13. White Shoe Polish

THIRTEEN

WHITE SHOE POLISH

“H oney.”

My hip was moving.

My eyes opened.

Barely.

“Hate to do this, your little snore is cute as fuck, but I don’t wanna sleep in my clothes for the third night in a row.”

I forgot I snored.

Braydon had thought it was cute too.

He said I sounded like a bunny.

I had these thoughts as I slithered out of bed and dragged my ass to my bag on Eric’s couch.

Once there, I pulled out the nightie I packed. Black, of course. Made of lace. Deep plunge that even made my small tits look good. Little bows at the spaghetti straps. A bigger one at the bottom of the plunge. So short, it barely covered my ass.

I stood there and chucked my clothes.

I pulled on the nightie.

Then I shuffled to his bed, pulled the covers back, slipped in and collapsed against his awesome pillows.

I was nearly asleep again when the bed moved with Eric getting in it.

He slid an arm around my waist and pulled me into his body.

Oo.

Warm .

I nuzzled deep.

I thought I heard him mutter, “And you think I’m a tease.”

But I couldn’t be sure.

Because I was back to sleep.

* * *

My hip was moving.

“Honey.”

I opened my eyes to dark.

Eric’s shadowed face was close.

“Whas goin’ on?” I mumbled.

“I have to go to work.”

“Now?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s time to go to work.”

I squinted at his clock.

It told me it was 6:45.

I squinted at him. “Your commute is fifteen minutes.”

“I know. That’s why I need to leave for work.”

I glanced around in confusion.

Oh fuck.

I looked back to him.

“Did I fall asleep in front of the TV again?”

“You’re right. You need to quit TV. It’s valium to you.”

I wasn’t sure it was the TV.

It was probably more my second helping of pastitsio (okay, full disclosure, it was my third helping).

We could just say I had to unbutton my pants again, which could be why Eric didn’t instigate anything. I was in no shape for physical exertion.

“You didn’t get to do all the things you wanted to do to me,” I noted.

“No kidding,” he replied, his voice vibrating with laughter. “And I was okay with that, until you stripped and showed me your sweet body only to put on a nightie that might get me shot since I can’t get it out of my head, doing this before you fell right back to sleep.”

I couldn’t help it.

I was still kinda asleep.

But I smirked.

“Don’t get shot today,” I said.

“Don’t put that nightie in the laundry.”

“Oh, there’s more where this comes from, big man.”

He grinned, and it was so wicked and wolfish, I had a mini-orgasm.

Then he swooped in for his now-patented lip brush before he asked, “What time do I need to set the alarm?”

I snuggled down into the pillow, deciding to sleep in. “Nine.”

He told his unit to wake me at nine with soft rock, came in to kiss my temple. That felt so soothing after my mini-orgasm, I closed my eyes, then Eric was gone, and I was back to sleep.

* * *

I sat in my car in the suicide lane waiting for an opening to take the turn and staring at The Surf Club, a thrill of excitement racing through me.

This was because the front window had been defaced with white shoe polish, and it said, Today’s Tex Special, Sugar Cookie Peppermint Mocha . A hook-type thing was drawn next to it that I suspected was supposed to be a candy cane, but it looked like a weapon.

This meant Tex was back!

Tex was part of the Denver crew, much older, kind of the beloved uncle of the Rock Chicks, who proved worthy of that title by being able to take a bullet for you (this he’d done) and getting clobbered over the head while guarding you (this he’d also done) and getting kidnapped for you (and ditto with him doing this).

He’d been around a few months ago when Raye first got with Cap, coming down to check Raye out. He’d also passed his time by making coffee in our coffee cubby (don’t ask, I still didn’t understand why he’d horned in to do that).

He’d proved to be incredibly popular, regardless of how unrelentingly rude he was to customers.

But his coffees were insane .

So there was that.

He was humongous, had a long-ass beard, wild-ass hair, and a wardrobe of nothing but jeans and flannel shirts.

And I fell in love with him at first sight.

I knew he’d come back for Thanksgiving, and I’d received news since from Raye and Luna that he and his wife had decided to retire in Phoenix.

I just didn’t know he was still in The Valley.

Or he’d be back at SC.

