Deadly Dosage (36 page)

     “You
are?” Swell. “Great, Brandi. How about that pizza?” I started the oven and
checked my phone for messages. Autumn called five times wondering where the
heck I was. The last call she sounded panic stricken. I’d call her back while
the pizza was baking. One more message. Sam reminding me about breakfast
tomorrow morning.

     Fifteen
minutes earlier, when I was in Lloyd’s arms, I was ready to call it quits
forever with Sam. Now, I wasn’t so sure. I needed my head examined.

Chapter 41

Friday, February 24th

I heard
the beeping and ran out the door. Wouldn’t do well for Brandi to see me
sneaking off with Sam after comforting her last night. I don’t know why I felt
guilty. She took him away from me first.

Sam waved when he saw me and rolled down the window on the
drivers’ side. I walked over and leaned in. “Morning. So you want me to follow
you back to your place or what?”

“Yeah. Then I’ll hop in your car. Just pull up in front of
the restaurant.”

“Okay.” I beeped my car open and jumped in. Windshield was frosty,
so I turned on the heater
and
defroster,
grabbed the ice scraper and hopped back out.

Now here’s the big difference between Sam and Lloyd. Sam
listened to the radio as I scraped the windshield. Lloyd would have had me wait
in his warm car while he scraped my windshield. I had to question my sanity for
even entertaining the thought of choosing Sam over Lloyd.

I jumped back into my car and pulled out. No need to follow
Sam, as I knew the route by heart. A couple of songs on the radio and I was
waiting for Sam in front of the restaurant as he pulled his truck in his
parking space.

When I saw him coming, I climbed over into the passenger
seat. Sam was the type of guy that always wanted to drive, which suited me just
fine. I hated dealing with morning traffic.

“So, where are we going for breakfast?” I asked, in the mood
for eggs.

He handed me a bag and a McDonald’s coffee and gave me a
quick kiss. I opened the bag. Egg McMuffin and hash browns. Think he would have
remembered I preferred their scrambled eggs.

“Where’s yours?”

“I ate on the way over. There’s some cream and sugar in the
bag for your coffee.”

“Thanks. Hate to sound ungrateful, but I don’t know if this
qualifies as taking me out for breakfast.”

“Did you pay for it?”

“No.”

“Then I guess I took you out.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know I don’t start work for another
hour.”

     “Sorry,
but I need to drop you off so I can get to work.”

     “You
don’t start until eight. What’s the hurry?”

     “Big
project. Have to work overtime.”

     “Oh.”

     He
reached over and helped himself to a sip of my coffee. “Disappointed?”

     “Well,
yeah. But I understand.”

     “Tried
to call last night to tell you. You never returned my call.”

     “Sorry.
Brandi needed cheering up. Seems you broke up with her.”

“No point dating someone I’m not attracted to just to be a
nuisance to you.”

     “That
all?”

     “You
know the rest of the story. Eat your food before it gets cold.”

    
“So what have you been up to? Just working
a lot?”

     He
glanced over at me. “No. I have fun too.”

     “With
whom?” I asked, crunching on a hash brown patty.

     “You,”
he said glancing at me.

     “I
only saw you Tuesday, and that wasn’t planned.” I took a drink of coffee. “And
you
finished that night with Brandi, not
I.” Not that I could have gone anywhere with him, since I was with Lloyd every
day but Tuesday. But he could have at least tried to see me, right?  

     He
slowly smiled. “Good, you missed me.”

     Being
with Lloyd every day, I didn’t have time to miss Sam. Perhaps Lloyd had his own
agenda. Smart man.

     I
pulled apart my Egg McMuffin and ate the inside with my fingers. Separately I
could stomach it, but not like a sandwich. “So what are you doing tonight?”

     He
pulled into Ageless Grace’s parking lot and drove up to the door. “Here we
are.” He leaned over and French kissed me. “Mmm…you taste like coffee. Be good.
I’ll call you tomorrow.”

     Patiently,
he waited for me to leave. No hug, no words of affection, no nothing. I took my
coffee and opened the door. “Thanks. Bye, Sam.”

I climbed out and closed the door. He took off before I even
opened the front door. I didn’t know what was going on with him but for sure,
it was going to bother me the rest of the day.

