Chapter Fifteen
Braxton
“You know what’s weird and a little sad?” I asked the woman. “I’ve been seeing you all over Vegas this weekend, and I still don’t even know your name.”
“It’s Jaimie. Jaimie with two I’s.” She sat absently scraping a ring against her martini glass, her eyes traveling the length of the bar as though desperate for a distraction.
Now that we were both sitting down, I was finally able to get a good look at her. She was wearing what might have been a cardigan or might have been a kimono over a white blouse and a pair of denim shorts that accentuated her thick legs. It was chilly in the bar, and goosebumps had formed on the front of her thighs.
I had been feeling unusually brave all night, like I could do whatever I wanted and prosper at it. “Is it weird that I find you kind of really attractive right now?” I asked.
“Why would that be weird?” asked Jaimie, sounding a little insulted.
“I don’t know. You’re just not the sort of girl I normally go for. You’re—” Sensing that I was digging myself into a hole, I decided to change course. “…so much smarter than any girl I’ve had the pleasure of dating.”
“We’ve known each other for all of about ten minutes,” said Jaimie, clearly annoyed. “I could think Rome is the capital of Narnia for all you know.”
This conversation wasn’t going at all like I had wanted it to. “I—”
“Is it because of the glasses? Did you assume I was smart because I’m wearing my reading glasses?”
“I’m sure it helped.”
“You boys are all the same.” She raised her glass as though offering a toast. “You watch porn with skinny girls who are supposedly plus-sized. You think a nerd is someone who dresses in a schoolgirl uniform and wears pigtails. But the woman isn’t even given a voice. She can’t signal her intelligence through her words because she isn’t allowed to use words. She’s just there to fuck a guy on film. Men are the worst, I swear.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.” I was really beginning to regret having come over here.
“No, you’re not,” said Jaimie in a resentful tone, eyes glinting dangerously. “If you were a decent guy you’d never have gotten involved in MMA. I hate this job, and I hate everyone involved with it.”
She was speaking loudly enough now that people were turning to look from across the room. A couple bearded men covered in tattoos, one of them bearing a slight resemblance to my brother Curtis, glared in annoyance from a booth by the door.
A life-sized cardboard cutout of Tanya Tucker had recently been knocked over and now lay flat on its face. The bartender emerged from behind the bar to pick it up. Passing me on his way back by, he said low in my ear, “If the two of you can’t keep it down, you’ll need to find somewhere else to hang out tonight.”
Turning to Jaimie, I asked, “Do you want to go sit by the pool?”
Jaimie frowned as though sniffing something unpleasant. “When I looked out there an hour ago, there was a young woman making out with a fat old man. I’ll probably be seeing that image in my dreams tonight.”
“He probably took her back to his room,” I replied. “I bet the pool is empty now.”
“I bet it’s closed,” said Jaimie. But even so, she got up and followed me outside onto the patio.
We knelt down at the edge of the pool and dipped our feet into the cool water. It was a warm night, and if I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine I was lying in bed at my parents’ house with the windows open. The illusion was only dispelled by the faint sound of sirens and loud rock music in the distance.
“You doing okay?” I asked her.
“Yes. No. I don’t know,” said Jaimie. “I wish you would stop asking me that.”
“That’s the first time I’ve asked you, but whatever.”
“And I wish you would stop correcting me, God!” She folded her arms over her chest, looking petulant and, somehow, adorable. “What does a girl have to do to get you boys to leave her alone?”
But I wasn’t fooled by her declarations of hatred. She had followed me out here: on some level, she must have been enjoying my company.
“You want to know a secret?” I asked her.
“Hmmm?” she said noncommittally.
“Sometimes I don’t particularly care for other MMA guys, either.”
“Yeah? They’re the worst, aren’t they?”
“They are,” I said. “The worst guys in the world.”
It was hard to tell whether she believed me or not—even I wasn’t sure how sincere I was being—but at least I had gotten her attention.
Jaimie leaned back and dipped her toes into the water. “Why are you in the MMA if you dislike them so much?”
I had to think about it for a minute. “A man needs to make a living somehow. And I was never particularly good at anything else. I sometimes wonder if I made a mistake not going to college.”
Jaimie laughed bitterly. “I sometimes wonder if I made a mistake going at all.”
“Yeah? Why?”
“I don’t know. The people I went to school with.” She shook her head. “The most pretentious group of teens you ever laid eyes on. They acted like they were in charge of the world—and the sad thing about it is, one day they probably will be.”
“One of my brothers had the same experience at college,” I said. “The others all seemed to like it.”
“They just weren’t my people. Do you ever feel that way, like you haven’t found your people yet?”