This meant, once I hit the parking lot, I hightailed it in, dumped my bag, and made a beeline for the coffee cubby (not only to say “hey” but to get a sugar cookie peppermint mocha—sometimes something was too much of a good thing, but I reckoned that creation wrought by the hands of Tex was gonna be stellar).

I made it into the main room to hear Luna say “Hey.” I vaguely noticed Harlow making an approach with an empty tray, but I skidded to a halt when I saw the two women sitting at the bar.

One was Shirleen, Cap’s mom.

He was adopted, which explained why he was white, and she was Black. She was also gorgeous, she had a killer wardrobe, shoe collection, and the biggest, finest Afro I’d ever seen.

The other was Daisy .

I’d met Daisy (emphasis earned by all that was Daisy ) at Raye’s little sister’s funeral.

And I fell in love with her at first sight too.

I moved to her, clasped my hands in front of me, and gushed as a joke, “Oh my God, you’re my favorite recording artist of all time!”

People turned to look.

Strike that.

People were already looking (such was Daisy ), now they were staring.

She laughed a tinkly-bell laugh.

“Well, that’d be sweet, sugar, if I was who you think I am. But don’t worry, it’s a compliment you think I’m her.”

This was a joke, and it wasn’t, because she looked exactly like Dolly Parton except younger: huge rack, big, blonde hair and plethora of rhinestones on her stonewashed denim jacket with its saucy peplum, opened at the chest for maximum cleavage potential, and a thick line of more rhinestones acting as a pinstripe down the sides of her skintight, stonewashed skinny jeans.

Her platform stripper shoes had a Lucite sole and pink line of marabou feathers across the top of her foot and at her ankle.

See?

Totally love-at-first-sight worthy.

She kept her narrow ass on her stool and threw out both arms, at the end of which were fingers, at the end of which were nails sporting long, lethal, almond-shapes that were entirely crusted in pink sequins.

“Give me some love, Jessie.”

I moved in for a hug. “So good to see you again, and better circumstances this time,” I said in her ear.

“You too, sugar bunches of love.”

Seemed Louise was going to have competition with the endearments.

I let Daisy go and turned to Shirleen.

“Heya, Shirleen.”

“Hey there, child,” she said softly and opened her arms too.

Oh man.

Someone told her about Jeff. I knew it just looking at her face.

Still, I’d had a hug from Shirleen before (yes, at the funeral), and learned they were very good, so I went in for another one.

I remembered correctly. They were very good.

The news on Shirleen, by the by, was that she and her husband Moses were moving to Phoenix as well.

Then again, Cap wasn’t her only adopted son. Roam, another member of the team, was too, with designs to move down, something it appeared he didn’t mess around in doing, seeing as I’d noticed just yesterday, he’d already been folded into the crew.

So, of course she’d want to be where her boys were.

“I’m so glad you’re moving to town,” I told her.

“I’m not,” Daisy chimed in as I stepped out of Shirleen’s embrace.

“You could move too,” Shirleen stated. “You been outside. Did you feel that? Eighty-four degrees. And it’s almost December.”

“I ain’t leavin’ my castle,” Daisy fired back.

Castle?

“Have Marcus move it for you,” Shirleen replied.

Move a castle?

“My babies are still in school,” Daisy retorted. “Annamae would never forgive me if I moved her at her age.”

“How old is she?” I asked.

“Ten.”

I winced. “Yeah. She’ll be forming her posse by now.”

“You got that right, sister,” Daisy replied.

“So, are you just here to visit?” I asked.

“Nope,” she turned and picked up a paper coffee cup from the bar, which meant she got it from the cubby, not from the restaurant. In other words, Tex made it, not one of the girls. She took a sip and said, “I’m here to help Shirleen with house huntin’.”

“Rad,” I drawled.

“We don’t need help,” Shirleen asserted. “My Moses isn’t gonna be outside, mowing a lawn in a hundred and twenty-degree heat.”

I heard that.

Though, it brought to mind that Eric liked yardwork, and he hadn’t lived in town for more than a few months, so he’d only experienced the dying breaths of a Phoenix summer.

I wondered how long it’d take before he hired a yard crew.

“So we’re gonna buy the condo in that high-rise Raye showed me on that website,” Shirleen concluded.

“You haven’t even seen it in person,” Daisy said.

