Colorado 01 The Gamble (19 page)

“It’s a long story.”

“We got time.”

“Mins,” Becca whispered.

“No, it’s okay,” I said but I didn’t know
why I said it since it wasn’t.

Then suddenly it was.

And over beer and pizza, I found myself
telling two twenty-four year old girls (I’d found out their ages)
everything about my life, Niles, Charlie, my timeout adventure in
the mountains and my e-mail.

I did not, however, tell them about Max.

When I stopped speaking and grabbed
another slice of pizza, Becca breathed, “Wow, you’re goin’
through
a
lot
.”

“Yes, that’s about it, wow,” I whispered
then bit into my pizza.

“So, you aren’t with this Niles anymore?”
Mindy asked.

I chewed, swallowed and licked my lips.

Then I whispered, “I don’t think I’ve been
with him for awhile.”

Then I suddenly felt tears hit my eyes.

“Oh, Nina,” Mindy whispered back, her
fingers wrapping around my wrist.

My neck twisted and I dropped my slice,
Mindy’s hand went away and I took a sip of beer.

Then I shared, “You know, the funny thing
is, that part doesn’t hurt. Losing him, not at all.” My voice
dropped and my eyes went between them both as I asked, “Does that
make me a bad person?”

“No,” Becca said instantly.

“I don’t think he’s been with you for awhile
either,” Mindy said and went on, “by the sounds of it.”

I nodded my head and told her. “I’m just sad
because I care about him and I don’t want him to hurt.”

“Not sure he’ll hurt,” Becca muttered and I
looked at her.

“Sorry?”

Becca pressed her lips together, glanced at
Mindy then said to me, “He seems pretty clueless. Don’t want to
sound like a bitch or anything, but, way it sounds, not sure he’ll
even notice you’re gone.”

I had to admit, this idea had merit
considering I’d sent that e-mail yesterday, Niles checked his
e-mail frequently and I hadn’t heard from him at all. I did tell
him I’d call in a few days but I’d also broken up with him. Like
Max had said, a man cares, he phones.

And even though I said I’d call in a few
days, if Niles cared I broke up with him, he’d phone, my offer to
call in a few days be damned.

Ergo, it seemed Becca was right.

Nevertheless, I started, “He’s just –”

“Clueless,” Mindy said firmly.

“But –”

“
Listen, Nina,” Becca cut in, “you’re
gorgeous, you’re classy, you’re sweet, you dress
awesome.
” She
glanced again at Mindy then went on with a sageness that was beyond
her years. “See it all the time, a good woman settles for somethin’
that feels good, in your case, it felt safe, but it ain’t right.
This Niles guy might be a nice guy, but he ain’t right. It’s good
you realized it before it was too late.”

She’s right,
Charlie said into my head and my back went
straight.

“I saw you look at me,” Mindy said to Becca
and she looked somewhat peeved so I couldn’t focus on the fact that
Charlie was in my head again; or on what they’d both just said to
me; or on the fact that it made sense and I felt relief, deep down,
to have two twenty-four year old girls I didn’t know all that well
assuring me I was doing the right thing. Instead, I needed to focus
on Mindy and Becca.

“I did,” Becca said honestly to Mindy.

“Damon’s just havin’ a rough time,” Mindy
told her.

“Yeah, you’ve said that, like, a million
times,” Becca said back.

“Well, that’s ‘cause he is,” Mindy
retorted.

“Girls,” I waded in.

They ignored me. “For Nina, this Niles guy,
he’s boring and clueless and,” she looked at me, “Nina and Niles?
That doesn’t sound too good. Now, Nina and Max…” she grinned. “that
goes great together.”

“Becca,” I said but she looked back to
Mindy.

“So she said yes because she felt safe. Now
she realizes safe ain’t all that. For you, Damon is hot and he’s…
well, that’s about all he’s got, bein’ hot. Mostly, he’s a
jerk.”

“He isn’t a jerk,” Mindy returned.

Becca looked at me. “He’s a jerk.”

I didn’t know if it was the right thing to
do but I decided to add, “Max doesn’t seem to care much for
him.”

“Max never likes my boyfriends, neither does
Brody,” Mindy said to me.

