Betting Jessica

by Deanne Wilsted

  Jessica looked at him like she couldn’t care less and pushed by to say hi to the rest of the group.

  “Oh! Ow, ow, ouch.”

  Shoeless, Jessica picked her way across the pine needles. It was hard to stay grumpy when she was so glad to see everyone else.

  Becky dropped her bags and stared.

  “My God Jess, look at you. What are you, like a size 2 now? And you’re so tan. I thought you said you’d only had rain. Is this the place? It looks great. I can’t wait to get inside and throw on my swimsuit. I’ve obviously got a lot of catching up to do on my tan.”

  Jessica laughed at Becky’s monologue.

  “Oh Beck, I can’t believe how much I missed you.”

  She threw herself at Becky and gave her a hug. Behind them Blaise rolled his eyes and stepped over Becky’s dropped bag.

  “It’s not like you’ve been apart that long.” Wiping the sweat off his forehead he looked back at them. “Come on, catch up inside. It’s way too hot out here.”

  Over Becky’s shoulder Jessica saw Peter pulling the rest of the bags out of the rental car. Looking mutinous he caught up with Jessica and Becky muttering something about how he thought Blaise was along to help with things.

  “Well, nice to see you too,” Jessica said as he passed by with barely a hello. Then she linked arms with Becky, grinned and dragged her inside.

  “Wait till you see your room. I got some really nice candles and flowers to help make it a little more romantic.”

  “Oh, how sweet. You didn’t need to do that Jess,” Becky said, seeming uncomfortable.

  “I know. I guess my guilt over foisting my plans off onto the two of you finally caught up with me. I’m sorry you have to put up with the rest of us on your vacation. But I really do appreciate it Beck.”

  Becky stopped and stared at Jessica sincerely.

  “Don’t feel guilty Jess, don’t you dare. We’re here for fun, but we’re also here to help. So tell me, where do we start?”

  Jessica was so glad to at last have Becky around for support that she felt lighter than she had in days.

  “Well, let’s get you guys settled and then maybe you and I can head to the pool for a little sun and some serious catching up!”

  Chapter Forty-three

  Becky focused all her attention on unpacking, trying to drown out the long list of complaints spewing from Blaise while he sat on the bed and watched her unpack.

  “And another thing, where does Peter get off taking the aisle seat. I mean the rest of us were stuck in the middle of the airplane without any leg room at all.”

  He barely took a breath and then started back in. “Can you believe this room? I mean, this is like half the size of my bathroom at home. Couldn’t Jessica have found anything better?”

  Finally worn out by Blaise’s tirade Becky turned on him furiously. “You’re the one who wanted to come along on this trip Blaise. Maybe instead of looking at everything that’s wrong, you could try to see how much effort Jess put into making things nice for us. You haven’t even said anything about the candles or flowers.”

  “Candles? Oh for God’s sake Beck,” he answered rolling his eyes, “they’re Glade room fresheners. The place probably needed it.”

  Past her breaking point Becky let loose with the snarky comments she’d been holding in her head all morning.

  “Well, I guess not everyone can be blessed with a family allowance after high school like you Blaise. Now, I’m going to the pool with Jessica. Don’t take up all of the room in the drawers.” And with that she stormed out.

  On the other side of the thin walls Erik and Peter exchanged silent grins.

  “Um,” Erik said, “when I saw we were right next door to them I was afraid we might be hearing more than we’d want. But I didn’t think it would be fighting.”

  Peter looked both amused and relieved.

  “Thank God for that. Becky’s way too good for that guy.”

  Erik laughed at the annoyed look on Peter’s face.

  “Oh, and who would be good enough for her… you Peter?”

  When Peter stayed silent Erik couldn’t help but taunt him. “Peter likes Becky, Peter likes Becky,” he sang under his breath until Peter knocked him onto the bed.

  “Shut up and get your suit on,” Peter said.

  Still humming, Erik grabbed his suit out of his suitcase.

