Rescue Me

I rode in the golf cart with my mother, quietly watching the channel as we drove along curves next to Shelly Beach. We were on our way to the newly built Beach Club on the island, they had a private event room on one of their upper floors that my mother, Wanda, and Timothy had reserved for the evening. We rounded a corner and arrived at the elaborate new building. It stood tall allowing for guests to park in a shaded lot under the building. It was built next to the pool club, a quaint local hangout that was gaining in popularity again among the guests with families. Pulling into the parking lot, my mother and I left the cart and entered the building, getting into an elevator. She pressed the top floor button and up we went. I felt my heart rising higher and higher in my throat as we rose to meet the rest of our group. I only prayed that Wanda was able to talk my mother out of the initial party plan.

The doors opened, and we were greeted with hellos from Wanda and Timothy who were seated at the long table. Benedict, Tom, and Martin had not arrived yet. My mother and I walked in and I hugged our two friends, leaving them to get a drink at the bar. I greeted the bartender, who was an island favorite, and asked for a Bee’s Knees. As I waited for the drink to be made, the boys arrived. I let them be greeted by my mother and Benedict’s parents, choosing not to really make myself known at the moment. I thanked the bartender and took my drink, taking a large sip from it. I appreciated the taste of whiskey and honey as it ran down my throat. Tom joined me at the bar and he nodded at the drink, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

I turned so my back was facing the bar and I was looking out onto the room. I played with the small black straw in my drink as Tom waited for his drink. Taking a sip from his, he nodded, “This is strong.”

I nodded, “That’s the point.”

“How are you doing?”

I nodded again, “I’m doing fine.”

“Kaycie-”

“I’m doing fine, Tom.” I pushed away from the bar and moved to greet Martin and Benedict. I gave Benedict a smile and a short hug, and I made sure to position myself between his parents and Martin, not allowing myself to be pulled away by either Tom or Benedict. This did mean that I was at my mother’s mercy, but I was willing to sit in the jaws of the beast.

“Well isn’t this a wonderful gathering,” my mom said, “Although, I do wish that we were here to celebrate what I think is a great union, but since that apparently isn’t happening anymore, we’re here to just celebrate being together.”

My eyes flashed to Benedict at the mention of the union that could have been, and my chest tightened as I saw his confused look at me. I looked away and felt my neck grow red. I begged my mother not to notice, and thankfully she chose to move on to a different subject.

“Have you been to Harbor Town, boys?”

“No,” said Martin, “We haven’t yet.”

“Oh you must! Their yacht club isn’t anything to write home about, but they have a wonderful bar there and the restaurant is pretty decent. The shopping there is okay. It hasn’t kept up well, very touristy.”

“It’s a tourist location, mother.” I said.

“Well, doesn’t mean they have to change all of the shops to accommodate that.”

I scoffed, “The shops in that town haven’t changed in twenty years, mom. How bad can they be?”

“Would you like to take us over sometime,” Tom asked me, “We would love to have an expert show us around.”

“Oh that would be lovely,” said Wanda, “I haven’t been over in so long, we could make a day of it! Marlene what do you think?”

My mother smiled, “Well that sounds like a great idea! We could do a quick go around, have lunch, then the kiddies can go and do… whatever it is they want to do.”

“Sounds great,” said Martin.

“Indeed it does,” agreed Benedict.

I nodded and gave everyone a smile. I took another sip of my drink and thankfully a waiter came out asking us if we were ready to eat. We all agreed that we were all starving and sat down at the one table in the room. I was seated between Martha and Martin with Timothy and my mother across from us. I gave Martin a smile letting him know I appreciated him taking the seat next to me. He gave me a wink and we looked down at our menus. We all ordered, I went with a sea bass dish. We talked about the island, assessing if the boys were having as much fun as they thought they would. My mother talked about the games of golf she had played with other friends on the island. Martha and Timothy had joined her for a few holes, but both opting to spend time together walking the beaches. The conversation was nice and light, and thankfully my mother was distracted by her friends that she hardly made any snide comments towards me. I found that my drink had lasted longer than I had anticipated, but didn’t think that was a bad thing.