“Maybe because they’re all jerks?” Becca
suggested.

“They aren’t all jerks,” Mindy replied.

Becca looked back at me. “All hot. All
jerks.”

“Looks aren’t everything,” I advised
Mindy

“Easy for you to say,” Mindy muttered.
“You’ve got Max. He’s the hottest of the hot.”

She had that right.

“You’ll find um… hot and nice,” I
encouraged, though I wasn’t certain I should. It was my experience
that those two didn’t go very well together. Niles was nothing to
sneeze at. In fact, he was quite good-looking if not powerfully
built and amazingly attractive. He was also nice. He was just…

Clueless.

“
Easy for you to say again,” Mindy said to
me. “You’ve got Max, he’s hot
and
nice.”

I suspected she had that right too, though
the jury was still out on that one.

“Mindy –” I started and she cut me off but
before she did I noticed her color had gone high, the light had
gone out of her eyes and her shoulders had slumped.

I guessed this was all indicative of a “bad
moment” coming on.

“Can we not talk about this?” Mindy asked
and I knew from the dead tone of her voice that I was right.

“Girl –” Becca began but Mindy cut her off
too.

“I asked, can we not talk about this?”

I looked at Becca who was looking at me. I
tipped my head at Mindy and Becca shrugged.

“All right, darling, we’ll not talk about
this,” I said to Mindy.

“I need a drink,” Mindy said back. “Let’s go
to The Dog.”

“We’re drinking here,” I reminded her.

“The Dog’s more fun,” Mindy told me.

I was supposed to be back at the Mindy-less
A-Frame after dinner to meet Max. Max and his hands and his mouth
and his tongue and his muscled back and amazing chest and
queen-sized bed.

“I could go to The Dog,” I decided.

“Brill!” Becca exclaimed. “My shift starts
in half an hour, we’ll get you at one of my tables, we’ll carry on
girlie time even when I’m workin’.”

“I need to call Max,” I told them, digging
in my bag, looking for my phone. “Do either of you have his
number?”

“Sure,” Mindy said but I was still
digging.

Then I realized I’d left my phone on Max’s
nightstand. And Niles might have called while Max was at home.

Drat!

I dropped my purse to hang on the chair and
turned to the table. “Actually, I forgot my phone.”

Mindy’s thumb was moving on her phone, she
beeped it and handed it to me. “Use mine, should be ringing.”

I took it, glanced at them both and
muttered, “Excuse me,” before I got up and walked from the table
the short distance to the lobby.

“Yeah?” Max answered.

“Max?”

“Duchess?”

“Yes.”

“Everything okay?”

“Um… we’re going to The Dog.”

There was a moment of silence, loaded
silence.

Then, “What?”

“We had a somewhat… difficult conversation
at dinner. Mindy needs a drink.”

“Mindy’s drivin’ and she’s supposed to be
drivin’ you up here, she doesn’t need a drink.”

“Trust me, Max, I think she needs a
drink.”

He was quiet a second then his voice was
soft when he asked, “That bad?”

“Not really,” I answered honestly, “just
that, if we don’t do evasive maneuvering, it might get there.”

“I need to come down?”

All right, maybe he
was
nice.

“I’ll call you if I think you should.”

“All right, Duchess,” he replied, “and
speakin’ of callin’. Your phone’s here.” I held my breath and he
went on. “You got a coupla calls. The display says they’re from
your Mom.”

“Oh.”

Mom. She knew I was here. I was supposed to
call her and talk through the Niles situation. With all that went
on, I forgot.

“You want me to answer, she calls again,
give her Mindy’s number?” Max offered.

“No, that’s okay, I’ll call her
tomorrow.”

“Whatever you want, honey.”

Yes, evidence was clearly suggesting Max was
nice.

“I better go.”

“Yeah, you go, the new plan is you have fun,
Mindy has fun, I’ll come down to pick you both up ‘round eleven.
That enough time for evasive maneuvering?”

The evidence was becoming overwhelming.

“You don’t need to do that. I’ll stay sober
and drive Mindy home.”

“How’ll you get here?”

“Well, I could stay with Mindy and Becca and
maybe one of them will bring me back tomorrow morning.”

