18. Amias
EIGHTEEN
AMIAS
"Man, how the fuck did you get my number?" Darren demanded and then coughed for two minutes straight.
"I know someone who knows someone," I informed him.
"And you want to know what wine Naya likes?" Darren asked.
"Yeah. She said Loire but I sort of said that I'd do better than you."
"Okay, I have COVID, and my head is not screwed on straight, but what the fuck is going on?"
"I'm going to her place for Christmas Eve. She's cooking and I'm bringing the wine. I told you.
"I was fucking with Darren. I knew he'd be surprised when I called him and that he'd want to bite my head off.
"You fucking with her, Westbrook?"
"No," I said sincerely. "I broke up with Ann."
"And? You think Naya will be your rebound, you asshole?"
"No, fuck no. I'm…I feel something. I feel something for her."
I heard Darren release an elaborate sigh. "Her favorite Cab Franc is…are you writing this down?"
"Yes."
He told me the names of her favorite wines and what else he thought she'd like. "She doesn't care how much it costs. She only cares how it tastes."
"As I'd expect her to." Yeah, she wouldn't give a shit if a wine cost fifty or five dollars. For Naya, I was starting to learn it would be about what was inside and how she felt about it.
"Westbrook, she doesn't deserve any more pain."
"I know."
"What the fuck do you think you know?"
"I know she was in an accident. I know she has scars. I'm not going to ask you to tell me about any of this. I want her to trust me and tell me."
There was silence on Darren's side and then another spate of coughing.
"If she trusts you, you’d be the luckiest man alive."
"I know. Thanks, Darren."
"Don't disappoint me 'cause I will come and fuck you up…if I live through this virus."
"And I'll deserve it," I admitted.
I liked wine, but I was no expert. I knew someone who was.
I took Hayes to Back Bay Wine Spirits and Craft Beer.
"You ended one relationship and you're jumping into another."
"I've been trying to end it with Ann for a few weeks now," I confessed.
"Then why didn't you?"
"I didn't want to hurt her feelings and as you said it was easy to be in a relationship with her."
"You and I have very different ideas of what's easy." He picked up a bottle of Cab Franc. "Naya will like this."
I looked at the label Sadie Family Mev. Kirsten Chenin Blanc 2022. I'd just have to trust Hayes. I had already picked up the Cab Franc Darren had recommended but the Chenin Blanc he'd told me Naya would like wasn't in the store.
"I've known Ann for years."
"And you still dated her? There is no accounting for bad taste."
"She said that she noticed how I watched Naya. I did, didn't I?"
Hayes picked up another bottle of wine and looked at it. "You did."
"How come I never saw it?"
"Because she's not your type. Or rather you think she's not your type.
The truth is, Amias, you've never tried to find out what your type is.
You've been too busy growing your business.
You'd have some sex here and there, and then Ann would rope you back right in.
I've got to say for a woman as self-obsessed as Ann, I'm surprised she noticed your attention was wandering. "
He put a bottle of Burgundy in my cart. "That one’s for me. You're paying for my wine expertise services."
"That's a four hundred dollar bottle of wine."
"Keep complaining and I'll buy a case," Hayes growled.
"Ann and I haven't had sex since that party at my place…the day after I saw Naya…"
"Looking hot in workout gear?"
"Fuck, Hayes. I'm not that shallow."
"You were attracted to her before but after seeing her tight booty, you accepted the attraction.
"I leaned on the cart. "But it's not just her body. It's…her."
Hayes grinned. "Finally."
"What do you mean?"
"You date women who look like models, Amias, because they look like that."
"What's wrong with admiring beauty up close and personal?"
Hayes added a few more bottles to the cart. We walked around the store and picked up a couple cases of beer as well.
"Ah, she said she likes her champagne Blanc de Blanc and super dry. Thoughts?"
Hayes rubbed his hands together. "Ah, I know just the one. Come on, let's go spend some more of your money."
By the time we left the store I'd bought twelve bottles of wine for an ungodly sum of money. I hoped Naya would like the bottles Hayes had recommended.
"Will you tell her I helped or show off that you know your wine?" Hayes asked when we came to my place, and I opened one of his bottles of Burgundy.
"I do know my wine. I just don't know it as well as you do. You could work as a floor Somm at any top restaurant." I drank some of the Burgundy and moaned. "Holy fuck, this is good."
"Oh yeah," Hayes agreed after he drank some.
"What are you doing for Christmas?"
"I have a lady friend. She and I will have a meal I prepare at my place after which we'll drink some of this wine you bought for me and fuck like rabbits until university opens the first week of January," Hayes declared.
"Tell me more."
"Not much to tell. She's a visiting professor from Sorbonne. Has great tits; is a Fulbright Scholar."
"Tits come before brains?"
"Best thing about her? She's only here through the end of March. "
"So, perfect for you."
"I like my women better when I know they're going miles away after we're done," he admitted.
I leaned back on the couch and sighed. "Have you talked to Nolan since The Langham lunch?"
Hayes shook his head. "He called, and I told him I was too disgusted with him to talk. He asked why and I told him that he was a douchebag for treating his sister so badly. He hung up on me. How about you?"
"He came to the apartment. He apologized. I think mostly because Kara made him. She didn't want to miss out on Switzerland."
"And now you go ahead and cancel it. How did your mother take it?"
I groaned out loud.
"That well, huh?"
I laughed in self-deprecation. "She was pissed as hell. And then she wanted to know if I was seeing anyone else and if I was to make sure she was as classy as Ann."
"Your mother is a tool."
"Ann is a lot like my mother."
"Who is also a tool."
I wondered how my mother would feel about Naya. She'll think she can eat her alive until she tries, I thought in good humor. Naya would be a hard nut for her to crack. The woman was tough and humble. She had that quiet strength that didn't collapse under pressure.
"Ann mentioned something that…she said that Naya had been in an accident, and she has a lot of scars."
"Accident? We never heard. Did it happen when she was a child?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. But she said something on the lines of that I'd find her scars ugly, that...."
"And now you're worried that you only care about surface beauty?"
"Fuck no," I protested. "I don't care if she has scales under her clothes. I'll probably still be sporting a hard on as soon as she opens her mouth and talks. I don’t know when she went from irritating girl who has a crush on me to sexy woman I want to fuck."
"Then what?"
"I just have a feeling that it did a lot of emotional damage as well. I'm scared I may say or do something to worsen it."
"Be mindful," Hayes recommended, "And be respectful. That's about all you can do."
"I don't want to ever hurt her again," I confessed, "I probably will but not on purpose. She's a kind and good person. I wish I hadn't been so blind before."
"You can't rush maturity," Hayes consoled me, "And your eyes are wide open now Amias, and that's worth its weight in Burgundy."