  “We’ll see how much you’re humming after I dunk you,” Peter promised.

  Jessica and Becky made it down to the pool before the guys and picked out the best lounge chairs for themselves. Quietly Jessica laid her towel out and tried to fix the back so it wasn’t sticking straight up like a car seat. Overall the pool was okay, but the lounge chairs had definitely seen better days, so they weren’t cooperating very well.

  Focusing on the task at hand, she tried to give Becky some space. Clearly something had happened when her best friend and Blaise had gone to their room. Knowing Becky as well as she did she knew it would help to give her a chance to cool down before asking her about it.

  Jessica continued to struggle with the latch on the lounge, groaning out loud when it fell on her hand for the third time. This finally brought Becky out of her ruminating.

  “Oh, Jess, here, let me help.”

  She squatted down next to Jessica and they worked on it together. Vaguely Jessica heard the pool gate open and shut, but being right in the middle of such a tricky operation she kept her eyes on the latch intent on not getting her fingers caught again.

  “Well, that should hold,” she heard Becky say as a pair of flip flops came into view. They were followed by a gorgeous pair of legs. Mmmm, just the right amount of hair, she thought. She followed the legs up and shrieked when she realized they were attached to Erik.

  “See something you like there Jess?” Erik said smirking.

  Jessica, bright red, thumped down on the sagging lounge chair.

  “Would you mind moving, you’re blocking our sun,” she said.

  “Oh, by all means. Peter and I thought you guys could use some water. You know things can get hot out here.”

  Leering, he set the water bottle down next to her now nearly flat tummy and then casually brushed his fingers against her side as he pulled away. The slight connection made her shiver and blush all over again.

  Jessica watched him walk over to the spot Peter had prepared for them and caught Peter grinning over at them. She glanced at Becky and saw the same silly smile on her face.

  “What?” Jessica asked with a surly frown.

  “You and Erik are so predictable that’s all,” Becky half explained, half laughed. “Anyway, that’s not important. What I want to know is how you’ve only been here for two weeks and you already got asked out on a date.”

  “It wasn’t really a date, Beck. More like a nice guy inviting me to hang out with him and his friends.”

  Becky waved away Jessica’s interruption. “Whatever you want to call it, a guy asked you to go somewhere right? So tell me again, who is this guy? How did you meet him? What was the date, sorry, party like?”

  This reminded Jessica about her new plans and she grinned.

  “Oh, I’ll tell you all about it, but first, that reminds me, you’ll never believe what happened while I was out."

  Becky looked at her curiously. Obviously this was something big.

  “Ian Drake didn’t happen to show up did he? Wouldn’t that just be perfect? I mean, it sounded like you hadn’t really had much luck meeting him. So, is that what happened?”

  As usual, Jessica had to interrupt Becky’s enthusiasm.

  “No,” Jessica rolled her eyes. “You know me. It couldn’t be that easy. But I did meet these two really nice girls who, get this, work at a catering company that Ian uses sometimes.”

  “You’re kidding! No way,” she said, clearly amazed. “But then that means he’s in Tahoe right?”

  “Well,” Jessica hesitated. “That’s the thing. They’re not sure when he’s coming or if he’ll u
se them as usual. Soooo, I think we’d also better do some of the other stuff I had planned.”

  “And you can get a job at this catering place?”

  “Sandy and Mandy, uh the girls I met, think so but I’m not so sure yet. First I have to meet the manager and see if she’ll hire me for the next two weeks.” Jessica shrugged. “They said she’s really nice, and they’re going to make up some excuse about needing me to fill in so they can prepare for some skate boarding competition or something. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

  “Wow! And you think you don’t have any luck,” Becky laughed, socking Jessica lightly on the arm. “You must have just about died when they told you.”

  Jessica smiled and started telling Becky all about the rest of her crazy night out.

  Chapter Forty-four

  Peter wanted to laugh at how much effort Erik seemed to be putting into not staring at Jessica. He had been asking him the same question for a couple of minutes now and was starting to wish he hadn’t turned around to see what Erik was so hypnotized by.

