Carpe Bead'em (23 page)

“There you are.” Bo sneaks up behind me
while I wait in line to pee. “The lead singer told me you were here and I’ve
been looking all over.”

“Here I am.” I plaster my best fake grin
as the anger swells up inside.

No commitment? Really? I was blowing
smoke his way when I agreed to it. What red-blooded woman would agree to that?
A
desperate one
, I tell myself.

“We need to talk.” He yells after me
when it’s my turn for the bathroom.

I go in the bathroom to get away and
stay in extra long, hoping he won’t be outside the door when I come out.

“Oops. Sorry, Monk.” The door almost
whacks Monk in the head. 

“Hey, how’s the bead thing going?” He
genuinely looks interested. “Have you thought about anything I said?”

“I…” I mumble what I’ve done, but the
noise level is so loud he can’t hear me.

“Come in my office.” I follow him back.
Beer signs hang on the wall, along with and a framed poster autographed by the
entire Van Halen group. “I thought you like blues?”

“Blues bar, Chicago, money.” He laughs.
“I’m a rock guy. That’s why I’m not usually here at night.” He sits down on a
red leather sofa. “Rock bar wouldn’t have made us the same money.”

“Wow, Monk. A different impression of
you.” He’s still a little nerdy, but I like it. He offers me a glass of wine
and I graciously take it. 

Enjoying my drink, I tell Monk about the
meeting with Saks, all the boutiques and my new tax ID.

“I’m proud of you.” He refills the glasses.
“Let me know what I can do for you.”

We finish off our drinks with idle
chit-chat about Cincinnati and The Mean Street Blues Band. I refrain from
asking about Bo. He asks about the marathon. I refrain from asking about Bo. He
asks if I’m going to run with the running group tomorrow. I refrain from
mentioning Bo.

“It’s time for me to Bo … I mean go.” I
point to the door. The wine is taking a toll on my speech. I head towards the
door so he won’t see my red face.

“Hallie?” Piper looks me up and down
from the other side of the door. “What are you doing in there?” She points
inside and looks in to find Monk lounging on the sofa with his wine glass in
hand.

I grin, leaving it all to her
imagination.

As far as she and Bo are concerned, they
know nothing about the arrangement Monk and I’ve set up and they don’t need to
know. When she tells Bo what she thinks is going on, as I know she will, it’ll
rot in his mind.

Chapter
Forty-One

The sun peeking through my blinds
confirms I survived another day.

I’m so confused.

I pull the covers back over my head to
drown out the honking horns. I’m use to sleeping without interruption in my
Hyde Park home or jogging down for a cup of coffee without getting run over by
a taxi or dodging pedestrians on a crowded street.

Now, I’m embracing a life I’ve been
running from. I groan and pull the covers back. I can’t just let Henry out and
leave him. I actually have to drag myself out of bed and look halfway decent to
take him on a walk.

The carpet is warm on my feet when they
hit the floor and I search for my sweats and Henry’s leash. Walking him is a
good way to clear my mind. Henry is definitely one little man I never
envisioned in my life, but he is the only man in my life.

“Come on, buddy. Let’s go out.” Henry
jumps up and down, knowing what’s in store for him. Having Henry these past few
weeks has given me more responsibility. I have to make it home to let him out.
I have to feed him and walk him. With everything I do, I have to take him into
consideration.

When I get into the elevator, my image
catches my eye.

I pause. My chest tightens.

Only eight weeks ago I looked at this
same girl. Before my eyes, I can already see a difference the eight weeks has
made in my life.

“I told you.” I remind the image of how
this girl wasn’t come back the same. Only this time, my image isn’t sad or
regretting the challenge.

Henry is a little hesitant from the
zooming taxis. I love this city, but a tug for the quiet streets of Hyde Park
makes me a little homesick.

How could it be? I shake the notion out
of my head. There’s no way I’m longing to go back to the place I’ve spent my
entire life trying to get out of.

Or am I?

I walk Henry around the block and decide
to run by myself and not with the group.

I start uptown, leaving the group’s normal
route opposite me. I don’t want to risk running into them. There’s more on my
plate than Bo, and at this point, I need to stay away from him.

Of course there is no way I want to go
back to my old life.

Shoo, I laugh out loud. I must’ve had a
momentary lapse in judgment or early onset of Alzheimer’s. Really? Have I
forgotten Aunt Grace’s and Uncle Jimmy’s last episode at the race track? The
further away I am from them, the better.

This past week made me realize that if
beading is going to pay off, I’m going to have to spend more time doing it. Not
just nights and weekends. As much as I hate to think about my life without
Gucci being in it, it’s a real possibility. Something I need to discuss with
the girls over a few drinks.

I make a point to run past Addicted to
the Bean. I want to grab a cup and head home to bead for the rest of the
afternoon, but I take a little detour behind the coffee house to hide from my
running group heading right towards me.

I’d know that Saturday shirt from
anywhere!

My lungs expand with every shallow
breath I take hiding behind the dumpster. I don’t make a peep. As they pass, I
squint, focusing on the back of Bo’s head.

“Yep.” I whisper to myself, “he still
has a beautiful head.”

Don’t, Hallie! Stop it right now!
I stamp my feet
to the ground because my clear head is cloudy. Again.

My mood quickly changes when I get home.

Lucy  expresses some interest in
learning to bead and today will be as good a time as any, with neither of us
having plans. We can sit on the balcony watching old movies just like old
times. Today, we choose
That Touch of Mink
.

Lucy takes to beading like a duck to
water, and we spend the day refocusing on our friendship. We are so focused, in
fact, that I leave my phone turned off.

