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“Really? I always imagined you'd be great in bed,” she replied.
“When I said awkward, I was talking aboutyou.”
It was actually a pretty good time. Her cat refused to wear the party hat this time, but they wore their own hats and got toasty on champagne and cosmopolitans. When the clock struck twelve, she gave Joey a sloppy kiss with lots of tongue and he laughed.
“So. Now that it's a new year,” he started, pulling his hat off and throwing it across the room, “can we talk about the unmentionable?”
“What’s the unmentio-hiccup!Unmentio-hiccup!Unmentio-hiccup! FUCK!What are you talking about?” she asked. He gave her a Look.
“Let’s just say it starts with a ‘P’, and ends with a ‘sex on legs’,” he replied, and she burst out laughing.
“Parker. You can say his name, I won’t explode.”
“Well, have you talked to him at all? Since the accident?” he asked, downing the rest of his drink. Paige shook her head.
“No, I would’ve told you. I tried to call him, but the phone number he gave me doesn’t work anymore, and I don’t know where he lives. I mean, I guess Carrington isn’t too common a name, I could probably find his address,” Paige thought out loud. Joey sat up, grabbing the bottle of vodka. They'd long since run out of mixer and were now drinking it neat.
“Oh, he’s not in Seattle,” he said. Paige lifted her eyebrows.
“But he said he was coming here,” she responded.
“He did come here, for like a month or so. But then he took off. He’s been living in the Bahamas, in Freeport,” Joey said casually, as if he was giving a weather report.
“What!?” Paige shrieked, startling her cat off her lap. It hissed and ran into the bedroom. Joey laughed.
“Why don’t you name that thing? Feels weird just saying ‘Cat'.”
“Joey! Focus! Parker has been in the Bahamasthis whole time!? Why didn’t you say anything?” she demanded.
“You never asked. In fact, you were so obviouslynotasking about Parker, I figured you didn’t wanna hear about him. Yeah, he’s been down there since August,” he explained. She collapsed back against the couch.
“And I’m here in Seattle,” she groaned, visions of palm trees dancing across her vision. “What is he doing down there?”
“Working. He asked Uncle Richie for work. Richie’s heavily invested in some huge resort that’s being built, so he got him a job there. You should see how tan he is,” Joey commented with a smirk. She sat upright.
“You’ve seen him? You went there?”
“No, he came to Galveston, last month. His uncle was getting married again. You would’ve loved it, Paige – they built like this bridge over that awesome pool, so they got married with the bay behind them, it was amazing.”
“I don’t give a fuck about bay views! Did he mention me? Say anything about me?” she pressed. Joey frowned.
“No, sorry babe, he didn’t. I saw him right before he went to the Bahamas, in August, and he still seemed pretty broken up over the whole thing. I mean, we're talking about Park, so of course he was smiling and laughing, but I could tell. You really did a number on him,” Joey informed her.
“I didn’t mean to,” was all she could say.
“Of course, no one ever does. Besides, he seemed more like his old self when he came for the wedding. We had such a good time!” Joey laughed at the memories. Paige smiled.
“Well, I guess I’m glad he’s happy. If he ever comes back here, maybe he’ll be okay with seeing me,” she said with a sigh. Joey chewed on his lip and flicked his eyes between her and his drink.
“Do you want the whole truth?” he asked slowly. She hung her head.
“Hit me.”
“He had a date with him at the wedding, brought some girl from the islands. She was some silly blonde bitch with huge tits, nothing compared to you, I assure you, but still ... I thought you should know,” he told her, watching her carefully.
Paige stared straight ahead for a minute. Just because he brought a date to a wedding didn’t mean he was engaged. Still. She felt like the strength she'd been building up for the past five months had crumbled a bit.
How could a person you only knew for two months hurt you this much?
