“You have no idea how unfair it is that I can't take advantage of this,” he said.
I slapped his chest playfully. “Unfair? Unfair is making me wait for you like this.”
He put his finger to his lips. “No lock on the door. We can't do this here.”
I slapped his chest again. “Then why'd you bring me in here!?” I had a wry smile on my face so he knew I wasn't really mad.
He smiled back. “Because it was unfair of you to keep teasing me.” Before I could respond, he leaned back in and gave me another smoldering kiss. He leaned back and pulled away, then turned toward a high shelf. He handed me two bottles of Irish whiskey. “Carry these up to Anne and tell her to hide them for now.”
I nodded, then turned around to open the door. He spoke up one last time. “Oh, and Allie?”
I turned and looked at him.
“If you keep teasing me for the rest of the night, then I'll have to punish you later.”
I began to get wet just thinking about what kind of “punishment” he could have waiting for me.
***
I walked out of the closet just as another familiar face was walking into the shop. James' secretary from his office, Lauren, was walking in from the cold. As soon as she saw me, she averted her eyes, quickly hurrying toward the register. I knew why, of course. She was the only other person who knew that James and I had fucked. Fortunately for me, she was under a non-disclosure agreement, forced under the power of law not to reveal anything she heard or saw.
Like Audrey, another person forced to keep secrets for James, I thought.
I walked up to Anne, still behind the counter, and showed her the bottles. She seemed to know to put them away discretely without me saying anything, then gave me a wink. Lauren was in line and looked up, and I gave a little wave. She gave an awkward little wave back. Just then, James came out of the same store room that she had just seen me come out of, carrying two more bottles of whiskey. Lauren quickly put her hand back down and looked at the floor.
Poor girl, I thought. She thinks she's witnessing something super fucked up, and she can't say a thing. I didn't even know if she knew that we weren't really brother and sister.
I walked back around. The coffee shop was filling up fast, so I knew I had to claim a seat quickly. James had been tuning his guitar on the left side of the stage and was already plugged into an amp, so I knew that he'd be over there. Luckily, there was one on the far left in the third row, and I snatched it up. The concert wasn't set to start for another 30 minutes or so, so I pulled out my phone and began to look over myFace.
Suddenly, I received an email from Tessa.
Did you talk to him yet?
I knew she was just looking out for me, but I also knew that I could look out for myself. Well, most of the time anyway. James had saved me from a guy named Dennis who didn't know that “no means no” just the other day. Still, I'd be fine for now. I emailed her back.
Not yet. His concert is going to start in a few minutes, then there's a party back at his place.
Tessa replied back almost immediately.
Hold onto your drink all night.
Now that was an eye-roll inducing statement. Did she think that James had roofied Audrey now? That was pretty unfair. I emailed her back as quickly as I could.
I'll let you know how it went.
Then I turned off my phone. I didn't need to hear any more from her after that. By this point, James was back on stage, tuning his guitar again. I expected him to occasionally look down at me, but he was completely engrossed in that guitar.
It kind of reminded me of the single-mindedness with which he pursued his business. Oblivious to the world around him, he made deals for the simple joy of making them. Now, he was oblivious once again to the world happening around him, concentrating only on the problem in front of him. I could tell he was enjoying it, that he took joy in making his guitar sound perfect. I felt like it gave me an insight into his soul.
A guy walked out on stage. I had seen him before, working on the sound system. What was his name? Ryan. He looked more confident now than he had been when James was yelling at him about his little sister's karaoke machine. His short hair was a sandy blonde, he had bolts in his ears, and I could see tattoos on his body. He looked like the embodiment of a bad boy rocker. It seemed a little strange, but he was holding a large reusable grocery bag.
He stepped to the mic, then looked at James. James nodded at him. Ryan smiled and grabbed the mic. “Who's ready for Lefty and the Sharks?”
A cheer came up from the crowd. It was hardly a huge crowd, maybe sixty or seventy people, but they filled this half of the coffee shop to the brim. However, a few of them were quite enthusiastic, sending a few hoots and hollers up to the band.
A drummer sat down at his set, and another guy had a bass guitar. Ryan didn't have a guitar, but I guessed he was going to be doing the singing tonight.