Chapter
Forty-Two

“Hello.” Georgia opens the door to let
us in for girls’ night.

“Dude, you are huge.” I pat my god baby
in Georgia’s belly. “The baby, not you.”

“Get in here.” She pulls me in. “You’re
not going to believe what I’ve got to tell you.”

We find Prudence in the family room
twirling her finger around one of her curls.

“I say its pregnancy hormones.” Prudence
already made Cosmos for everyone and stands up to hand them out. “Dan said
she’s been crazy all day with news and won’t tell him either.” Prudence is
referring to Georgia’s husband.

“It’s not pregnancy hormones. It’s
excitement for all of us. This is going to change the course of your life.” She
points directly at me with the sternest face I’ve ever seen.

Georgia’s face reminds me of Inas, the
voodoo lady.

“Georgia honey.” I sit down next to her
on the couch, and try to stay calm.“You’re scaring me.”

I’m uneasy and there’s a pit in my
stomach. Whatever she’s talking about has to do with me. Does it have to do
with Bo?

“What? What’s going to change my life?”
I question her.

She paces back and forth in her family
room. “I’ve had such good response for the new Gucci ad in Fit Pregnancy.” She
doesn’t look at me or any of the other girls. “They love the jewelry and a few
of the girls wants to order some bracelets.” She nods towards me.

“
Okay
, great.” My lip flinches.
“Is that it? Is that the big news?”

“I’m not done.” She rubs her belly and
quits me with her hand, “One of the girls took the ad home. Her sister works
for Harpo magazine. She took the ad to work to show off your jewelry and O
Magazine wants to feature your bracelets in ‘my favorite things’ O magazine in
December!”

“What? What!” I scream, jumping up and
down.

My life just took a turn, not a nice
sweet curve, but a big V curve going 200 mph.

Suddenly I’m scared and feel like
throwing up.

“What?” Georgia puts her arms around me.
“This is what you need to get on the map with your jewelry.”

“I don’t know.” I rub my hands together
finding it hard to find the words to describe my feelings. “It’s real now. I’m
scared.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Prudence stands up and
puts her arms around me and Georgia.

“You have us.” Lucy stands up with the
vodka bottle. “And Mr. Goose.”

With a few more details and a couple
shots, we start talking about the first trip we are going to take on my
newfound money. It’s funny how life works. I guess this is what bittersweet
means. Bitter in the love department, but super duper sweet in the success
department.

Chapter
Forty-Three

Before Lucy and I drove back to
Cincinnati, the girls help finish another one hundred on our O Magazine high.
Even though we were a little tipsy, the bracelets turned out great.

Monk’s questions have been playing over
and over in my head.
Are you ready to take it to the next level or is it
just a fun hobby?

I’m ready.

The next level isn’t going to be a
hobby, nor will it be as much fun. It’ll a job and I’m going to have to treat
it as such. What’s going to happen when the Fit Pregnancy ad hits or if and
when O magazine calls me? Am I up for the task to make more, if people want
more? And, oh, God, what if they don’t want more? What if these ads hit and
nobody calls?

I’m going to have to take a leap of
faith. A big leap.

The bead shipment is stacked up next to
the door when we pull up from our fabulous weekend in Chicago. Seeing Beadnicks
and my tax ID on the labels feel good, real good. The drive home gave me time
to think about my future. I want to bead, I want to be successful at it, and
now I’m on my way.

I have three weeks left on my Gucci
contract. I have five days to ship more than four hundred pieces of jewelry to
Chicago by week’s end. And now, I have Aunt Grace calling.

“Hi, Aunt Grace.” I start to open
another package of beads.

“You are psychic just like your…”

I interrupt her.

“My mother?” I haven’t talked to Aunt
Grace since the entire horse-racing crap. I only answer out of obligation.

“I knew you were special when you were
born. You’re gonna live a long life just like me.”

“No, God, please don’t do that to me.”
That will be a really cruel joke on me. Alone, no kids, no cats, but beads.
Lots and lots of beads.

“Now you know I wouldn’t call unless I
need you.” I sit in silence waiting for her to blurt out whatever she has to
spring on me.

“Are you still mad about the horse
thingy with Jimmy? Because if you are, I can let you go.” Aunt Grace waits for
my answer and when I don’t give one she continues. “Or you can forgive him? He
is
family, you know.”

I do know! Family that will screw you
and your friends out of thousands of dollars and if that isn’t enough, embarrass
the shit right out of you by climbing a flagpole and kissing the eagle at the
top on the nose.
That’s what I know!

“No, I’m not mad. I’m trying to work on
something.” I lie, because she can’t help Uncle Jimmy’s actions. “You have my
full attention. What’s your favor?”

“We have these bugs,” she continues,
“and the state is going to condemn our building if we don’t get it taken care
of.”

No? Really?
Tell me
something I don’t know.  Then I cringe. She’s going to ask me for money. It
would be better if they bomb the place.

“How much?” I brace myself against my
table.

“We don’t need money. We need a place to
stay for a couple nights.”

STOP! I. WILL. GIVE. MONEY.

I’ve got it. I’ll put them up in a
hotel. I’ve got a little more money left on my Visa. It’s a good cause,
right
?

“The Cincinnatian is close to you. What
about staying there?” I’m a genius, happy and I just dodged a bullet. It might
be the most expensive hotel in downtown, but well worth it in this case.

“I don’t think you understand. We don’t
want to stay with strangers. We want to stay at your house for a couple days.”

I have to sit down. I am, for sure,
going to pass out.

She keeps rambling and sputtering words
I can’t comprehend in my current state of mind. “Hallie? Dear?”