Hotbox

by Delia Delaney

  Jayden had tickets for everyone to a concert that Matt wanted to see, so for a belated birthday we all headed down to Portland to have dinner and see the show. We ate at a Mongolian grill, one of Matt’s favorite places, and even just the start of the night—dinner with all of our friends—was pretty awesome.

  Cali brought a date with her and he really didn’t seem that comfortable being around people he didn’t know very well. His name was Rowan, and Jayden went right into her normal mode of being friendly and getting to know him so he didn’t feel so out of place. He wasn’t exactly shy—he reminded me a bit of Shawn and Matt combined—so once he started talking he was really quite interesting. His family owned a salvage yard, and to hear him explain some of the things people dumped off and labeled as trash was insane. Matt and I were already putting together our next project in our minds and Rowan was more than willing to keep his eye out for what we wanted.

  The concert was at the Roseland, and after spending an hour-and-a-half standing down in general admission, Jayden and I went upstairs to sit in the balcony while we waited for the headlining band to take the stage. It was a small theatre, so even sitting down offered a perfect view of the stage. This was actually the third concert I had been to with Jayden, not including Shawn’s, and I was getting used to her habits and preferences. She loved smaller venues like what we were at, where you can be anywhere in the room and be close to the band. She’d been to some pretty major shows, and although she enjoys the music at all of them, it’s the bands that are more personable with their audience that she likes the best.

  “Look at Shawn,” Jayden said at one point. I glanced down below us until I found him. “He’s had his eye on those four girls to the right. Guess which one he’s gonna go for?”

  I scoffed. “Well, I’m sure he’ll try his luck on all four eventually, but I’m guessing…that one on the end. The blonde.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Just a guess.”

  She smiled just as Shawn began to make his move. Two of the girls had turned away to other friends, but the blonde and her dark-haired friend were left for the taking. He approached them casually and started talking to them.

  “So what does his pick up line usually consist of?” I asked.

  Jayden snorted. “Oh, you wouldn’t even believe it.”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m sure I would.” Right now the two girls were laughing at something he said. “With as many girls as he flirts with, does he usually get their numbers?”

  “I have no idea. According to him, yeah, they practically beg him to take their number,” she smiled. “But I have no clue how many girls he dates. And to be honest, after you get past all the cockiness and love of attention as a musician, he’s actually a little insecure.”

  Five minutes later Shawn was the proud victor of the blonde. They walked off together, most likely so he could buy her a drink.

  “You called that one,” Jayden said. “How’d you guess?”

  I shrugged. “She’s the one I would have picked.” She smacked me on the chest. “Ow!” I laughed. “You’re the one that asked.”

  Shortly after, Shawn joined us with his new friend. The balcony was reserved for twenty-one and older and was the only place alcohol was allowed. They each had drinks in their hands as Shawn sat down next to Jayden and introduced Jenna.

  “And this is Jayden,” he was telling her, “my partner in musical genius, and Ty, her ball-and-chain.”

  She laughed and said, “Hi, Jayden. Hi, Ty.”

  We conversed with them now and then as the show continued. Jayden teased that I could go sit by Jenna if I wanted to, but I admitted she wasn’t really as pretty up close. She nudged me and said I was rude.

  “What, first I get in trouble for guessing Shawn would choose her, and now I’m rude because I don’t think she’s that pretty? She has hair similar to yours. That was my focus.”

  She was laughing, but a few seconds later she pointed and said, “What about that group of girls? Which one would you pick?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh, come on.”

  “Ty, I’m just playing around. Which one?”

  To humor her, I quickly looked over the group of girls. “The one in the red shirt.”

  “Really?” she asked, seeming completely surprised. “Why?”

  I shrugged. “She’s wearing red with half her chest showing. She must be screaming for attention.”

  With a laugh she said, “Be serious.”

  “Fine,” I relented. “Probably the one right next to her, in the green.”

  “How come?”

  “Mmm, she seems to be a little more reserved, yet confident.”

  She nodded her agreement but didn’t say anything.

  “Now it’s your turn. Those guys over there,” I pointed. There were six of them, quite the selection.

  She smiled. “I get a good variety, huh?” She studied them for a least a minute. I took turns looking at them and watching her, wondering what was going through her mind. Finally she turned to me and said, “Okay, I made my choice. Now you have to guess what it is. And if you’re wrong…” She was shaking her head, like the consequences would be immense.

  “If I’m wrong, what?” I challenged her. “That’s not fair; I didn’t threaten you.”

  She laughed again. “Okay, I’ll use positive motivations. If you’re right, I’ll let you give me a massage later on.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Deal.” I looked over the group of guys again and thought I had the right one pegged. But I wanted to be sure, so I took another minute to put myself in Jayden’s head. When I did that, I came up with a different guy altogether.

  “We don’t have all night,” Jayden smiled impatiently.

  “I’m working on it. Just one more minute; the stakes are really high.”

  She laughed and let me deliberate a little while longer. I was pretty sure I was done, so I sat back in my seat and announced my decision.

  “The guy in the black t-shirt.”