“All the time.”
“Really?”
“You act so surprised.”
Jaimie stared out over the water. “It’s just, when I saw you up there tonight with your buddy, you both looked so happy. I could see you were in your element.”
“I love Nick. I’d never tell him this, but he’s probably my best friend. Everyone else, though… There’s a guy in our troupe who’s been married for three years, and every so often I’ll run into his wife at a party or she’ll come by the gym, and she’s always got a black eye. The first time it happened, she said she had fallen and hit her face on the corner of a table, but that doesn’t explain all the other times. Another guy, his girlfriend’s always getting bruises in interesting places.”
“Geez.” Jaimie shivered, although it wasn’t remotely cold out.
“Now I don’t want to dig too hard into anyone’s personal life, but it’s obvious there’s something not right there. And I’m not perfect, either; I’ll be the first to admit that. We’re all young guys, and we’ve never learned how to solve problems with anything other than our fists.”
“Yeah.” Jaimie lay back on the concrete. She looked oddly sexy, just lying there. “I think I’d be scared to date anyone in this business. Maybe that’s why I haven’t.”
“Yeah, you’re probably better off meeting someone at church.”
She turned to look at me. “Have you ever dated?”
“I’ve had a few flings. One-night stands, that sort of thing. Never wanted to get too close to anybody. Didn’t want to find out what would happen if they were dragged into my orbit.”
“Makes sense.”
There was something weirdly intimate about these frank personal disclosures. It was thrilling, in a way, but at the same time, I began to wonder whether I had said too much.
I sat there for a moment watching her breath rise and fall. I suppose it was fortunate she had been drinking, or she might never have said all those things. I’d have been irritated if my best friend had come up to me and started sharing his deepest secrets, but I didn’t mind so much with her.
“You want to hear something funny?” I asked.
“Hmmm?”
“I feel even more weirdly attracted to you now that we’ve been talking.”
Jaimie sat up, bristling slightly. “Are you trying to say you want to sleep with me?”
“No”—although yes, God yes. “I just find this whole conversation really fascinating. You’re way more interesting to me than the last girl I slept with.”
“Did you even know the girl’s name?”
I shook my head. “I may have, but I’ve already forgotten it at this point.”
Jaimie extended her hand. “Well, my name is Jaimie Allen, and I’m a professional accountant. I work with MMA even though I should know better.”
I took her hand in mine and shook it firmly. “Pleasure to meet you, Jaimie. I hope you remember at least some of our talk in the morning.”
Jaimie clutched a hand to her head as though in pain. “God, I hope I don’t. If you run into me in the hallway, I want you to pretend like we’ve never met.”
“Why? Do you not want your boss to know?”
“No, I don’t want to know,” she replied.
She rose to her feet, and I followed, feeling a little disappointed. I had hoped that we might at least make out, but it seemed I wasn’t going to be as fortunate as that fat old man tonight.
Slowly and reluctantly, I followed her upstairs.
“It’s probably just as well I won’t remember any of this in the morning,” she said as we emerged into the hallway. “I think I would die of embarrassment if you told me I had just bared my soul to an MMA guy.”
“Well, I’ve got bad news,” I said, smiling.
“Yeah.” She didn’t seem amused. “The only reason I’m not feeling mortified now is because I’m TOO DRUNK TO CARE!” She threw her hands up in the air and let out a whoop that threatened to wake people all through the hallway.
“Maybe it’s best if we leave off here for the night.” By now I had reached my door.
“Yeah, probably. Night.”
“Good night.”
I unlocked the door to my room and went inside, watching the neon lights flicker against the amber curtains. I’d really hoped she might follow me in. By now I was feeling ridiculously horny and desperately needed something to take the edge off.
I lay down on the bed, trying to imagine what it would have been like to slip off that floral kimono and run my hands along the side of her body. It was rare for someone so intelligent to even want to talk to me, and I tried not to think about the fact that she’d probably never have done it if she had been sober.
I was just beginning to unzip my pants when I was startled by a knock at the door.
Confused, wondering if I was in trouble, I went to unlock it. Peering through the peephole, I saw that it was Jaimie.
I unbolted and unlocked it.
“Hey, what’s up? Did you forget your pen again?”
But Jaimie didn’t answer. Instead, she threw herself against me with the full force of her body, passionately kissing whatever part of me she could reach.
“You okay?” I asked her, smiling in spite of myself.
“No,” she said. “I’m lonely and drunk and tired and, quite frankly, hungry as hell. I’m sorry. You can tell me to leave if I’m bothering you. I’m sure you probably have to be up early tomorrow.”
Without saying a word, I pulled her inside and slammed the door.