Chapter Eleven
Harlyn
“Would you like to get a drink?” Janene asked.
She seemed a little hesitant to offer. Maybe it was her comment from earlier about wanting to kiss me, or maybe it was just me because for a brief moment, I had wanted her to kiss me. I had been thinking that exact thing when she’d said it. We’d been standing so close and her scent suddenly overwhelmed my senses. It was a musky, sweet smell. I looked up at her lips and noticed how pink they were and that’s when she said it. I knew she was joking, but for that brief second, I wanted it.
When we were ready to drive back to Denver, Colby offered me the front seat but I told him it was his turn since I’d ridden shotgun on the way over. He seemed disappointed that I didn’t take the front seat but I wasn’t sure I could sit next to Janene for an hour and not be tempted to lean over and kiss her.
The back seat wasn’t really much better but at least it put some distance between us. I could see the muscles in her arm flex every time she shifted gears. She was wearing a red top again only this one was a short sleeve cotton t-shirt. It still clashed with her complexion but the sleeves were cuffed right at her bicep which made them look even more defined. From the back seat, it was also easier to watch her thigh muscle contract when she moved from pedal to pedal. At least from this angle I could watch her without being obvious. It was like I was looking at a completely different person and I wanted to take it all in.
When we got back to the office, Colby didn’t even bother to go upstairs, he waved good bye in the parking lot and headed to his truck. I had a feeling he thought the entire day was a waste. I on the other hand had enjoyed our little fieldtrip. It was probably not something I would ever do for my own projects, but I could appreciate what Madeline was trying to teach us.
I headed up to my communal office right away to digitize my notes and clear up my chicken scratch before the details left my brain. There was only so much space up there and I didn’t want to forget anything about this property. This was a big deal and I knew if I could add that I had assisted in landing this project to my resume, Linear would have more reason to take me back. I also needed to impress Madeline if I was going to get a resounding recommendation. There were details about the area that I had forgotten because it had been years since I visited Colorado Springs.
There were actually a lot of things that I had forgotten about the Denver area in general because I had been gone for so long. Like how intense the sun could be in mid-June. My shoulders were a little red from walking around without any sunscreen. I was going to feel that in the morning for sure. I wondered if Janene burned easily, or if she tanned. Fair skin was funny like that. Some of us burned and some of us tanned. That thought lead me to wonder exactly how fair Janene was under all her clothes. Did she have tan lines and if so, where did they start and where did they end? I couldn’t remember a time that I’d ever seen her in shorts. Even when we went on long hikes she was always in jeans, a t-shirt, and boots.
That’s what I had been thinking about, Janene’s tan lines, while waiting on the elevator to take me out of the office, when Janene walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to have a drink. I knew my answer should be no, especially after those thoughts were in my head, but I didn’t say anything. I kept my eyes on my sunburned shoulder as if I hadn’t heard her.
“Madeline said I should offer to buy you a drink since you saved our asses today,” Janene added.
I looked up at her and found a pair of sad eyes looking back at me. Here I was thinking about this woman in the most inappropriate way when she had so many ghosts to contend with on a daily basis. I wondered what her life was like. Did she hate going home to an empty place at the end of every day? Was that why she had the reputation that she had with the ladies? Mom said it was Janene’s way of protecting herself from heartache. I couldn’t even imagine what it was like to find your soulmate at such a young age and then to lose her just a few years later. I didn’t know the whole story, my mom never liked talking about it because Coreen was mom’s friend too, but I knew whatever had happened it was bad.
“Sure, why not,” I said.
I could do the grown-up thing and put my own lust aside for a friend. Because no matter how I looked at it, Janene was a friend.
Janene smiled in that way that she had. It was almost as if she hadn’t expected me to say yes. Like she was happy to not go home yet. The truth was I didn’t want to go home yet either. The elevator dinged and we got in.
“You are twenty-one, aren’t you?” She asked. Her eyes crinkled in the corners.
“Funny. You know, I’m turning twenty-six at the end of this month.”
Janene put her hand against her chest and acted like she was wounded. “Twenty-six. God, to be that young again.”
“Why do you do that?” I asked.
“What?”
“Act like you’re so old.”
The elevator door opened and Janene placed her hand at the small of my back to lead me forward. There was a jolt of electricity. A tingle I hadn’t felt in a long time and needed to ignore because my traitorous body was toying with me.
“I am old.”
“No, you’re not. You’re not even fifty yet. Haven’t you heard, forty is the new twenty.”
“If I’m twenty then what does that make you?”
“Your peer.”
We’d made it outside to the sidewalk but I wasn’t sure where we were going, if we were driving or walking so, I stopped.
“We do work together after all,” I added.
