The night of Annies event arrives and strangely it's Jamie who's pumped up most about it.
He's looking forward to getting out together more so than it being Benny's re-opening, but I'm convinced that he's going to see Annie in a whole new light after this.
I called Michelle yesterday afternoon to apologise for my outburst, but in typical Michelle fashion, she insisted that it was all their fault, which made me feel even worse about it. She suggested that I take tomorrow off so that I can let my hair down tonight and not have to suffer a hangover while serving customers all day. Any other time I'd have been glad of that offer, but Jamie is going to a car show with some friends tomorrow, and the idea of spending all of that time alone with my own thoughts makes me queasy.
I tried to insist that I'd come in, but Michelle wouldn't hear of it, so I'll have to figure out something to do to keep myself occupied. I'll let that be tomorrows worry though.
We don't have to be at Benny's until seven o'clock, and I finished up early at the school today, so went for a run after I got home. All I really have to do is get myself ready, but I have plenty of time, so I clean up the apartment a little bit first.
Annie has been on my mind all day today, I can only imagine how excited she's feeling. She's worked her ass off to get here, and I'm crossing my fingers for her that tonight will be the success she wants it to be.
I called her earlier to check if she needed help with any last minute details, but all I got was her voicemail. That's no surprise on a day like today though, so I left a message to be sure that she knew I'd be there at the drop of a hat if she needed, even with how flakey I've been recently.
♾️
Jamie arrives home from work late, so he has to rush himself through a shower and change as quick as he can. He pulls on some navy pants, and pairs them with a fitted powder blue shirt. Regardless of how little time he has, he always manages to look handsome, which is kind of annoying when I consider how long it took me to put my outfit together.
I was unsure what to go with, and must have tried on half of my wardrobe. In the end I opted for a simple black leather skirt and a plum silk shirt that I tucked in. I finished it off with some black heeled ankle boots too. All that's left for me to do is reapply my lipstick while Jamie grabs the keys, and then we hurry on out the door.
As we pull up to Benny's, Jamie stares over at the blue neon sign above the door, giving it a disapproving look. "I'd much rather be taking you somewhere nice," he says, as he reaches across the small gap between us and interlocks our fingers.
"This is nice," I say, feeling a little put out. "Annie has worked for weeks on this. I know it's going to be great, just give it a chance, please?"
"For you? Anything," he says as he leans over and plants a small kiss on my lips. "Now," he says, "let's get in there so I can get you drunk already."
Stepping into the bar, Jamie and I are met with some music, and dimmed lighting. A girl at the door offers to check our coats and show us to our table, but Annie pops up just as we're about to be brought in.
"Izzy!" she squeals.
"Oh my gosh Annie, look at this place," I gush as she pulls me into a hug. "I can't believe it's the same bar."
The work that's been done here is incredible. The colours, the fabrics, all the quirky wall decor. She's nailed it.
"Oh wow, look at the panelling on the bar," I say in awe, "that was a great addition!"
I spin in a slow circle, taking in every tiny detail, "I can't believe how perfectly your ideas have come together Annie, you're a genius."
Annie flaps her hand like its no big deal. "Don't embarrass me Iz, the decorators did all the hard work. But thank you," she blushes, "I'm so happy that it's finally finished."
The sound of somebody clearing their throat from behind us draws Annies attention, and I notice her expression change ever so slightly.
"Hi Jamie," she says, plastering a big fake smile onto her face. I wonder how much she's practiced that.
"Annie," Jamie says with a grin that's just as disingenuous as her own, " it's great to see you. Congratulations, I hear you've put a lot of sweat into this place these past few weeks."
"I sure have," she says stiffly.
The conversation between them falls flat from there. I know that both of them could make more of an effort if they wanted to, but they choose not to, making their dislike for each other glaringly apparent.
Sensing my discomfort, Annie hastily offers to show us to our table, saving me the challange of talking for us all.
As she pushes open a large glass door to our right, I realise that I was so focused on the decor that I missed the giant partition wall that now separates the restaurant and bar.
"Oh my god, you kept this under your hat Annie!" I look around the place again like it's my first time here, in a way it is.
