Forever and a Day (29 page)

A few minutes later the reply came from JJ:
On the roof! There is a pool up here and lots of shade, come on up for some lunch!

Halo texted back that she was on her way.

Grabbing her meds, she tossed them into her purse. She found her large white sunglasses, put them on and headed out the door and into the waiting elevator.

Halo walked out onto the roof patio and saw the pool first. It was a beautiful long lap pool. A wall fountain was making soft sounds as it poured out into the pool. Along a wall, luxurious lounge chairs were set up facing the pool, up above a slatted wood overhang provided decent shade. She saw JJ stand up and wave her over.

Halo passed several people and fortunately went unrecognized. As she neared, JJ came up and gave her a big hug, “Saved you a spot.” She said with a smile and whispered, “You look much better, how are you doing?”

Halo smiled and gave her a nod, then whispered, “Sore as hell. They serve food here?”

“They do!” JJ reached down and handed her a menu.

“Great! I need food with one of the meds.” She whispered and sat down.

JJ sat down facing her, “I saw your foot, and you don’t seem to be limping?”

“Trying not to.” Halo said quietly, “Still hurts.” She gave JJ a pout and JJ rubbed Halo’s leg gently.

They were interrupted by a waiter, “Ma’am would you care to order a drink?”

Halo turned to him, “Just a bottle of water please.” She watched the waiter’s eyes opened wide in recognition of her, he quickly recovered, after a quick deep breath he continued.

“Yes, uh Miss. I see you have the menu in your hand. Would you care to order now?” He asked politely.

Halo turned to JJ, “Lunch for you?”

“Already been there, I’d suggest the Thai Beef salad, it was very good.”

Halo smiled at the young waiter, “Then I’ll have that please!”

“Yes, Miss, right away.” He smiled his best smile at her and left.

Halo watched the waiter leave and turned to JJ, “Doug spending the night?” She asked with a wicked little smile.

“Yes! We are planning on having dinner downstairs then come back up. Are you good with that?” JJ asked.

“JJ, no need to ask, c’mon! Holy hell, you are in a swanky hotel in a far off country with your man, live it up!” Halo said happily then smiled wickedly and whispered, “I think I’ll keep the TV on all night tonight...”

“We aren’t noisy!” JJ giggled.

“The hell you aren’t!” Halo laughed.

JJ felt her face turn red, “Well, fine then. Keep it on!” JJ giggled, “Seeing you smiling is a good thing.”

“I’m happy for you and Doug, JJ.”

JJ thought it an opportune time to talk about her thoughts earlier. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a teen girl in a wet blue bikini standing quietly away from Halo with a napkin and pen in her hand. JJ looked at Halo and gestured with her eyes to look behind her.

Halo turned slowly as to not cause her back to cry out and saw a smiling wide-eyed teen, dripping wet with a napkin in her hand trying to gather the courage to ask, “Well hello!” Halo said with a smile.

“Oh, uh it is you Halo!” The teen said excitedly in a cute Aussie accent, “Uh, so sorry to bother you…”

Halo continued her smile at the girl, “Its fine! What can I do for you?” Halo said pointing at the now wet napkin.

The girl held it out with a big smile, “May I please have your autograph?”

“Oh, sweetie, that napkin is soaked! Here have a seat here for a moment while I look for a decent piece of paper.” Halo patted the end of her lounge chair.

“Really?” The girl exclaimed and stepped over and sat gracefully down at the end of Halo’s lounge chair.

Halo turned to JJ, “You have any paper in that bag of yours?”

“I sure do.” JJ said and began digging into her bag.

Halo turned to the smiling girl, “Since you know who I am, what is your name?”

“I—I’m Clarissa. We are on holiday from Adelaide, visiting my grandmother here in Brisbane. She’s in a home.”

Halo accepted JJ’s thick planner and found an open blank page, “Are you having fun?”

“I am now!” The girl unabashedly blurted out.

Halo laughed along with the cheerful teen, “That’s good then!” She quickly wrote on the page in blue ink and handed it to the happy teen, “Here you go sweetie.”

The girl accepted the paper with a big smile and began reading it aloud, “To my best friend from Adelaide! Love, Halo Raines.” She looked up at Halo with a look of awe, “Thank you, Halo! Thank you so much!”

She made to get up to leave and Halo placed a gentle hand on the teen’s tanned arm, “No picture?” Halo giggled.

“W—what? Really?” Clarissa sputtered out.

“Of course! Do you Twitter or Instagram?”

“I do! Both! I follow you on Twitter!” The girl exclaimed excitedly.

Halo took her phone out from her purse and handed it to JJ, “Would you take a good one of us, please JJ?”

JJ laughed and accepted the phone. She gestured them to get close and Halo put her arm around the damp girl and felt her trembling underneath her arm, “Ok you two, smile!” JJ said and snapped several shots then handed back the phone to Halo.

Halo called up the pictures so they both could see them, “This one looks good!”

“Yes!” Clarissa replied happily.

“I’m posting it up to Twitter now, is that ok with your parents you think?” Halo asked.

“Yes! They told me not to bother you with a picture, since you suggested it should be fine!”

Halo uploaded the picture with a tweet introducing her new friend, Clarissa in Australia, “There you go!” She showed her the tweet on her phone.

“Oh my God! Thank you Halo, thank you! You are the best!” Clarissa gushed.

“Thank you too!” Halo reached over, gave the girl a gentle hug and got the same back.

Clarissa got up as if she was walking on air and with a wave to JJ, she padded off to her smiling parents at the end of the long line of lounge chairs.