Janene didn’t say anything else, she just nodded. She was watching me with this distinct look in her eyes. It was warm and yet it was just a tiny bit sultry. I liked it on her, mostly because I had never seen her look at anyone else that way. It was like she was saying that she understood me completely even though I had yet to tell her anything at all about me. The adult me. The grown up she’d never actually met.
In a second, that comfort turned to something else and I wanted to tell her that we should go back to her place for that drink. I blinked and the realization that this was Janene standing next to me hit me. It was strange to think of her in that way even though that was all I had been doing since she lifted her eye brow at my comment about being flexible. I wondered what the criteria was for having casual sex with Ms. Casanova. Did I check any of the boxes for her and if I did, would she ever admit it?
“So, where to?” I asked. Determined that I would learn the answers to those questions before the night was done.
“I know of a place just up the road. We can walk if you want,” Janene said. She was still looking directly at me. There was definitely a charge lingering between us.
“Is it an old lady bar?” I joked.
She laughed. “Exactly. I wouldn’t want to take you to a place where you might get hit on and stolen away from me.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not Anabelle.”
“What is your deal with Anabelle?” she asked.
Her hand brushed against the small of my back again as we started in the direction of the bar. She didn’t let it linger though. I wasn’t sure if I was glad for that or disappointed.
“Nothing. I don’t even know her.”
“She tries too hard,” Janene said. “That’s between you and me of course.”
“Why do you indulge her?”
“Do I? I’m just trying to be nice. She’s young and I don’t think she quite knows who she is or what she wants to do with her life. I remember what that was like. Don’t you?”
“Yeah. I guess.”
We entered the bar which was exactly as empty as I had assumed it would be. There were only two other people in there but to the bar’s credit it was only seven o’clock.
“Let’s get a table back there,” Janene said. “We old people like to be close to the bathroom.”
“Really?”
She laughed. “No. I’m not that old. It’s just quieter. We can talk back there and not worry with whatever they have blasting on the television. What are you drinking tonight?”
“Ugh, I miss a good local beer. Anything will do as long as it’s local.”
Janene nodded and headed toward the bar as I picked out a table. They were all pub tables with high back stools. That kind of chair was always a little too tall for me but that was also the case with most things in my life. I wasn’t short, but I wasn’t tall either, I was average for a woman, unlike Janene who was easily three to four inches taller than me. I hung my purse on the back of my chair and made my way onto the stool, glad I was able to do it without making a fool of myself in front of Janene.
I was trying to figure out where I could place my feet so they wouldn’t fall asleep from hanging in midair when I spotted Janene walking toward me with two Beehives. That cocky grin she sometimes wore at work was plastered on her face. I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she’d picked up a number while she was at the bar. We weren’t on a date after all, she had the freedom to talk to whoever she wanted to talk to and yet somehow, I felt disrespected.
Janene climbed up on the stool next to me instead of across from me. Her knee knocked into mine and again there was a tingle only this time it ran up my leg in a direction that was dangerous. Dangerous because even though my brain kept saying, “This is your boss, your mom’s friend, someone who watched you grow up, don’t do anything stupid!” My body was saying exactly what Caitlin had said just a week ago, “This is the perfect opportunity to release some tension on a very willing woman that is showing some signs of interest.”
“I think I earned cool points from the bartender just for walking in here with you,” she said as she placed a beer in front of me.
“I’m not sure how to feel about that.”
“He offered me a free beer if I gave him your number.”
“Rude! You’d pimp me out for a free beer?”
She shrugged. “Things are getting to be ridiculously expensive in this city.”
“What happened to not wanting anyone to steel me away or whatever it was you said.”
She laughed at my faux outrage and then raised her beer in my direction. “To solving problems,” she said as our bottles clinked.
I took a long pull from my beer. It was cold and crisp. It was exactly what I’d needed. Local brews really were one of the top things I missed about living in Colorado. There was a brewery around every corner with amazingly crisp beer. Texas seemed to supply a lot of the same flat varieties, though Austin was starting to branch out in its offerings.
“How did you know this is my favorite?” I asked after a second drink.
“Favorite Bristol or favorite all around?”
“All around.”
“I guess I got lucky.”
“We shall see, the night is still young.” My cheeks went warm. “There is plenty of time to find you someone,” I added. I looked around the empty bar trying to collect myself again. I was once again on a roll, when it came to saying things out loud that should have remained in my brain. Janene didn’t say anything, there wasn’t even a lift of her eyebrow.
The first beer and what I had told myself was going to be my only beer went quickly. Before I knew it there were six empty beer bottles on the table and a newly opened cold bottle in my hand. We’d talked about work, my experience with Linear Design Group, and how much we both enjoyed what we did for a living. I had done my best to avoid all topics that had to do with relationships, exes, friendships, and sex.