"I did," she says gleefully, "I wanted to give the people that come specifically for food a little more privacy. They can still order out at the bar if they prefer, but we had the space, so I thought it would be smart if we seperated the two areas. Essentially, it means we can hit up two types of customers at the same time."
"How clever," Jamie muses to himself from behind us. I recoginise the look on his face when I glance back at him, he's impressed.
As Annie walks us further into the restaurant, I get a glimpse up ahead of us and feel my whole world come to a stand still.
There, sucking me in from across the room, are those painfully mesmerising green eyes.
He's here.
Will is standing by a table, laughing and joking with people who are total strangers to me. If he saw me come in here, it didn't phase him in the slightest, because it looks like he hasn't a care in the world.
Annie follows the length of my gaze, and instantly realises her mistake. Thankfully, Jamie is trailing behind a bit, giving her the chance to explain.
"Crap, I'm so sorry Izzy," she says quietly, "I should have called you. One of the new managers I hired didn't show up today, I was really stuck. I practically had to beg Will to help out. I was so flustered that I completely forgot to warn you."
We pass the table Will stands at, and for a split second, I think that his eyes flicker my direction, but it's so fleeting that it could have been my mind playing tricks.
"Don't worry about it," I reassure her, "this was bound to happen eventually."
I can feel my heart thumping like it's attempting to escape my chest. How did I somehow forget the physical reaction I have when I'm around him? I have to focus on the steps I'm taking just to keep myself calm.
"He won't serve near your table, I'll make sure of it," Annie whispers to me before turning and picking up the volume. "Here's your table guys," she chirps. "Have a look over the menu and I'll send someone down to take your drinks order soon okay?"
"That's great Annie, thank you so much," I say as she bounces away cheerfully.
I watch her wave to and greet people as she passes tables, making all of her work look so cool and effortless. I'd believe it too, if I didn't know how tough getting to this point has been on her.
I didn't expect so many people to be here. The place is buzzing with chatter. I spot Adam at a table with the other guys from the band and give him a wave. It's so great that he came to support Annie.
"I thought you said that Will guy wouldn't be here Izzy," Jamie notes as he looks over the menu. It sounds casual, but I'm sure that it's anything but. I had made a point of telling him that Will couldn't come when I first told him about tonight.
"Annie had an emergency," I explain, filling him in on what she just told me. "You don't mind do you?," I ask nervously.
He reaches across the table and strokes my hand. "Not at all babe, I was just wondering."
What a relief.
I pour my eyes over the menu, getting hungrier with every option I see. Everything sounds delicious. It's simple bar and grill food, but that's perfect for me.
I decide to order a blue cheese burger with house fries, while Jamie goes for a ribeye steak. They bring him out one so huge that I make a bet with him that he can't possibly finish it.
There's countless times throughout my meal that I find myself watching Will, but he hasn't so much as glanced my direction once. He and Annie are running around, pouring waters and gathering plates like their lives depend on it. I feel bad sitting here eating while they're so busy, I'd much prefer to be helping.
The two of them stop off at the endless amount of tables, sharing discussions and laughter with all of the people important enough for them to have invited here. It amazes me how I can feel so special to one of them, and yet completely invisible to the other. It's as if I never existed to Will.
"Told you I could do it!," Jamie says triumphantly, pulling my attention back to him. His plate is now entierly clear.
"Now that's impressive," I say, laughing at the sause that sits on his cheek. "Someone is going to have a belly ache later."
"You'll make it feel better I'm sure," he says, his flirtatious remark leaving me under no illusion about what it implies.
"Of course I will." I reply, feeling hallow when it should be the opposite.
When she finally gets a spare minute, Annie makes a pit stop at our table to check how everything went.
"It was unbelieveable Annie," Jamie commends her. "You've done an excellent job, I'd happily let that be my last meal."
Wow, now that is a compliment, especially from Jamie. I echo his sentiments though.
"It was delicious, thanks so much for inviting us Annie. I can't get over how quick you got everything together. The food, the decor, the atmosphere, it's all so beautiful, you should be so proud of yourself."
