Chapter 9 #3
“Ali! I just realized you don’t have a drink,” Marjorie blurted out. She may have been a little more buzzed than she thought after all.
Realizing Misha might be a while with Eric, I decided it was safe to change locations. “Oh yeah. I think I’ll go grab something from inside,” I said as I got up. “Anybody need anything?”
“All good!” they responded.
As I walked into the Tavern, I noticed Jake standing at the bar with his back to me.
I stopped in my tracks and took in the view.
He wore dark jeans tonight. They looked softened from constant wear.
Probably his favorite. He’d had a zip-up hoodie on while sitting by the fire and must have taken it off when he stepped inside.
Now he was in just a white T-shirt stretched across his strong back, and the sleeves hugged his biceps.
Damn. His arms were toned. He leaned on one elbow propped on the bar and stretched his other arm down the length of the bar.
His large hands grasped the wooden edge, his triceps muscle constantly flexing as he spoke animatedly to the bartender.
He turned his head toward me, and when he noticed me he turned completely around and put his hands in his pockets and smiled.
Like he’d been waiting for me the entire time.
Butterflies and tingles rushed through my gut and made my breath catch.
I walked toward him like I was succumbing to a magnetic pull.
This was very unlike me. I would normally flip my hair and walk to the opposite end of the room.
Make the clearly interested gentleman work even harder for my attention.
But not this time. Jake made my skin prickle with electricity, and the way he looked at me made me feel like I was the only person in the room.
Like I was the most familiar face in the crowd even though we just met.
Like his eyes were always looking at me.
Like we were sharing a feeling—an inside joke—a well-known story.
Like we were connected by some invisible string.
It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before with anyone. Certainly not someone I only just met.
So naturally, I freaked out and instead of slinking up to the bar next to Jake and ordering a drink, I walked not more than four steps and blurted, “Bathroom!”
Now Jake and the bartender, an older, shorter man with weathered skin and a ball cap, were looking at me.
Jake’s gaze didn’t flinch. The bartender, however, whom I had not met yet, looked a little alarmed.
He likely thought I was signaling a bathroom emergency because of the panicked tone of my voice.
The bartender pointed to the side of the bar. “Around the corner, first door on the right.”
I briskly walked into the bathroom to find all the stalls empty.
I let out a long exhale, grateful to have escaped the intensity of Jake’s gaze.
This private reprieve wasn’t likely to last. The drinks were flowing around the bonfire, so another woman was bound to come in any moment.
I walked over to the sink and leaned on the vanity.
I studied my reflection for a moment. I noticed some subtle changes in my face.
The dark under-eye circles that I endlessly battled to de-puff, lighten, and hydrate were no longer visible.
I hadn’t done my full skin-care routine in days and had put on barely any makeup tonight and yet I looked refreshed.
Which didn’t make any sense. I was stressed.
I had been cast off. I was bored and resentful.
Wasn’t I? So why and how was my skin, hair, and body looking better than it had in years?
Like I was experiencing a glow-up instead of a meltdown.
A knock on the bathroom door interrupted my thoughts.
“Babe, it’s me. Are you decent? Anyone else in there with you?” It was Misha. “The nice man at the bar told me you came in here, but you’ve been a minute. I’m coming in to check on you.”
“Hey. It’s fine. You’re clear. And I’m fine. Just needed a breather,” I said as I brushed the hair from my forehead, patted under my eyes, and leaned in to pout my lips in the mirror.
“You look great, doll. What’s up? You disappeared.”
“Meesh, look at me,” I said.
“Yeah . . . you’re glowing. Like never before. And you’re not even getting laid. Quite frankly, it’s perplexing,” he said.
“I know! It’s kind of freaking me out,” I said in a panicky whisper.
“I literally have no makeup on.” Misha’s lifted brow gave me a look that said he wasn’t completely buying it.
“Okay, hardly any makeup. I haven’t had a professional facial in weeks.
I haven’t done any of my skin-care rituals.
And my hair . . . nothing! Stanley hasn’t had his hands in these tresses in what feels like forever, and yet it looks the best it ever has.
I think it’s growing thicker, if you can believe it.
Misha, what is happening? Do you think I’m being drugged? ”
Misha walked behind me and placed his hands on my upper arm and gazed at my face through the mirror. He pursed his lips together as if he was fighting back a smile.
“I don’t think you’re being drugged. I think that for the first time in perhaps a very long time you’re free.
You’re not suppressing who you really are anymore.
Maybe you’re taking care of yourself from the inside and not just the outside.
” He nodded. “All those treatments . . . they took care of the surface only, babe. All your late nights of partying. Then spending your days surrounded by nothing but toxins at GlennGlobal. And don’t even get me started on that bloodsucking vamp of a boyfriend you kept.
Maybe shedding all that is what happened to you. ”
I went quiet as I sensed a shift within, like I finally caught sight of something I’d missed before. I breathed out a faint, “Huh.”
“Okay, crisis over?” he asked as he rubbed my arms and embraced me from behind.
“For now, yes. I think so,” I said.
“Good. I wouldn’t want to ditch you mid-crisis, but . . . there’s a boy out there I want to take a stroll with. Would you be okay getting home on your own?”
