I opted for decaf, it being Thursday afternoon and not wanting my heart to explode. Our chairs were crammed around the intricate iron table on the rooftop patio of Retrovaille. The Parisian-inspired café cost a fortune for food in the evening but offered an appropriately priced menu during select daytime hours. Music poured from the speakers placed in flowerpots overflowing with early autumn mums and dying summer greenery. Jesse’s thick brown hair was tousled, waving over his forehead in a disheveled mess.
“Dude,” Sean taunted, “when is the last time you slept?”
“If you spent any time at home, you would know I sleep just fine,” Jesse quipped. I silently watched their argument play out, captivated with the entertainment.
“You’re the one who is never there, what with your wife and all.”
“Girls,” I scolded them, “enough. You’re ruining my afternoon with your old passive-aggressive married couple arguing. Jesse, take a nap and comb your hair. Sean, please spend time at home with Jesse.” I shuddered to think of where his head rested at night instead of the sparsely decorated room in their apartment.
“Speaking of which,” Sean coughed, “I can’t handle Kelly much longer. She’s just…I mean…”
“Is she too much for you, Sean? You are quite a bit older than her. Maybe it’s your age that is proving a challenge when keeping up with her,” Jesse joked, almost forcing the decaf latte from my nostrils.
“I don’t need to know this,” I grumbled, tightly closing my eyes. Sometimes being best friends with those two for so long meant they forgot I didn’t want to know every detail.
“It’s not that,” Sean snorted, continuing. “I don’t know.” I anxiously bit my lip while waiting for Sean to complete his thought, quickly realizing I didn’t want to know more.
“So,” I shifted my crossed legs, “enough about Sean’s inabilities to perform and the unknown reason for intolerance of Kelly. Details about Miami, please.”
His perfect mouth failed to fight with the amused smile plastered upon it. I could have led the campaign for intolerance toward Kelly, but I decided to be the bigger person and let it go. Let it go out loud, that is, because I couldn’t stop my subconscious from thinking she was a jezebel.
While we sipped away, Sean described his plan to stay with his brother near the beach and spend a few weeks doing nothing. Once their exchange turned into a detailed discussion of Kelly’s swimming suit or the objectification of women Sean may encounter on the beach, I excused myself. I scaled the iron steps of the repurposed fire escape and into the more exclusive restaurant, heading toward the bathroom.
I felt slightly out of place inside the white marble restroom, the entirety of which could contain my apartment. It smelled heavenly and like money with wafts of musky spice and vanilla spreading into mouthwatering clouds above multiple reed diffusers. I wished my apartment smelled less like the dumpsters beneath it and an ounce like this restroom. Out of habit, I reached for my bag but was disappointed, and also nervous, to realize I left it outside with the boys. I felt naked without the small bag that held my life. The cotton towels I used after washing my hands even smelled like aromatic, fresh laundry. I could have lived in that bathroom, but my daydream of a marble castle was cut short by the entrance of three other women. I politely smiled and returned to Sean and Jesse, hoping Kelly was no longer our topic of dialogue.
“Did you solve the world’s problems?” I inquired, taking my seat back from the possession of Sean’s left foot. He handed my phone to me, a playful smile spread across his lips.
“Lizzie wants you to text Declan. Before your coffee buzz wears off completely.”
“Lizard,” Jesse grumbled, scratching his head.
“What about her?” Sean asked, still smiling. I ran through my text messages, slightly irritated that Sean answered my phone in my absence. The wind picked up, a cooler breeze catching my hair. Next time, no lip-gloss. As I picked sticky hair from my shiny lips, I wrote a message to Lizzie.
Me: What do you want?
Lizzie: I’m glad Sean and Jesse are earning their keep as your secretaries.
Me: Hardly. What’s up?
Lizzie: You neeeeed to text Declan. He’s been asking me about you. You’re more popular over here than me.
Me: Are you jealous, Elizabeth?
