Happy Hour (Racing on the Edge)

by Shey Stahl

  The camera shot to him pulling himself from the car. He sat on the edge, his head resting against the roof for a moment before he swung his legs around.

  I wanted to be there so bad in that moment. He looked disappointed in himself though it had nothing to do with him.

  I continued to watch until they interviewed him, smiling once I saw his face on television. Even though he was upset, it was still good to see him.

  “Jameson,” the reporter caught up with him as he exited the garage. “Looks like you were giving the team feedback there. Can you tell us what happened?”

  He sighed heavily, running his hand across the back of his sweaty neck. “I had about four laps there where I thought something was wrong but I don’t know; it just blew up. It was running 290 most of the race so it was only a matter of time.”

  “This is the second week in a row you’ve blown up, with yet another DNF. How is this affecting the team moral? Do you think it has something to do with the engines at Riley Simplex Racing? Or maybe with Harry Sampson?”

  “This has nothing to do with the cars we are provided each week or all the hard work our engine specialist, Harry Sampson, puts into the testing of these Ford engines provided by CST.” Jameson snapped back. “We have excellent cars and engines. This is obviously something else entirely.” Before Jameson could say any more, Alley was dragging him away.

  The engines weren’t the problem and with his grandpa building the engines for his team, Harry maintaining them, I knew what he was insinuating with that comment. I had a hunch he was right.

  Darrin.

  It was hard to imagine Darrin would be able to get near the car at the track. There was usually always someone from the team nearby but it wasn’t impossible.

  If Jameson was right about the Charlotte and the fuel additive, it definitely wasn’t impossible for Darrin or his team to be fooling with their engines too.

  As his pigizzle and my duties as his pigizzle, I decided to try and make him feel better by sending him a picture of the funbags.

  Would it make you feel better if I showed you my boobs?

  It took a while to get a response, exactly forty-three minutes.

  Maybe. Show me and let’s see.

  I attached the picture to the text and clicked send feeling slightly childish sending a picture of my boobs through a text message. It was another eleven minutes and I hadn’t heard anything so I sent another one.

  Did it work?

  Another three minutes later, he finally responded: Sorry...I had to take care of a problem you created but Spencer wouldn’t leave.

  Are you good now?

  YES!

  Wow, that was quick. I laughed snuggling into the couch and enjoying the teasing.

  You have no idea.

  Don’t worry, only a few more days and I will be taking care of it.

  Looking forward to it, I miss you and love you!

  Same to you handsome.

  The time away from Jameson flew by and soon we were together again. Only problem was, I wasn’t exactly feeling dapper.

  I hated throwing up, truly I did. I had a strong feeling this was why I was in a really bad mood. Bitchy and exhausted, I felt like crying with all this added stress upon me. That could have had a hand in it but it could also be that shark week (my period) was on its way; I assumed. I always got extra emotional and tired around that terrible week.

  The other draining stress, Jameson and I didn’t know that first thing about running a racetrack. The lack of knowledge was becoming evident when Mallory was telling me how to do a job I’d been training to do since I was a kid. I knew how to do my job but I didn’t know how to be a General Manager as well.

  “Sway, you’re never going to guess who’s here!” Emma ran up to me throwing her hands on my shoulders.

  Emma and Jameson were both here for the weekend for the Northern Sprint Tour. Although Jameson was not thrilled about Emma tagging along, he should have thought about that before he went and put her in charge of his fan club.

  My stomach was still rolling as I stood there staring at her. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that second corn dog or the nachos.

  “Who?” I asked focusing on her excitement instead of the rolling in my stomach.

  “Dana...”

  “No way,”

  What in the hell was she doing in Elma? Was my first thought, but then I knew the answer to that. She was stalking Jameson.

  “Yep...let’s go talk to her.” Emma yanked me along towards the concession stands. “Do you think she’ll go for it?”

  “I’m sure she’s going to want something in exchange.” I thought about it for a second. “Maybe like a picture or something.”