Annie beams ear to ear, its clear that the night is going just as well as she hoped.
"I'm so glad you enjoyed it guys," she says. "You're welcome to have dessert? Or you can move into the bar if you prefer. Most people are hanging around for a few drinks, it would be great if you guys did too. I'll be in myself a little later."
"We'd love to," Jamie answers for us, "thank you."
"Great, I want to introduce you to a few people Iz, so don't rush off!," she says before moving on to her next table.
"You must be pretty impressed if you want to stay Jamie?" I ask.
"We're enjoying ourselves aren't we?," he says. "And I'm sure Annie will appreciate it. Why don't we leave my car here and get a cab home later?"
"You mean to tell me that you're willing to leave your precious Betty in a public carpark overnight?," I tease, "Have you hit your head, or is this place growing on you like I said it would?"
"You know Izzy," he says, "I think I have to hold my hands up on this one, you might have been right about Annie after all."
"Really?," I ask eagerly. "You like her?"
"I respect her. There's a difference, but you were right all the same."
I'll take that small win over him disliking her anyday.
I go ahead and settle up the bill while Jamie finds us a table out at the bar. The waiter steps away to run my card, and in the small handful of seconds that I'm alone, Will decides to finally acknowledge my presence.
"So how was the food Isobel?," he asks.
My mouth falls open. That's it? No 'Hello'? No 'how have you been?', Or 'sorry I totally crushed you and left you high and dry'?Nothing?
"Hi Will." I reply, refusing to show any hint of sadness. I want him to believe that I'm as good as he is right now. "It was great," I tell him. "Congratulations, you've both done a wonderful job here, there's a lot to be proud of."
"Annie did all the hard work," he says, "I was just her lackey."
I smile at his humour, but I've no idea what to say after that, the atmosphere between us feels so heavy. It's a welcome distraction when the waiter arrives back with my card.
"Thank you so much," I utter to him as I hand over a tip. I give Will one last look, wondering if he has anything at all to say to me, but when I get nothing, I take the hint and my bag, and I move towards the bar.
"Did you try the cocktails?," he calls after me.
Bemused, I turn back to face him. "The what?" I ask.
"The uh… the drinks that you suggested to Annie."
His face flushes with embarrassment, making me wonder if he's been faking the unbothed attitude he's been given me all evening.
"Oh, uh, no not yet," I say, "I'm staying for awhile though, I mean, we are. Jamie and I. I'll be sure to try one."
I suddenly remember that Jamie is indeed here with me, and if he spy's me talking to Will, I have no clue what will come of it.
"I should probably go and find him actually," I say as I look behind me apprehensively. "I said I'd be right behind him."
Will's expression goes cold. "Yeah, and I doubt you'd wanna' upset him by getting caught talking to me."
My brow furrows, that's rich coming from him.
"That's not what I said," I say defensively.
"But it's what you meant," he bites back.
Will turns to grab the remaining dishes off our table, but theres no way I'm allowing him to get away with that, not when he's the one who wanted things this way.
"What am I supposed to do Will," I ask, "drop everything because you've decided that I'm worth talking to for a whole minute?"
He opens his mouth to speak, but I cut him off at the first syllable. "And then what happens?," I ask. "Do I get to wait around again for weeks on end in the hope that you offer up another few crumbs? No thanks."
A stunned silence is all I get in responce, it looks like for once I've rendered him speechless.
"Have a nice night Will," I say, before storming off into the bar.
When I find Jamie, he's seated in a cozy little booth waiting for me. I land myself in beside him.
"There you are," he says, "I ordered you a drink." He slides an overfilled wine glass my direction, "I wasn't sure what you wanted, but figured Pinot was safe."
"That's perfect, thank you." I say, finding it hard to shake off the exchange I just had.
Why would Will bother to approach me if all he was going to do was be an asshole? Did he not think ignoring me was punishment enough? Or was my hurt not obvious enough to him that way?
I take a huge mouthful of my drink, followed by a deep breath and a promise to myself that he wont ruin any more of my evening. This night is for Annie, and she is the only person I'm here for.