The
workday went quickly, though my thoughts kept returning to Sam’s behavior. In
the past, we never saw each other more than four days a week. Towards the end
of our relationship, it was down to two days a week. We both had friends and
the typical junk you have to do when you’re not working like shopping and
laundry. But for him to reduce our dating to one night a week after proclaiming
his love for me was odd. Lloyd’s behavior seemed more in line with a guy that
was in love.

     Oh,
well, it was almost drink-thirty and I was glad the workweek was over. I got up
and went to punch out. 

     “Hey,
sunshine,” Gus said as I entered the hallway. “Heard you and Donna are going
out tonight. Where are you going?”

     “Oh,
probably start at Walker’s Point around seven and work our way up to the pubs
on Brady Street.”

      “Maybe
I’ll see you guys there.”

     “Sure,
we’ll buy you a drink. Still like those Pickled Ruski’s?”

     “Nah.
Now I like a Perplexed Pimp.”

     “Great.
Not exactly what I want to order. Most bartenders aren’t up on your drink
names.”

     “I’ll
order it. You can pay.”

     “Sounds
expensive. I better stop at the ATM.”

     “Don’t
worry, I’ll put out.”

     “Fine.
I’ll fix you up with Brandi. Just don’t let her take you back to my place.”

     He
laughed. “We’ll do it in the car and save a trip.”

     I
punched out and returned my card to its slot. “We’ll look for you.” I waved
goodbye and went in search of Donna.

     A
family member was still in her office, so I went back to mine and played a game
of FreeCell on the computer. Ten minutes later, she stopped in.

     “Ready?
Did you bring everything you needed?”

     “All
in my car. Come on. Let’s get out before another family member tags me.”

     We
walked out to her car quickly. I waited for a moment for her to open my door,
so used to Lloyd doing it for me. When she looked at me from the driver’s seat,
I realized what I was doing and let myself in.

     “Remember
how to get to my place?” I asked. It had been a while since she had been over.
Usually when Sam and I met her and Chuck, we went to either Sam’s or Chuck’s
apartment.

     “I
think so. Wonder what happened to that double date Sam initially arranged?” She
scanned the radio for some tunes.

     “Beats
me. He’s got something going on tonight. Won’t tell me.”

     “Hmm.
What time is Autumn coming?”

     “She
should be coming around five straight from work.” I knocked her hand away from
the radio and tuned it in. “Did I tell you Brandi invited herself along?”

     “Are
you serious? Well, maybe she’ll pick up someone halfway through the night.
Otherwise we could ditch her somewhere.”

     “Yeah.
Gus might meet us at Walker’s Point.”

     “Good.
He owes me five bucks. Do you know I caught him smoking a joint in the boiler
room?’

     “What
were you doing in the boiler room?”

     “My
pen dropped and slide under the door.”

     “Likely
story.”

     “Okay,
I was hiding from The Hawk. She wanted me to work late and I wanted to go home.
So when I saw her coming out of her office, I ducked in.”

     “Did
it work?”

     “Yeah,
but I swear I was high by the time I left. Gus was rambling on about
overthrowing the government with a gigantic water gun.”

     “That’d
be funny,” I laughed.

     She
rolled her eyes. For some reason, Gus amused me. I made a mental note to
remember the boiler room for impromptu breaks.

     “Next
turn,” I prompted Donna. “First parking lot, park anywhere, nothing is
assigned.”

Two hours
later Donna and I were ready and waiting on Autumn and Brandi to finish their
hair. Donna wore a casual, long gray sweater over black leggings with flats;
she didn’t want to appear too tall. Autumn wore an olive green military style
jacket with skinny jeans and heeled, brown leather boots. She looked like she
belonged in an ad for Levis. Brandi dressed in my short, stretchy, black pencil
skirt with a low cut white blouse and four-inch heels. Total pickup outfit.
Like Autumn, I wore skinny jeans and accompanied them with short cuffed, black
boots, a white T-shirt, and a long navy sweater.

     “Aren’t
you ready yet,” I complained. “I’m starving!”

     “One
sec,” Autumn hollered.

     “You
said that an hour ago,” Donna shouted back.

