Page 171 of Happy Hour

I rolled my eyes yet again. “Now I know why he wishes he was an only child.”

We really hadn’t been paying attention in the last twenty minutes when all of a sudden we heard glass breaking and then Jameson’s voice raise.

“Get off me!”

We turned immediately to see Dana on top of the table with her arms around his neck, tightly, holding on for all she was worth.

“Just one kiss, please?” she begged. “Just one,”

“No. I mean it, get off me or I call the cops right now.” Jameson reached for his cell phone in his jeans. “Let go, Dana.” He pushed her away, holding his phone in the air as a warning. “Stay away.”

Breathing heavy for a moment, she then lunged for him again.

Jameson was quicker this time and ran at the exact moment she lunged for him, barreling through the kitchen doors.

“No fucking way I’m going back out there. I’m leaving.” I could tell by the grim, set look on his face, this was not up for negotiation.

The date is over.

Emma’s phone beeped while they argued. “Oh,” she said looking at the text. “It’s Dana.” We all turned and watched as Dana walked out of the restaurant. “She said that Darrin wants to end your career. He will stop at nothing until he’s taken everything you have.”

A silence spread over us, even the cook beside us said nothing.

“Ask her why Jameson?” I ordered pointing to the phone. I was not accepting that as an answer. “Why is he so focused on Jameson? What about the other drivers?”

The cook offered Jameson some bread dipped in garlic oil, which he took and scarfed down like Mr. Jangles eating spaghetti. Apparently, his appetite had returned.

Emma typed away as we waited for some type of response.

Jameson, after eating his bread, stood beside me wiping his neck off from where Dana touched him.

Apparently, that wasn’t enough for him so he grabbed my purse and dug out my hand sanitizer. After examining the label for a brief moment, he dumped the entire bottle in his hands, rubbing it all over his neck and face.

Curiously, I watched him both amused and then concerned athowmuch he used.

That couldn’t be good for his skin. I may not have mentioned this before but Jameson had some obsessive-compulsive tendencies when it came to anything touching his skin. He once took a bath in alcohol when he thought he had a rash. Yeah, he’s weird.

Emma’s phone beeped again, silence spread again. “You’re the only competition for him and he doesn’t deal well with that.”

“I don’t take well to be threatened.” Jameson barked walking towards the door after Dana got in her car. “I’m tired of this bullshit.”

I don’t know if it was the fear of Jameson being hurt or all the smelly Italian food, but the bread sticks Emma and I had been eating came back up once we reached the parking lot.

Jameson gave me a contemplative scowl once we were in the car. “I want you to stay out of this. I mean it Sway, just stay out of it.”

Could I do that for him? No, probably not.

I wanted to stay out of it but with anything related to Jameson, I couldn’tjuststay out of it.

17.Dirty Air–Jameson

Dirty Air – The rear wing of the car in front tends to push the air higher, creating a very turbulent low-pressure area directly behind the car. At high speeds, down-force can be disrupted if you follow another car too closely. A car following closely will suffer understeer as a result of being in this “dirty air”.

I watched my reason for breathing lying there in bed sound asleep.

Thoughts of her, thoughts of our life together flooded my senses, overwhelmed by the love I now had for this one woman, the only woman.

She was beautiful, stunningly so with her cheeks flushed, her lips pushed out into a pout. Other than her cheeks being flushed, she looked rather pale.

---