Chapter 21
A Small World – Jack
“
W hat are you still doing here?” I ask Bryant when I get out of the shower and see him sitting on the couch. I thought he was going out to eat with Jenkins and Tyler at the hotel’s restaurant.
“Meh. Just felt like staying in.”
“Wesley, you’re going to have to get back out into the world eventually.” I know his divorce was hard on him, but it’s almost getting pathetic now. Besides, he made me promise that I would have a good time while here.
He scoffs. “That’s rich coming from you.” That’s fair. I suppose I am a bit of a hypocrite. But Harper really did a number on me.
“Where do you think all of the others are right now?” I ask him.
He frowns. “Who knows? At a fun club somewhere, I’d guess.”
That sounds exhausting.
But then my mind is consumed with Kayla. The thought of her dancing the night away with some hot Moroccan guy makes my heart flutter with jealousy.
Soon, his phone on the coffee table starts buzzing.
When he picks it up, he announces, “Oh, it’s Jenkins. Hello?”
I can only hear mumblings coming from the other side of the line.
“They’re going to Theatro to meet up with everyone else. They want to know if we’d like to join.”
I bet Kayla is there. Although it does tire me out just thinking about going, I also have an unquenchable desire to check on her and make sure she’s okay.
Plus, in doing so, I could also get Bryant off my back about the hypocrisy shit.
“Let’s do it.”
He looks shocked. “Seriously?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Okay,” he says skeptically. “I guess we’re in.”
Obviously, my robe won’t do, so I go into my bedroom and change into a black, long-sleeved button-up and matching pants. Then, I spray on my Dior cologne that I’m embarrassed to admit to anyone how much I paid for.
When I get back down into the lower part of the apartment, Bryant is similarly dressed up but in white and tan—and a patterned ascot around his neck.
“Ready?”
He shakes his head. “As I’ll ever be.”
We meet up with the other two men and hail a cab.
“This is so exciting,” Tyler gushes.
I can already hear the loud music as we’re getting closer to the venue.
When we arrive, I use the back of my hand to swat at a fuzz or two on my shirt.
“Let’s do this.” Jenkins, who is married with small children, looks like a kid in a candy shop as we approach the doors.
“Yes, let’s.”
I know one of the only ways I’ll survive this night is with the help of alcohol, so I beeline it for the bar.
“Whiskey, neat. Please.”
“You got it,” the bartender replies.
“What’s your poison, Bryant?” He’s looking at all the gyrating bodies like they’re wild animals.
“Whatever you got is fine.”
“Make that two, please,” I say, leaning over the bar.
“You got it.”
After getting our drinks, we get closer to the dance floor, and I’m looking around like crazy for any sign of Kayla, but she’s nowhere to be found.
What I do see, however, is Jenkins dancing with a scantily clad woman in the corner.
“When in Rome, I guess,” Bryant yells in my ear.
“I guess.” The relationship he has with his wife isn’t any of my business. As far as I know, she may give him permission to engage in such activities when abroad. Who knows?
It looks as though Tyler, even as unfortunate looking as I believe him to be, also found himself a partner.
However, I have no interest in any of that.
A few women make their advances, but I politely decline. Again, I’m only interested in Kayla at the moment.
“Whoa! The boss men are here!” a clearly inebriated Denver exclaims before giving us both big, sweaty hugs.
“You’ve got a real Danny Zucko thing going on tonight, huh?” I playfully jostle his hair.
His fingers touch it for a moment. “Oh, yeah! That’s right. I just thought it would be fun, you know?”
“Uh-huh. Hey! Have you seen Kayla?”
“Who?” He bends down closer to me.
“Kayla! Kayla Allen!”
“Oh.” He grabs my shoulders and looks around before snapping. “That’s right. She and Callie left.”
I feel a pang of anxiety in my chest. “They left? With whom?” My eyes are darting like a mad man.
He shrugs. “Some guys.”
My heart sinks. “Oh.” I guess that’s fair. I have been acting like a lunatic around her, and I told her there could never be anything between us.
Then, with nothing of interest to me inside the club, I go outside for some air.
“Jack? Jack Shelley?” I then hear from behind me.
When I turn around, I see that it’s Amine, an old buddy from college.
I gasp. “You’re kidding me!”
We shake hands and then slap each other’s backs.
“I heard through the grapevine that you were here.”
“What are the chances?” I mean, he’s from here, but he’s always travelling, like myself.
