Bridesmaid Lotto (19 page)

“Yeah, me neither.”

It didn’t take long before I forgot all about what the snob girls thought of me. A few glasses of wine had a way of making you just not care.

When the dancing started, Jennifer and I were the first ones out on the dance floor. We danced for what seemed like hours before the DJ announced that the strippers were about to begin their show. I contemplated heading back to the room for the night, but I knew I was too wired to sleep.

“This aught to be good,” Jennifer said. She tilted her head. “Actually it might be if any of those Cabana boys double as strippers.”

Cheesy music started, and all of a sudden a man in very good shape was on the stage in a cowboy outfit. He had the glittering chaps, the hat, the boots. The only things missing were pants and a shirt.

“Oh good lord,” Jennifer said. “Could this get any more cliché?”

“Oh you just wait, we still haven’t seen the fireman, the policeman, the waiter…”

“Okay, okay, I get the picture,” Jennifer said. “I think I’m going to start to drink faster. You with me?”

“Sure,” I said, shrugging. “The ostracizing can’t get much worse. We may as well have some fun at least.”

Each time a new stripper appeared on stage, it was inevitably one of the guys on my list. A few dancers and several cocktails later, Jennifer and I were feeling pretty good. We started dancing with some of the other girls, and of course the strippers were there too. Jennifer’s favorite was Tarzan man, and I had a little flirtation going on with Mr. Policeman guy.

When were too tired to dance anymore, we flopped down at the bar.

“Looks like you’re having fun,” a male voice said from behind us.

I turned around.

Jake!

My mouth dropped open. The alcohol was definitely having a fuzzy effect on my brain and I had a bit of a hard time covering up my shock.

He laughed a little.

“Hi Jake,” I said. In my drunken stupor, I think I may have tried to pat his shoulder, but ended up limply brushing past. “What are you doing here… actually how long have you been here?”

He smiled. Mm. What a smile.

“Long enough to see you having fun with the studly officer over there,” he said pointing.

Oh crap. I let out a laugh, which came out sounding more like a snort. “Oh, that was just a little dancing. I’m not interested in that guy.”

“I guess I’d better try and catch up with you girls,” Jake said, and ordered two drinks for himself. “Would you like another?”

“Uh. No thanks. I think this one will do me for a while,” I said and tried to smile while I sipped through my straw. It probably looked more like a squint than a smile.

Good Lord Josie, I scolded myself silently. No wonder you’re such a disaster.

I was surprised when Jake actually sat down beside me. I thought he would have gone to mingle with the rest of the girls. “So I hope at least you’ve been having fun out here, even considering Emma’s friends,” he said.

“Yeah, it’s been good,” I said.

I turned to Jennifer for agreement, thinking she was still beside me. Apparently she decided to sneak off to leave Jake and I alone.

I turned back to Jake. “We’ve done a lot of laying around by the pool and we went to the rainforest and scuba diving.”

“That sounds fun,” he said. “I love scuba diving.”

“Yeah, I’d never done it before! I couldn’t believe all the colors and how clear the water was and how I didn’t even feel claustrophobic like I thought I would, ‘cause you know I’m just a little bit claustrophobic and…”

I looked up at him and noticed he was looking rather amused.

“Sorry,” I said. “I tend to talk a lot when I’ve had a little to drink.”

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you’ve had a little more than a little to drink,” he said.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said, dropping my gaze, pretty much dying inside. “I should probably go out and see if some fresh air will help sober me up a bit.”

“I’ll come with you,” he said.

“Really?” I said.

Shut up you idiot, I yelled at myself. I’m sure you don’t at all look like you’re desperately in love with him. Wait a minute, am I desperately in love with him? No, I can’t be, can I?

“Josie?” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay? You kind of zoned out there for a minute.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, um, I’m okay,” I said, and got up.

Jake grabbed my hand and led me out to the patio. There were a few other stragglers out there, probably trying to find a quiet place. There was a small table of Emma’s friends in the corner. They started poking each other and whispering as soon as we stepped out there.

“What’s with all the whispering?” Jake asked.

“Well,” I said trying to whisper, but I’m sure it didn’t come out as quiet as I’d hoped. “Emma’s friends hate the rest of us Bridesmaids.”

“Why?” Jake said in a loud whisper to match my tone and looked around as if we were spies telling each other a very important secret.

“Because we’re the Bridesmaids and they’re not. And we get to hang out with Jake Hall.”

He put his hand to his chest, “Moi?”

I dropped my head once in a feeble nod.

“Well, I have another secret,” he said.

“What?”

I wondered if I was too close to his face. He seemed really, really close.

“You’re the only Bridesmaid that has been hanging out with me,” he said.

“Really? What about at the last party with all the old people?”

“I wasn’t hanging out with the other Bridesmaids there,” he said.

“Yes you were. I saw you.”

“I was looking for you that night,” he said. “I thought I caught a glimpse of you a couple times, but then you disappeared.”

“I was looking for you too, until I saw you sneaking out of the back room with Bobbi Lynne and Rebecca. You were all looking a little… disheveled.”

I could hear the words coming out of my mouth, but I couldn’t believe I was saying them. Was I actually about to start a jealous rant at Jake Hall? But for some reason, the alcohol most likely, I couldn’t stop myself.

“Josie, there was nothing going on. They were just playing some kind of stupid trick or something. I found them both quite annoying.”

“Oh sure,” I continued, my mouth like a train picking up speed. “Except you didn’t look very annoyed when you were coming out of that room.”

“Geez Josie, what’s going on? I swear I didn’t do anything with those girls.” He glanced sideways at the table of Emma’s friends were hanging on our every word.