As the night wears on, the drinks continue to flow, and Jamie becomes more and more relaxed. He's even talking to other people. It feels really nice to be able to do this together.
We both tried a cocktail from Annie's new menu, I don't think I've ever had anything laced with so much alcohol or sugar, but it was really good. I only had one though, otherwise I'd have to be carried out of here.
Annie eventually makes it into the bar once everyone has finished eating. She enters the room to a round of applause and cheers, it completely embarrasses her, but I bet a part of her loves it.
When things have settled down, she pulls me away to introduce me to some of her friends. They're are all so sweet, and just as chatty as she is.
She also introduces me to the famous Sybil, the woman who showed her the ropes after her dad died. I'm probably a little buzzed and over excited to meet her, but I feel like I have to tell her how amazing I think she is for helping Annie and Will the way she did.
I also take advantage and ask her what they were like as kids, and I'm kind of surprised to find out that it was Annie who was the wild child. She tells me a whole bunch of hilarious stories about them, but insists that they were really loveable kids.
At one point, Sybil double checks my name before asking me a question.
"You're not the Izzy that Annie told me about are you?," she quizzes. "The one that Will has his eye on?"
Annie and her big ass mouth.
"Oh I doubt that, I'm just one of her friends," I say, trying not to sound upset about the fact that I can't say I'm one of Wills too.
Every now and again, as I talk to Sybil, I peer over to make sure that Jamie isn't bored. But he's busy talking away to people and seems genuinely happy, I even catch him watching me and smiling a couple of times. Bar that one blip with Will, this night has been so easy.
"Hey, big time!" Sybil calls to Annie, beckoning her over to us.
"Syb," Annie says affectionately, "what can I do for you?"
"Where's your brother hiding?" Sybil asks, "I'm ready to go and I want to say bye before I do."
Annie throws me a guilty look.
"Um, he's hanging out in the kitchen Syb, he's not one for all of this social interaction. C'mon, I'll bring you in to him."
I say my goodbyes to Sybil, while Annie and I share apologetic looks. I know he's hiding back there because I'm still here, so I think it's about time that I leave and let him enjoy the rest of the night with his friends and family.
Jamie is alone when I get back to the table, finishing off another drink.
"Hey beautiful," he slurs.
"Hey yourself," I say, giggling as he plants a sloppy kiss on my cheek. "Someone's enjoyed themselves!"
I eye up Jamie's empty glass, I'm sure that it only arrived to the table not even five minutes ago. He's sure put away some amount of alcohol tonight.
"I did, surprisingly," he says. "It was nice to see you buzzing around, did you have a good time?"
Jamie sways side to side as he talks, it makes him look really cute. I like drunk Jamie.
"It was a lot of fun," I agree, "but I'm beat, is it alright with you if I call us a cab? I'm ready to get out of here."
"Oh you are?," he says sugestively, running his hand up my bare leg before settling it just under the hem of my skirt.
I roll my eyes, knowing that he's all talk right now. I know Jamie well enough to recognise that I've caught him at a sweet spot where he's drunk enough to flirt, but will absolutely fall asleep the second we're in the cab. Still, I'm all too aware of where we are right now, so I gently brush his hand away.
"Don't do that here," I tell him, "there's a lot of people around."
"Oh no," he says mockingly, "do you think they'll know that we have sex sometimes?" He chuckles away to himself, entertained by his own joke, which in turn makes me laugh.
"Okay, funny guy, let's get you home."
I give him my hand, ready to help him up, but he has other ideas.
"You know what we should do?," he says leaning into me like he has a secret.
"What?" I whisper back, giggling at the childishness.
"We should go to the bathroom together," he says.
Of all the things I was expecting him to say, that one was nowhere near the top of my list.
"I don't think I'll be able to pee in front of you," I say, "but thanks for the offer. Now come on, we should really get going."
"Iz-zy," he presses further, "you know what I mean. Let's live a little."
As Jamie brushes my thigh again with the tips of his fingers, I suddenly realise exactly what he's getting at.
"You're not serious?" I ask.
