Chapter 12
Fat chance.
“How about another scarf?” Franny, ever the saleswoman, asked.
“Nah, that’s okay. Another day,” Jay said. “I’ll see you later.”
When he got to the parking lot, he had another cigarette. And felt guilty about it, too. He pulled out his cell phone and hit Geoff’s picture.
“Hello.”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“I know. What’s up? You hardly ever call me on a Sunday.”
Jay sighed. “I was thinking.”
“Uh-oh, dangerous.”
“Funny. You with Tammy?”
“Yeah, she’s here.”
“You two want to meet me at Poppy’s for lunch?”
“Hang on, I’ll ask her.”
Jay took a few more puffs of his cigarette while he waited.
“Yeah, Tammy says yes,” Geoff said a moment later. “Meet you there in a few.”
It was stupid probably. He had no clue if the muscle lifeguard type guy would even be there on a Sunday, but, hell, he might as well try, anyway.
About twenty minutes later he found a space to park his car in front of Poppy’s and went inside to wait for Geoff and Tammy. While he waited, he peeked around the corner toward the bar to see if the guy might be there, but he saw no sign of him.
Jay sighed with disappointment. That would have been too easy, he guessed. He sodidn’t want to go to a club.
Geoff and Tammy came in, which saved him from wallowing further in self-pity, and they got a table.
Geoff eyed him. “You smell like smoke.”
Tammy, a sweet, pretty blonde, leaned toward him. “Oh, my God, Jay! You’ve been smoking again.”
He felt himself blush. “I, well, yeah.”
“Why?” Tammy asked. “You were doing so well.”
“I’ve been kinda depressed lately.”
“Still your neighbor?” Geoff lowered his menu.
Tammy covered his hand with hers. “Geoff told me about him. Sweetie, maybe you should forget about him.”
“Yes, I know.” He sighed. “I am, actually. I wanted to come here to see if that guy that asked me out the other day might be here. But he’s not.”
Geoff gave him a sympathetic smile. “Tammy has a gay cousin.”
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “I forgot about Tim.”
Jay raised an eyebrow. “Timmy and Tammy?”
She laughed. “No, silly, he doesn’t go by Timmy. He’s a personal trainer. Real beefy. You two would be so cute together. I’ll call him tonight.”
“Okay.” Jay picked up his menu. What the hell? Might as well. From the looks of it, Drake and Ross were very close. And he certainly couldn’t compete with a guy who looked like Ross.
“Hi. You guys ready to order?”
Jay glanced up and realized he was looking at the lifeguard guy. In a waiter’s uniform. “You work here?”
“Just started yesterday,” the guy said with a grin. Bobbywas the name on the nametag pinned to his shirt. “Jay, right?”
“Yes.”
“Needed some extra money, so they hired me here part-time. Ready to order?”
“Give us a few minutes.”
Jay watched Bobby walk away. He buried his face in the menu when he could feel Geoff and Tammy staring at him.
“He’s cute, Jay,” Tammy whispered.
He nodded.
“Ask him out,” she urged.
“He asked Jay out the last time we were here,” Geoff told her.
“And?”
Geoff smiled. “Jay turned him down.”
She rolled her eyes. “Geez. Before we leave here today, you’re making a date with that guy.” 6
Where the hell was Jay?
Granted, Drake hadn’t been home much in the last few days. He and his partner had suddenly gotten a great deal of leads on a case they’d been working on and had needed to check them out. But when he hadbeen home, he’d tried knocking on the young blond’s door each time. Drake had even tried calling Jay’s cell phone. It went to voice mail each time.
He’d finally managed to send Ross home Sunday afternoon. The truth was he’d been kind of relieved when Ross had received a call from Stan, demanding he return to their house. Though Drake had let Ross spend Saturday night with him, he had made sure Ross slept on his sofa bed. He was notgiving in again.
Now frowning at Jay’s door, Drake rapped on it again. Today was Thursday. He hadn’t really seen Jay since last Friday night when he’d been over to Jay’s apartment. Ross had told him that Jay had stopped by briefly Sunday just to drop off the school fundraiser brochure for his nephew.
No one had reported Jay as missing, but Drake was getting very close to doing a police check on his apartment, just to make sure Jay wasn’t in there needing help or something.