I smile recalling my very first paying job. Jamie already knows that living with my mother in-between nurses was like working for In Home Supportive Services without the paper persuasion. “Yeah, I worked at the sunglass boutique at Venice Beach. It was an enjoyable occupation, Jamie.”
“Bullshit.” Jamie rolls his eyes over toward me. “Okay, I’ll give you the scenery while on the job. Hot guys in speedos or bohemian lovers.”
“We weren’t into guys in speedos in our teens, Jamie. Only guys in speedos back then had more hair in their ears than down below. But guys in beanies still make us sigh,” I joke.
“Girl, you know what I mean. I’m just disgusted with Lolita as usual. The words coming out of her mouth is no less than perfumed bile. No, honestly those words don’t even amount to shit. I swear you saved that woman’s life when you changed the subject of Nook falling through the cracks, with food. With food.”
“The food was good…” I grimace as his anger rises.
“Of course the food was good. But Lolita was like ‘any which way the wind blows’ when it doesn’t come to her selfish ass.” Jamie argues.
I can’t stand up for my mother because he’s the only one who’s helped clean up her vomit and piss. So unfortunately for me, I just have to take it.
Jamie argues, “So ‘fuck Nook,” is pretty much what I heard her say before you changed subjects. I swear, you’ve been fending for yourself, working, taking care of her for an entire lifetime.”
“C’mon, Jamie, my mom’s been forever dying of a broken heart.”
“Whatever. Look, be real with me, Reese, how is Flour Shoppe really doing? I am your best friend.”
I want to speed faster as anxiety washes over me, but can only go slower in afternoon traffic. “As you know, I had to get a loan on Flour.”
Jamie nods.
“The loan company won't take anything less than full payment since I'm on a repayment plan already. The balloon payment that I must make in order to level out my debt is zooming up fast—”
“Balloon payment,” Jamie gasps. “Reese, I could strangle your scrawny neck right now. My aunt had a balloon payment on her home once! We’re both aware how that ended! I’m calling Chu.”
“Hell no.”
“My Argentinian boyfriend?” He arches an eyebrow. “Cross over to the 110 freeway, it’s coming up soon. We can stop by his nightclub, Powerhouse, in a flash.”
“Not gonna happen.”
We argue for the next twenty minutes while creeping along the freeway. None of Jamie’s threats penetrate, as I inch right past the overpass.
“Alright, Reese, suit yourself.” He waves me off.
“I am, thank you.”
Then Jamie turns back toward me, arms folded, his bony chest rising and falling. “Is there anything else you’ve neglected to tell your best friend?”
“No,” I glare at him for an instant, and then turn my attention forward.
A tensed silence slices the car in half for the remainder of the drive. We’ve gotten into many arguments over the past decade but my heart is still unsettled. This morning, I was already determined that I needed to make amends with my credit or pay my employees their dues. There's no way to do both, so I have to resort to plan b.
This modified plan sucks to high heavens with my best friend sitting parallel to me, arms folded, big lips tensed. I parallel park across from Flour Shoppe, pull the keys from the ignition and take a deep breath. “Jamie, you still mad at me?”
“Yes.”
My eyes widen, “What the heck did I do?”
“You lied to my face.”
I scoff. “I have never been called a liar, Jamie, thanks for being the first.”
He turns in his seat, licks his lips and says, “I asked you not thirty minutes ago did you have anything else to tell me. Anything at all.”
“I don’t have to tell you—”
“Reese, we tell each other everything. Everything. So you’re sleeping with the damn cop! Are you crazy?”
Guilt clings to my shoulders. The sort of disappointment one feels when letting down their parents’ wraps around me. But I’m too angry to admit it. Jamie knew I was banging my stepbrother all along and saved the reprimanding for later.
“Look, I know screwing Evan isn’t a good thing to be doing…”
“Damn straight!”
“But it’s not like I’m marrying the guy. We slept together a few times, that is all.” A few times… every single friggen time we’ve gotten together over these past few weeks.
“That’s all, huh?” Jamie lets his tongue glide over his teeth. I glare. He rolls his eyes. Those damn eyes are telling me the error of my ways.
“Let’s take Princess Lolita out of the equation,” he says sarcastically.
“Let’s not.”
“Oh, but we should, Reese’s Pieces. How old were we when—”
“Stop!” My eyes burn. I blink rapidly, no time for tears now. The past is the past, and that’s where it should stay!
“Stop? Well, that’s a universal word not everyone abides by, Reese. Hmmm, that word ‘stop’ some men must be selectively mute to the word!”
“Jamie, I swear to you, keep talking and I’m going to slap you. You’re always threatening the slap me silly, but I promise, I will slap the shimmery eyeshadow off your face!” I shout. There are grimy hands rubbing all over my body, and I want to burn the fucking skin I live in for being touched, touched without my consent! My eyes close instinctively…
“Damn, Reese, you’ve got that ‘hold it all in’ down to a T.” He gets out and slams the door.
I get out and I slam the
