Fighting Perfection (The Perfection Series Book 2) (3 page)

     “Then we would be in a very uncomfortable position right about now,” he said. 

      I shuddered and walked over to the side of the building and leaned against the wall.  I closed my eyes and took in another deep breath.  I felt James stand alongside me and do the same. 

     “Now what should we do, Ana?” he asked.

     I felt a little guilty at that point about giving him a fake name.  I had come to like this crazy guy.  It was too late now to come clean, and chances were I would never see him again so there was really no point to telling him the truth.  I decided to just let it ride.

     A wave of fatigue hit me at that point.  I was suddenly so tired.  “What I want to do right now is sleep.”

     “Are you staying in the hotel?” he asked.

     “No, unfortunately.  We drove over here from Havasu.  Our hotel is over there.  Are you?”  I was desperate enough to risk staying in his room for a couple hours.  Besides, I’d decided he was harmless enough a couple hours ago.

     “No, my friends and I also drove over from the lake.”

     “Then let’s go to my car.  At least I drove here.  We can lay the seats back and get some rest there until everyone else is ready to leave,” I suggested.

     “As long as it’s not a Mini-Cooper, I think I can handle that.”

     I laughed.  “No, Shaq.  It’s a Lexus SUV.  There’s plenty of room for your massive body.”

     We walked to the parking structure and made our way to my car.  Once we were safely inside, we eased the seats back and just as I was drifting off, he said “Shouldn’t we let everyone know where we are?”

     “Yeah, that would probably be wise.”  I fumbled through my purse for my phone as he pulled out his own.  I sent Grace a text message letting her know where I was and that everyone should meet me at the car when they were ready to go.  James called one of his friends and made arrangements to meet back up in the casino lobby in a few hours.  Once those tasks were done and the phones were put away, we both closed our eyes and settled in.

     Just as I was floating off to dreamland again, I heard James’ voice drift over to me.

     “You sure you’re okay with this, Ana?  I could be an axe murderer or something,” he said.

     I turned my head toward him and pried open one eye.  “Unless you have a very little axe hidden down the leg of your jeans, which I seriously doubt, I think I’m pretty safe from being chopped up tonight.”

     “You know what I mean.  You don’t really know me.”

     “Most attackers don’t warn their victims ahead of time, James.  If you’re asking me if I feel safe enough, then the answer is yes, obviously.  I’m not really the sort to go off and sleep or do otherwise with men I just met.  I’m also not the type to sleep alone in cars in strange parking structures.  I figure since you rescued me from the clutches of Dr. Jellyfingers back there, I’m not in any danger.  Besides, I do have an axe hidden down the leg of my pants.  If you try anything, you’ll lose a hand or two.”  Of course, I didn’t really have an axe, but I did have this heavy metal gizmo that had two spikes that fit between my fingers hanging from my key ring, compliments of Justin.  All I had to do was hold it in my palm, and it was a very nasty weapon.  One punch between the eyes, and he’d be blind.  Another punch somewhere else, and he wouldn’t be having children.  A few other places, and he’d bleed out quickly.  He hadn’t noticed, but it had been curled in my fist since I’d unlocked the doors.

     “Okay, then.  I just wanted to reassure you in case you felt uncomfortable at all.”  I’m just going to rest.  I’ll keep an eye out around us.  I’m used to operating on little sleep.”

     “Thanks, James.  I only need an hour or so.  Just enough time so I stop seeing double.”

      I awoke almost exactly an hour later to James outside the car.  It appeared he had his arms over his head and was stretching his back.  As he lowered his arms, he reached a hand down his torso and raised his shirt a little to scratch his abdomen as he yawned.  I caught a flash of hard, toned muscles dusted by a light sprinkling of blond hair.  I closed my eyes and puffed out my cheeks as I exhaled.  The effects of the alcohol had lessened but clearly not enough to keep me from thinking lascivious thoughts at just a flash of male flesh.  Either that, or it had just been way too long.  Vance had been gone for almost three years, and it was a long time before that that we had been able to be intimate.  That drought, combined with the alcohol and now this attractive man baring mouthwatering skin in front of me, well I was dry kindling in very close proximity to a lit match.  Time to run as fast as my size nines would carry me.