“I feel like I’ve been starved for the last six years of my life,” I said as I drank from my beer.
“Wait a minute. If you are only now turning twenty-six, how have you been drinking for six years?”
My laugh was so loud, I even surprised myself. I covered my mouth. “Sorry.”
Janene grinned. “You’re adorable, you know that?”
Her lips went thin as if she immediately regretted saying those words. She looked down at her coaster and started to pick at its edges. It was as if she was reprimanding herself. The woman that openly flirted with every female she talked to. I had finally decided to let things play out naturally but it was now obvious that even Janene had boundaries. She didn’t flirt with just anyone. At least in this case, she didn’t flirt with anyone like me. That answered all my questions about Ms. Casanova and who was granted access to her boudoir.
“I guess it’s my turn to apologize,” she added. “I think I may have had one too many of these.” She lifted her beer toward me and then took a drink that drained almost half the bottle.
“There’s no need to apologize,” I said. It was better to know now that she wasn’t interested before I tried to make a move and got rejected.
“It was inappropriate,” she replied.
Janene tilted her bottle back and drained what was left of it. She didn’t return it to the table when she was done, instead, she cradled it in her hand and started to peel back the edges of the label. Her use of the word inappropriate cut me even more. She’d made her point but inappropriate wasn’t the right word because it was okay for her to wink and smile at Anabelle. It seemed that uninterested may have been a better choice.
Janene looked up and smiled. “Did I just make things weird?”
I shook my head, reminding myself that I needed my job. “No, don’t be silly. I’ve said my fair share of things I didn’t mean.”
“Well, since I’m the adult here, I’m going to say it’s weird.”
She spoke her words with a smile so, deep down somewhere I knew she didn’t really mean anything by that, but I was tipsy and tipsy Harlyn doesn’t like to let things go. Referring to me as a child was a proverbial slap in the face. Janene didn’t see me as a peer, she probably never would. I was always going to be Renee’s daughter to her. Even Anabelle who was easily five years younger than me garnered more respect.
“Wow. You could have just said you’re not interested. You didn’t have to insult me.”
“I wasn’t…”
Janene started to laugh but when she saw the look on my face, she pulled back her smile. Maybe I was more than tipsy because even her soft eyes didn’t stop my ensuing rant.
“You just implied that I’m a child who doesn’t know what she wants. I’m a grown ass woman with fucking needs and wants just like anyone else. I can think for myself. I don’t need some hot forty-something year old telling me what’s right or wrong.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.” The tiny line across her forehead that said she was worried she’d hurt my feelings enraged me.
I scoffed. “Tell me you don’t see me as some teenager with a crush on mommy’s friend.”
“Harlyn, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t bother. It’s fine. I know how to bow out gracefully.”
I turned to take my purse off the back of my chair and I lost my balance. Definitely not graceful. I slid off the edge of the stool toward Janene who reached out and caught me. She wrapped her arms around my waist and helped me get to my feet. She was so fucking strong it made me want her even more and that infuriated me. When I was on steady legs, I expected her to let go but she didn’t.
“You think I’m hot?” she smiled.
“Not anymore.” I knew I was doing a great job of defending my maturity with that retort.
Her smile widened. “I really want to kiss you,” she said. “Even though I know I shouldn’t, I really want to.”
I looked from her eyes to her lips and back again. “I really want you to kiss me too,” I replied. “So please, do it.”
She leaned in and pressed her lips against mine. Gentle yet firm. My hands went into her hair to pull her closer. Our lips parted and I could taste Beehive on her tongue as it entered my mouth. It was delicious in so many ways. I nipped at her tongue and she moaned. Her hands squeezed at my sides like she was trying to keep them from roaming. I didn’t want the kiss to end. It was anything but a drunken kiss, it was perfect and it was something I wanted so much more of but we were in a bar. A straight bar. I pulled back and when I opened my eyes, the person looking at me with swollen lips and ruffled hair was my mom’s friend, and my boss.
“I should go,” I said.
Janene didn’t immediately let me go but when she did, she blinked a few times like she wasn’t sure what had happened. I started to straighten my blouse which somehow had an extra button undone and she looked away like my cleavage embarrassed her.
“Who’s the child now?” I asked.
She turned back to face me but she didn’t reply. I took out my phone and pulled up a rideshare app. I was in no condition to drive and not just because I had downed six beers in a matter of minutes. My legs were shaky from how badly I wanted to do that whole kiss thing again. I wasn’t sure what to say and it seemed like Janene didn’t either so I walked away, leaving her alone at the back of bar.