Page 12 of Vesper Martinis

“Mm, I’ll be right back,” Minnie says, standing up. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

“You don’t know where it is,” I call out as I panic.

You’re going to leave me alone with him?

“I can find the bathroom. There are signs for it everywhere.” She waves and runs along the path.

I turn back to Pierce, who just looks at me while he eats his sandwich.

“Don’t like being away from your girlfriend?” he asks. The way he says “girlfriend” sounds like a sneer. Does he not like Minnie? He just met her, and who wouldn’t like her? She’s like a sunflower in human form.

“She’s not my girlfriend. Just my friend. And now my roommate. Temporary roommates. She just moved into town and needs to find a place for herself.”

Why are you telling him this?

“Really?” I can’t tell if he’s shocked that she’s not my girlfriend or curious about her looking for a place.

“Yup!” I pop the P and take another bite of my sandwich.

It’s kind of funny watching Pierce eat a sandwich. The jelly doesn’t exactly help the stickiness of the peanut butter, and I catch him trying to be stealthy, using his tongue to pry it off of his mouth.

Pierce chuckles. “Always so very hard to eat.”

I chuckle, too. Because a loose Pierce is not one I’ve seen before. Sure, we were pretty loose in that hotel room, but we were also a bit… sexually charged. This is more casual.

Pierce leans back on one hand and looks at my backpack where my sketchbook is. Anytime I go out, I put that in there. Drawing and painting have become a new hobby of mine. I drew as a kid but didn’t pick it up again until a few months ago.

“You draw?” Pierce nods to the sketchbook.

I nod. “Yeah.”

“Can I see?” he asks.

I pause. I don’t really show my drawings. Not because I think they’re bad, but I don’t tend to want anyone else’s opinion. I show them to Minnie but that’s different. She’s my best friend. Pierce is… not. But part of me wants to do it. Just like when he shared his story about the sandwich, that sneak peek into who he is outside of his boss mode. I want to give him.

So I pull out my sketchbook and hand it to him. He places his sandwich down on his leg and opens up the book.

He takes his time looking at each page, but his face reveals no reaction to the drawings. With my free hand, I grip my knee nervously. What if he doesn’t like them? He’ll probably tell me, and it’ll crush me. Given the shit he’s done to me at work, I’m anticipating a backhanded compliment or something.

He closes the sketchbook, hands it back to me, and then picks up his sandwich. Before he takes a bite, he says, “They’re beautiful. Maybe you can frame some and hang them in the bar.”

Just then, Minnie returns and I absentmindedly go back to eating my lunch. Minnie and Pierce talk while my mind swirls with what just happened. Sweet Cocktails had some of the best art coming out of Vancouver. Pierce picked most of it himself, and it’s usually the most expensive shit you can get. And he wants to put my stuff on the wall? A drawing I did on a sketchbook that I got for seven bucks?

I look at Pierce as he chats with a carefree smile on his face.

I’ve got this man all wrong. The question is: how much more of him will I see? Is this all I will glimpse into who Pierce Donnelley is? Part of me doesn’t want to push. The other part thinks this is important. That there’s a reason for everything. For the way he treats me at work to why he’s here having lunch with Minnie and me. And I want to know what that reason is.

I can only hope that one day Pierce will tell me.

Chapter 4

Pierce

“Fold,” Kenny says, tossing his cards on the table and folding his hands behind his head.

Every Sunday, my neighbours and I get together to play poker. Though I’d rather sit in my apartment and sulk in the dark, I figure it would be good for me to get out and do something not work-related.

We always go to one of their apartments. Not mine. I don’t let anyone in my apartment. Maybe my mother, but that’s it. It’s my safe place, and I’d rather not have too many people there.

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