The phone rings twice before she picks up in a fit of laughter. “Jules!” I hear a roar of people around her, and it sounds like she’s out somewhere, which is weird since we’ve spoken a few times in the past couple of hours. I told her I’d be arriving around eight tonight, and she told me she'd meet me for a late dinner before helping me find my hotel. It's currently eight on the dot, so who knows what's on her agenda.
“Well, well, if it isn't my booty shaker."
"You know it, girl. I'm shaking my booty as we speak." I can see it now. Jade's signature twerk-dropping-strip-tease—Chip's favorite move. "I’m entering . . . um . . . York, I think. Per my GPS, I should be there in about ten minutes. Where should I meet you?”
“Julesssss,” she sings. Did she hear anything I just said? I know this Jade. This Jade is drunk Jade. Drunk Jade doesn’t remember her name sometimes.
“Jade, where are you?” I ask more sternly this time.
“Guys, guys, guys . . . where are we?” She slurs to whoever she's talking to. Then I hear a bunch of babble in the background, and I’m listening carefully to hear what someone might tell her, but it’s hard to hear any one voice.
“Okay, okay, we’re at Bumble Bee Bar and Grill. It’s in Ogunquit. If you just stay straight on Route one, you’ll find meeeee.”
I can picture Jade now, standing in the middle of a street waving me down as she continues to dance. Except, this is a highway, and that’s not a great idea.
“How do I get to this bar?” I ask her.
“Hey,” a guy says into the phone. “Jade is a little wasted, so I figured I’d save you from driving in circles tonight. We’re at Bumble Grill. It’s just off Route one after you enter Ogunquit. Whereabouts are you now?”
How is Jade blitzed out of her mind and this guy sounds completely stone sober? “I just got onto Route one about five minutes ago,” I tell him. “And, thank you for helping me out.”
“No prob. You should see a sign for Ogunquit in about three miles. You’ll enter the center of town, and if you take your first right, you’ll see the bar. There’s some parking out front. I’ll make sure Jade is waiting for you.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” I tell him.
“She’s been talking about you nonstop for weeks now. You’re like a celebrity around here,” the guy says.
That’s Jade. The smallest girl with the biggest mouth—and the lowest tolerance for alcohol that I’ve ever seen.
“See you in a few,” I tell him before hanging up.
He was pretty accurate with the mileage. After exactly three miles, I’m entering the cutest little downtown area. Thankfully, I find the Bumble Grill right away, and there are two spots out front. The moment I pull into a spot, I find Jade out front, poking a guy in the nose.
I step out of the car and take a quick minute to stretch before . . . “Jules!” Jade shrieks, running toward me at warp speed before locking her arms around my neck, shoving me into the hood of my car. Not only am I winded by her embrace, but also by the scent of Vodka . . . nope, that’s Tequila, and it pierces my nose.
“Oh, Jade.” I laugh because this is my Jade. “So, you’ve been enjoying yourself here?”
With her lips pressed tightly together, a wide smile curves along her mouth. “I loveeee it here.” She takes me by the hand and leads me away from the bar.
"You want to see something cool?"
“Did you finally get a tattoo of a penis on your boob?"
"No, dummy, come on." She grabs my arm and yanks me away from the bar. “Sandwich and Brewster, let’s go,” she hollers, waving them along as if they were dogs. Sandwich and Brewster. Please tell me those are their real names because that would start this summer off on an epic note.
The sidewalk on the small bridge we’re on is empty, but as my focus settles on the horizon, I see we’re walking toward the ocean. Finally, I can sit on a beach and stare out at the endless waves of the Atlantic Ocean for my last summer of non-adulting freedom.
“Excuse me,” a man calls. out. I glance around, finding a man lying on his back a few feet ahead of us with his feet up on the bridge’s fence. What the hell am I looking at? One of his shoes is beside him, and the other is in the middle of the street. “I said, excuse me.”
Jade is in a fit of giggles and turns and laughs with her oddly named friends.
