CHAPTER TEN
“Thanks, Jake.” Aspen waves to the tall, kind of scary man who drove us across town as she gets out of the black Escalade. I stand on the sidewalk beside her as the car blends into the distance.
“You have a driver?” I ask the question I’ve held in since following her out of Cosmo’s. Most of my clients in New York had drivers — it was almost expected — but I didn’t get that vibe from her or Finn.
Aspen turns to our right and walks past a gate with Buena Vista Park on the sign. Her eyes move up the hill. “Well, he’s Finn and Trey’s driver really, but it's easier to use Jake than find a taxi, and Trey normally drives himself.”
She keeps talking as we start to climb the hill to some unknown destination. “Marissa and Amanda will meet us at our usual spot. We started coming here this summer and it kind of stuck. And the food is to die for.”
Our walk comes to a stop about halfway up the slope when she turns to me with a serious face. “Marissa and I met in college. She’s going through a bad breakup, so try to stay away from the topic of guys.”
We start back up again and my feet slip on the morning dew still clinging to the grass. I’m thankful I stuck with the tennis shoes and Trey’s fleece too. Just like the blanket, he’s not getting the fleece back unless he directly asks for it. As we reach the top, Aspen waves to a couple sitting on a large red tartan blanket with white sacks in front of them. The one on the right, a blonde with a short pixie cut, waves back at us and then turns and nudges the brunette beside her.
Once we reach the blanket, Aspen sits with a flourish. “Amanda,” her hand reaches out to indicate the blue-eyed blonde, “and Marissa. Guys, this is Simone. Trey brought her to the comic shop this morning.”
The brunette, Marissa, sucks in a breath at the statement. Her wide eyes turn to me. “Trey Good?”
“Um, yeah. Why?” I sit next to Aspen on the blanket a little uneasy with her unflinching stare.
I don’t miss Aspen’s head as it flips toward Marissa’s and the “shut up” look passes between them. “Trey is just such an asshole and you look so sweet.” Marissa apparently missed the warning.
“Marissa!” Amanda hands her a white bag. “Aspen said he’s getting better. She only wants to kick him in the balls once or twice a week.”
Aspen grabs a bag from the pile and passes it to me before taking one for herself. “Oh, God. Trey and I had a rough start, but he’s growing on me. How did you two meet?”
I laugh before I bring myself to answer, “Well, I kind of elbowed him in the balls on vacation.”
Aspen chokes on air and I use the time to peek in at my surprise brunch. Inside the white bag is a Styrofoam container and black spork wrapped with a napkin. As Marissa pats Aspen on the back, all three girls stare at me in silence while I open the container to one of the most wonderful sights I’ve ever cast my eyes on.
Two or maybe three pieces of thick toast take up the space. A cinnamon smell hits my nose and I breathe in deeper. A banana — split down the middle — lays on top and the entire thing is covered in syrup and something else sweet. A quick taste confirms it's caramel and I might die a little. I’ve always dreamed of eating sugar for breakfast.
“You’re my new favorite person in the entire world. Tell us the whole story of this elbow job,” Aspen prods.
The story isn’t as exciting as they seem to think it will be, but I do my best to relay the first day Trey and I met. I fill in the rest of our short time together and, as if we’ve been best friends forever, they ask more questions to pry the gritty details from me. I try to keep it simple and glaze over the good stuff, but Marissa has a natural ability to see right through my weak answers.
“So Trey was sweet? It’s hard to process it. Sometimes he’ll do something that might be nice, but he does it in such a jerky way. I can't picture just sweet.”
“Me either,” Amanda concurs with Aspen’s statement. “So are you two dating now?”
Dating? Are we dating? I don’t know, but I don’t think so. Right? “Um, no. We haven’t spent any real time together and he’s been different here. Intense.”
“Yeah, intense. That’s a good way to describe Trey.” Aspen hasn’t taken her eyes from me, but she closes her mouth.
I’ve finished my sugary bread and put the plastic fork and Styrofoam container back in the bag.
Marissa does the same with hers. “Isn’t the Tahiti French toast spectacular? We’ve been eating it for months. We need to branch out, but it's so good and I’m so lazy. Why give up a good thing?”
“I suggest we find somewhere indoors this winter when it gets cold. It’s already too cold if you ask me.” Aspen wraps her hands into the sleeves of her pink parka.
“Hmm,” Marissa mulls over her comments in thought. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re here, Simone. In case you decide you want to do more than elbow Trey in the balls, I’ll help you move the body. All of us are only a phone call away.”
Aspen laughs and rolls her eyes at the spunky brunette. “Marissa, don’t scare her away. She’ll think you’re serious.”
“I am serious.” She turns back to me and in the most no joke manner says, “True friends will always help move the body."
“I would.” Amanda doesn’t look up from her task of collecting her breakfast remnants but answers too quickly and a bit too excitedly if you ask me. "Plus, Aspen’s brother is a cop. He’d help us get away with it. I bet he knows more than one great hiding place in the city.”
Marissa claps her hands together once. “See? Amanda gets it. I knew there was a reason I liked you right away,” she says to the blonde who perks up even more at her words.
