Cheryl and I were sitting in the grass in the sun in Feb and Colt’s backyard. My legs were out in front of me and I was wearing my little army green skirt and my violet tank top I bought at Lucky with Joe and the girls. I’d helped Feb for a few hours before people showed, making macaroni salad, whipping up devilled eggs, cutting up tomatoes and onions, forming hamburger patties, dumping chips into bowls and then carting it outside to sit on a table under a sideless tent that Colt set up. We did all of this while looking after Feb’s beautiful baby boy Jack and her cat Wilson alternately raced around the house or meowed for the treats Feb refused to give him and also while trying not to trod on the adorable German Shepherd puppy Feb bought Colt for his birthday.
This was their once a year barbeque, marking the coming of summer where they closed down the bar and had a good day with family and friends. All their employees were invited including Darryl who was a bartender, his wife Phylenda and their kids; Ruthie, a waitress; Fritzi, who cleaned the bar in the mornings; and Cheryl who worked behind the bar sometimes but was also a waitress and Cheryl brought her seven year old son, Ethan. Also there were Feb’s brother, Morrie, his wife Dee, their kids Palmer and Tuesday and Feb’s parents, Jack and Jackie. Our neighbors Jeremy and Melinda, Myrtle and Pearl were invited too (Tina and Cory were not but, according to Feb, Cory was on the outs with Tina, on the ins with his wife Bethany, and Tina was nursing her snit, not to mention Feb hated Tina because she was a bitch). Feb’s best friends Jessie (and her husband Jimbo) and Mimi (and her husband Al and their kids) and Colt’s partner Sully (and his wife Lorraine) were also there.
And now, so was Joe.
I watched him walk up to Colt who was manning the burgers, dogs and brats at the barbeque, baby Jack held to Colt’s hip. They did man nods and then Joe leaned down to the cooler by the grill and nabbed himself a cold one.
I guessed he was done with my super-sophisticated alarm system. He must be good. It didn’t take long; he was only working at it a few hours.
I sipped my margarita, glared at him and told Cheryl, “Don’t go there.”
“Hunh?” Cheryl asked.
I didn’t know her, I’d seen her at J&J’s a couple of times, she’d made me a drink or two. However, we’d been sitting out in the sun together drinking margaritas for at least thirty minutes. In some circles of American females, this meant you were automatic BFFs.
Therefore, I repeated, “Don’t go there. Player.”
“And you know this…?” Cheryl let that hang, I turned my head and just gave her a look.
Her eyes got wide then she noted, “I didn’t peg you as the type.”
“What type?”
“The type to get played.”
I shook my head. “Seein’ as I’ve had two men in my bed, my husband, who took my virginity when I was seventeen, and him,” I tilted my head toward Joe, “I’m not.”
At this news, Cheryl’s eyes got even wider. “No joke?”
I shook my head again. “No joke.”
“Wow,” she whispered.
“Wow is right,” I returned.
“What happened to your husband? Divorce?”
“He was shot in the head by a gangster.”
Her mouth dropped open, her face went pale and I felt like a shit, telling her like that. I’d never told anyone like that, hell, I didn’t think I ever told anyone. Barry, Tim’s partner, and Pam, Barry’s wife, had made all the calls.
“It was awhile ago,” I explained, my voice gentler. “He was a cop.”
The surprise slid out of her face, her hand came out and she gave my knee a quick squeeze before it moved away.
“Rough,” she murmured and I nodded to that understatement. “How long ago?”
“Year and a half.”
“Then not that long ago.”
I looked at my feet. “Nope.”
“You wanna talk?”
I looked at her and repeated quietly, “Nope.”
“You do…”
Seriously, the folks in this ‘burg were so nice.
It was my turn to squeeze her knee so I did and muttered, “Thanks.”
She turned her head and her gaze went to Joe. My gaze went to anywhere but Joe.
“Was he good?” she asked curiously.
Good wasn’t the word for it, in fact, there were no words for it.
I decided not to tell her that, instead I said, “Yeah.”
Her head turned back to me and softly, she said, “Be fun to play, hon, been awhile for me and let’s just say I’ve had a few more boys in my bed than you. But only…” she paused, “you done with him?”
I wasn’t done with him, he was done with me which totally made me done with him.
“Oh yeah, I’m done.”
“You mind?” she asked.
“Have at it,” I invited, though I had to admit it hurt, thinking of Joe moving on even though I knew it shouldn’t and I didn’t even know why it did.
It was sex, just sex, he told me so his damned self. I was an adult, I knew the score. My girlfriends who hadn’t found the man they adored at fifteen years old had been telling me stories like this for ages. Apparently, since Tim was dead, it was my turn to get fucked over by an asshole.
However, since I liked Cheryl, I added, “But check your heart at the door.”
Her brows went up. “You didn’t?”
“What?”
“Check your heart at the door.”
I shook my head again. “I didn’t fall for him but I thought there was something there. I was an idiot. It had been… losing Tim…” I licked my lips and Cheryl waited silently while I pulled it together, took a deep breath and finished. “Let’s just say, he made me feel like a moron because there wasn’t anything there. Nothing. Just sex. He was done with me fast, it lasted only a coupla days and he’s my next door neighbor.”
Cheryl was staring at me when she said, “Jesus.”