I sat there staring at her wrinkling up my nose, like I smelled something bad, as I considered her name.
“What?” She said pushing her plate to the side and propping her elbows on the table.
“Eva huh? That’s an okay name I guess.” I said tossing my wadded up napkin to the table, thinking that she looked more like a Casey or a Brandy or a something-y.
“Oh what, like Nick is such a great name.” She rolled her eyes. “It sounds like some two ton football player with no neck who uses the word ‘Duh’ as a verb.”
“Yeah, well Eva sounds like some old librarian who has fifty cats and talks to her dead husbands ashes for entertainment.” We both sat there staring each other down until she finally blinked.
“Okay fine, you win.” Pushing her chair back she stood up. “So what do you want to do now two-ton Nick?” Looking down at my watch I slapped my hand over my eyes and groaned.
“Shit.” A group of schoolgirls sitting at the table beside us with their teacher began to giggle. Did shit mean the same thing in German as it did in English?
“What?” Eva directed the question to me before turning to smile at the little girls, pointing at me and making faces like I was crazy which made them laugh even harder.
"I’m late, I’ve got like two minutes to get back to the hotel or Kevin is going to kick my ever lovin’ ass.”
Walking out the front door of the sandwich shop I started to run but was swiftly yanked backwards by the collar of my jersey by Eva.
“No way, I’m not running again.” She said as I let out a loud gagging sound from the jersey digging into my neck.
"Who says that you have to run? Who says that you have to even come with me?” I wrestled the jersey free from her grip smoothing it down.
“Hmmm.” she put her hands on her hips thinking about what I said. “I guess you’re right. I don’t have to come with you. Okay then see ya.” Turning around she stepped off of the curb walking in the opposite direction of where I was headed.
“Good riddance.” I mumbled turning to look over my shoulder to see if she was going to turn around and look at me.
Turn and look, turn and look, turn and look………………..
I said it over and over in my head as Eva disappeared around a corner never looking back.
* * *
Rounding the corner twenty minutes later, the hotel finally coming into view, I could see the vans idling at the curb outside. And as I got closer I could also see Trent our “babysitter” through the big glass doors of the hotel pacing back and forth across the lobby.
“YOU!” The loud booming voice could only belong to Kevin. Squinting I saw him hanging out of the open door of the first van pointing at me a pissed off expression on his face.
Stopping in the middle of the street I turned around and looked behind me pointing at myself and mouthing the words “Who me?”
“IN VAN-NOW!” Whoa, when did he turn into such a Neanderthal I thought to myself as I jumped out the way of a speeding mini car and jogged to the waiting vans.
“Okay you little shit where the hell are A.J. and Brian?” Kevin grabbed at the collar of my jersey dragging me into the van while spraying me with his saliva.
“Um, first off do you have a napkin or something that I can wipe this off with?” I said motioning to my spit covered face.
“NICK.” He roared in my face. I was pretty sure he must have had garlic for breakfast?
“What?”
“Where are Nick and A.J.?”
“I don’t know?” I shrugged smoothing out my jersey for the second time today. It was one of my favorite Miami Dolphin jerseys signed by Dan Marino himself.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“Well geez Kev if you don’t understand something as simple as I don’t -“
“Here they come.” I heard Trent yell from outside of the van.
Turning around I looked out the window just in time to see A.J. and Brian making their way across the street, backpacks in hand, no shoes on their feet.
* * *
“Where are your shoes?” Trent waited until both A.J. and Brian were safely inside the van before sliding the door closed.
“I don’t know.” Brian mumbled avoiding eye contact with Kevin as he slid into a seat in the back.
“Whoa that’s weird. How could you not know where your shoes are?” I piped up sitting down in the seat across from Howie who was sleeping soundly his head pressed against the window drool winding down his chin.
“We just don’t know where they are you idiot.” A.J. said sliding his gaze over to me as he sat down in the seat behind me.
“Hmmm seems to me like you would be the idiot then if you don’t know where your own shoes are A.J.?” He reached out a hand to cuff me across the back of the head but I ducked and swerved out of his way ramming my head into the van window.
“Ouch.”