     I jumped out of the car and said as brightly as I could, “Wow, that was amazing!” then shook my head as he dropped his shirt and looked at me funny.  “The nap?”  I said innocently.

     “Oh, good.  Well your friends haven’t shown up yet so you can still get a few more winks if you want.”

     “No, no.  Why don’t we go back inside and see if we can find them.”  I looked at my watch and saw that it was two o’clock.  “We have to meet friends in the morning so I should drag their butts out of here.  That way we can get a little more sleep before we meet up with the others.”

     “If you’re sure, then let’s go.”  He nodded to me.

     As we walked back toward the hotel, I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Jessica to find out where they were.  She told me to meet them at the buffet in the hotel as Grace was insisting they have breakfast before returning back to the lake. 

     “I guess I have to go have breakfast before getting on the road,” I said as I looked at James wearily.

     He chuckled and slung an arm around my shoulders.  “Oh, come on.  The fortification will do you good.  Have some scrambled eggs, a few cups of coffee, and you’ll be ready to go.”

     “The coffee does sound good,” I mumbled.

      We walked into the lobby of the hotel and stopped, looking at each other for a moment.  I smiled at him thinking of what a good time I’d had in his company despite my initial impression of him.  We started speaking at the same time.

     “You know Ana, you’re not—.”

     “James, you’re—.”

     We both started laughing, and I put out my hand.  James shook his head and pulled me in for a quick hug.  He said, “You’re an alright girl once you warm up, Ana.  I had a lot of fun.”

     I laughed again and said, “Me?  You’re not bad once you stop being an obnoxious prick!”

     He chucked me under the chin and said, “Go on. Your friends are waiting.  Maybe I’ll see you on the lake.”

     I turned and looked at him one last time over my shoulder.  “Maybe you will,” I said with a small smile and walked off toward the buffet.

     The following morning (although considering it was ten-thirty, it was barely that) met all of us with a bright blast of sunlight through the cheap curtains of the motel.  It sure wasn’t a fancy place, just the “no frills” variety that was a clean place to rest for a night.  I wasn’t a snob by any stretch, but I was looking forward to spending the night on the boat for the rest of our stay.

     There was much groaning from the rest of the girls, particularly from Grace about her head pounding and her mouth tasting like something had curled up and died in it.  This wasn’t shocking since we nearly had to carry her out of the Golden Nugget the night before.  I had thought I’d been drunk, but she was far worse off than I’d been.  Good thing Jessica and Liz had stayed sober.

    Everyone hurried to get ready since we were supposed to meet Jessica’s friends hours before.  She called her friend, Zach, the guy who had been in charge of arranging this little get together to see if they had left without us.  She had a brief conversation, a look of relief taking over her face as they spoke.  She hung up quickly.

     “Thank God,” she began.  “I woke Zach up with my call.  They’re all still asleep.  Apparently they had the same idea we did last night, and they were over at the Golden Nugget as well.  He said he’d wake everyone up, and we should just come on over whenever we’re ready.  We’ll motor out when everyone gets there.”

     “Woohoo!” Grace exclaimed.  “Now I can grab a shower and not have to go over there smelling like a distillery.  She dashed toward the bathroom and within seconds we heard the shower turn on.

     I flopped back down on the bed and debated whether or not I should take a shower too.  I had taken one the night before, but I also had imbibed my fair share of alcohol.  Liz had already grabbed a shower as we were rushing to get ready.  I looked at Jessica and asked if she was going to shower again. 

     “Nah.  I plan on jumping in the water as soon as I can, so throwing my hair up into a ponytail is sufficient for me.  I’m clean enough from last night’s shower, and I am not on a mission like Grace.  I don’t plan on getting close enough to anyone for them to tell the difference.”  She raised an arm over her head and sniffed her armpit.  “Nope.  No deodorant failure.  I’m good.”