Shit, I’d forgotten about them.

“Okay, sorry,” I said but continued pouting.

“I think maybe we should get you to bed,” he said loud enough for the gaggle to hear.

One of them actually gasped. A flurry of whispers started whirling around the small circle.

“What room are you in?” Jake asked, quietly this time.

“Three twelve,” I said.

I started fishing in my purse for the key card. Jake led me down the hall by my elbow since my hands were still fishing in my purse. In the elevator he asked if I needed any help.

“No, I’m fine, thanks,” I said and continued digging.

He led me down the hall to my room. I dug a little more.

“Here it is!” I said, holding the card up.

I handed it to Jake who opened the door.

Thank goodness. I might have been fiddling with that card forever.

He held the door open for me and followed me into the room.

“Well,” he said, “I just wanted to make sure you got back okay.”

“Thanks Jake,” I said. I really wanted him to stay for a while, it felt like we hadn’t really gotten to talk, and I didn’t know when I’d see him again. “Hey, did you want to stay and watch a movie or something. I’m sure we can find one on the pay per view.”

“Sure,” he said with a smile. “That sounds nice.”

There wasn’t much choice as far as movies went. There was, however, one of Jake’s movies as a choice.

“Oh no! No, no, no,” he said when I suggested we watch it. “That would be way too weird and uncomfortable for me.”

We settled on a comedy that I heard was pretty funny. Jake knew the director and said he was good too.

It must have taken me about six seconds of stretching out on the bed to fall asleep.

“Shit!”

I was yanked out of my dreamless sleep by the sound of Jennifer screaming. “Shit, shit, shit!” she repeated.

Jake started stirring beside me.

Oh my God. Jake Hall is in my bed!

I looked around to see if there was any indication of what Jake and I had done last night. My clothes were all still intact and a quick glance over at Jake confirmed that he was still in his clothes too. I did notice that his arm was draped comfortably over my back.

“What?” I asked her, shaking my head to try to wake up.

“Oh God! We’re going to miss the plane! It’s already 9:45!”

“What! The flight leaves at 10!”

“I know!” she yelled, scrambling to pick up odds and ends off the floor.

Jake lifted his head for a moment, then flopped back over to sleep again.

“Jake, Jake!” I yelled and started shaking him. “We have to get going.”

He rolled over slowly while I jumped up to start packing. I didn’t even have a second to wonder what I must have looked like. If someone had told me two weeks ago that I would be waking up next to Jake Hall and yelling at him to get a move on, obviously I would have laughed in their face.

“There’s no way we can make it, there’s just no way we can make it,” Jennifer kept chanting over and over again.

“How in the hell did we sleep in?” I wondered aloud. “They must have forgotten our wake up call.”

“Unless somebody cancelled it. Those girls weren’t too happy with you when you took off with Jake last night,” Jennifer said.

“Those bitches! It probably was them.”

“Girls are weird,” Jake said.

“I know, just because they’re jealous doesn’t mean they have to…” Jennifer said.

“No, I mean you two,” Jake said cutting her off. “You know, I have my plane here. I’m scheduled to leave tomorrow morning. I’ll fly you guys back to the city.”

“Really?” Jennifer said.

“Sure,” he said shrugging. “I’m going there anyway.”

“But I’ll miss work,” I said. I started to panic. My boss was already really pissed off with me for ducking out early so many days for all the wedding stuff.

“Call in sick,” Jennifer suggested.

“I suppose I could get Mattie to cover for me,” I said.

“Good,” Jake said. “Then we have all day to relax and enjoy the islands.”

“Fantastic,” Jennifer said. “I was in no hurry to get back anyway.”

“Okay,” I said, though I was still a little worried.

If my boss ever did find out what I was actually up to, he would probably fire me. And that would pretty much be the end of life as I knew it. Although the prospect of a day on a tropical island with Jake Hall certainly didn’t sound so bad. If ever the risk might be worth it, this was most likely that time.

“I’ll get dressed and check with the front desk to make sure we can have the room for another night,” Jennifer said.

“Cool,” I said and lay back down on the bed resting my head on my outstretched arm.

“So, thanks for letting me crash last night,” Jake said.

“You’re welcome, though I don’t really remember inviting you,” I said, and gave him a little playful shove.

“Oh, so it’s like that is it?” he said. “Well I guess I know now that I’ve overstayed my welcome.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course you can stay as long as you like.”

“Cool,” he said. “Does that mean I can crash again tonight?”

Hmm. Another night sleeping in the same bed as Jake Hall. Let me think about that for a second. “Sure.”

He smiled. “Do you always get up this early? I haven’t had to wake up this early since I was filming in New Zealand.”

I smiled, enjoying the surreal moment with Jake Hall in my bed talking about filming the movie that was the biggest blockbuster of last year.

“What should we do today?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe we can take a trip into that little town that we passed on the way in from the airport.”

“Oh yeah, that place looked so cute. I bet the shopping is fantastic,” I said starting to salivate over the thought of finding some great tropical clothes.

Jake groaned. “Oh, you girls and your shopping. Isn’t there anything else to life?”

“Um. I don’t think so,” I said.

“Pfft.” Jake rolled over so his back was facing me. He pulled his pillow over his head. “What have I gotten myself into?” His words were muffled under the pillow.

I laid there and watched him breathe. Within a few minutes he was asleep again. I wondered how he could breathe with that pillow over his head. Then I wondered how he could fall asleep in such an uncomfortable position. Then I wondered if he might sleep without his shirt on that night. Then Jennifer came back into the room just as I was about to try for a mental picture of it.