“Serves you right.” A.J. mumbled as Kevin walked up dropping my puppy in my lap.
“Look Nick if you can’t take care of him then you aren’t going to be able to keep him with you on tour.” The puppy went crazy at the site of me, licking my face and making cute puppy sounds as I rubbed him all over.
“I am taking care of him.” I grabbed his little puppy face into my hands planting a big wet kiss square on his cold nose.
“That’s not what Howie said. Howie said you went out early and left the puppy in the room for him to take care of all morning.” The words were out of Kevin’s mouth before I could shut him up. Glancing over at A.J. I saw him narrow his eyes at me with a little smile on his face before looking back to Brian who in turn glared at me before mouthing the words “You are so dead Carter” in my direction.
* * *
Holding the puppy in my lap I rested my head against the window and tried to pretend I was asleep as we drove the forty-five minutes to the next venue. Feeling a light tapping on my shoulder I faked a snore that was a bit too loud to be realistic.
“You’re not asleep Nick.” A.J. hissed over the back of the seat.
“Am too.” Damn. Opening my eyes I smiled as the puppy growled in A.J.’s direction.
“We want to talk to you in the back of the van.”
“What if I don’t want to talk to you guys?”
“You don’t have a choice so meet us back there in two minutes.” A.J. stood up.
“Aren’t we going to synchronize our watches before you go?” I called out in an innocent voice that made Howie flinch before falling back into a deep sleep.
Counting to one hundred and twenty slowly in my head I picked the puppy up and walked to the back of the van where Brian and A.J. were stooped over, heads together talking in low voices to one other.
When they heard me coming up they quickly stopped talking and motioned for me to sit down across from them.
“Okay, where are our shoes?” Brian asked his jaw twitching.
“Why don’t you just buy yourselves some new pairs of shoes with the money you got from Devin for the stolen jewels.”
“Why don’t you shut your mouth before somebody hears you talking crazy like that Nick.” Brian hissed his eyes scanning to the front of the van to see if anybody was listening to our conversation.
“Did you tell anybody about what you saw last night?”
“Do you think that we would just be sitting here in this van on our way to the next venue if I would have told anybody what I saw last night?”
“Okay, okay.” A.J. motioned with his hand for Brian and me to lower our voices. “Look this isn’t getting us anywhere. Nick,” He slapped a hand on my leg. “What do we have to do to get you to keep your mouth shut?”
Scratching my head I clicked my tongue around in my mouth as I thought over A.J.’s simple question.
What did they have to do to get me to keep my mouth shut? Hmmmmmmmmm.
“God Nick don’t think too hard for hells sake, your brain might explode.” A.J. deadpanned making Brian laugh.
And then suddenly it came to me, clear as a bell. The one thing they could do to make me keep my mouth shut.
“You can take me with you on your next job.”
“Nope.” A.J. shook his head.
“No way.” Brian laughed.
“Why not?” I whined, just as Kevin’s hand clamped down on my shoulder making all three of us jump.
“No way what?” He plopped down beside me pulling the puppy into his lap and nuzzling its’ head against his chin.
“No way. Nick can’t bunk with us at the next hotel, there isn’t enough room for all three of us to stay in one room.” A.J. smiled like he had just come up with the cleverest statement in the world to throw Kevin off of our conversation.
“Says who?” Kevin looked confused. “Used to be that all five of us stayed in the same room, now your room isn’t big enough for Nick to stay in it with you two?”
Turning my mouth down in a frown I leaned my head against Kevin’s shoulder. “Howie snores and well…..well I just miss these guys and I wanted to spend some time with them….and….and they won’t let me.” I added a few sniffles in for good measure. Not the big exaggerated kind, just the soft kind like I was trying to keep from crying. Kevin totally fell for it.
“You guy’s let Nick bunk with you tonight.” He said ruffling my hair as I snatched the puppy from his lap and gave the little guy a squeeze.
“No!” A.J. and Brian both exclaimed at the same time.
“Yes.” Kevin leaned forward grabbing both of their heads and knocking them into each other. “I’m the boss and what the boss says goes.” Standing up he smiled down at me.
“Thanks Kev.”
“Anytime Little Man.”