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Jessica and Beth backed up and when they turned around standing on the path looking at them was an older man. Both of the women jumped in surprise. It took Jessica a moment to recognize the man.
“Mr. Collins!”
“It’s me indeed, young lady. I see you two looking in on the man meet?” he said with a smile.
Jessica laughed. “We were told it was an open invite to all.”
“Who would say that? Ahh maybe it’s the new boy you brought with you? No ladies, that is purely a man meet,” Mr. Collins confirmed. He seemed like he had aged since the last time she had seen him. It had only been a year but there was more gray in his hair and he was a bit rounder than he had been before. His hair was in disarray, and it was too short to run his hands through it to tame it.
Beth took a step forward and extended her hand.
“I’m Beth, and you are?”
Like all men, Mr. Collins perked up. “I’m Patty Collins young lady. I came to see Jessica and I got two for the effort of one. In truth, I came to see Peter’s right hand, to make sure she was well,” Patty concluded.
“Peter?” Beth asked.
“Sorry, Peter Middleton.”
“We are going back to the Shell. Would you like to join us?” Jessica asked.
“No, I can’t. You see, I have to join the secret man meet over there,” he said with a smile. “I’m glad I got to see you. Peter was fond of you and only had good things to say about his Jessica,” Patty laughed. “I can’t believe he went off with his love.”
“I know what you mean. I was hoping he would do something before he left,” Jessica sighed. “Sorry, I know you lost a friend and here I am thinking of myself.”
“Let me tell you something young lady. Peter adored you. He would come here with you, and we’d stay up late nights talking like old men do. He had big dreams for you.”
Jessica nodded and laid her hand on Patty’s forearm. “Thank you for that.”
“Don’t look so down, Jessica. I think Peter should have done this different, but he had a way about him. When he thought he was right, nothing could stop him. He thought he knew people so well. He had only the best thoughts about the Cholan boy.”
“He knew Brian?” Jessica asked feeling off kilter and out of sorts.
“He did. Listen, I have to get to the man meet. I know you have to meet with the others, so you’ll be here for a minute or two and we’ll catch up. I’m sure you’ll want to meet up with Pilar, all things being considered.”
Jessica nodded. If she knew a polite way to do so she would have kept Patty with her and asked him about Middleton’s plans and how Brian fit into them. When he mentioned Pilar she didn’t naysay him, she just nodded. It must have been a contact she had forgotten.
“I’ve got to go but you know we will have the get together this week. It’ll be at a tiki bar. There’s no alcohol there but it’s got a straw roof and it’s on the beach. Certainly, that has to qualify it as a tiki bar. It’s called the Straw Hat.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Jessica said.
“I hope not, Butler Hotels is footing the bill. Ladies, I’m off.” Patty disappeared past the hedge and into the middle unknown of the man meet.
“Wow, your boss knew Cholan. What a coincidence,” Beth said.
Jessica thought the same thing as they walked home. It’s just that she didn’t believe in coincidences of anything that couldn’t be quantified.
Three hours later the moment of truth was upon Jessica and Beth. She had bought a slab of meat and marinated it just like she had done at home. She missed her grill, but Jessica would do the grill proud. She would tame the hot plate with a little inventiveness.
“Jess, I’m not feeling very confident about this,” Beth said as she looked over Jessica’s shoulder at the setup. Jessica had to admit this wasn’t a typical setup. It turned out that the hot plate wasn’t what she was expecting when she pulled it out of the box. It was a box with two electric eyes on it. A steak had been bought and some inventiveness had to be created. So, Jessica got a miniature grill face and placed it over the hot plate. She figured this would be fine, the steak would go on the metal grill. It would take longer to cook but that was fine, it would be tender.
“You don’t need to be confident Beth, I’ve got this.” Jessica was repeating that same mantra to herself hoping that the words would ground themselves in her subconscious. Then when she thought of how Brian was that morning in the supermarket, poking fun at her because they didn’t have a kitchen. Ha! The last laugh would be on him. Jessica was sure she could do this. Jessica literally overlooked and ran huge parties and departments. How hard could it be? Making a meal on a hot plate would be the thing that would outdo her? That wasn't going to be how this story was going to end. She was going to show Brian that she knew what she was doing. Jessica could adapt to new situations. Unlike what Ms. Prince thought about her, she was an adaptable, flexible woman.
On top of everything, Jessica was determined to be a contributing factor. While Beth had been upstairs cleaning their room, Jessica had been downstairs preparing the meal for tonight.
When Jessica went up to look at the room now, it just looked like a cheap motel room. Before, it looked like the overfill room for a hoarder. Oh yes, Jessica was going to cook this steak. When Jessica took the steak out of the mini fridge, she was pleasantly surprised. She could smell the garlic and cilantro coming off of the beef.
She was going to show Brian how one of them belonged here. Jessica turned on the hot plate and then waited until the heat was high enough that she could feel it with her hand. Then she placed the grill over top of it. The grill had been covered with aluminum foil and lightly greased. Although looking at the covered grill it still looked as though some fat hadn’t dissolved.