  She only raised her eyebrows and peered down at the guys again. She didn’t reveal anything right away, so I wasn’t sure if I chose correctly or not.

  “Well? Am I right or wrong?”

  She looked at me carefully. “First tell me why you chose him.”

  “Well, first I picked the guy in the gray. He seemed like the most obvious choice based on his looks. But then I tried getting inside your strange and unusual mind. So… I made the choice by deduction. That guy’s obnoxious, that one’s too short, that guy doesn’t even match—”

  She laughed.

  “—And that guy kind of looks like a perv. So…the guy in the black shirt seemed to be what you would choose because he reminds you of Matt.”

  She gave me a surprised look and then looked at the group of guys again.

  “So? How long are you going to make me wait for an answer? Am I right or wrong?”

  “You’re both,” she replied with a smile.

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Sure it is. The truth is… I wouldn’t choose any of them. I’m engaged,” she smiled.

  “That’s not even fair,” I protested, and she began to laugh.

  “Okay, fine. But…if I had to choose, then yes, you are right.”

  “I knew it.”

  “But,” she said emphatically, “your reasons were wrong.”

  I tilted my head to wait for her explanation.

  “The guy in the black just has a nice smile. He just seems pretty easy going.”

  I paused. “And that’s it?”

  “Yep, that’s it. But,” she shrugged, looking at the guy again, “maybe he does remind me of Matt. Anyways, the problem with judging people from a distance is that it’s very inaccurate. I bet one minute talking with those guys would tell me a lot more and my choice might be different.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Go ahead and what?”

  “Go talk to them. I dare you.”

  With a sco
ff she said, “I’m not gonna go down there and hang out with a bunch of guys.”

  “Why not? I want to see what you learn. Spend five minutes down there and tell me which guy would make the best…I don’t know, family man. You’d probably make their entire night just by standing near them.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

  Shawn had been tuned into the last part of our conversation and said, “Oh, come on, Jay. You’ve never turned down one of our challenges before.”

  I raised an eyebrow with interest. “What kind of challenges?”

  Shawn laughed and was about to start talking, but Jayden covered his mouth with her hand. He pulled away and held her hand down. “Jayden’s hilarious—”

  “That’s enough,” she smiled at him. “Just listen to the music.”

  “I want to hear his stories,” I told her. “It’s either that, or you go down and talk to those guys.”

  “You’re serious?” she asked.

  “Totally. Five minutes. Tell me which guy would be the best family man. And if you’d actually go out with the guy in the black shirt if you were single.”

  “Do it Jay,” Shawn pleaded. “Show him your skills. Jenna will go with you,” he added, and Jenna smiled her surprise.

  “Well I want something out of it,” she said to me. “What do I get if I do it?”

  “I told you. I won’t make Shawn tell me all your crazy stories.”

  “You’ll learn them sooner or later anyway,” she said knowingly, narrowing her eyes at me.

  I slowly nodded. “True. Okay, fine.” I whispered something in her ear and she smiled.

  “That’s much better.”

  “I don’t even want to know,” Shawn said, but he was laughing.

  Jayden stood and turned to Jenna. “Wanna come?”

  “Sure,” she replied with a smile.

  “But if you find a guy that’s better than me, break it to me gently,” Shawn told her.

  Before Jayden left she smiled and said, “This is ridiculous.”

  “This is awesome,” Shawn argued. “I thought these days would be long gone! When you come back, I’ll have your next challenge ready for you.”

  She rolled her eyes again.

  When the girls left I turned to him and said, “Okay, tell me some stories.”

  After two or three minutes I saw Jayden carefully making her way through the crowd below. Shawn and I were leaned forward in our seats as she and Jenna approached the group of guys. She glanced up at me and smiled, and then looked at her watch. They actually stood behind them for an entire minute, not saying anything. Finally one of the guys—the guy in the gray shirt—noticed them first, and he seemed to strike up a conversation with Jayden. I could tell he was attracted to her—I don’t think there was a guy in the world that wouldn’t be—and the other guys quickly added themselves to the exchange. They looked like they were introducing themselves to the two girls, and the entire group turned their backs to the music just to talk to them. Suddenly they all looked up at once to where Shawn and I were sitting.

  “What’s she doing?” I said, basically to myself.

  Shawn swore. “She’s probably telling them we’re gay.”

  “She wouldn’t,” I argued.

  “She would. That or she’s here with her retarded brother, who swears one of them is his favorite movie star.”

  Just the thought of it made me laugh.

  “You have no idea what she’s capable of,” he added.

  We watched for another minute as the conversation seemed to come to an end and the girls said parting words. Two of the guys turned back to the music, but the others kept watching them as they left.

  “Okay, what happened?” I asked Shawn, betting that he would know more than I did.

  “I told you. One of us is either gay or retarded, and she’s made special plans for us.”

  I chuckled, but I really hoped it wasn’t true.

  The girls arrived a couple minutes later and Jayden sat down by me with a smile. “No big surprise, but the guy that can’t match his clothes is definitely the nice guy. I’m positive he would make a great family man. And the guy in the black shirt, Dave—” she said his name playfully “—Would definitely be a fun guy to date. Oh, and that one guy really is a perv.”

