josh’s back tensed, and he moved to take a step forward but I grabbed onto his wrist to stop him.
Sydney appeared from the direction of her room, wearing her robe and holding the guys clothes. She took a moment to try to figure out what was going on before she shoved the clothes into the guy’s arms.
“I said to leave my friends alone, Cory,” she said, leading him to the door. “Thanks for last night.”
“It’s Lee, actually,” He corrected her with a frown on his face.
“Okay. Bye Lee.” Sydney closed the door with Lee standing outside looking confused in only his underwear.
“Good morning, guys.” She came into the kitchen as if nothing had happened, took the intact mug from my hand, and filled it with coffee.
“Sorry about last night, I figured you two would have already been in bed.”
I rolled my eyes and gave her a smile. “It might not have been so funny, but I think we were too tired.”
Sydney giggled and gave me a loud kiss on the cheek. With my mug in her hand, she retreated back to her room, mentioning something about going back to bed.
Josh turned to look at me, a curious expression on his face. “What happened last night?”
I let go of his wrist and picked up the broken pieces of the dropped mugged, tossing them in the trash.
“Oh, nothing really. She just came home with him and didn’t realize we were in the living room while he started to undress her. No big deal.”
He chuckled and moved to get two more mugs down for me. “Sounds like Sydney hasn’t changed much.”
“Nope, but we love her.” I filled the cups with coffee and handed him one. “So, you wanted to talk?”
He sipped his coffee for a moment before responding. “It’s a long story. Let’s go for a drive and I’ll explain everything.”
I just stared at him over my coffee, and his eyes never left mine. I noticed, for the first time, that he had faint circles under both of his, and I realized he probably hadn’t had much more sleep than I did.
When I didn’t answer, he leaned in closer to me. “We can drive to the beach while I talk.”
I fought to keep the smile off my face at the thought of being near the ocean. I put my mug down on the counter, taking a few steps towards my room.
“Okay. Just let me shower first.”