Take Me Home: Chapter Ten: Trouble's Brewin'

Trouble’s Brewin’

          “They’re in Sin City right now. Went there with Peter and Adele Fletcher, but they’ll be back home Thursday I think,” Jay said to his friend, Rebekah. She smiled at him, swaying back and forth to the blues band that was playing down by the beach. Rebekah was an old friend, even though she spent nights in Jay’s room every now and then. They remained friends, and she was always willing to listen to the latest Canter dilemma. Looking out at the beach, her blonde hair was shining off the remaining light from the sunset. Wearing a simple floral print dress, she was quite attractive.

          “Well I have yet to meet Carrie, she sounds really nice. It’s also good for your brother, he can be difficult to entertain,” she trailed off.

          “Hey I found you,” a new voice chimed in. Janie. He had only given her three beers, and she was already pretty buzzed.

          “Yes. You found me,” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes. “Rebekah, this is my friend, Janie. She’s visiting.”

          “Nice to meet you,” Rebekah said, extending her hand. Janie graciously shook it, and smiled.

          “Nice to meet you too,” she responded. Eyeing Jay’s cigarette, she stuck up her nose. “Are you almost ready Jay?” she asked him. Finishing the last of his beer, he turned to Rebekah.

          “Well my dear, I better get going. Gotta entertain and all. I’ll give you a call when Steven and Carrie get back,” he said, giving her a hug.

          “Yeah, please do. He’s not such a party pooper, like you,” she commented, stifling a laugh.

          “What? My Rebekah, I know he may seem more appealing to the ladies, but I am the more experienced brother,” he said, laughing as he started to follow Janie. They walked to the front of the bar, and Janie’s jaw dropped.

          “You have a motorcycle? You expect me to get on that?” she asked in disbelief.

          “Uhh, yeah? What you’ve never been on a motorcycle? I don’t live far away, come on. Unless you want to call yourself a cab,” he said, walking up to his bike. Hesitating, she looked from Jay to the bike, and then joined him. She got on the back of his bike, and held on for dear life. **************************************************************************************************************************************

          “What happened?” Carrie asked, giving Steven’s hand a tight squeeze. She had a pretty good idea of what the outcome to this story would be, but let him tell it at his own pace.

          “Well she…” he trailed off, looking out the window for a brief second, “she didn’t keep our baby. She had an abortion. Charlette aborted our child,” he finished, looking Carrie straight in the eye.

          “Steven, I’m…I am so sorry. I thought she was just a bitch ex-girlfriend that you had a bad break up with. I didn’t know there was so much back story. That’s why you got so upset with her at dinner,” Carrie thought out loud. She started to cuddle up against his chest, the two of them still sitting on the couch. He began to stroke her hair, lost in his own thoughts.

          “Hey, Carrie it’s okay. I don’t need you to feel sorry for me. It was a really difficult time in my life, but I got past it. I was prepared to take responsibility for that baby, but Charlette obviously wasn’t. She has a cold, black heart. Ever since then, I’ve just had flings here and there. Nothing serious. It’s insane to think about that whole ordeal considering I’m only twenty six, but it just goes to show that life never goes the way you expect it to.” Pausing for a moment, he looked back at Carrie and said, “There’s no point in dwelling on relationship failures, so let’s try to lighten the mood, alright? For example, you. I never expected someone as perfect as you coming into my life, yet here we are.” he said, sitting up and moving towards the bar and making Carrie smile. Eyeing the stereo, Carrie walked over to it to play some music that would brighten the mood. Well he’s being honest to me about everything. He’s opening up to me and letting me in on his past.

          “Drink?” he asked, looking over his shoulder. Combing her hair back with her fingers, she nodded. Soon she had a gin and tonic in her hand and was standing next to Steven, looking into his deep blue eyes. Those eyes. They seemed to go on forever. Even though they were hypnotizing to her, she saw a lot of pain in them too. Smiling up at him, she started to dance with him to the music, swaying back and forth together. Someone knocked at the door, interrupting their dance. Steven walked over and opened up to see who it was.

          “Your wine, sir,” said an employee.

          “Oh yeah, thanks. Here,” Steven said slipping a bill into the young man’s hand and grabbing the bottle of wine. “Shall we?” he asked her, the fire back in his eyes.

          “We shall,” she responded, moving to the kitchen to grab two wine glasses. After finishing their original drinks, Carrie poured them two glasses of the newly purchased wine. They continued to listen to music and relax in the suite.