“I don’t need to see it,” Shirleen returned. “It’s got a rooftop pool for me. It’s got a nice gym, for Moses. And it’s got valet parking, also for me.”

“And it’s also got seventy neighbors living right on top of each other,” Daisy pointed out.

Yeah.

Unless you scored a joint like the Oasis, that could be bad.

“We’re in Phoenix,” Shirleen replied. “At that price range, they’re all gonna be old as dirt, wadin’ in the rooftop pool, waiting to die. They’re not gonna throw wild parties. And they’ll all be retired, so they’ll be in good moods all the time. Alternately, they’ll be on the Phoenix Suns, and I’ll get to ride the elevators with a slew of fine-lookin’ Black men. Moses won’t mind. We’re allowed to look. Just not touch.”

This made sense.

I knew it did to Daisy too when, instead of conceding the point, she screwed up her pretty face so hard, I thought a false eyelash would pop off.

Raye sidled up, and she asked, “Did Shirleen show you pictures of her kickass high-rise condo yet?”

“We’re getting there,” I replied as I watched Shirleen take the hint and dig (also with perfect, lethal, almond-shaped but grape-colored nails) into her bag.

“No!” we heard boomed. “I can’t take the sugar cookie part out! You get a sugar cookie peppermint mocha, or you don’t get anything, sucka!”

Oh yeah.

I loved Tex.

“Excuse me while you pull that up,” I said to the ladies. “I’ll be right back.”

I then dashed to the coffee cubby at the front of SC to say hey to Tex.

When Otis saw me, he beamed.

He loved Tex too, mostly because Tex meant his busy load was halved, and by association, he didn’t have to be nice to customers either.

Tex saw me, threw out his hand, and I squealed and jumped out of the way since he was holding a fully-loaded portafilter, and all the sloppy, wet grounds flew my way, almost hitting me.

“We need a meeting!” he kept booming (all Tex could do was boom, I know it sounds strange, but it was part of his charm).

“A meeting about what?” I asked.

“I gotta lay down the rules. Two o’clock in the morning, and you’re by yourself on the mean streets looking for your brother?”

Shit.

Eric had blabbed.

Or Eric had shared and Cap had blabbed.

“Tex—”

“Nope!” he bellowed. “Shut it, woman. Don’t wanna hear it.”

“I was okay,” I told him.

“Because Turner was on your ass,” he told me.

“No, I was okay before that.”

“Zip it!” he hollered. “At the meeting.” He then looked at one of the crowd standing before him (Otis’s coffee was popular, but with this throng, it was clear I wasn’t the only one who noticed the white shoe polish), and he demanded, “Now, you gonna whine at me about sugar cookie syrup, or are you gonna suck it up?”

“I’m gonna suck it up, sir,” the Gen Zer, who probably had shown zero respect to any adult in his life, said to Tex.

“Damn straight you are,” Tex grumbled (but his grumble was also loud).

“Can you make one of those for me?” I requested.

Tex’s head came up so fast, his beard nearly flipped into his face, and he narrowed his eyes at me.

I lifted my hands and pressed them down as I backed away.

I returned to Shirleen, Daisy and Raye, and now Luna was hanging with them on the other side of the bar.

“I sure hope Tito hires him,” I announced when I arrived.

No one looked at me like I was crazy I’d want a big, loud man shouting at me in my place of business.

Then again, I was among Angels and Rock Chicks, so they wouldn’t.

Shirleen showed me the listing for her condo, and as I scrolled through all the pictures, I whistled.

“Dope,” I said.

Shirleen jerked a thumb at me. “See?”

“We will see at the showin’ this afternoon,” Daisy replied.

“ Aaaaaaargh! ”

We all turned at the loud shout to see Byron, a regular, slip on the spent coffee grounds on the floor and fall on his ass.

Whoops.

Probably should have seen to those so Tito wouldn’t face a lawsuit.

Raye and I raced to him.

“God, sorry,” I said. “I forgot to wipe them up.”

Byron was on his feet and dusting wet grounds off the ass of his jeans. “How did they get there?”

“Tex,” Raye told him.

“Oh. Right then. Whatever,” Byron said, then he walked to his regular booth at the back, across the club from Tito, and he sat back down at his laptop.