     I threw a pillow at her.  “I don’t know whether that’s gross or just practical.”

     Liz, who had been quiet as usual, piped in.  “Where’d you go while we were playing blackjack last night, Meems?”

     “Oh!  I walked around for a bit, but then I found myself in a little bar off the casino floor.”

     Jessica looked at me with a raised eyebrow.  “You mean you spent all that time just drinking?”  She leaned over and sniffed at me.  “Maybe you ought to take that shower.  You do smell a little of stale booze.”  I threw another pillow at her.

     “I did do a lot of drinking but not the entire time.  I met a guy.”

     Just as I said this last statement, the shower turned off and I heard Grace scream from inside the bathroom, “You tramp!!!!  Don’t say another word until I am dressed and out there.  I want to hear everything!”

     “Slow your roll, Sister Sex Machine!  Nothing happened!”  I shouted back.

     Grace came tearing out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel and her hair dripping wet.  “I don’t believe that for one second.  You have been abstinent for over three whole years.  You said ‘you met a guy’ which is code for something.  I know what ‘I met a guy’ means.”

     “No, when you say ‘I met a guy,’ it means ‘I fucked a guy’.  When I say ‘I met a guy,’ it means I met a guy.  No more, no less.”

     Liz held her hands up in a time-out gesture.  “Grace, why don’t you just let Mimi tell us what happened, and then we can decide whether or not she had sex with him?”

     “I did not have sex with him!!!”  I shouted.

     “Fine, you didn’t have sex with him,” Jessica said.  “What did you do with him?”

     “We hung out.  We talked.  He was fun.  Well, at first he wasn’t.  At first he was kind of this obnoxious asshole, but he wouldn’t go away.  Eventually, he grew on me, and he turned out to be a super-cool guy.”

     “He was fun, huh?” Grace smirked.  “How do you know if you didn’t take him for a ride?”

     “Jeez Grace,” Jessica said.  “There’s more than one way to have fun with the opposite sex, or have you forgotten?”

     “Pfft. Men are good for one thing,” Grace snorted. “I’ve learned that lesson.  You will too one day.”  She turned on her heel and went back to the bathroom, presumably to get dressed and dry her hair. 

     “I wonder what’s happened to her.” I said.

     “She’ll be okay,” Liz said quietly.  “She just needs some time.  She’ll talk about it when she’s ready.”

     Jessica and I looked at Liz questioningly, but she simply gave us a small smile.  “While we wait for Mimi to take her shower, I’ll go round us up some coffee.”  With that, she grabbed her purse and walked out the door.

     Jessica and I simply shrugged our shoulders.  Liz was like a vault when it came to secrets.  She sure wasn’t going to tell us anything.  We could only wait for Grace to tell us in her own time.

     “So Jessica, who are these friends of yours that we are meeting?”

     Jessica flopped down on the bed opposite me.  “Oh!  Well, Zach is an old college friend of mine.  He went into the Navy after we finished school, and he’s a pilot.  He’s brought some of his friends, and I think they may have brought a couple of their girlfriends.”

     “Is there going to be enough room on the boat for all of us?” I asked.

     “It sleeps ten, so I’m sure there will be.  Besides, military guys are weird.  They’ll have no problem sleeping on the floor if they have to.  As long as there’s a roof over their heads, and even sometimes if there’s not.  There really only has to be enough space for them to lay down.  Also, alternate sleeping arrangements, if you know what I mean.”

      I laughed outright thinking of my friend who used to date a Navy S.E.A.L. and imagined the two weren’t too different.  Both were kind of like military royalty.  “Yeah, I guess that’s probably true.”

      Grace came out of the bathroom in a bright yellow bikini and her auburn hair up in a bun, looking for all the world like a college co-ed rather than a thirty-four-year old woman.  She kept herself in fabulous shape by working out several days a week, and her skin was as supple as the day she entered college.   Her green eyes shone brightly, and you’d never have known that only forty-five minutes before she’d looked like day-old road kill.  I almost hated her.