Lizzie: Love you, Ave. Call me later.
As I placed my phone back in the privacy of my purse, I paid closer attention to Jesse and Sean’s conversation.
“I promised her I’d come over tonight to help build some…some furniture or something. I forgot, Sean,” Jesse whined, his thumb twirling the ring around his index finger.
“What does Sean care?” I asked, sipping the final delicious drops of my coffee.
Sean scratched the stubble along his jaw and coyly shook his head at me. “Sean cares,” he began, “because Jesse promised Sean beer tonight.”
“Guess you’ll have to call your girlfriend,” I challenged him. Yikes, Avery, slow down. Jesse started to laugh but hid behind the distraction of readjusting his suspenders. Sean’s expression melted from relaxed dallying to sobering.
“Why don’t you just come with me, Sean? It will go by faster that way,” Jesse suggested, interrupting Sean’s heated glare in my direction. What was he thinking? Why was I being visually punished for reminding him he had a girlfriend? Weren’t we just discussing her swimsuit anyway?
“Ella and this one will probably be there,” Jesse continued, squeezing my wrist.
“I’ll be there,” Sean cautioned. So…I shouldn’t try something? What was that supposed to mean?
“You’re buzzing,” Jesse told me, and I looked at him, confused. “In your bag.” I pulled my phone out, pursing my lips as I thought about the unknown incoming number.
“Maybe it’s your boyfriend,” Sean mocked me, licking his lips. I hate you, Sean. I narrowed my eyes at him, stuck my tongue out like a toddler, and answered my phone. Jesse and Sean watched me, mumbling to each other. I tried to ignore Sean mindlessly chewing the end of his sunglasses as they spoke. Ugh!
“Hello? This is. Wow! Really? Thank you, thank you. Yes, Monday. That’s great. Thank you. Me too. Have a lovely weekend!”
“Big date?” Jesse teased, taking his brown leather wallet from his back pocket to settle the tab. I tapped my phone against my lips, thinking briefly about the phone call. Sean slid his coffee cup to the middle of the table, and the sound distracted me.
“I just got a job.” I grinned, my cheeks already in pain as I fought an even larger, more proud smile.
“Then this coffee is on you,” Jesse smiled at me and handed me his bill, “Mrs. Moneybags.”
***
I was fortunate to miss the construction of Lizzie’s new loveseat, along with the bedframe and dresser she manipulated Jesse and Sean into assembling for her. Well, it wasn’t so much that I was preoccupied with another responsibility and missed the party, more so that I chose to skip it and arrive when it was done.
Jesse’s profane language and the expletives he and Sean threw at one another in frustration filled the condo as I snuck inside. Ella’s cackle overpowered their arguing, a clear indication of her limited ability to maturely cope with Jesse and Sean’s vexations. Or maybe it was because Jesse and Sean didn’t know how to work together and assemble four pieces of wood while following instructions. Lizzie buzzed me in but was hovering over the open fridge when I walked into her kitchen. I slapped her bottom as I scooted past her.
“Nice greeting,” she squealed, jumping in surprise. “Do you want watermelon? I just cut some.”
“No. Thank you.” I leaned against her sink. “I would pay you for that pretty yellow bottle of wine, though.” Lizzie took the bottle from the fridge and handed it to me, grinning while she collected two wine glasses.
“They’re ridiculous.” She laughed. “They can’t even follow directions.”
“Probably because they weren’t born with any,” I scoffed. “They sure could use some.”
Lizzie clinked my full glass in agreement. She motioned for me to join her as she walked toward the back of her condo, but I decided to avoid that deathtrap and wandered to her patio. The late summer sunset scattered its comforting glow of pink and rust along the splattering of clouds. My toes wiggled free from my sandals as I took a seat. I could faintly hear Jesse shouting and my girlfriends laughing in response. I loved the season change in Madison. Fall was so welcoming, so crisp and refreshing. I could sit on that patio forever as long as the lingering sunset continued to warm my toes.
