all upset, or I will have to run you out of here,” Isobelle said, before turning back to her liquors to go satisfy Rex’s request for additional cocktails.
“Hey, hey, hey, she’s a keeper for you, Grant boy! Annie is going to love her!”
Grant watched Isobelle as she walked away. He suddenly felt light and warm, as though the harsh hotel air conditioning had been shut off abruptly. He tipped up the drink and was sucked in by the clarity of thought that washed over him. Clarity of thought, after such a brutal car wreck, was rather surprising, so he was reticent to trust the feeling. He couldn’t deny, however, how good it felt to sit in such a nice bar, speaking with this beautiful, enchanting woman. He had not felt that ease since Annie had been around, and that was a long time ago. Isobelle looked nothing like Annie, but she was beguiling and she had the same confidence.
“I still can’t believe you got Annie to say she would come here. Pretty tough believing she would talk to you at all.”
“Hey, can’t help my boyish charm,” Rex smiled, enjoying his drink.
“Bullshit, you ain’t got any boyish charm. She’s just a good soul and felt sorry for your pathetic ass, which I didn’t think was possible.”
“She is a good soul. I’m still not sure why she didn’t like me in the first place.”
“Maybe because you’re an asshole, you were always stirring up crazy shit that got me in trouble!” Grant said.
“Yeah, Angel Grant … wouldn’t say shit if he had a mouthful. Always a gun to your head to make you do things you didn’t want to do. Hey, I got a gun. How bout I hold it to your head and we do some crazy shit this weekend?”
“Guns, yeah, that’s exactly what you need. I really am trying to rule out any behavior that even remotely resembles anything that you would do,” Grant said.
“Yeah, like it was never you.”
“People change. I’ve been in a car wreck already, what do you want?”
“Maybe that qualifies. If we were keeping tabs in the fucked-up sweepstakes, you are in the lead. The bartender seems to like you, though, so there might be hope,” Rex said.
“I’m not here for the—the bartender. I’m here for Annie … and you, sort of.”
“Thanks for the afterthought.”
“I haven’t seen Annie in years. It’s been longer since I saw her than it has since I last saw you. And I know for a fact she is still better looking than you.”
“It’ll be great to see her, won’t it?”
“She’s really coming?” Grant asked, still perplexed by the fact that this might be a real possibility.
“You are such a fucking putz! Yes, she’s coming! Just relax, try not to be your usual dumbass self, and enjoy the ride. Wonder if she’s bringing a bunch of hot friends, what do you think?”
“I’m sure I don’t know.”
“Hey, don’t get pissy. I had to do a bunch of shit I didn’t want to do to get Annie to say she would come here. So in return, you should just keep the bartender happy, so she can keep the drinks coming, which, in turn, will make me happy. That, and if Annie brings some hot friends along with her. Maybe the bartender, what’s her name, has some babe friends, too. I bet she does. A woman that good looking doesn’t hang with ugly people,” Rex said.
“I don’t see Annie here yet, and listen to you. Did your ordeal make you regress to high school? What do you mean doesn’t hang around with ugly people? I let you hang around me, and look how goddamn ugly you are,” Grant retorted, as bitterly as he could. Already he could tell he was getting too defensive of Isobelle.
“Almost to high school,” Rex said, setting his now-empty glass down on the bar. “Look, and maybe it can be like old times. Well, okay—maybe not completely like the times you and Annie had when you were together, but maybe it can just be some of the fun that the three of us had back then. She doesn’t like it, she can leave. And if that’s not good enough for you, I bet that woman behind the bar would be more than happy to hear you tell her some stories. Any of that compare with your exciting life back in Encinitas?”
“I thought you were going to be quiet,” Isobelle said, returning with round two.
“That’s really not a fair test for him,” Grant said, smiling slyly at her.
“This, I can believe,” Isobelle smiled back.
“I can be quiet. I just have a lot to say. Most people,”—Rex gave Grant a fiendish look—“find what I have to say to be interesting,” Rex said.
“Are any of those people who find you interesting here in this bar today?” Isobelle asked, deadly serious, playing him word for word.
Grant started laughing.
“Well, it looks like the bar is empty, except for us,” Rex said.
“I know, that is why I asked the question,” Isobelle said.
“You know it is not a given that I will leave you a tip,” Rex said, a smile creeping onto his face.
“No, but you probably will because I will see to it that you are well taken care of, whether anyone is listening to you, or not,” Isobelle smiled back. “But we should still complete the test, just to be certain.”
“That’s for sure,” Grant added.
“I stay quiet, you are going to have to pass notes to this one if you want to get a response, I’m just tellin’ ya. If you are waiting for him to make conversation, we will probably go through several shift changes before Sunday,” Rex said, looking towards the service access part of the bar.
“You stay quiet, even a little while, I will make sure your friend here is comfortable speaking with me,” Isobelle said.
“I don’t think we can take that chance. His vocal cords might grow shut, which, now that I think about it, isn’t a bad thing. On the other hand, it might impact his drinking, which would certainly impact your tip,” Rex replied.
Even with this beautiful woman standing in front of him, flirting with him and teasing Rex, the only thing that occupied Grant’s thoughts was the hope of seeing Annie again.
CHAPTER 3
As long as Grant had known Rex, Rex had never been one to talk much with or about his emotions. It wasn’t that he didn’t have any, it was more that his family dynamic had never been warm and welcoming. They were all well-educated, but not prone to discuss emotions, good or bad. Theirs was always a methodical discussion of why people did, or did not do certain things, with only the most logical and reasonable motives being considered. Rex had always tried to compensate for that by being reckless, and always including his friends in whatever happenings he was generating. He might not tell his friends how much they meant to him, but he always had something going on that would enable him to show, in his own way, how much they meant to him. He was always more outgoing than Grant, and having Grant share in his escapades forced Grant to be more outgoing than he would have been without Rex. This interaction brought