I was a little surprised at this, since we’d learned (the hard way) Tex didn’t make tea, so Byron got his dirty chais from the bar.

But I guessed that was part of the magic of Tex.

Luna bent over the grounds with a dishtowel and swiped them up.

Tex came out from behind the cubby, right at me, and shoved a paper cup in my hand.

He then lumbered away without a word.

I tasted my sugar cookie peppermint mocha.

And yeah.

Tex had magic.

Sublime .

* * *

It was late in the lunch hour when it happened.

A triple threat to a great day.

Shirleen and Daisy hadn’t left yet (the showing was at 3:00), which was awesome, because I wanted the shot to get to know them better, and since I spent a lot of my time behind the bar, mixing lunchtime cocktails, I could hang with them.

Tex was now with Hunter in the coffee cubby.

And I was making a Jessita Mojita (a regular mojito but with spiced rum, a dash of Cointreau, and a hint of passionfruit syrup) when part one of the triple threat strolled in.

Dream, Luna’s sister.

Luna tried to avoid her sister.

Raye tried to hide she didn’t like Luna’s sister.

Harlow said that Luna’s sister had issues we didn’t understand, so we should try to have patience with Luna’s sister.

I loathed Luna’s sister.

She was a granola hippie mooch with a chip on her shoulder who treated Luna like garbage, didn’t treat Scott or Louise much better, and the only thing she had going for her was that she adored the two kids she’d already popped out by two different guys (with another bun in the oven—yeah, by an entirely different guy).

All that was enough.

But I’d had more than my fill of parents who brought kids into the world, then thought the world owed them the favor of raising those kids for them.

Yes, at least Dream loved her kids.

But she often dumped them on Luna, and Raye, and her parents, and went off to do her own thing like she didn’t take on the most important job on the planet when she pushed them out.

However, she did .

I hadn’t seen her in a while. She’d come to the funeral too. But just prior to that, at Luna’s birthday party, Cap had torn her a new asshole when Dream was being Dream and sucking all the joy out of Luna’s big night, so since then, she’d made herself scarce.

Now she was back with a kid strapped to her front over a slightly protruding belly, and one to her back.

She gave Shirleen a nod as she moved toward the bar, Daisy a once-over, whereupon she wrinkled her nose before she forced a smile (they’d met at the funeral, obvs).

And then she gave them a wide berth in an obvious effort not to engage with them, heading straight to the other side of the bar where Luna was.

I was already pissed at the nose wrinkle, the wide berth only made me more so. Therefore, I quickly finished my mojitos, put them on the server station for Harlow to pick up and slunk toward Luna to step in if shit went south.

“I know I’m not supposed to bother you at work, but I was driving by,” she started.

Raye got close too, and began polishing an already cleared table to a high shine.

“And I know you don’t want to help me with the kids,” Dream went on. “But I have an interview at a daycare center on Thursday, Mom and Dad are working, and I was hoping you could help me out.”

“I never said I didn’t want to help you with the kids—” Luna began, but she stopped when Dream gave her The Hand.

And yep.

At that, I was more pissed.

“We don’t need to go over it,” Dream said snottily. “I just need to know if you can watch them on Thursday.”

“I work Thursdays, Dream.”

Dream glanced over her shoulder. “Maybe Tito…”

She let that hang, and I didn’t know if she was asking if Tito would give Luna the time off, or if Tito would watch her kids for her.

She didn’t clarify.

I was so intent on this, I heard, “Hey, baby,” coming at me before I saw him walk up to the bar.

I knew that voice, and that “baby,” and…damn.

I really needed to click into a man’s vibe.

And his schedule.

Because I’d just talked about the guy last night, and it didn’t occur to me a visit was imminent.

In other words, Braydon was there.

He also was gorgeous, but he wasn’t anywhere near the ballpark where Eric’s gorgeous resided.

“Hey, Braydon,” I replied, and felt Luna’s attention, Dream’s, Raye’s, and now Harlow had found something to do close by.

Yeah.

They’d sensed his mission.

And I totally missed the vibe.

He slid on a stool in front of me. “How’s things?”

Right, except for my boyfriend who moved to Michigan (and that was easy, I just had to say, “No, I don’t want to go with you”), I’d never had to let a guy down.