“Good job at hiding that bruise on your hand.” JJ whispered and saw Halo give her a wry look of acknowledgement.

“Is there any news?” Halo asked as she gingerly settled back onto the lounge chair.

“A lot… you ready?” JJ said quietly as she decided to pass on speaking about her concerns.  “Mr. Stoner is charged with our equivalent of four counts of attempted sexual assault, four counts of battery, two counts of assault, lewd behavior and indecent exposure. They threw everything at him they could think of—“

“Holy hell! He really is screwed! Figuratively and eventually literally too!” Halo let out an evil little chuckle with a smile, “So, how did you find out?” Halo asked.

“Thomas emailed me a little while ago!” JJ replied, “There’s more. If convicted on all counts he is facing 12 to 22 years in that crappy prison. More than likely, he will plead out and get four to six years. The judge refused to grant bail, word is the governor stepped in. Speaking of Governor Uteli, I sent your regrets for tonight’s get together, he replied with hope you are getting the care you need and he would still like to introduce you to his wife, your schedule permitting. And his office will assist you with whatever you need.”

“Oh hell, I forgot all about that! Thank you for covering me.”

“Just doing my job! Ok, Deacon is itching to start filming something. Joel texted me that a storm is brewing around Vanuatu and that it may threaten filming in Pago at the end of the week. He really wants to get moving and asks if we can all leave Sunday after Xander lands.”

Halo sighed, “Fine. I guess I will be meeting Mystery man on the plane… hey before you leave here would you please send Thomas and Joseph a bonus, from me—personally? Send it snail mail so it will get there after we leave.”

JJ pulled out her iPad and made a note, “I’ll do that today.”

“By the way, is Joel helping Stoner out legally?”

“Uh, I don’t think so. Thomas said he has a court appointed attorney. So want me to schedule Thomas and Joseph or only have one of them at a time?”

“Oh keep them both, we won’t need them but I’m sure they can use the work.” Halo saw JJ nod and make a notation.

The waiter made himself known with a tray of wonderful smelling food and placed it gently over Halo’s lap, “Anything else Miss?”

“Everything looks wonderful, thank you!” Halo gave the waiter a smile and quickly unwrapped her silverware from the red cloth napkin and began in on her lunch.

“Hey, there are some boutiques shops close by, wanna do some shopping after lunch? I’d like to find a dress for tonight.” JJ asked.

Halo nodded with her mouth full, swallowed and dabbed at her lips with her napkin, “Hell yes!” She laughed thinking the distraction with shopping should help. She returned her attention to her meal with a gusto.

When lunch was done and her plates were cleared, Halo signed for their meals and left a nice tip for the starry-eyed waiter. They gathered their belonging and headed for the elevator. Passing Clarissa and her parents she waved to them and received a round of smiles and thank you’s from them all.

They spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in the myriad number of boutique shops surrounding the hotel. JJ picked up a sexy above the knee, black cocktail dress and new pumps for her rendezvous with Doug tonight. Halo found a slinky red dress that she had no reason to buy except for JJ saying it looked fabulous on her. She bought a pair of red Ferragamo five inch peep toe pumps to go with the dress, more so to make JJ feel good about shopping. The last stop was at a hat shop where Halo really went crazy buying three sunhats to add to her collection. Then it was back to the hotel and help JJ get ready.

At the hotel, JJ went and showered while Halo secretly ordered the hotels champagne package to be delivered to JJ’s room when they were out to dinner.

JJ came walking into Halo’s room with a towel around her body and another around her hair, “Ready for the heavy construction to begin?” JJ laughed.

“What? Come on, JJ don’t joke like that!” Halo motioned her friend over to the bathroom where Halo had laid out all their makeup, “You know there is a salon next door, want me to call them and see if they can send someone up?”

“No way, we will be back filming in the sand and dirt soon. It would be a waste.”

“You sure?” Halo asked with an arched blonde eyebrow.

“Yes, I’m sure. Besides, you are good at this. You know what is weird… I’m kinda getting nervous!” JJ giggled.

“Your call!” Halo said and patted the seat for JJ to sit down on the chair, with her back to the bathroom mirror Halo pulled out the hair dryer and switched it on.

“Now you can look!” Halo smiled. JJ stood up and faced the mirror.

“Oh, wow! You did an awesome job!”

“Girl, you look so sexy! Doug is going to take one look at you and skip right to dessert!” Halo covered her mouth and laughed.

JJ laughed along with Halo and retorted, “Hopefully we can get in a few desserts!”

“Oh you naughty girl!” Halo grabbed JJ’s hand and squeezed it, “I do hope you get all your just desserts, JJ. Just try and not break anything in there tonight!”

JJ laughed and looked in the mirror, did a pirouette, liking how Halo had done her shoulder length hair in an up do with her eyes done in dark sultry colors, “Wow, I love how you did my eyes…”

“I’m glad it worked! So, I will make sure my TV is on and my headphones too. You two have fun!”

“Hey now, we aren’t that loud… I thought you were kidding earlier?”

“Like two cats in heat!” Halo giggled and made a caterwaul sound at her friend.

“No… really? Oh shit.” JJ said and watched as Halo nodded slowly at her, “I’ll try and keep it down.”

“The hell you will! You had better go for it with a gusto! Sadie’s back in Pago has awfully thin walls!” Halo joked and watched her friends cheeks turn pink, “I’m sorry JJ, I couldn’t resist! You know I love you! I know you are going to have a great time.”

JJ reached over and gently hugged her friend, “Halo, you really are the best. I wish we could find a good guy for you too.”