  “Yeah,” Emma snorted. “of his...ahem...”

  “Not happening.” I stated firmly. “I’m the only one that sees the camshaft from here on out.”

  Stopping next to the bathrooms, Emma nodded to the coffee stand under the grandstands. “There she is. That’s her friend Sadie standing with her.” She pointed to the one with blonde hair.

  “Which one is Dana?” I just now realized I’d never seen her before.

  “She’s the one with brown curly hair. She did have blonde highlights the last time I saw her in Charlotte but it appears she’s trying to resemble a certain someone.” Emma looked at my hair, playing with a strand. I slapped her tiny hand away.

  Dana had dyed her hair the exact same color as mine. Nudging Emma forward, I told her, “Go talk to her.”

  She stepped forward and then reached for me with a nervous expression. “You’re coming with me.”

  I really didn’t want to meet Dana right now. I didn’t feel good, I had Mallory making me crazy today, and Jameson was all kinds of stressed out, which stressed me out.

  We stopped right in front of them.

  “Oh Emma, hey, how’s—” Dana looked towards me and stopped talking all together, scrutinizing my entire body.

  I felt like she was undressing me—not that she wasn’t. I knew what she was doing; she was comparing herself to me. I would’ve done the same given her position.

  “Hey Dana,” Emma smiled. “this is my friend Sway.”

  I wanted to bare my tattooed ass to her and say, “Yep, that’s right. I’m Jameson’s!”

  That’d be one hell of a first impression—wouldn’t it?

  I reached for her hand instead. She didn’t seem like the stalker type. She was pretty, brown hair, blue eyes, slender form, and some enormous funbags.

  Dana smiled politely at me. “Nice to meet you,” she motioned towards the blonde girl next to her. “This is my friend Sadie.”

  “Do you live around here?” Emma asked, smiling widely towards me. I was receiving a lot of smiles.

  “Yeah, I’ve always lived in Elma.” Dana’s smiled widened. “I actually went to high school with you guys.”

  Emma and I both looked at each other. “Oh,” we both said after a few moments of awkward silence.

  I don’t ever remember seeing her in school. Although, I hardly paid attention to anyone that wasn’t in the Riley family. It’s not like I actually knew who even went to school with us.

  “So Dana...um...we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions,” Emma stepped closer to her trying to remain discrete. “Private things,”

  “Oh sure,” Dana seemed eager to be talking to any member of Jameson’s family. “What do you need?” Her eyes lit up.

  “How well do you know Darrin and Mariah?”

  “Pretty well, Mariah is my cousin.”

  Both Emma and I gasped.

  “Seriously?” I blurted out.

  “Yeah, I mean, we’re not close or anything,” Dana’s eyes narrowed at me. “But I know a few things.” She hinted.

  “And what would you want in return for these, few things of knowledge?”

  Please don’t say a picture of his camshaft.

  Dana was quiet for a minute her eyes glazed over. “A date...with Jameson,”

&nbs
p; I laughed out-loud.

  “Um...Dana...I don’t know if that’s something Jameson would agree to.” Emma replied, elbowing me in the side. “You did steal his underwear.”

  “I guess you don’t want to know that bad then,” she countered, clearly not amused by my sudden onset of the giggles.

  Emma and I both exchanged a loaded glance in between my giggling. I nodded once. “Fine, but let me talk to him first.”

  Dana gave Emma her cell phone number and then walked away.

  “Emma, he’s never going to agree to this. That woman,” I pointed to Dana walking away. “Is fucking crazy,” I shook my head walking towards the office where Jameson was. “After the stabbing, I suggest you run, like fugitive-style. Only pack what you can carry in one arm.” I suggested.

  “Make him agree, it’s our only option.” Emma ordered rolling her eyes and began to walk away.

  I only made it up one-step before her hand grasped mine. “As much as he annoys the fuck out of me, I love him, and I refuse to let Darrin hurt him.” Emma told me. “We need answers.”