“Are you okay?” I ask the man. As we come closer, it's easy to see how drunk he must be. This is a bridge, and he's lying on the sidewalk with no shoes. Maybe in a city, I'd think he was homeless, but he's wearing Docker shorts and a pink Lacoste polo t-shirt. This is interesting.
“Cannnn, um, can you find my shoe?”
I look around, thinking this is a joke of some sort, but besides the three others I’m with, no one else is around.
I step off the sidewalk, grab the guy’s brown loafer, and drop it down next to his other one. “There you go.”
“How you doin’?” he asks me in his best drunken Joey Tribbiani (from Friends) voice.
Ah, okay, I see. “Just fine, and you?” I play along.
“Want to help me up and go back to my place? I found a conch shell on the beach, and if you put your mouth up to it, you can taste the ocean.” Wow.
One of Jade’s friends walk in front of me and help the guy up. “Dude, really? First, most overused pick up line ever, and second, do you need a lift somewhere?”
“Where’s Bumble Bar?” he asks in a slur.
Sandwich or Brewster point him in the right direction and get him up on his feet while handing him his shoes. “Have a good night, bro.”
I believe I have just entered party town. “That happens a lot here, but everyone is soooooo nice that it’s just funny. No one ever gets hurt, and we help each other out in a time of need,” Jade explains.
I look back at the guy swerving on and off the sidewalk as he walks toward the bar. “I guess so,” I laugh.
The sidewalk ends at a short ramp, leading down to the water. There isn't much of a beach though.
“Come on,” Jade stumbles towards the rocks and . . . I’m pretty sure this is a bad idea. "It's high tide, so we have to sit on the rocks."
“You’re going to fall flat on your face, girly.” Of course, this is coming from the person with two left feet, so I shouldn’t be warning her when I’m more likely to fall being sober.
“You drove all that way yourself?” one of the guys asks. I’m not sure who is Sandwich and who is Brewster, but his voice sounds the same as the person I was speaking to on the phone.
“It was an adventure. A long, boring adventure filled with way too much junk food.”
“I’d fall asleep twenty minutes in, and it would never end well for me,” the guy says.
“I’d be your copilot and just punch you every few minutes. That’d keep you awake,” the other guy says through laughter.
“Okay, who’s who?” I turn around and pull my legs into a pretzel.
“I’m Cale,” the guy with the familiar voice says.
“I’m Jared,” the other follows.
“So, neither of you are Sandwich or Brewster?” I’m so confused.
“We’re from Massachusetts and used to live on the town border of Sandwich and Brewster. Apparently, Jade can’t remember too many things at once,” he says with a smile. “She couldn’t remember our names, but she remembered those towns.”
“That’s Jade!” I feel like I say that a lot. Jade’s a unique girl.
“I think she knows our names now, but the nicknames seemed to stick around after calling us by those names for the first two weeks she was here.”
I look over at Jade, and I think she may be sleeping sitting upright. Her hands are holding her head up, at least, but she might be passed out, too. I’ll leave her be for a minute.
“And how did you all meet?”
“Well, Jared and I are brothers, and Jade works next door to us,” Cale says.
“Oh, so do you two live together?” I ask, looking over at Jared who se
ems quiet as he texts on his phone.
“I’m sort of crashing with Jared and his wife for the summer.”
“Sort of crashing, sort of cramping our style,” Jared pipes in without looking up from his phone. “Same thing, though, right, Cale?” I can tell Jared is the dryer of the two brothers.
Cale stands up from the rock he’s standing on and pulls his phone out of his pocket. Glancing at the display for a brief second, he hits the speaker button and holds the phone in front of his mouth. “Dude, where have you been all night?”
“The usual,” the guy on the other end of the phone answers. “Working.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Cale says.
“Oh, well,” the guy utters. “Oh, hey, uh, is Jade with you guys tonight?”
Cale leans forward to look around me. “Yeah, she’s drunk, but her friend just arrived, so we’re keeping her company while Jade quietly remains passed out in Jade style, on the rocks.” Jade on the rocks. If that’s not her new nickname here, it will be soon.
