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“Man rituals?” Brian laughed. “If it were, I wouldn’t tell you at all. Who has a man ritual outside in full view?”
“Stranger things have happened,” Jessica said skeptically.
Brian couldn’t believe the men of Peace would do such a thing. However, he could see from looking at Jessica’s face that she did. “We’ll see.”
Jessica gave him a smirk and nodded. “Yes we will.”
Chapter Four
Beth was not paying for this vacation, and neither was Jessica.
“Okay, let’s get a couple of shots of me in front of the wrecked boat,” Beth said. Jessica didn’t argue with her, since she knew trying to get Beth to budge was a losing game. While saying no to Beth was a no-go, getting her to stop working would be an easy win as soon as she said she was tired.
Jessica and Beth were the two unlikeliest pairs to be friends. Beth was all about her looks. In fact, there were very few memories that Jessica could think of where she wasn’t involved in her looks. They had gone to school together and they had formed a bond in elementary, the nerd and the goddess.
Today they were just as close if not closer. No one could see beyond the shallow shell Beth presented and no one saw past the efficient nerd Jessica presented as, but together they were best friends and the best of both worlds.
“Don’t you think we have enough pics of you being the only one who survived?” Jessica asked.
Beth propped her hands on her hips and then held up her hand and wagged her finger. Somehow through her smiling teeth Beth managed to say, “Do I hear one-of-a-kind photos for double the price, shoot!”
“Beth?” Jessica pleaded.
“How about a couple of more photos and I’ll go on social media and tell them how I only like to frequent hotels where there is a path for progression for women in the hotel industry?”
Jessica sighed and smiled, that was the way Beth was. Beth was always ready to go out on a limb. “I’m so invisible, you think they’d put one and one together and come up with me.” Jessica laughed.
“Well, when I’m standing in front of the hotel giving the speech, maybe that will jar their memory,” Beth said with a bright smile.
Beth came off of the wreckage and then they walked along the boardwalk. Jessica had a map from when she had visited before. She always loved the crisp air and the smell of the sea billowing in on small waves that crested on the beach below. There weren’t a lot of tourists there yet. It was one of the reasons she enjoyed coming in June. The weather was starting to heat up and the streets were still relatively empty. As they continued the walk, Jessica thought about what Brian said.
“You know we are almost at the park. Brian said the men meet there to talk about Middleton and things.”
Beth stopped walking. “Brian is it now?”
Jessica noticed Beth’s raised brows and shook her head. “It’s not like that. Besides, it’s very hard to call a person anything formal when you are in the supermarket shopping next to them.”
Beth gave her a long look. “Maybe, but I think we could have done something else.”
“You think ignoring him was going to work?” Jessica asked giving her a side glance.
Beth waved Jessica’s look away. “You were saying?”
“Yes, I was saying that there is a man meeting up ahead.” Jessica thought about how Beth had come with her, but she hadn’t asked about the relationship between her and Mr. Middleton.
“A man meeting might be awkward if we showed up,” Beth said with a mischievous smile.
“I have it on good authority that no man meeting could really be going on,” Jessica said with a smile and hoped for once that she was wrong.
“Well then, let us go forth,” Beth said as she looped her arm through Jessica’s. Both of the women took large strides to the park and then slowed as they saw a statue appear. Jessica pulled back on Beth.
“The statue is in the middle,” Jessica whispered. She wasn’t sure why she was whispering. They took another couple of steps when one of the voices rang out from the circle of men before them.
“To men, those who follow their dreams and live forever!”
Jessica and Beth’s view was still obscured by some nearby hedges and the statue in the middle.
“I don’t know Jess, that surely sounds like man sounds to me,” Beth whispered. “I think we need to back out real slow like.”