After we all finished eating, we sat at the table for a while longer, deciding if we wanted dessert or not. With the majority voting no, we all stood and the table was cleared. Music played softly through a sound system, an old crooners song. Wanda and Timothy smiled at each other and went out to dance in the room available. I went to the bar and ordered the bartender’s signature drink, a Candy Bar. I waited for him to make the drink and I watched the Cumberbatch’s dance. I thanked him again for his drink, and I took a sip of the cold dessert cocktail and smiled. I gave a small chuckle as I watched my mother roped Tom into dancing with her. I took another sip of my drink, and felt myself flush as Benedict made his way over to me. Holding out his hand, he asked, “Would you like to dance?”

I frowned, but set my drink down, “Okay.”

Taking my hand, he pulled me into him, placing his other hand on my lower back. I didn’t look at him while we danced, not really sure what to do. The last time I was this close to him, we had kissed on the beach. I wasn’t sure I was ready to face him again. We danced to the song with everyone else, then it ended. We all waited for the next song to play, and Tom took this time to cut in. “Might have this next dance?”

Not getting a chance to answer, he took me from Benedict and we began swaying to the next song. My mother claimed Timothy as her new dance partner, and Wanda had grabbed ahold of Martin. Benedict stood off to the side, but still close enough to me and Tom that he could have held a conversation with us if he had wanted to. Tom tried to move us away, but there wasn’t much room to move. At the end of the dance, Benedict stepped forward to ask for a second dance, but my mother beat him to it. I was instead passed on to Timothy.

“Having fun my dear,” he asked.

I smiled, “Much more now.”

He smiled, “Heard you and my son had a good night last night.”

I fought back a frown, “What all did you hear?”

“Oh, just that you spent the night with him after going on an intimate date. Ben told us everything.”

I let the frown show, “Everything?”

“Wanda told me everything too.” He gave me a warm smile, “We want what’s best for you, Kaycie, Wanda and I both. And if that means dating our son, we’ll support you. But, if that also means, not being with our son, we’ll support you with that as well.”

I gave him a smile, “Thank you, Tim.”

“We all know this is a hard time for you. We just want to make sure you’re moving at your own pace.”

“I am… I think.”

Leaning in closer, he whispered, “We also know your mother can be a bit of a downer sometimes. Wanda and I are trying our best to have her see things your way. Try to ease her up a bit.”

“Well thank you for that too.”

When the song ended, I took my leave of the dancing and grabbed my drink from the bar. I sat at the table as everyone slowly stopped dancing. We all milled around for a while longer then someone suggested going down to the beach. I finished my drink and followed everyone into the elevator. We reached the main floor and exited out a side door, walking down a flight of stairs that lead to a long deck that stretched out to shelly beach. I walked with Timothy and Martin and listened as Wanda and my mother made plans for going to Hilton Head the next day. Benedict and Tom walked behind us, and I felt two sets of holes bore into my skin, but tried my best to ignore them. We reached the beach and we broke off into groups. I drifted away from my safety blanket to move to the water’s edge which was higher up as the evening came upon us. I stopped just short of the pulsing shore line, and was joined by Benedict.

“How are you doing?”

I nodded, “I’m good.”

“Tom told me about the kiss.”

I closed my eyes as my heart plummeted into my stomach. Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes and said, “And?”

“I’m a bit burned by it, I’m not going to lie.”

I nodded. Turning to him, I said, “I’m so sorry, Ben.”

He shook his head, “Don’t be. I’ve… been thinking about last night. And I… I’ve come to the conclusion that I took advantage of you.”

I shook my head, “No you didn’t-”

“You were drunk, Kaycie. And I took advantage of your closeness to enact my own wishes. I was only thinking about me.”

“And you could have gone further than that, but you didn’t. Stealing a kiss is not something I think you should blame yourself for.”

Benedict nodded, “That’s good to know.”

Turning away, I added, “But I agree that it was a mistake. A really… nice mistake, mind you, but I can’t do this. I especially can’t do this to you, it’s hurtful and not fair.”

“And rather fast.”

“Oh God, yes,” I let out a small laugh, “So bloody fast.”

“I um… do look forward to going across the way with you tomorrow.” Benedict gestured to the lighthouse on the other side of the channel it’s beam flashing as the light circled at the top.