          “Okay, what about your favorite food?” Carrie asked, finishing her glass.

          “Favorite food? Hmm, probably seafood. Especially lobster,” Steven answered, “You?”

          “Pasta. Any kind of pasta. Seafood is good too, if you mix it in with my pasta,” she giggled.

          “Oh boy,” he replied, finishing his glass also. ***************************************************************************************************************************************

          “You live here?” Janie asked, getting off the terrifying motorcycle.

          “Yes, this is where I live. You know, you ask an awful lot of questions,” Jay said, walking up to the front door and stepping inside. Before Janie had time to make another comment, his cell phone rang.

          “Hello?” he said, not taking the time to see who was calling.

          “Jay, it’s Arnie. You home?” his bandmate asked.  

          “Arnie I’ve had a really rough day. Why do you want to know if I’m at home or not?” he deadpanned.

          “Okay crab-ass. I was calling to see if you wanted to get together tonight for drinks, I’ve got a few friends that want to meet you,” he replied. Jay glanced over at Janie, who was staring up at the entry.

          “Friends? What kind of friends?” he asked, his eyebrows rising. While still on the phone he walked towards the living room and kitchen area, Janie following him. Watching her set down her oversized purse, he waited for Arnie to answer him.

          “The kind of friends you have overnight. If you don’t want to I can tell them you’re not home. But they really want to meet you. Their names are Chelsea and Kate, they seem pretty cool.”

          “Fine. You guys can come over in like twenty minutes. But I’m warning you I have a guest over, so you’ll have to be nice and not make her feel…awkward,” he explained, looking at Janie who was patiently sitting on a chaise.

          “Deal, see ya soon,” Arnie said, hanging up. Jay looked over at Janie, and realized then that having Arnie and some ladies over may not be the brightest idea. Since when do I make good decisions anyways?

          “One of my friends from my band is coming over and bringing a few people, just so you know,” he said, and she only nodded in response. After a few minutes of silence, he cleared his throat and went to the fridge in search of food.

          “I’ll stay up for a little bit, maybe have a drink or two and then I’ll probably go to bed. If that’s fine with you. Where can I stay?” she asked as Jay started eating some cheese he found. Sure, just drink all my liquor.

          “Umm, there are a few guest rooms; you can just take your pick. I’ll show you where they are. You have any luggage at the hotel or anything?” he asked. I really don’t want to be driving all over hell to get your stuff tonight. I can’t believe I’m even letting you stay at the house. Carrie’s probably going to kill me. I’m feeding her younger sister alcohol, and having friends over. I don’t do the responsible ‘role-model’ deal. Steven can vouch for that.

          “Nope. Just my purse. I only had a few changes of clothes with me so I was able to fit it all in here,” she responded, gesturing to her green bag on the floor. Jay just ate his slice of cheese as a response, and started tapping his foot. Then he started walking towards the stairs, and motioned for her to follow. He brought her upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms, and said she could sleep there. The room he gave to her had coral colored walls, and a mahogany bed frame with a matching nightstand and dresser. It was lightly decorated with various paintings and posters, and there was a bathroom right down the hall. After setting her bag in the room and freshening up, she joined Jay downstairs.

He was on the patio, behind the bar.

          “Whatcha doing?” she asked him. Scratching his head, he looked at her with an amused expression.

          “Preparing for the evening. We need to be fully stocked up, I don’t wanna run downstairs anymore tonight,” he replied, organizing the bar. Moving towards the hot tub, he removed the cover and went inside to grab some towels. As he was coming back outside, he found that Arnie, Chelsea, Kate, and Janie were all standing by the bar. Why did I give Arnie the code for the backyard gate? It’s like he forgets we even have a front door.

          “Hey,” he said, looking at the new guests.

          “Hi. Chelsea, Kate, I’d like you to meet the infamous Jay Canter,” Arnie said, motioning to Jay.

          “Hey girls. So you came to party huh?” he asked. They both blushed bright red at Jay. Arnie had been looking at Janie, and Jay wasn’t sure how to introduce her. Arnie was definitely a ladies’ man. He wasn’t near as bad as Jay and Chase, but he still liked the attention. Because of this, Jay needed to make clear that she would be off limits to him, but at the same time be discrete. God, why can’t Steven and Carrie just deal with this shit?