I was sitting on the top step, observing the people below quietly wandering in and out of buildings, when footsteps shuffled behind me. Sean slipped through Lizzie’s patio door, joining me with the narrow mouth of his bottle between his left thumb and index finger.
“That’s the beer Jesse promised you?” I teased, smiling as he settled next to me on the peeling wood step. I couldn’t help relaxing against him.
“I guess so,” he groaned. “The things you do for your friends.” Don’t I know it?
“Is the couch done?”
“Yep.”
“Then what are you still doing here? Avoiding Kelly?”
Sean snorted at me, laughing while he took a sip of his local microbrew. “What’s your problem with Kelly?”
“Do you have a pen and paper? I can write them down.” I flashed my teeth in the most obnoxious and playful smile I could muster.
“Ouch.”
“You’re such a stud,” I goaded. “Always going after these undergrads, making all the ladies in Madison swoon just because you breathe. Your stupid everything, your big watch, and your senseless face.” I placed my hand on his cheek, rubbing it along his stubble. His free hand grasped mine, securing it to his face before taking another sip from his bottle.
“I miss being single.” He smirked with a laugh. “Then we wouldn’t have to worry about someone thinking too much of us spending time like this.”
“And it’s all fake,” I continued, blushing and desperately trying to avoid his comment, although my fingers started to tremble, “because we all know what a weirdo you are deep down.”
“You’re calling me a liar?”
“Suppose I am?” I continued giggling, dropping my head against Sean’s right shoulder. His right arm wrapped around my shoulder, holding me against him, almost instinctively. He smells too nice. I studied the peeling brown paint on the step where our feet rested, wondering absentmindedly about when Lizzie was going to fix its ugliness. My gaze moved to Sean’s feet, bound by his black flip-flops beneath dark denim folded above his ankles. I blushed, thinking I was spending too much time staring at the crisply folded cuff of his jeans. I could feel Sean’s mouth against the top of my head, hurriedly kissing my hair, breaking my musing. Oh, boy. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. With his arm now wrapped around my neck, his mouth was at my ear. How do I get off this step? I could hear the faint sound of someone’s footsteps crossing the hall toward the kitchen behind us.
“Then you need to make me an honest person, Avery.” Sean’s whisper sent a chill through my body. The footsteps doubled and grew in volume and proximity. Jesse’s laughter was heard among the noise of Lizzie’s sink and clinking glass bottles. As the door opened, Sean’s head moved from my ear, but his arm still clung to me.
“Hey, man,” Jesse greeted Sean. “Ready?” I turned to face Sean, my expression empty and his eyes full of so much more.
He smiled at me while responding to Jesse, his lips pulling apart mischievously. “I am.”
As Sean stood to meet Jesse, he finished the last gulp of his beer and tossed the bottle in Lizzie’s patio recycling bin, an up-cycled ceramic pot from a thrift store on the east side. He is? What does that mean?
I reluctantly got up and said goodbye, considering Sean was leaving for Miami in three days, but I felt frozen in afterthought of the exchange we just had.
“Hey, Jesse,” I called for him as I stood, “don’t let this one get into too much trouble this weekend.”
Sean reached out for my arms, pulling me into a delightfully suffocating embrace. My cheek was sore from the frames of the sunglasses clinging to the V of his t-shirt. I returned the hug, trying not to accidentally give away too much. This was my friend, my friend with a girlfriend, and no matter what a ruthless flirting bastard he was, he was still just my friend…and there was also sort of Declan…and my window seat.
“I’ll miss you,” he whispered quietly, kissing my hair again. “Be good while I’m gone.”
“You be good. I’m too young to be an aunt,” I teased, squeezing him once more around the ribs and trying to pull away. He had me locked against him while Jesse continued mumbling something.
“I’m always good, Ave.” Those four words held a promise that made my knees weak, but that was Sean, always ruthless.