Chapter 25
“Kat wanted me to invite you to dinner tomorrow,” Jason rumbled. “It’s our day off, ‘n Elaine and Melissa will be helping with the rush. Last weekend before Memorial Day, and then Season’ll start in full swing. Won’t get much of a break again until September. If you want to come up to town, that is.”
Kat had been dragging Andy along for her social activities, which had included going into town a few times. She’d taken him to the movies once. Another day they just drove around and she showed him the sights, including a stupidly large stone statue of Neptune right there on the beach, though Andy had been much more interested in the dolphins they’d caught a glimpse of just offshore. Sometimes Andy felt like a kitten who’d gotten adopted, rather than an adult.
That Kat would invite him to dinner wasn’t a surprise, since he seemed to have become her project. That she wanted him to come to dinner with her and Jason, though…Well.
Sometimes he wondered why Kat was going to such pains to befriend him when her boyfriend obviously didn’t like him. Jason didn’t seem quite as suspicious as when Andy had first arrived, but that wasn’t saying much. Andy had asked her about it once, only to be skewered with her most disdainful stare. “BecauseIlike you, Andrushka,” she had said—slowly, as if talking to a young and not altogether intelligent child. “What does Jason have to do with that?”
Andy had thought about Nick’s curled lip and carefully curated guest lists and not been able to answer.
And Jason was still looming, waiting for an answer. Damn, but that made Andy nervous. Still, he was Scooter’s best friend and Kat’s boyfriend; Andy figured their judgement probably could be trusted. And hey, maybe it would actually help to get Andy in Jason’s good graces. “That sounds good?” Andy said. “If D’ante can cover me on short notice, I guess.”
Jason nodded. “Good, good. Asked D’ante first. No point in asking you if it’s not doable. Wouldn’t leave Scooter short-handed. Kat’ll pick you up when she comes in to get our checks.” Scooter paid Kat and Jason with official paychecks, and Elaine, too, but D’ante and Andy and Melissa were all cash under the table.
Kat stuck her head through the kitchen door to call an order to Jason, and then she was gone again. Jason patted Andy awkwardly on the shoulder—God, his hands were enormous—and went back to the grill.
The less Andy thought about that grill, the happier he was, because “seasoned” was not the right word for that thing. He’d have been shocked if it had been cleaned yet this century. He had to admit, however, he’d never tasted burgers quite like the ones that came off that grill.
As long as he didn’t think about it too much.
An hour later, after the six o’clock rush had died down a little, Andy asked, “Should I, um, bring anything?”
“My favorite kind of wine is ‘free,’” Kat said, dashing into the kitchen again. It was sort of freaky, the way she just turned up at the exact right moment. She snagged a pickled egg out of the barrel—Andy was brave, but not that brave. He had no idea what a pickled egg tasted like, and he was fine with that gap in his education—and dropped it on a side plate before heading out again.
“Wine,” Andy said. “Okay.” He could get Scooter to run him into town in the morning; there were some local wines that weren’t too expensive and relatively drinkable. And Scooter could probably talk the ABC store into letting him have a distributor’s discount.
“Great,” Jason said, from his place in front of the grill, and weirdly enough, he actually sounded pleased.
* * * *
Andy wasn’t sure what he’d expected of Kat and Jason’s apartment in Virginia Beach, but it was nice. Kat had obviously gotten her way as far as decor went; the walls were painted rich gold and all the wall hangings were deep, blood red, giving the space a distinctly eastern European vibe. Black enameled plates hung on hooks around the walls, each painted with brightly colored birds or fruits or animals. The sofa was a decorative c-shape and was a decidedly unpleasant shade of pink that would have been out of place anywhere else.
Kat gave him the tour, which wasn’t much. The main front room was a typical layout, combination living room/dining room, crowded with furniture. The kitchen was narrow, and someone had stuffed a free-standing butcher block into the tiny space. With Jason cooking in it, there was barely enough room to change his mind. Whatever Jason was making smelled wonderful, though, and decidedly not fried, which was frankly a relief.