Finally, I had to ask, “What are we doing?”
Yes, that question was both literal and figurative.
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We’re just sitting. I want to enjoy this moment with you out here. Is that okay?”
“Yeah. I’m just surprised. You were ignoring me all night.”
“You really think you were far from my mind, Gia?”
I didn’t answer because it was a rhetorical question. Of course, I was on his mind.
He continued, “You’re all I can think about tonight. Hell, any night.”
We were silent again for a long while. It felt damn good to be in his arms again, a feeling of safety like no other. I looked back at The Heights in the distance, and all of the chaos of the party seemed like a distant memory compared to our peaceful retreat.
He spoke against my back. “I’m sorry I was MIA tonight. It was hard for me to deal with it being your last night at The Heights. It was easier for me not to deal with it at all.”
“It’s okay. I get it. I know it’s hard. We’re both in this together. It’s hard for me, too.”
He spoke against my back. “When I finally came to the main dining room, I looked over at you, and immediately regretted wasting the whole night ruminating in my office when I could have spent it looking at you in this dress. You look so beautiful.”
I turned my head around and just couldn’t help it, giving him a gentle kiss on the lips. “I’m glad you stole me away.”
He ran his hand through my hair. “You’re coming to the staff brunch tomorrow afternoon, right?”
“Yeah…I’ll be there but I have some more packing to do in the morning.”
He didn’t respond to that.
I continued sitting between his legs staring out at the ocean, wondering if I would ever see this body of water again. If things didn’t work out, would I ever come back, or would it simply be too painful?
Rush placed both of his hands on my belly and began to rub. I closed my eyes. It felt so good.
There wasn’t any better feeling than a man with big, beautiful hands rubbing your stomach. Well, maybe there were a couple of better feelings. But right now, this was just what the doctor ordered.
I felt the baby start to kick and jumped. “Did you feel that?” It wasn’t the first time, but it was definitely one of the most intense.
“Yeah.” He laughed. “Yeah, I did. He must like the beach.”
“I think he’s responding to being rubbed, actually.”
“He can feel it when I do this?”
“Yes. I read that they can. Isn’t that crazy?”
“Wow.” He continued massaging me. “Hey, are you gonna find out what it is…a boy or a girl?”
“Why do you even need to ask if you’re so sure it’s a boy?” I chided.
“I want to be able to tell you I told you so.”
“Actually, I think I want to be surprised. There aren’t that many times in life you can choose to be surprised. I think I’d like to wait.”
“Fair enough. We’ve definitely had enough surprises we couldn’t control.”
“That’s for damn sure,” I said.
I was practically falling asleep as he continued to rub my stomach. The baby had stopped moving, though. Maybe he fell asleep. He. I laughed, realizing Rush had me believing it was a boy, too.
I still couldn’t believe Rush abandoned his own bar’s party to spend this private time with me. This would be something I would never forget.
Suddenly, he said, “Did you feel that?”
I jumped a little. “What?”
“That.”
“No? The baby moved? I didn’t feel it.”
“No. It’s coming from here.” He slid his hand below my stomach. “I think it’s your pussy vibrating.”
I giggled and elbowed him in the side. “Jerk.”
Normally, I couldn’t wait for the summer season to be over. I’d be fed up with snobby customers, unreliable staff who call in sick for a damn sunburn, and ready for the stop-and-go tourists to get the hell off the road. But not this year. This year, I wasn’t ready to see it end. And the reason for that was currently walking around hugging all the staff with tears in her eyes.
I walked over as she hugged Oak. It was the second one she’d given him, and a pang of jealousy might’ve crept in, no matter how ludicrous I knew it was.
“You do realize that you’re going to see everyone at the Morning After brunch tomorrow, right?”
She sniffled back tears. “I know. But this is the last night that we’ll all be working together.”
“So does that mean tonight you cry because you’re done working with these people and then tomorrow you cry all over again because you’ll actually be saying goodbye?”
Gia stuck out her tongue. “Shut up.”
I smirked. “What’d I tell you about sticking out that tongue at me, little girl?”
Oak shook his head and chuckled. It was almost five in the morning, the last of the customers were booted out an hour ago, and most of my staff had left, with the exception of Riley, Oak, Gia, and one of the busboys. They all walked to the front door at once.
I unlocked it to let them out. “See you at two tomorrow?”
Oak shook my hand and everyone but Gia piled out. She stood on her tippy toes and kissed my cheek. “Good night, Heathcliff.”
“Get some sleep, sweetheart.”
After I watched them all get into their cars and safely take off, I locked the door. I needed to get some sleep myself. The Morning After party was a tradition I started when I took over The Heights. The day after the year-end bash, I threw a brunch for all of my employees. I did the setup, serving, and pouring—which the employees all seemed to get a kick out of every year. But that meant that I needed to be back here pretty early in order to make sure everything was ready when they arrived.
Yet I didn’t feel like leaving still. So I shut off all the lights, took a tablecloth from the supply closet to lie down on, and headed out back to the beach. It was still dark, but it wouldn’t be too long before the sun started to come up. Normally I was a sunset kind of guy—sitting around reflecting on my day and watching Mother Nature put the sky to bed. I liked a fade-to-black ending. It had always seemed fitting for my life. But today sunrise seemed right—the dawn of a new day bringing hope and a chance to start over fresh. Maybe it would shed some figurative light on me while the literal took over the sky.
“Hey, Rush.” Oak’s wife Min walked over and gave me a hug while holding one of her and Oak’s daughters on her hip. Every time I saw Min Lee, I got a kick out of how tiny she was. She couldn’t be more than five foot tall and weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet. If I didn’t think he’d clock me, I’d be busting her husband’s balls about how the hell they made that shit work in the sack.
“Hey, Min. You look great. Still don’t understand what you see in that big doofus.” I winked.
“Watch it,” Oak said. “There’s no bouncer on duty right now to save your scrawny ass if I decide to use your head as a punching bag.”
Only a dude as enormous as Oak could call a guy my size scrawny. I chuckled. “You don’t scare me,” I joked while pulling his wife in front of me like a human shield.
“That’s right. Put the person with the biggest cajones in front of you for protection.”
We all laughed. While Oak and his family settled in, I went and got them their drinks: a mimosa for Min and a beer for my buddy. We liked to argue and screw around, but I had needed Oak a lot this year. He’d been my confidant with everything going on with Gia, and it would have sucked without him. That’s why I’d stuck an extra two grand in his end-of-year bonus this year. He deserved it just for putting up with my whining ass.
The rest of the staff and their families trickled in. I played hostess with the mostest, handing out bonus checks with an endless flow of drinks. Gia walked in late with her dad. I hadn’t realized that he was coming out from Queens for the party.