Chapter 6

Six

"Bee! Can I come in?" I burst into Bumblebee's room without even bothering to wait for a reply. She sits up on her bed, a cloud of weed smoke surrounding her.

"Baby? Shit, what's wrong? Glenn okay?" She tries to get out of bed, but she's wobbly. Apparently, whatever she's smoking has already taken hold of her.

"No, I'm sorry. Everything's fine. I just wanted to know if I could borrow a shirt from you?" I give a soft smile and shift from foot to foot, waiting for her to say yes so I could rush into her closet.

I don't know how this happened. One minute I was showing Hardy pictures of Glenn, and we were laughing about him learning to walk, and the next thing I knew, he was asking me to come out with him so we could continue getting to know each other better. He never said the word "date," but now that I've gone through every suitable thing in my closet and come up short, it's really starting to feel like a date.

"You want to borrow my clothes? Are you sure? You know I'm so much older than you." She chuckles sarcastically. Bee is in her late twenties, but she's the closest to my age in the whole club.

"Don't be like that. You know I love how all of y'all dress." I give a little pout, and she takes pity on me. She waves a hand toward her closet, and I take off like I'm searching for a grand prize in her well-worn clothing.

The closets in the clubhouse aren't very big, so she doesn't have much stuff, but she does have a few low-cut tops that I think would impress Hardy.

I groan and squeeze the garment in my hands. When did this become about me trying to impress Hardy? I shouldn't have to impress him. Nothing is going to happen between us.

"Everything okay over there? Did you find something?" Bee gets up from her bed and comes over to me.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't even know what I'm looking for," I admit, feeling a bit defeated.

She squeezes my arm in a show of support before grabbing the shirt I have in my hand and tugging it away. "No, not that one. It's my favorite." Of course, she'd have a favorite low-cut top. Bumblebee is a wild child. She's so much like her sister Free it's crazy.

"First, why don't you tell me where you're going, and I can help you pick out something that will work."

I hesitate for a second. It's not that I think they'd mind me going out, but I know how most of them feel about law enforcement. Either they've had a bad experience or they've seen all the people in the Faceless society who are supposed to be police come out as dirty as Louisiana mud. "I'm going to have dinner with someone."

"Oh, so a date?"

"No!" I answer quickly, catching her off guard. "No, we didn't call it a date."

"So, are you discussing a business deal? Is he a pastor? Maybe someone from the old folks' home you want to take out for something good to eat?"

I know she's joking, but I can't laugh. I'm too tense about what's about to happen. "No, he's middle-aged."

"Then it's a date, girl. That means we dress you like one." Bee claps her hands and begins pulling things out of the closet while I close my eyes and let her play Barbie dress-up with me.

"Hey, I didn't see you drive up." Hardy walks slowly in my direction.

"I didn't drive; I took a cab." I offer up. I didn't want to take my motorcycle and risk getting dirty, and Duchess and Press had the only available car for the night. It was either hop in a cab or miss the chance to have dinner with Hardy altogether.

"A cab? I would've picked you up."

"No, that's okay. It was fine." I wave my hand in the air, trying to dismiss it.

The girls at the clubhouse call me Baby, mostly because I'm the youngest out of all of them but also because I tend to have things done for me.

Spider in the room, one of the men comes and kills it. I'm thirsty, one of the other girls brings me a drink. They baby me, but I'm trying hard to ditch the moniker. I need to learn how to do for myself. Tonight it started with the cab. I even brought a few extra dollars to pay for my portion of the meal when the time comes. I'm ready to be independent one step at a time.

"Okay, well, there's a nice place right here. We don't need a reservation, but they serve really good food." He points to a small Italian restaurant behind him.