  “And?” I prodded.

  “And what? I did what you asked me to do, and now you owe me.”

  Shawn scoffed. “Jayden, I swear if I get propositioned by some dude after the show, you’ll be sorry.”

  She smiled. “That’s old stuff. Besides, you wouldn’t dare do anything to me,” she contested.

  “So? What should I expect?” Shawn pressed.

  “Who says you have to expect anything?” she asked. “You’re paranoid. Just watch the show.”

  We did watch the rest of the concert and I forgot all about whatever Jayden had said to that group of guys. But after the show, when we were all standing outside on the sidewalk, two of them approached us and handed me a business card.

  “So when the big day approaches and you’re ready for a slammin’ bachelor party, just give me a call,” one guy said.

  I glanced down at the card as Shawn and Matt peered over my shoulder, and both of them busted up laughing.

  “Exotic dancers, huh?” Matt stated. “I didn’t know you had it in you, bro.”

  I shrugged and replied, “What can I say?”

  Jayden and Stacie were snickering, but the guy turned to them both with a stupid smirk and said, “And if either of you ladies—”

  I put my hand in his chest to prevent him from even finishing it. “Oh, hell no.”

  “Okay, okay,” he said, putting his hands up as he backed away. Both he and his buddy left.

  Jayden cringed when she looked at me. “Sorry. Guess that backfired. But honey, I’m so proud of you! You didn’t even blush!”

  Shawn laughed and said, “Minus the pervy dude, that was pretty funny.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I worked Saturday, and so did Matt. Having him there almost made it okay to be away from Jayden on the weekends. But the more I thought about working six days a week, the more I realized I was completely in my old habits when I shouldn’t have been. I always worked extra because I could. When I was single, I didn’t mind immersing myself in my job; it was all I had, and I didn’t have any other commitments until baseball season rolled around.

  I discussed this with Lou and told him that I was only willing to work one Saturday a month, and I preferred leaving one hour earlier than I usually did. He was willing to be flexible, as I knew he would be, and even informed me that Mike wanted to come back and work only on Saturdays, so it actually worked out just fine. Lou would continue to keep the board detailed with our jobs for the week, and he would only schedule the more difficult ones for the days I worked, like he did anyway.

  We also sat down and discussed some changes that Lou was making. He actually wanted to expand the business, building another bay onto the shop for custom painting and auto body repairs. His younger brother was a professional and was currently being overworked and underpaid at a larger company. Charlie convinced Lou to make the expansion, so Lou was going to be adding the new bay off the back of the shop beginning the next month. I was shocked that it was all happening so fast, but apparently the change had been in the works for almost a year.

  I also got a raise.

  I took Jayden out to dinner to celebrate. She was excited that I was excited, but mostly she was really pleased that I had dedicated more time to her and whatever family we ended up having someday. She wondered if it meant putting baseball aside entirely, and as sad as it made me to verbally finalize that decision, I agreed that that’s what it probably meant. She wasn’t overjoyed nor disappointed, and I found it comforting to have her support in anything I did. However, I knew that the Saturdays that I worked was usually the time she would go work on music with Shawn. That’s exactly what she had been doing for half the day.

  “
One Saturday a month is plenty. I would much rather be with you.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “I’m sure. And when we rehearse extra before a show, you are always more than welcome to be there. Besides,” she shrugged with a smile, “if you’re home on Saturdays and I decide to go play, I’ll expect the yard to be perfect and the house to be spotless.”

  “And the kids?”

  “They will all be bilingual, each in a different language.”

  “No pressure there,” I replied with a smile, and she laughed.

  Sunday we drove south to Oregon to go to the beach for the day. Chris was an avid wake boarder, but he also loved to surf, so Chris, Matt, and Shawn loaded up their boards early that morning to find the best waves. We were just leaving Jayden’s house around nine when Matt called to tell us where they were. Cali, Stacie, Josh, and Silvia were already on the beach when we got there. Cali had brought another date with her—a different guy—and everyone was spread out in chairs or blankets along the sand. The Oregon Coast didn’t always offer the warmest weather or white, sandy beaches, but today was a fairly nice day, almost reaching eighty.

  “What happened to Rowan?” I quietly asked Jayden.

  “More than one date doesn’t usually happen with Cali.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Is she a female Shawn?”

  With a laugh she said, “No, she’s a female you.”

  I pretended to be offended and she laughed.

  “She gets bored easily,” she clarified. “She’s always looking for someone that’s fun and exciting—probably someone that’s more interesting than she is—so maybe that’s why she’s easily disappointed.”

  We got home pretty late that night, close to one in the morning. We’d spent the entire day on the beach while the guys surfed off and on. When they were done we all traveled to the main beach in Seaside where there were volleyball nets, a boardwalk, and shops nearby. We built a fire around six and roasted hot dogs, and we stayed until almost ten. It was another memorable day with friends and I felt my life was too good to be true. When things were going well, it was time for something bad to happen, and that week it finally came.