Either my edginess, darkness, or lack of ambition (huh) sent them packing. Or if I wasn’t feeling it, I ghosted them.

How did a chick do this?

I moved to stand across from him at the bar. “Things are good, Braydon.”

He smiled widely at me.

“I thought she was with Eric,” Daisy whispered loudly.

“Shush!” Shirleen shushed her.

But Braydon heard them.

“Are they talking about you?” he asked.

Why was this hard?

This shouldn’t be hard.

He broke my heart.

No, he put me down while breaking my heart.

I hadn’t given him that first indication I was considering reconciliation. I’d been friendly, in the way an employee was friendly to any customer, but in no way could he construe I was pining for him.

Because I wasn’t.

With that in mind, I asked, “What can I get you?”

“Are you seeing someone?” he asked.

“Sorry?”

“Are. You. Seeing . Someone?” he enunciated very clearly.

“Not to be rude, Bray, but that really isn’t your business.”

His face flushed, and he moved quickly to cover, “I’m just interested, Jess. We have a history. History like ours doesn’t just die.”

“It did for me,” I returned.

His chin went into his neck.

“Oowee,” Shirleen whispered.

“Now do you want a drink or a menu?” I inquired.

He opened his mouth, but Shirleen whispered, “ Oowee ,” again with a lot more weight, which took my attention to her.

And thus, the third part of the triple threat happened when I saw Eric sauntering in all his sauntering lusciousness my way.

He came up right beside Braydon, smiling at me in all his smiling lusciousness.

“Hey, honey,” he greeted.

“Hey,” I greeted back.

“Mouth,” he ordered.

Oh man.

I leaned all the way across the stainless-steel barback to get his brush of the lips.

He caught me by the chin before I could move away and said, “Please, fuck, tell me Lucia has pulled pork burritos on the menu today.”

Braydon made a strangling noise.

Eric heard it, let me go and turned to him with concern, like he’d need to be ready to jump into action with the Heimlich maneuver.

“ Ooooooweeee ,” Shirleen said again.

Daisy’s bell laugh sounded, but there was a tinge of nervousness to it, and I didn’t get a good feeling about that.

“Braydon, Eric,” I introduced. “Eric, Braydon is my ex. Braydon, Eric is my?—”

“Man,” Eric grunted.

Well, even with the deep honesty, my car in his garage, and all of that, I wasn’t sure we were there this soon in our relationship, but at his indication we were…

Nice .

Braydon’s flush turned beet red.

Eric turned to me. “Did you have a word with him?”

“What word?” Braydon choked out.

“Um, kinda,” I said.

“How kinda?” Eric asked.

“White boy would have to have bricks for brains not to get her ‘kinda,’” Shirleen said sotto voce .

That got another tinkly giggle from Daisy.

Braydon slid off his seat and moved away from Eric a step. “She made things clear.”

Eric locked eyes with him. “Good.”

Braydon looked at me. “I won’t bother you again.”

I didn’t know what to say.

It was neither here nor there to me if he showed at SC again.

I decided to say nothing.

Braydon marched out.

I noted Cap was standing with Raye watching this, and I was about to tell Eric that he was out of luck with the pulled pork burritos, but the pulled chicken nachos were up for grabs, when Dream chimed in.

“I see how it goes,” she said snidely. “Gross.”

I felt Cap’s displeasure cresting in like a killer wave, but I had other things take my attention, because, slowly, Eric turned to her.

“Are you speaking to me?” he asked.

“No,” she answered.

“You’re looking at me,” he pointed out.

“Forget I said anything,” she returned.

“Eric, I’m not sure you met her at the funeral. This is Dream, Luna’s sister,” I introduced.

Eric couldn’t hide his surprise.

That answered that.

They didn’t meet at the funeral.

Dream looked at Luna. “Forget it. I’ll just miss the interview.”

“I thought you were going to take kids in at your house,” Luna noted.

“This place has insurance, they say I can enroll my babies for a huge discount, and they don’t mind I’m knocked up,” Dream replied.

“What time is the interview?” Luna asked.

“Don’t worry. I won’t disturb your important work with the care of my children,” Dream retorted.

Luna sighed.

Cap held Raye back.

Harlow’s cheeks turned an angry pink.

I spoke.