"Why not?" he asks, "It's just a bar."
"Yeah, my friends bar. And it's filled with people she knows. No," I say firmly, "We're not doing that."
"But I've got something for you," he whines.
I'm puzzled by that.
"What do you mean Jamie?"
Without a word, Jamie takes my hand and pulls it toward him, pressing it against his crotch.
"Can you feel that?" he says menacingly, "I want you to take care of it for me."
"Jesus Jamie, stop that right now!," I hiss, trying to pull back, but he holds my hand there, griping my wrist so hard that I can't shake loose.
"Two minutes," he says, meeting my eye. "C'mon, let's go have some fun."
"Jamie, I said stop!"
The pressure he's putting on my wrist starts to hurt, and he's making it impossible for me to take it away.
I'm trying not to draw any attention to us, because it would be mortifying for everyone involved, but as if it could only be down to impeccable timing, Will picks right now to make his follow up appearance.
"Hey!" he yells over the music, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
He is pissed, and I am so far beyond embarassed that theres not even a word for it.
Jamie very quickly let's go of me, putting his hands up in pretend surrender.
"Oh hey, sorry about that Will," he says, smirking as he does, "looks like we got a little carried away, it won't happen again."
We?
"I don't care," Will says angrily, "this is my bar, not some club, don't let me see it again!"
He sounds furious, and rightly so, but I can't look at him. I want the ground to swallow me whole right now. I hope to god that he doesn't think that I was really about to do something? Oh christ, never in a million years would I do anything remotely like that here. He has to know that right?
"Not a problem," Jamie continues. He sounds so sleazy I could slap him. "Again, we're sorry," he says, "aren't we Iz?"
I nod my head, hoping that if I simply agree that this nightmare will end, but Will hovers for a moment, clearly conflicted.
I need him to walk away, I don't want anything to put a stain on this evening for Annie.
"Are you alright Isobel?," he asks.
I knew he wouldn't be able to leave it alone.
Jamie looks between us, tensing his jaw. "What do you mean? Of course she is, look at her, she's fine."
"Im asking her!," Will snaps back.
Jamie leans forward in his seat, appearing as
threatening as ever.
"And I said she's fine, rent-a-hero. So why don't you go on out back again where nobody has to see you."
A feeling of dread starts to rise inside of me, I'm worried that one of them might start something here. I try to end it all as quickly as a can.
"I am, I- I'm fine," I stammer. Thank you for checking Will, but I'm perfectly okay."
"You sure?" His eyes pierce mine. This is hell.
"Um-hum," I nod, feeling my mouth dry out from fear. "I think your sister and Sybil were looking for you actually, you should go find them. We were just about to leave."
"I caught up with them already thanks," he says, watching me carefully. I wish he could hear my thoughs begging him not to do anything stupid.
Giving Jamie one last death stare, Will begins to back away. "I'll see you around Izzy," he mutters before finally moving out of sight, allowing me to breathe again.
"That guy is a dick," Jamie grumbles.
"Yeah," I lie, saving myself any trouble. "You think we can go get that cab now?"
I need to get the heck out of here before I die of shame.
"Sure, just give me a minute," Jamie says, pulling himself up. "I gotta' use the restroom."
While Jamie stumbles off to find the bathroom, I take a look around, trying to spot Annie in the hope that I'll get to say a brief goodbye before Jamie gets back. At least that way it might save her a clumsy farewell with him.
I check just about everywhere, but I guess she must be in her office or something.
There's a couple of waiters hanging around the door to the staff area, so I double check with theme if I can sneak through to Annie before I go.
I quickly check her office, finding it empty.
I do notice that she's redecorated in here however, so I let the door swing shut behind me while I check it out. I'm really surprised to see that Annie has painted the walls a deep ivy green colour, I wouldn't have said it was very 'her'. Although it matches the chocolate leather couch she has in here perfectly.
As I reach for the door handle to leave again, it suddenly presses down without my touch. The door opens, swinging toward me with so much force that it hits me and sends me falling backwards to the floor. I look up in complete shock, trying to understand what happened.
What the...? How did he know I was in here?