          “Uh Arnie, this is my friend Janie. She’s a family friend who’s down here visiting. Janie, that’s Arnie, he’s the bass player in the band,” he said, moving to the bar. “Alright ladies, pick your poison.”

          “I’ll just take a rum and coke,” Chelsea, the blonde haired woman said.

          “Umm, I think I’ll have a beer,” Kate said. She had darker brown hair, and cute freckles. Jay noticed both of them were in fact wearing bikinis under the sundresses they had on. Perfect.

          “Can I have a beer too?” Janie asked, a little out of place. Jay popped the top off a Corona and handed it to her. He gave her a look that said, “Just one more, you already had a few at the bar. You’re not even twenty one.” Janie just smiled and took a sip. The last thing he needed was to be cleaning up puke from a young Janie getting sick. He assumed she didn’t drink often, and probably hadn’t partied much. Soon they had moved towards the hot tub, and the party started. Janie had decided to go to sleep after her one beer, not wanting to push her luck with her sister’s new roommate. This left Jay with his good friend and two women in bikinis.

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          The next morning Steven woke up, intertwined with Carrie. He smiled, looking down at her asleep and peaceful. After about twenty minutes of lying around in bed, they both got up and ready for the day. They were meeting Peter and Adele for a lunch at some restaurant they knew about, and had plenty of time to get ready. Their day consisted of the lunch date, and him and Peter tagging along for the shopping splurge afterwards. Steven laughed at Carrie as she tried on ridiculous outfits; she was such a different person than Charlette. Carrie had fun, wasn’t afraid of who she was, wore turquoise cowboy boots, and was living life to the fullest. He loved that about her.

 Later in the evening they headed over to Circus Circus to spend some time in the casino. It was an uneventful day, but Carrie still seemed to be having fun. He was glad he brought her, and glad he told her about his past with Charlette. It was better to just get it out of the way, and he was grateful to Adele for telling him about their little conversation. The night went really well, as they hit up a few different clubs and drank the night away again. It was Sin City, partying was what they were expected to do.

           Wednesday morning they woke up pretty late, around 11:00am. Carrie wandered into the bathroom, and hopped in the shower. Minutes later, Steven opened the bathroom door.

          “You got in the shower without me? I’m seriously offended Miss Moore,” he said, chuckling at the end.

          “I’m so sorry. I don’t know if there’s room for you,” she teased. It took all of about ten seconds before the foggy glass door of the shower was opened and a naked Steven stood before her with an ear to ear grin. His raven hair was starting to get drenched, which made him all the more attractive to Carrie.

          “It’s our last day here, we fly out tomorrow early in the morning,” Steven said, kissing her neck.

          “Then we better make it count,” she responded, kissing him in return.

          After a much more exciting shower than expected, Carrie got dressed in a simple brown dress with a pair of white and tan wedges. Emerging into the living room, she spotted Steven on the couch with his head in his hands.

          “Everything okay?” she asked. His head snapped up, and he put on a smile.

          “Everything is just fine. I was on the phone with my father, dealing with work. Dean tries to just answer the calls so I don’t have to deal with my father, but sometimes he just calls my cell phone when things don’t go his way,” he explained.

          “Oh. I’m sorry. Well, let’s just deal with that tomorrow. Today is our last day like you said, so let’s live it up,” she offered with a smile.

          “You look beautiful by the way,” he commented, standing up to take her hand. “Come on, let’s go downstairs,” he added.

          They made their way towards the bar by the pool at their hotel to celebrate their last day. Peter and Adele were already sitting at the bar, both with a drink.  After ordering some appetizers, Steven bought a bottle of rum.

          “Here’s to Carrie’s first time in Las Vegas. It’s been fun, and I can’t wait to bring you back again,” he toasted, all four friends holding their shot glass up in the air.

          “And to your blackjack skills improving,” Peter chimed in before they downed the rum. Carrie laughed, knowing that she had quite the night with Peter as her blackjack coach. Their food arrived soon, and they all split the fish tacos, onion rings, and shrimp.

          “Thanks Adele for inviting us with, I had an amazing time,” Carrie said, between bites.

          “Don’t mention it, you were great company. And we had to get to know our new neighbor,” she added. Before she could respond, Steven was pouring four more shots. He seemed pretty determined to have a good time on the last day of vacation. Smirking, she grabbed her shot and threw it back.