  “Hmmm, sorry. What was that Peter?” Erik said for the third time.

  Peter finally let loose the laugh he’d been holding back.

  “Wow! Either this altitude or the heat must really be getting to you,” he answered and then realized he’d already lost Erik’s attention again.

  God, Erik had it bad. It was probably time they had a talk about it. After all, Jessica was his little sister and he didn’t want to see her get hurt. Peter started to revise their evening plans in his head. Maybe after they all went out to dinner he and Erik should go somewhere and do some serious drinking. But how would they avoid Blaise tagging along?

  The trip had barely started and Peter was already annoyed with Blaise. It was as if he thought he was better than everyone else. He certainly did a good job of looking out for himself, but watch out if you were in his way. Peter scowled thinking about it. All he ever did was put people down, too. Peter didn’t care for himself, he had big shoulders. But if Blaise told Becky one more time how she should do something differently, he thought he’d hit him. It was a mystery what Becky could possibly see in the guy but at least it seemed like she was finally starting to stick up for herself.

  Peter thought about the fight he and Erik had overheard and smiled as Erik finally looked back over at him.

  “What?” Erik asked self-consciously. He glanced back over at the two girls and then quickly returned his attention to Peter.

  “Well,” Peter decided to wind him up a little and see what happened, “it seems like you’re paying an awful lot of attention to what’s happening at the other end of the pool.”

  “I only want to know if Jessica’s made any progress with her stupid bet. I’m sure she said something about the actor guy. Aren’t you worried about her at all?”

  “You mean Ian Drake.” Peter loved to do that and see Erik cringe. “Since he’s the reason we’re all out here I guess we can’t complain too much, huh?”

  “I’m not complaining,” Erik grumbled. “Forget it. I just wanted to know is all. Maybe you should go ask; see if she needs help with her big plans or anything.”

  Nuh, uh! Peter thought. No way was he getting between Erik and Jess. And anyway, he knew Becky would fill him in when they got back to the condo.

  “I’m sure she’ll tell us if she needs any help. Why don’t you read your book or something to take your mind off of it?”

  “My mind’s not on it,” Erik swore under his breath. He picked up his book and looked down but it was like he couldn’t help himself. His eyes kept swinging back over to Jessica.

  “When did she start wearing bikini’s anyway? Someone should tell her she’s getting too much sun.”

  Erik clearly didn’t realize he had spoken his thought out loud until he heard Peter laughing again. This time Erik got up and physically moved his chair to face the other direction. Peter quirked an eyebrow at him.

  “What?” Erik said defensively. “The sun’s too bright that way.”

  Peter grinned. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.”

  Chapter Forty-five

  Becky looked over at the magazine Jessica had just picked up and smiled. “Nice photo.”

  “Yeah, it is huh.”

  Jessica smirked and turned the People Magazine around to admire the gorgeous picture of Ian on the cover. As usual he was wearing swimming trunks which showed off his amazing washboard abs. Flipping the magazine around again she ruffled the pages sort of loudly to see if Erik would look over.

  “His chair’s turned around,” Becky said. “I think he’s all done staring for a while.”

  “What?” Jessica smiled innocently. “I can’t imagine what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh sure,” Becky laughed. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with how hot you look in that new bikini.”

  “It is pretty cute, isn’t it?” Jessica giggled.

  “You know it’s more than cute,” Becky said then got quiet. “This is nice,” she said after a few minutes. “I like the peace.”

  “I’m going to have to leave you to it,” Jessica said with a sigh. “I’d better go in and finish my résumé.”

  “Really?” Becky asked seeming only slightly disappointed. Jessica nodded, trying not to take it personally; Becky obviously needed some time of her own.

  “Alright. I’m going to lay out a little while longer. See you inside.”

  Jessica left though feeling a bit concerned about her friend. She walked back to the condo thinking about Becky’s unusually melancholic mood. Inside she found Blaise grunting loudly in the living room while lifting some sort of blow up dumbbells.

