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The rest of the day flew by in a whirlwind of face and body painting. Clarissa was a huge help being right there with supplies and cleanup duty. When it was all done, I came across a pleasant surprise as I counted my money.
“This is weird,” I said, iPad in my hand, my eyes on the tallies for all the card swipes.
“What is it?” Clarissa asked as she came over. “Did your card reader go down? I had that happen once at Blueprint and it was the biggest pain in the ass to get the transactions back in there. I had to call up the reader company and everything.”
“No, that’s not it. Look.” I held up the pad, pointing out the total amount I’d rang up that day.
It was far, far more than I’d expected.
“Wow,” Clarissa said. “I don’t know what a good day for painting is, but I’d guess that’s not bad.”
“Not bad at all,” I said, my eyes on the four-digit total.
I found myself replaying in my mind the conversation I’d had with the guys about how I ought to quit my day job and go into painting full-time. I was still confident in my decision, but with a day like this under my belt I couldn’t help but wonder…
“Anyway,” I said. “I think this is more than deserving of some Thai food from Tuk-Tuk and a little wine to go with it. What do you think?”
She grinned. “Absolutely not going to say no to either of those.”
We packed up and carried the gear to Clarissa’s Bug, the trunk more than big enough for everything. Once it was all loaded up, we headed downtown and picked up a couple orders of Pad Thai, along with a pair of bottles of white from the nearby liquor store.
As we drove, I knew in the back of my head that Clarissa needed to know about what happened with Jay and me. She was going to get it out of me eventually, so I figured I might as well spill the beans on my own terms.
As we pulled up to the apartment, however, I found my stomach tensing. Fear spread like frost through me, with worry that Adam might be there waiting. He wasn’t, though, and the relief was incredible.
“You OK?” Clarissa asked as we parked. “You looked pale as a sheet.”
“Adam.”
“Ahh,” she said. “Don’t worry – he’s a prick, but he’s not stupid. He’d know better than to stalk around here waiting for you. A stunt like that would have me on the phone with the cops. I bet he doesn’t want that kind of attention.”
She was right. Adam wasn’t stupid, which was one of the scariest things about him. Another quick look around confirmed that he wasn’t there. For the time being, I didn’t need to worry about him.
We decided to leave the boxes and tent in the car for now, both of us starving by that point. A few minutes later we were sitting at the coffee table, take-out in front of us, wine in our glasses, and some Joni Mitchell - one of Clarissa’s favorites - on the stereo.
“So,” I said after steeling myself with a few bites of Pad Thai. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something about Jay…”
Her eyes flashed and she leaned in, clearly interested. “Is that right?”
I went into it, telling her about what happened with Jay on the beach the day before. Just as I’d expected, Clarissa hung off my every word with total, rapt attention. I didn’t go into complete detail, but she got the picture.
When I was done, her jaw hung open and her eyes were wide.
“That’s crazy! You slept with Jay!”
She followed this up by putting her hand on my knee and giving me a shove.
“I did. And now I don’t know what to do.”
Clarissa let out a scoff. “I’ll bet you don’t! Do the other guys know? Did Jay tell them?”
“Not sure. I mean, I know they’re all close, but I don’t know that they’d share things like that.”
I sighed, sitting back with a glass of wine in my hands.
“It’s ridiculous. I knew it would be a bad idea to get involved with any of them, especially with what’s going on with Adam and me. But I couldn’t resist! When I was alone with Jay it was like I felt…safe, you know? Like there wasn’t anything to worry about. The beach and sunset sure as hell didn’t hurt, either.”
“I remember what you would often say about Adam,” Clarissa began. “How he was always erratic, unpredictable. One day he’d be all lovey-dovey and the next he’d be pissed off and then the next he’d be sulking about this thing or that.”