“Is the boy you speak of the handsome young man I saw you chatting up outside?” I asked, injecting buoyancy back into our conversation. “The very same boy you kind of blew off before?”
“Yes. Isn’t he dreamy? A little younger than us, but a breath of fresh air that I want to drink up! As long as you’re okay, of course.”
“Hmm . . . he is awfully dreamy,” I said. “Yes, of course I will be fine to get back to the cabin on my own. And yes, I am totally okay. All this fresh air might be drugging me, but I think I’ll manage getting back to the cabin safely.”
“You’re the best. And lovely. As. Hell,” he said as he turned once again toward the door. He stopped and looked back at me. “You sure you’re okay?”
I nodded enthusiastically. “Go! Drink up all that much-deserved attention and affection.”
“Ali?” His tone turned back to pensive. “I love this version of you. And I think you do too. All the things that make you special. Your kindness. Your intelligence. Your heart. I’ve seen all this in you, so I know it’s truly who you are.
It’s just that now others can see it too.
You can see it too. You’re not hiding anymore.
You’re radiating your truth and it is gawgeous, dahling.
” He said the last part with a flourish of old-Hollywood glamour, then he floated out the door.
Jake was still at the bar when I finally emerged from the bathroom. A dreadful thought came over me. I was sure he was wondering what took me so long. And I came in here like I had some kind of diarrhea emergency. Cringe!
“Everything okay with your wardrobe malfunction?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“Misha said you were dealing with some kind of wardrobe malfunction.”
“Oh, right. Yes. All fixed,” I said. Misha is a saint for all he does for me.
“What can I get you, Ali?” the bartender asked.
“Oh, um. You know my name already? Were you at the meeting?” I asked.
“Small town. Word travels fast. I’m Calvin. And Jake here already told me it’s on him, so we’ll go top-shelf whatever you want,” Calvin said with a wink.
“Thank you.” I nodded at Jake. “What are you drinking?”
“Jake here is living dangerously. He’s drinking an old-fashioned. On a school night, if you can believe it.”
“He means because it’s a weekday. I don’t normally drink on weekdays because I’m needed at the clinic,” he said.
“Sounds very responsible.” Toward Calvin, I said, “I’m sure he needs a drink tonight, though, after being saddled with me on this project to deter evil slumlords from invading the town.
” I added a little monster theater flair to my voice.
Jake’s face in response looked distressed.
Offended? I still didn’t know his expressions.
I distracted myself by noticing the centerpiece décor on the bar and all the tables. They were upcycled wine bottles with several stems and sprigs of wildflowers. I let my fingers reach out and touch one of the delicate petals.
“How about your best tequila on the rocks with a twist of orange, if you’ve got it?” I said, addressing Calvin.
“A girl with some taste, aye! I like the sound of that. Coming right up,” Calvin said as he walked toward the back of the bar where bottles gleamed. The soft lights over the bar reflected on the edges.
“That’s not true, you know,” Jake said.
“What’s not?”
“That I feel saddled with you. I’m looking forward to working with you.”
“Says the person who’s never endured a group project with me before. I tend to take over. I can be a lot for most people. Too much, in fact,” I said.
“That’s their problem, then.”
“How would you know? We just met.”
“True. But I think I’m right,” Jake said.
Calvin placed my drink on top of a beverage napkin in front of me. “So tell me, how do you plan to save Lakeside?”
“I don’t know about save. Lakeside doesn’t seem to need saving.
Saving Lakeside is exactly what GlennGlobal thinks it needs.
Lakeside seems to be doing just fine on its own,” I said.
“But it could use a stronger foothold on its identity and potential. An unshakable foothold so a corporate entity can’t knock us off-center now or in the future.
” My wheels were definitely spinning, and I was amazed at what I was coming up with even on the spot.
Calvin nodded in approval and knocked his knuckles on the bar before he walked away to greet another customer.
“Us, huh?” Jake asked. “You’re including yourself in that, I hope?”
“Well, yeah. I am a property owner here, so I think that means I am part of the ‘us’ by default—despite what Asher kept wanting to point out during the meeting. Plus, this place was special to Gibby, and I feel like I need to preserve that for her while I’m here,” I said.
“And how long will that be?”
“How long will I be here? Um . . . I think the summer. This visit was a temporary reprieve for me, so I figure three, maybe four months will give me the break from city life that I so desperately needed.” And enough time to work my way back into my old life, I thought but didn’t say.
“Don’t worry. It should be plenty of time to release Lakeside from GlennGlobal’s clutches. And hopefully, I’ll have a chance to fix up the cabin a little to get it ready for sale. And then my work here will be done,” I said.
Jake nodded. Was that disappointment on his face? “Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out.” Jake’s demeanor shifted again. “Cal, I gotta get back outside. Add whatever else Ali orders to my tab.”
“Got it, Jake,” Calvin said over his shoulder, his arms elbow-deep in soapsuds at the bar sink washing glasses.
“Jake, um . . .” I started, not sure what I was going to say but feeling like I said something wrong. Before I could come up with something, a man poked his head inside the bar.
“Jake. You’re up.”