     “Fine.
Brandi, ready?”

     “Sure.
Are you sure I don’t look fat in this?”

     “She
looks like a bloated cow squished into that outfit of yours,” Donna whispered
to me.

     “You
look fine,” I answered. “Let’s go!”

Chapter
42

After a
leisurely Italian meal, we hit the first pub at seven- twelve. We managed to
get a table not far from the bar. Still early, we had no problem ordering
drinks from a waitress. I decided I’d stay away from the margaritas tonight, so
I ordered a beer. Brandi’s tastes switched from top shelf to beer, since she
was paying her own tab. I looked around for Gus, and was disappointed not to
see him.

     “Hey
is Chuck showing up later,” I asked Donna.

     “No.
Hanging out with the guys after bowling. Fine with me. I can’t check out tight
bums with him around.”

     “Butt
fetish,” I explained to Autumn. She nodded. “Is Alan stopping by?”

     “No.
Told me to have fun—not too much.”

     “It’s
kind of dead here. I hope it picks up,” Brandi wailed.

One hour
later the place was filling up at a steady pace. If we wanted drinks now, we’d
have to go to the bar and flash money or tits at the bartender.

“Hey, Sunny, isn't that Sam over at the bar?” she said in my
ear. “Looks like his butt.”

I followed Donna's line of sight and sure enough, he was
trying to get the bartender's attention. His usual group of tag-along friends
seemed to be missing. “That’s his butt. Don't see Chuck or anyone. I'm going to
ask him to buy me a drink.”

“You better not ditch us,” warned Donna.

“When have I ever ditched you?” I asked innocently. Donna
opened her mouth to speak, so I stopped her. “Hey, that wasn't until the end of
the night.”

I sashayed over to the bar next to Sam and placed my hand on
his butt. “Hey handsome, buy a lady a drink?”

He turned with a wide smile that vanished when
he recognized me. “Sunny,” He looked over my head and did a quick scan of
the immediate area. “What are you doing here?”

“Bar hopping with Donna and Autumn, and unfortunately,
Brandi. You out with friends? I didn’t see Chuck or anyone.”

“They’re
not meeting me here.”

“All
by yourself? You can join us if you want.”

“Thanks,
but I’m not alone.”

“Oh?”
I looked around.

The
bartender placed one fancy, tall cocktail with extra cherries on the bar next
to a bottle of beer. Sam pulled out a twenty. “Hold on,” he said to him. “What
can I get for you, Sunny?”

“Miller
Light,” I replied.

The
bartender placed the bottle of beer down and Sam handed it to me. “She needs a
glass,” he said as the bartender moved away.

“Thanks.”
Wow. He actually remembered the glass. Occasionally he must pay attention to
what I want.

“Don’t
mention it.”

 The
bartender handed me a glass and Sam grabbed the cocktail glass and beer bottle.

“Have fun,” he winked and disappeared into the crowded room,
leaving me standing there like a rejected barfly.

I walked back to the table to talk to
Autumn. “That was weird,” I said.

“What’s
weird?” Autumn questioned.

“What
are you talking about?” Donna leaned over.

Brandi
left for the restroom, so I was free to talk loudly.

“Sam.
He’s here with someone I’m betting is a girl.”

“So
what, let it go, Sunny,” Donna said. “I thought you were gaga for Lloyd.”

“I
am. But I’m still curious,” I said defensively. “Autumn, help me find them.”

“It’s
no use, Donna. We better find him. Sunny won’t let this drop.”

“Hey,
it’s only fair. Sam knows what Lloyd looks like.”

“She’s
got a point,” Autumn said.

“Okay.
What about the ditz? We don’t want her tagging along,” said Donna.

“We
need to scope out some guys. Then we can all go over and act interested, ask
them to dance so we can search from the dance floor. Brandi will automatically
attach herself to one of them, so she shouldn’t be a problem,” I said
logically.

“That
might work,” Autumn said. “Hope none of Alan’s friends are here. That’s all I
need.”

“Is
Alan the jealous type?” I asked her.

“No,
but he’s the suspicious type. Comes with being a detective.” She sighed. “Okay,
look for a group of guys," said Autumn. “Preferably three or four, like
us.”