He laughs and tucks some longer hairs behind his ears.
I can still hardly believe my eyes. “So, how are you?” It’s been years since we’ve connected.
“Good, good. You know, just living the life.”
“Yeah.” I glance down and see that he also doesn’t have a wedding ring on. “Yeah, I do.”
“But this is just a quick stop for you, right? Where are you off to?”
“Greece.”
“Oh, yeah? Where about?”
“Karpathos.”
He gently smacks my chest with his forearm. “Oh, that’s beautiful.”
I then explain the whole situation with Yannis Drakos.
“Gotcha, gotcha. Hey, it was awesome to run into you. Let’s have dinner or something if you have the time before you leave.”
“I’d like that.”
Then, a group of men approach him.
One of them asks, “Where’d your girl go?”
“Kayla had to go back to the hotel with her friend. But she said we’d meet up again tomorrow night.”
My ears start tingling. “I’m sorry. Did you say Kayla?”
He turns to face me again. “Yeah?”
“Kayla Allen?”
He shrugs his shoulders. “We didn’t exchange last names, man.”
“Really pretty, in her early thirties, light hair that comes down to about here.” I demonstrate with my hand.
“Her hair was up, but yeah, that sounds about right. She’s from Indiana.”
Yep. That’s my Kayla. “My?” What am I even saying?
My emotions are conflicting. Amine has always had a lot of charm and influence when it came to women, so if she was dancing with him, she was probably already on her way to falling for him. However, it also means she likely didn’t go home with a man—as she probably would’ve done so with him, if anyone.
“Excuse me for a second.”
He nods. “Sure thing.”
I go back in and find Bryant being a wallflower.
“I’m going to head back.”
He sighs. “Oh, thank god.” He then gulps the rest of his drink, we both say goodbye to the others, and head back to the hotel.
“Well, did you have a good time?” I ask in the car.
He cocks his head in my direction. “What do you think? What about you?”
“I did. I saw an old friend from home.”
“A friend from Ohio, here?” His surprise is warranted.
“Yeah. We went to Ohio State together. He’s originally from here.”
“I see. But still—what are the chances?”
“I know, right?”
He rolls the window on his side down a bit. “Well, why didn’t you want to stay and talk with him.”
“I’d rather catch up over a dinner. It was so noisy and chaotic there.”
He nods. “That’s fair.” Then, leaning closer, he says, “It sure looks like Jenkins and Tyler were having a good time.”
“Yeah.” Tyler I could care less about, but I hope Jenkins doesn’t make a mistake he’ll regret for the rest of his life. “Maybe we should’ve made him come back with us.”
“Those are his decisions to make.” Right away, I can tell he knows who I was referring to.
“I know. I just—I don’t know.”
“He’s a smart man. I doubt he’ll ruin his family in one night.”
I sure hope not.
The moral predicament is still weighing heavily on my heart and mind when I go to think near the pool of the hotel.
To my surprise, Kayla is there, in a white t-shirt and pink shorts. Her legs are up, and she’s resting her face on her knees as she watches the ripples of the water. The reflection of which make her eyes look blue instead of green.
“Something on your mind?” I say as calmly as I can to avoid startling her.
“What? Oh.” She wipes at her eyes when she sees that it’s me. “Hi Jack.”
“Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all.”
Fortunately for us both, I brought a chocolate treat with me.
When I offer some to her, she accepts it in seconds.
I chuckle a little. “So, funny story—I was just at Theatros.”
Her eyes get big, and her hand goes up to cover her agape mouth. “You were?”
“I was. And I ran into Amine, an old friend of mine.”
“You’re kidding!”
“I’m not. We go way back and attended college together.”
“So, you went to Ohio State, too?”
“I did.”
“Huh. Talk about a small world.”
I’m trying to gauge her interest in him, but she seems neutral for the most part.
Then, I hand her another piece of the Moroccan chocolate. “Anyway, what are you doing out here?”
“Um.” She points behind her with her thumb. “Callie is having a… visitor.”
“Ah.” She doesn’t need to say anything more. “So, you were banished out here.”
Her arms form a “w.” “It kind of seems like this is my lot in life, no?”
We laugh together. “Yeah, I guess so. But did you have a fun time tonight?”
Again, I’m trying to read her body language.
“I guess it was alright. The bar or club or whatever isn’t really my scene.”
I’m happy to hear that. “Mine either.”
I open my mouth to say something else until I see someone I never thought I’d lay eyes on again.