  I still felt nauseous and this wasn’t helping. Not only was my stomach bothering me, I did not want to tell Jameson he had to go on a date with Dana because I was trying to find out answers. Answers he did not want me finding out. But if I didn’t, and something happened to Jameson, I would always wonder if I could have stopped it.

  Everyone was hard at work preparing for a night of dirt track racing when I walked into the announcer’s booth.

  Jameson was standing in the corner with Mark going over the schedule for the events tonight.

  When his eyes met mine, he quickly made his way over to me by the door.

  “Hey, are you okay?” Jameson kissed my forehead, his arms wrapped around me. “You don’t look so good.”

  “I’m fine.” I eluded. I really did look like shit right then, and I felt worse than shit. “Just tired,”

  He took me into the private office off the announcer’s booth. “Are you sure you’re okay, honey? Are you horny or something?”

  “No...well...actually yes, but that’s not why.” I tried to make something up but drew a blank and went with the truth, well part of it anyways. “I just don’t feel very good tonight. I think it was that corndog I ate.”

  Jameson scrunched his nose disgusted. “That’s what you get for eating a corndog.”

  We laughed and talked about the schedule for the night and stole a few kisses before heading back outside to the announcers booth.

  “Oh...by the way, you are going on a date with Dana.” I cringed, waiting for his protests. “On Sunday,”

  “I don’t think I heard you.” His hand came up slamming the door shut. “What was that?”

  “You’re going on a date,” I repeated. “with Dana.”

  “You can’t be serious.” His eyes were hard and not pleasant at all. “Please tell me you’re not serious.”

  I stood there, waiting for him to agree, while he stood there, waiting for me to tell him I was joking.

  “I’m serious Jameson. It’s the only way to get Dana to tell us what Darrin and Chelsea are up to.”

  “I thought I told you to stay out of this?”

  “You did but we have to know.”

  “Going on a date, with Dana, is not worth knowing!” he shouted. “No fucking way. Not happening. Ever,”

  “Jameson,” I sighed heavily. “Just please...I don’t like this anymore than you do.”

  “I highly doubt that or you wouldn’t have agreed to whore me out.” He barked back shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “I feel cheap.”

  “Whore you out?” I pushed him back against the wall, trying to be intimidating, clearly not achieved by the smirk. “Listen,” I grabbed his face between my hands. “I’m not going to sit back and wait for Darrin to hurt you...I will find out what that fucker is up to. So if Dana is our only option, you take her to dinner.”

  “You’re okay with me going out with another woman?” he questioned for good reason.

  “Fuck no I’m not okay with it, but what choice do I have?”

  “You could let me take care of this myself and not get involved.” He glared challenging me to say something else.

  It was clear he didn’t want me involved. But then again, that “what if?” was blaring so loud, I couldn’t see past it to not make him do this.

  I grumbled, frustrated. “Just go out to dinner with her.” I stepped back creating distance from his glare. “Emma and I will be there to make sure she doesn’t try anything.”

  The silence that followed made me nervous before he finally caved.

  “Ah Christ,” Jameson stared at me with obvious doubt. “I swear to god Sway, if this goes badly, I’m holding you and stabberally responsible.”

  There was a loud knock on the door. “Hey Jameson,” Mark poked his head in. “I need you for a second.”

  Jameson nodded to him, and then looked back to me. “No longer than an hour. I’m serious, I’m fucking timing it.” He pointed to his wrist heading to the door. “One hour.”

  This had bad idea written all over it but what other choice did we have?

  I didn’t have one. I refused to sit back and wait for Darrin to pull his next move on the track for the simple “what if?” factor.

  I sent Emma a text letting her know that Jameson said okay and then walked out of the office to find Mallory again.

  The rest of the evening was spent with Mallory and me arguing over silly inconsequential things like what the schedule would be for the ticket booth or when to close the beer garden down.