His voice was different, firm to the point
of being solid when he stated, “Babe, that’s not gonna happen.”

“Max –”

“See you at eleven.”

“Max –”

“Be good.”

“Max!”

Wasted effort to say his name, he hung
up.

I slid Mindy’s phone closed and walked back
to the table.

“Max has a new plan,” I announced when they
both looked at me, I sat down and I looked at Mindy. “He wants us
to have fun. He’s designated driver, picking us up at eleven.”

“Killer!” Becca cried.

“Cool!” Mindy cried at the same time.

I smiled at them genuinely this time because
really, if I got down to it, spending time with them, shopping at
great shops, eating delicious buffalo burgers, snowmobiling, gazing
at beautiful vistas, meeting Cotton and having him take my photo
with Max, getting my head sorted about Niles which was a relief
even if it was a sad one, my Colorado adventure might have started
out terrible and was trundling along the road of deeply confusing
but still, it wasn’t turning out half bad.

* * * * *

“Rat-arsed!” Arlene yelled through a guffaw.
“That’s just screwy.”

“Well then, what does shitfaced really
mean?” I returned.

She considered this, head tipped to the side
then grinned somewhat crookedly and proclaimed, “You got me
there.”

“Ha!” I cried and she and I both
laughed.

I was right when we left the pizza place. My
Colorado adventure wasn’t turning out half bad and it was getting
better.

The Dog was
fun
. It was well off the main drag out in the middle of
nowhere. You had to know it was there to find it which meant it was
almost entirely populated by locals.

And it was
populated
. Even for a Thursday it was busy, nearly
jam-packed. The music was loud and the beer was cold. It was
great
.

Arlene, my taxi nemesis, had hit Mindy and
my table around forty-five minutes after we arrived. She introduced
herself and without invitation sat herself down at a stool at our
small, high, round table. She was older than me I guessed by about
fifteen years or so. She was short, very round but had the
daintiest feet and hands I’d ever seen. She had close cropped hair
that looked permed and it was colored a peculiar shade of peach
that I thought was supposed to be strawberry blonde but missed the
mark by quite a bit.

And she was hilarious.

“What other words do they have?” Mindy
asked, leaning into me.

I was educating them on English English
versus American English, I’d been doing this awhile and they
thought it was
fascinating.

“Um…” I mumbled, sucking back more beer, of
which I’d lost count how many I’d had, I swallowed, dropped my hand
with bottle to the table and stated, “Rubbish.”

“Trash, you said that one already,” Arlene
told me.

“Bunged up!” I cried.

“What?” Mindy giggled.

“Means you have a stuffy nose.”

“Love it! Bunged up!” Arlene said on a near
shout.

“They also say ‘head full of cold’ when
you’ve got a cold,” I shared and then carried on. “Pants are
underwear, trousers are pants. Vests are called waistcoats, tank
tops are called vests and robes are called dressing gowns!”

“We speak the same language at all?” Arlene
asked and I smiled at her.

“
Not much,” I answered. “But it works
anyway, though never, but never, tell someone you were
rear-ended.
Ever,
” I
advised. “They don’t say that but what they
think
when
you
say
it is very
rude
because
they aren’t thinking of
cars at all
.”

We all laughed uproariously as if this was
the height of comedy.

“I like you,” Arlene declared, grinning
broadly. “Never thought I’d say this in my lifetime but I may even
like you better than I liked Anna and she was a hoot.”

“Anna?” I asked, wiping a tear of laughter
from under my eye.

“Max’s wife,” Arlene replied.

I stopped laughing, her words hitting me
like I was a cartoon character standing at the bottom of the cliff
and the anvil fell on my head.

I didn’t get the chance to crawl out from
under because, shockingly, Mindy was suddenly yanked violently from
the table.

“Hey!” Arlene exclaimed, hopping off her
stool and I turned.

A tall, good-looking, dark-haired boy-man
with scarily bulging biceps that did not look attractively
powerful, just scary, had his fingers wrapped tight around Mindy’s
upper arm.

“Big, bad Max moved you out today, did he?”
he sneered in Mindy’s face, giving her a shake.

I hopped off my stool too as Arlene rounded
on Mindy and the man.

“Damon, leave her be,” Arlene ordered.