Page 16 of Jesse

“Right.” Jesus. This is gonna be a long night. “Wanna know what I do?”

There are like three seconds of silence. Then she sighs and says, “Sure. Why not.”

Wow. She is tough. But I’m damn charming. At least I was back in my twenties. I know how to do this. And I suddenly feel the urge to charm the pants off this woman.

So I say, “I’m a consultant. For yacht-racing teams.”

“How’s that working out?”

“Ouch,” I say. “Is there something I’m missing here? Because I get the feeling you don’t like me. And I’m kinda confused why a smart businesswoman such as yourself would pay so much money for a guy she hates.”

“It’s for charity.”

“Yeah. The children. I’ve heard that a lot tonight. And I’m sure it’s true. I’m sure all charity functions like this one are all about the charity.”

“Is that sarcasm?” she asks.

“You should know.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Well, you’re pretty good at sarcasm. At least from what I can tell from the past ten minutes we’ve known each other.”

She huffs, clearly frustrated.

But what did I do? I didn’t make her buy me. I didn’t raise her fucking hand when that auctioneer got up to the ten-million-dollar mark. I didn’t even want to be here. I’m just a stand-in.

“Oh,” I say, as understanding sinks in. “I get it. You came to the auction for Joey, didn’t you?”

“I already told you I didn’t buy you by mistake.”

“Right. But that’s not the same as expecting one thing then settling for another. And it’s OK. If you’re into Joey and not me, that’s fine.”

“I’m not into your brother,” she snaps. “I’m into…” She pauses. “I just want to go on our date.”

“Well, we are on the date and you’re obviously not having any fun. So… should I take you home?”

“I paid ten million dollars for this night.” She huffs. “I’m not going home. Just… take me to the lake house so we can get this shit show on the road.”

Wow.

“OK,” I say, giving up. “To the lake house it is.”

We drive for a little while. The hotel where the auction was held is up in a sleepy little village nestled in the rolling hills, all surrounded by trees. I’ve been up here before. Not for the auction, obviously, but there’s a big lake nearby and they have a small festival every summer that I went to a couple times with friends back when I was a teenager.

Our lake is about thirty miles north of there and the road is long and winding. Also kinda boring since it’s pitch dark out now and there’s literally nothing to look at out that window she’s fixating on.

But we have to drive through another little village before we get to the little valley where our house is, and while we’re passing through a memory hits me.

We came here too, when I was young. Me and my friends. Sometimes we’d have girls with us, sometimes not. But every time we came through on our way to the lake house we’d stop at the Tastee-Freez and get ice cream.

It’s such a kid thing to do. I can’t recall a single moment after that last time I was up here that I stopped someplace to get an ice cream.

So I change our plans and pull into the nearly packed parking lot, then shut the car off and look at her.

She’s very pretty. I will say that. And it’s not just the fancy red gown, either. Or her specially styled hair or carefully applied makeup.

She’s just pretty.