  Jameson spent most of his night arguing with track officials being slow to throw out a caution or being slow cleaning up a wreck.

  Being a racer himself, he wasn’t exactly the person you want yelling at you to throw a caution. They had their own ideas about the way things should be run and it wasn’t always the right one.

  Throughout the busy evening, we may have seen each other twice since our Dana conversation and both occasions, he was yelling at someone.

  It was a relief I wasn’t behind the yelling but I knew this was going to happen, I warned him. He didn’t need all this superfluous stress added to his life, he had enough going on as it was.

  When the races were finished for the night, I finally got to see Jameson. It didn’t take long before Emma needed him to sign some autographs for the little midget series.

  After that night, I had a feeling this was the way race nights would be from now on at Grays Harbor.

  “Where is he?” Emma asked coming into my bedroom Sunday afternoon, the day of the date with Dana. “He didn’t run away, did he?”

  “In the bathroom,” I answered not looking up from my book. “He’s taking a shower.”

  She plopped down on my bed. “Is he still mad at me?”

  “What do you think?” I raised my eyebrow at her.

  “Ughh...” she groaned. “He’s overreacting.”

  “Is he?” I laughed. “Emma, you made reservations for him and Dana at Sorrento’s.”

  “So...?”

  “It’s one of his favorite places, not to mention he is going with Dana.” I finally looked at her. “You’re tainting his memory of the restaurant forever now.”

  “We’re going to be right outside.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s not like a real date, she knows that.”

  “Does she?”

  Emma giggled with a touch of mischief. “I told her it wasn’t a date...” My glare had her confessing. “Okay, Okay...I told her it was a date but she knows it’s nothing more than a “friend” date. I told her that you’re his girlfriend.”

  That still didn’t make it any better.

  Emma and I were going with him but Dana didn’t know that. We were supposed to hide out in the kitchen while they were on their date. I hated calling it that, but that’s what it was, for her sake. Dana needed to think Jameson was going on a date with her so she would tell him what Darrin was up to.

&
nbsp; Jameson on the other hand, was convinced she was going to try to rape him or something, and to say he freaked out when Emma made reservations at Sorrento’s, was an understatement...he went apeshit.

  I heard my bedroom door open and Jameson walked in with only a towel wrapped low around his waist.

  “What are you doing in here?” he asked Emma.

  They scowled at each other for a moment. “Talking with Sway,” Emma finally answered.

  I just ogled like the pervy pigizzle I am. He was showing entirely too much skin for me to focus on anything else.

  “You’ve got five seconds before I’m completely naked.” Jameson warned tugging on his towel. “Four seconds...”

  Emma screamed in horror running towards the door.

  “Works like a charm.” Jameson smirked walking towards the bed. I set my book down wrapping my arms around his waist when he made it to the edge of the bed. “What do I wear?”

  “Nothing revealing,”

  “Obviously,” he held up a black Simplex long sleeve shirt. “How about this?”

  “Don’t wear black.”

  He threw the shirt back in his suitcase. “Why, what’s wrong with black?” he asked confused.

  “You look...incredibly hot in black, it makes your eyes stand out. I don’t want her drooling over you.”

  “Right, no black then,” He agreed rummaging through his bag. “What color looks the worst?”

  “Wear that one.” I pointed to the navy blue Oakley shirt. He picked it up, pulling it over his head and then sat down beside me. “And don’t wear your cologne.”

  “I wasn’t going to.” He said with a chuckle. “I only wear that for you.”

  My shoulders slumped forward. Jameson must have noticed because the next thing I knew, he pulled me onto his lap.

  His hand moved under my chin. “This was your idea, remember?”

  I sighed forcing a small smile. “I know...it doesn’t mean I like the idea.”

  “Does that mean I don’t have to go?”

  “NO!” Emma yelled from behind the door. “You’re going!”

  “I asked my parents for a dog...and that’s what they brought home.” Jameson said pointing to Emma who was now inside my bedroom with her hands covering her eyes.