  “Hey, that looks like fun. Can I try?” Maybe if she made an effort Blaise would relax a little.

  “It’s not as easy as it looks,” he grunted. “There’s water in here, not air. So it’s like lifting 50 pound weights.”

  “Oh,” Jessica replied “If you say so. But from here I gotta say it doesn’t look too tough.”

  “Fine; then you try it,” Blaise snapped at her.

  “No, no. I’ll take your word for it. I can tell you’re working at it, so it must be at least a little heavy.”

  She sauntered out of the room and into her bedroom. She knew she shouldn’t have egged him on, but it was so easy and she couldn’t help it. Sometimes it was such fun to mess with people, she thought.

  She looked around her room and realized she would have to stay put for a while or deal with Blaise’s leftover angst. The résumé notes she had started writing earlier that morning were sitting on her dresser right next to the file with all of her project plans. Not quite ready to face the résumé, Jessica grabbed the Ian Drake file and started to leaf through it instead.

  There were still a few ideas for finding him that she hadn’t gotten around to or hadn’t been able to handle on her own. The first was renting a boat in order to look for his house from the water. She also wanted to hike down to Vikingsholm Castle. Lastly, now that Peter was finally here, she could get out to that golf course she’d found.

  Jessica pulled her cell phone from her beach bag and set to work finding a boat rental place. She listened to a nice recorded voice ask her what city and listing she was looking for.

  “Umm, Tahoe City,” Jessica answered then guessed at a hotel name. “Squaw Valley Hotel?”

  Jessica waited while the operator attempted to find anything similar. Thank goodness modern information was smart enough to figure out what you wanted even when you didn’t quite know yourself. Jessica got back a listing for the Resort at Squaw Valley and set to work trying to get the concierge on the phone.

  After talking with the front desk, housekeeping and the bell desk she finally got someone named Hank on the line. Hank! What kind of concierge name was Hank? François, Michele, even James or Charles would be fine; Hank, however, seemed to be one of those name anomalies which Jessica kept running into here in Tahoe.

  “Yes, Hank.” Jessica put on her most posh tone.
“I’m trying to arrange a special holiday for my mother and father for their 40th anniversary. I wanted to try to reserve a boat that they could rent for a day or two. Can you tell me how I would do that?”

  Jessica paused, listening to Hank tell her about the high standard of service provided by the hotel.

  “Of course once we make our reservation it will be wonderful to have such fantastic help.” She swallowed her frustration and tried re-framing the question.

  “Will my parents have to drive very far to rent it or is there somewhere near Tahoe City?”

  Jessica’s pen flew across a loose page of the project plan trying to get down the names of the boat rental places Hank was mentioning while reassuring her there were plenty of places nearby.

  “Perfect. I’ll call you back after I’ve made their hotel reservations. You’ve been terribly helpful. Thank you so much.” Jessica half-way listened to Hank’s long farewell and then cut in, “mmm hmm. Thanks again. Goodbye.”

  Hanging up Jessica thought about her new goal to reach out to others for help. Thanks Hank, she thought to herself. She was pretty sure it wasn’t the first time someone had called a concierge to get local information but she was proud of her own ingenuity in any case.

  Jessica glanced over at the door. Things sounded pretty quiet out there. She wondered if it was safe to go out yet. She’d give Blaise a couple more minutes she decided, and use the time to make dinner reservations. They hadn’t discussed dinner plans yet, but she knew with their jet lag they probably didn’t have the mental capacity to make such a huge decision. Anyway, sometimes it was better to preempt a debate, and the coffee gang had mentioned a Mexican place she wanted to try.

  Finally convinced that Blaise was showering, she grabbed the phone and her project file and poked her head out the door. The coast was clear. Dumping her cell phone and project plan on the coffee table she headed to the kitchen for some of the sun tea she had made in anticipation of everyone arriving. Her glass was already sweating when she turned around to head back into the living room.