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“I guess the visit didn’t go well?”
I leaned forward over the steering wheel and let the cry happen.
Lucas rubbed my shoulder and made soothing sounds. “I’m sorry, man. How about you come out to my place tonight and we grill something? I can call Perry. Whattaya say?”
I ignored the invite being offered, fighting through the tears and the hurt. “I can’t be with him anymore,” I confessed, still speaking against my arms that were gripping the steering wheel. “I think sometimes I want to, you know? But he left, Lucas. He just left me behind.”
“And you’re sure?” he asked.
I leaned back in the seat and wiped my face with the back of my hands. “I don’t wanna be sure, ya know what I’m saying? But I have to be because I can’t trust his words anymore.”
“Trust your instincts then, Bo. Only you know how you truly feel,” he advised. “Invitation still stands if you’re up to it.”
“Thanks, buddy, but I need to shop for supplies in case this bad-boy storm hits,” I stated.
Lucas leaned back into the cab after having let go of my shoulder a minute before. “I think they name storms after girls, don’t they?” he teased, laughing and slapping at me to lighten the mood. “I can think of a chick who’s name could be used,” he added.
“Brenda Parsons!”we squealed in unison.
I reached for his hand that rested on the door’s edge where the window disappeared. “Thank you, Lucas.”
We half shook, half held hands. “Anytime, bro. Anytime.”
* * *
Piggly Wiggly was packed. Apparently the news had convinced people that the storm was a real possibility. Thankfully I had the truck so I ran around the store securing bottled water, staple items like bread and cheap sandwich meat, bags of chips, Mellow Yellow, and all the other horrible food choices I made on a daily basis. It was a good thing I ate a lot of fresh seafood because I was destroying the healthy food pyramid with my bad choices on most days.
I added batteries for flashlights, a couple of blue tarps I found in their limited hardware selection, and candles for light to help preserve generator fuel in case the storm wiped out power for several days. After spending an amount similar to my monthly grocery budget in one visit, I pushed the cart to the parking lot and loaded the truck with my haul. After a short trip to the dock to load up the boat with my supplies, I parked the truck behind Lucas’ station, and then walked back to the marina. I was beat and hurried to get home before dark.
Once safely on the boat with my provisions, I glanced up, scanning from horizon to horizon. The skies were still clear with no signs of an impending storm. Wind was still nonexistent with cloudless heavens in every direction. “Damn, that three hundred bucks had better be worth it,” I muttered, happy for nice weather, but unhappy about spending my hard earned money.
The realization of returning to a dark house, windows and doors boarded up, added to my depression. I needed to get out of my funk and start anew somehow. Memaw used to warn me that you only had one chance at life.“Living isn’t a dress rehearsal for something better coming down the road, Bo. You should be open to taking different roads when presented because you never know where God is leading you,”she’d stated. I wasn’t big on the God part of her advice, but I needed to be open to the overall moral of her story. My life wasn’t a dress rehearsal.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Hayes
Hangovers are not a good thing on a sailboat. My stomach went left while the boat rocked to the right. The combo wasn’t good no matter how hard I tried keeping my eyes closed. I slowly opened them and stared at the ceiling, trying to find a stationary point to focus on.
Phillip interrupted my internal pity party before I could complain. “Fuuucckkk,” he moaned, flopping his hand across my chest even though he was facing away from me. “What time is it?”
Was I speaking to him?Something in my foggy brain told me I wasn’t but I couldn’t remember why exactly. I glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand. “Almost noon,” I croaked, pushing his arm off my chest. We both listened intently for any signs of life on the large yacht. Besides the slow roll of the waves against the hull, everything was quiet.
“I bet everybody’s still drunk,” he mumbled. He rolled onto his back and groaned painfully. “This fucking headache is killing me.”
Now I remembered why I was unhappy. He was right. Everyone had been drunk last night. Drunk and a bit too handsy for my tastes. I wasn’t the type of person who enjoyed being manhandled by other men, and being drunk wasn’t an invitation or an excuse to do so. The problem was I had been drinking heavily as well and ignored the advances coming at me and those that Phillip was making on others. Especially the ones where Michael, arguably the hottest guy on the boat, came on to both of us.
“What’s with you and your new buddy Michael?” I asked, hating myself for being that kind of partner. The one who was jealous and accusatory. I trusted Phillip and never had a reason not to, but the previous night’s ribald behaviors by everyone on board, including the crew, had tested my trust limits. I didn’t like men being aggressive with me, and I certainly didn’t like watching them slobber over my partner. Phillip remained silent. “So?” I asked, anticipating his brush off. “How do you two know one another?”
“I don’t remember exactly. Maybe at dinner or a meeting I went to. Not sure really?” he answered, responding precisely the way I knew he would.
“Michael told me you two met at dinner last week. You know, the one with Charles and John? The same one I didn’t go to after we agreed I could opt out.”
“Hmmm?” he began, pausing and getting his story straight. “Maybe . . .but, I’m not sure if that was where.” He turned his head toward me. “He said it was at dinner?”
“Yes,” I answered firmly. “Charles, John, you, and him, is what he said. And John pointed Michael out to me when we boarded Friday. John said you all made a new friend. I’m assuming that was Michael,” I stated. “Funny thing is you didn’t mention that to me the next day after you attended the dinner,” I added, doing my best to give him the benefit of the doubt even if last night’s unusual familiarity between them caught me off guard.
“Must have slipped my mind,” he mumbled.
“Did grinding your cock into his ass on the dance floor last night slip your mind too?” I quickly remembered why I woke up upset with him. Booze wasn’t clouding my memory any longer.