“What’s your problem?”

“I’m sorry, was I talking to you?” Dream asked in return.

“You were talking to one of my best friends, coming in, asking for a favor and being a bitch doing it,” I fired back.

“I don’t need this,” Dream muttered, making a move to leave.

“No, actually, Luna doesn’t. But you don’t hesitate to bring it on,” I stated.

“Babe,” Eric said quietly.

Yeah, I should just let it go. She wasn’t worth it.

I grabbed one of today’s menus and put it in front of him.

Dream remarked, “You think you can tell me off when you’re the kind of woman where some man says one word and you obey?”

“Not that I need to explain myself to you,” I began. “But I didn’t obey. He pointed out with one word you weren’t worth it. I’d forgotten that for a second. He reminded me. I was done with you. That’s what partners do. They check each other and make sure the person they care about doesn’t expend unneeded emotion on someone who doesn’t deserve it.”

Dream threw up both hands. “Why do I even come here?”

“Good question,” Luna stated. “Because I would have found a way to help you out. Even if you weren’t nice when you asked, you’re my sister, and I want what’s best for you, so I’d have figured it out. But you turned nasty and didn’t even give me a chance to work it out with you. It’s like you came here not wanting my help, instead just to piss all over my day.”

Dream put a hand to her daughter’s head at her chest. “I need a babysitter. I just don’t want to ask you to do it because you get so shitty about it,” Dream returned. “But I had no choice.”

“How hard would it have been to even fake being nice when you asked, and then not put your two cents in to other shit that’s going on around you when you don’t even know what you’re talking about?” Luna demanded.

Dream pointed at me and opened her mouth.

“Put your fuckin’ hand down,” Eric growled.

That growl was hot too, as ever, but this time it was also mega freaking scary.

She put her hand down but asserted, “He said ‘babe,’ and Jess, your take-no-shit friend, took his shit, did what he told her to do and shut up.”

“Actually, I don’t think Jess was right about what Eric was saying,” Luna stated. “I think he said ‘babe’ to share that this shit is between you and me as sisters and to remind her she should butt out. And in normal circumstances, he’d be right. Except Jess is more of a sister to me than you ever were, so it’s the other way around.”

Ouch!

“These bitches actually take no shit ,” I heard Shirleen murmur.

“I like it,” Daisy murmured back.

Dream, however, looked like she’d been slapped, and verbally she had.

“I guess I know where I stand,” she said.

“I would hope so, since you put yourself there,” Luna shot back.

That was definitely a score, and Dream knew it, which was why she turned on her foot and semi-waddled out.

For my part, I turned to Luna. “I’m sorry, Loon. It wasn’t my place to intervene, and I made it worse.”

“You know,” Luna replied, “I think half her problem with me is that I have you, and Raye, and Harlow, and she doesn’t have anybody, and she’s jealous as fuck.”

I’d say this was a good bet.

Harlow had gotten close and she asked, “What’s the other half?”

“No flipping clue,” Luna said.

Raye was also there. “You okay?”

“Par for the course,” Luna mumbled.

It was then, Tito was there, behind the bar with Luna and me.

“You haven’t had lunch, Luna,” he noted.

“It’s been busy,” she muttered.

“Lucia has set up a chef’s table in the kitchen.” He held his hand out to her. “Come.”

She took his hand, shot a look at all of us, and Tito led her out from behind the bar to the kitchen.

“I wasn’t sure about the Santa guy,” I heard Daisy whisper. “He looked like a gangster at the funeral, and he looks like a Jimmy Buffet impersonator now. But I think I like him.”

“I hear that,” Shirleen replied. Then she said, “Excuse me,” got up and walked right into the kitchen.

“Should I go get her?” Cap asked Raye.

“Not on your life,” Raye said to Cap.

Cap smiled at his woman.

I turned my attention to Eric and smiled at him.

Then I tapped the menu and asked, “What can I get for you, baby?”

Eric took a stool.

Cap took the one beside him.

Daisy scooched over.

And we heard Tex bellow from the cubby, “Can’t anyone read in this town or has the sun fried your brains? It says sugar cookie peppermint mocha and I…don’t…deviate! ”

Which made Daisy laugh her amazing bell laugh.

But the rest of our laughs were just normal.