Chapter Forty-Nine

**

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

“Oh hell no!” Mia shrieked as Jamie walked out of the bathroom. “There is no way in hell you are going out looking like that, not with us…”

“What?” Jamie asked, looking down at her clothes. “What’s wrong with this?”

“What’s wrong with it?” Mia asked, looking like she thought Jamie was crazy. “Everything is wrong with it!”

All I could do was laugh… Mia’d just found her next project.

“What else do you have with you?” she asked, dragging Jamie into my room.

“Uhm…a pair of jeans and a couple t-shirts…”

“T-shirts?” Mia said, turning to glare at me like this was all somehow my fault. “Letty…didn’t you tell her we were going to a race tonight?”

“I did!” I insisted. Last thing I wanted was Mia pissed at me…

“Yeah, she did…” Jamie added. “I just…I don’t really have anything but jeans and t-shirts…”

“Okay, fine,” Mia sighed, "we can fix this. Letty, go call Amber and see if she can meet us over at my place, wouldya? And ask her to bring her scissors and stuff.”

“See,” I heard her telling Jamie as I walked out of the room, “we don’t want you looking too slutty, but Vince is Vince… So you’re gonna have to show at least a little skin to get his attention.”

An hour later, we were all crowded into Mia’s room, she and Amber trying to figure out what to do with Jamie. I was actually pretty happy Jamie was there - for once, Mia wasn’t fussing over my clothes.

“Okay,” Amber said, hovering over Jamie with her scissors. “This isn’t like, your favorite shirt or anything, is it?”

“What are you going to do to it?” Jamie asked, a little hesitantly. She still looked a little green around the edges… I prolly should’ve warned her about Mia’s driving or something. Oh well.

“I think you should cut it…here…” Mia said thoughtfully, running her finger along Jamie’s waist. “Not too short, but enough so there’s some skin showing every so often… Vince likes that.”

“Yeah, but he likes tits better…” I added.

“Okay,” Amber mumbled, thinking aloud. “So we’re gonna chop the sleeves, the neck, and the hem…”

“Oh, don’t worry,” I said, noticing the panicked look in Jamie’s eyes as Amber started cutting. “She does this all the time.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Amber owns a single thing she hasn’t done something to,” Mia laughed. “Our own little Betsey Johnson…”

“Yeah, right…” Amber smirked. “Hey, Letty…go get me the pinking shears? I think they should be down in the back room…I left ‘em here the other day when I was working on that stuff for Mia. Maybe on the table next to the tv?”

“Okay,” I said, walking towards the door, trying to remember what the hell pinking shears looked like.

“Oh!” Mia added, “Bring some drinks up for us too, wouldya?”

“Fine,” I sighed. “Your regular?”

“Yep, that’ll work,” she answered.

“You want anything Jamie?”

“Uhm…whatever you have is good,” she said, still looking overwhelmed.

“Okay,” I laughed, walking out.

I found the pinking-whatever easily enough, right where Amber said they would be. Picked them up, wandered into the kitchen, and stood in front of the open fridge for a few minutes, wondering how the hell I was gonna manage to carry four drinks plus the scissors upstairs all by myself.

“You hot or something?” Vince asked from behind me. I hadn’t even heard him walk in.

“Godammit Vince!” I yelled as I nearly dropped the scissors on my foot. “Do you always have to sneak up on me?”

“Yeah..” he laughed. “Actually, I do. Tradition and all, you know.”

Back when we were kids, Vince and I had this little game we’d always play with each other. Kind of like a no-holds barred, tackle version of hide and go seek. Except not exactly. Mostly it was Vince trying to scare the shit out of me by sneaking up behind me and grabbing me or yelling in my ear or something like that, and then me running after him trying to get him back for it. So maybe it was closer to tag… Anyways, when things finally settled down between us he’d gone right back to doing it, like he was always trying to make sure that we were still cool.

“Yeah, whatever…” I smirked, smacking his arm. “You know, one of these days you’re gonna do that and I’m just gonna beat the shit out of you… Now, you wanna help me carry some stuff upstairs?”

“Why should I? Ain’t Dom around to do that shit for you?”

“Vince…” I groaned. “Just do it, wouldya?”

“Okay, fine,” he finally agreed.

“Good…here, take this…” I said, handing him one of Mia’s wine coolers. I grabbed a Corona for myself, a Miller for Amber, and stood there for another minute, trying to decide what I should bring for Jamie. Finally, I told Vince to grab another Corona and another wine cooler, figuring if she didn’t like the beer it would just be two for me.

Vince followed me up the stairs, nearly ran into me when I stopped right at the beginning of the hallway.

“Hey, V…” I said softly, in my sweetest voice. Which, granted, doesn’t work nearly as well as Mia’s, but I do well enough.

“What d’you want, Letty,” he sighed, rolling his eyes at me.

“Could you do me a little favor at the race tonight?”

“What’s that?” he asked slowly.

“Well…Jamie’s gonna be there. So, could you like…kinda look after her?”

“What’s she gonna be doing there?” he asked, sounding confused. “I thought she didn’t like cars…”

“Yeah, well I guess you changed her mind when you took her out the other day.”

“I don’t know, Letty… I don’t wanna spend the whole night babysitting your friend…”

“C’mon, V, please?” I begged. “It’s not like you’ll have to stick by her all night or anything. I mean, I’ll be around, and Mia and Amber too… But I’m gonna be racing, and Amber’ll prolly be with Leon most of the night. Just, you know…check on her every so often, make sure she’s doing okay, Mia’s not boring her to death, no guys are coming on too strong or anything…”

“Okay, fine,” Vince sighed. “I guess I can do that. But you owe me!”

“Yeah, whatever V,” I laughed as I walked into Mia’s room. “Okay,” I continued, handing Amber the scissors and her beer. “Here’s your Miller…by the way, remind Dom to get some more for you before tonight, we’re almost out.”

“Now,” I said, turning to Jamie, “I didn’t know what you like, so I got you a Corona… But, if you don’t like it, you can have some of Mia’s…”

“Girly shit,” Vince finished, laughing.

“Hey!” Mia protested, grabbing her drink out of Vince’s hand. “This stuff is good!”

“Yeah, sure,” I laughed.

“Uhm…” Jamie said slowly, trying not to move too much as Amber started cutting her shirt. “I’ll take the Corona, I guess…”

“Excellent choice,” Vince said, grinning at her before handing the bottle over.

“Okay V, now get out,” I smiled, pushing him towards the door.

“Whatever, Let…” he grumbled as he walked out. “I’m gonna head over to the garage in a minute. You guys’ll be over there after a while?”

“Yep,” Mia answered as she dug through her closet.

“Don’t get into too much trouble now,” Vince laughed. “No lesbian orgies without me!”

He just barely missed getting hit in the head with one of Mia’s shoes, and I could hear him laughing as he walked down the hall.

“God,” Mia complained, “he’s such an idiot!”

“But a gorgeous one…” Jamie sighed.

She was lucky Amber didn’t gouge her with the scissors…and I think Mia nearly spit her drink halfway across the room.

“Hey, I told you guys she was crazy…” I laughed, taking another sip of my beer.

“So you really like Vince, huh?” Mia asked after she finally got to breathing normal again.

“Yeah…” Jamie sighed. “You know, the only thing I don’t like about him is he doesn’t like me…or at least, he doesn’t act like he does…”

“Well,” Amber said, smiling, “we can definitely get him to like you. The only question is, will you still like him once you get to know him better?”