“Is she out of control tonight because I’m—”
“She’s a little tamer than normal,” Cale answers quickly as if he’s stopping his friend from saying any more.
“Is her friend just as crazy?” the guy on the phone asks.
Cale eyeballs me, and his voice lowers to almost a whisper. “She’s right here, man, and you’re on speaker, so . . .” Cale glances back up at me with an awkward smile as I hear Jared snicker behind him.
“Moron,” Jared mutters.
“Awesome, thanks for the heads up,” the guy on the phone says, sounding pissy. “I’m leaving Kennebunk now, so I’ll see you soon.”
“See ya, bro.”
Well, it seems like Jade has made quite an impression around here, and evidently, I’m going down with her sinking ship.
“Does your friend on the phone live near you?” I ask, wondering who this guy is and what Jade has done to piss him off. God only knows.
“No, the three of us have been friends since we were kids. My family spent the summers here, and he lives in Maine all year round.”
“Well, it seems like a nice place to spend a summer.”
“Um,” Jared says, pointing over my shoulder.
I twist around, finding Jade leaning to the side, ready to fall off the rock, so I grab her arm and shake her out of her unconscious state. “Jadeeee,” I chirp. “You’re making a fool of yourself.”
“Oh,” Cale laughs. “She does this every weekend at least once.” Jade and I had a good time in college—high school, too, but her drinking habits weren’t to this degree. I’ve seen her pass out like this less than a handful of times, and we’ve been friends since middle school. We were more of the let’s drink until a cute guy appears, then make out with him until the alcohol wears off kind of party animals. Now, Jade’s engaged, though, so that’s not happening for her, and I’m currently on a self-imposed dating hiatus, which includes beer goggle kissing. So, something feels off with her acting like this.
As Jade pulls from my grip, leaning away, I clench my other hand around her jaw and force her to open her eyes. “Look at me. Wake up, J.”
Her brows lift first, and her eyelids struggle to follow. “Uhh,” she groans as her lids part enough so she can see me.
“What is going on with you?” I whisper.
A smile presses into the corners of Jade’s lips, and her hands lift from her lap, then fall onto my shoulders. “I’m soooo happy you’re here, but I think I’m a little drunk.”
“I can tell.” Jade falls into my arms, and rests her head on my chest. “Has she seemed upset or anything?” I ask the guys.
“I’m not too sure. She seems happy with her job, but I do remember her cussing out some guy named . . . Chip, maybe? That was a month ago, though, and she seemed over it within minutes, but other than that, I can’t say I’ve noticed anything else. Jade has sort of been this way since I’ve known her,” Cale says.
“Yup, this is the only Jade we know,” Jared follows.
Chip. Oh no. I grab her dangling hand from between her legs and hold it up in front of my face. No, no, no. “What? What is it?” Cale asks.
I hold Jade’s hand up higher and point to her left ring finger. “She was engaged to be married. The wedding is in September. This summer was supposed to be her last big adventure before tying the knot.”
“Without her fiancé?” Jared snickers and pinches at the bridge of his nose. “In any case, I don’t think there’s going to be a wedding in September.”
“Did she mention what happened?” I did find it a bit odd that Jade chose to be away from Chip for the summer, but when she gets an idea in her head, she kind of runs with it, so I’ve learned not to question her every move. Plus, it was an awesome idea, and she wanted to do it with me. I’m sure once she marries Chip—if she does—our girl time will be chopped in half. So, I’m going to take what I can get from my bestie while I can, even if she is passed out on my lap right now.
“We didn’t know she was engaged,” Cale says, sounding surprised.
“Jade, how is Chip?” I ask her, shaking her shoulders a bit.
“Chip can suck a dick,” she groans. “I told him I did.” She covers her mouth and snorts into her hand. “Ooooops. Do you suck a lot of dick, Julesssss? It’s funnnn.”
Oh boy, okay. “I should probably get Jade out of here.” Except she just passed back out on my boobs.
“Typical Jade,” Jared mutters. I can’t blame them for not doing something more to help her. They didn’t know her up until a month ago, and if they thought she was always like this, I’m surprised they still put up with it. No one likes the sloppy drunk girl in their group.
“Jade, can you tell me where you live? Do you have a car here? Where can I take you?”
“Home,” she barely mutters a slur.
“That is not helpful.”
“She’s renting a condo down near Perkins Cove,” Jared says.
I turn my head, looking over at him. “Where’s Perkins Perkins?”
“A mile or so that way.” He points in the direction we came from. Awesome. Either way, I have to get her to my car, and she’s no more stable than a rag doll at the moment.
I wanted to look rested and alive for my first day tomorrow. Instead, I’m going to look like a zombie who drove halfway across the country for two days and then switched gears into being Jade’s human carrying case.
I give up the battle for a minute, letting Jade’s head fall onto my lap. I’ve always wanted to camp out near the ocean, so it looks like I may finally get my wish tonight.
“Ohh, look who finally left work,” Jared hoots. I look toward the sound of shoes slapping against the paved ramp we walked down to get to the rocks and see a guy who looks to be the same age(ish) as the rest of us. He silently walks toward the rocks we’re sitting on, and I can’t see much of him since it’s pretty dark out and his face is in the shadows.
“Liammmmm,” Jade perks up for a literal second before she flops back down.
“Again?” he responds to Jade. “You said she was tame tonight. Doesn't anyone ever think to cut her off?”
Yikes. What crawled up his ass? “Dude, what is the story over there. Why do they have you pulling night shifts all the sudden?”
“It’s just this week. They had a massive party to celebrate the beginning of the summer last night. It’s a yearly thing they do. Plus, we just lost the last ‘helper.’ It’s fine, whatever.”
"B-o-r-i-n-g," Jade says, sticking her tongue out.
Liam ignores Jade and unbuttons the collar of his dark dress shirt, then the cuffs on his wrists before pushing them up to his elbows, revealing partial sleeves of tattoos on both arms.
“That sounds like a lot of party aftermath work,” Cale continues the conversation with Liam.
Liam takes a seat on the same rock I’m on, crowding me, and I feel the need to scoot over with how close he’s sitting, seeing as we have no clue who each other are, nor did he acknowledge m
e sitting here on this rock that’s not big enough for two.
“Saying it was aftermath is putting it mildly,” Liam says. “It was a disaster.” His voice seems strained, but maybe that’s how he normally sounds. As I’m sitting so close while becoming too personal with the back of his short, golden hair that’s purposely styled in messy erratic spikes, I can’t help but kind of wonder (only a little) what he looks like from the other side since he’s had his back to me from the moment he appeared on this dimly lit beach.
I’m listening to him tell Jared about the various tasks he had to complete tonight before leaving work, and maybe I’m the only one feeling this way, but this is becoming a little awkward.
“Hi,” I offer as he finishes talking. “I’m Julia.” I’d like to add in how rude he was to sit down beside me and not say a word to the only new person sitting here. Maybe people aren’t as friendly in this state as they are at home, but that would contradict everything Jade has told me about this area. At least a thousand times since she got here a month ago, she’s told me how friendly everyone is, but I’m not sure I’m buying it right now.
Liam swivels around to face me, making our closeness much too apparent. I can smell his breath, which isn’t bad considering he just got off an apparently long shift. I can also smell the cologne wafting from his body, mixing with the scent of sand and salty ocean water—also not horrible. He’s staring at me coldly with his deep-set menacing eyes, looking at me as if I offended him with just my name. “I know who you are,” he says. With his cold response clarifying his personality rather than just the mood he may be in, he turns back around and continues his conversation with Jared and Cale.
Um. Wow, okay. “Did I offend you with my looks or just my name?” I counter his rudeness, making sure he doesn’t confuse me for some pushover.
Andy may have been able to manipulate me with his charm at first, then the domineering behavior soon snuck out, but I promised myself never to let another man talk to me the way Andy spoke to me after his true personality came shining through.
The Man Cave Collection: Manservant, Man Flu, Man Handler, and Man Buns Page 3