I smiled, “I am too.”

“Do you have any plans for us once we get across?”

I shrugged, “Unfortunately, no. Not without a car at least… or a bike of some kind.”

Benedict nodded, “Well, sounds fun anyway.”

I nodded and gave an involuntary shiver as a gust of wind tugged at us. I wrapped my arms around myself, and Benedict drew closer to me. He made to put his arm around my shoulders, but thought better of it. Instead, he shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around me. I smiled at him and pulled it closer around me, “Thank you.”

“Benedict!” Wanda yelled, “Come here please!”

Benedict smiled walking away to his mother. He was replaced by Tom, who stood with his hands in his pockets. I looked down at the shells on the beach and said, “So you told him?”

“I did.”

Looking up I asked, “Why?”

Tom looked away from me to the water, then said, “I don’t know. Jealousy I guess? Trying to spook him.”

I scoffed, “Spook him.”

Tom frowned, “Kaycie… it must be obvious that I like you… a lot.”

I nodded, “Clearly.”

“And it must also be obvious that Ben likes you too.”

I nodded again, “Yeah, last night was a pretty big indicator of that.”

Tom winced, “I can’t play off that what I did wasn’t juvenile.”

“No, you can’t.”

“We’ve agreed to… stay away from you… Ben and I have.”

“Doing a great job of it tonight.”

Tom nodded, “Yeah… we um… slipped up. Martin isn’t too happy.”

“Why does he care?”

“He’s the one who came up with the promise.”

I let out a laugh, “Wow. Mature. Two grown men need another one to come up with a way to settle their feud. Look, I appreciate that Martin is trying to help, and I appreciate that you and Benedict are realizing that everything that is happening is going way too fast, but I don’t need babysitting.”

“We’re not trying to-”

“I know. I’m just saying. But… next time when I say I’m alright, or go away, or don’t want to talk, please respect me.”

Tom nodded, “Yeah…. Yes. We will.”

I gave him a small smile, “Thank you.”

I patted him on the shoulder and walked past him, joining the group. My mother was complaining that it was a bit too chilly outside, and wanted to go back in. She offered everyone a fun time at our house, with myself bartending for the rest of the night. There was a round of general consent to move the party, which made me a little irritated, but I smiled at the group nonetheless. We all walked back to the Beach Club and entered our carts. I drove since my mother had had a little too much to drink and also hated driving at night. I took the quickest way back to our house, and parked in our garage. Timothy and Martin parked their carts in front of our house and my mother and I let them in. I took a deep breath and tried to maintain a happy disposition hoping that it would last as long as this night did. I held the door open for everyone, my mother walking in first followed by Timothy, Wanda, Martin, and Tom. Benedict was the last, lingering on the stairs. I held the door open for him, but he reached out and took it for me, his hand grazing mine.

“Go on,” he said.

I gave him a smile, blushing at his skin contact. “Thank you.”

I walked in, and Benedict followed. I took my shoes off, happy to be free of them, and led the way down to our basement where we had a large entertainment area. I took my position behind the wet bar, setting up all I needed to make an array of alcoholic drinks. I started off with a martini for my mother and Wanda. Chilling the glasses with ice water as I combined all of the ingredients. Tom, Martin, and Benedict watched as I prepared the drinks serving up two drinks for the women.

“How did you learn to bartend?” Martin asked.

“I did it in undergrad for extra cash,” I said, “Wore a low cut shirt and the tips would just rain.”

I made them each their drink of choice, and then poured a whiskey and coke for myself. I stayed behind the counter as I sipped my drink, listening to my mom and Wanda tell stories of when they were younger. The actors all shared stories of their times on set or on stage. All were embarrassing or amazing. I started to tune out the conversation, focusing instead on making more drinks and cleaning as I went. As the party went on, I refreshed everyone’s drink before excusing myself. I took my whiskey and coke and went upstairs and out onto our back patio. Sitting in a lawn chair, I tucked my feet up and held my knees to my chest. I looked out onto the lazy water of our pool, enjoying the silence for a moment.

The back door opened and Tom came out, “Are you alright?”

“Is this you staying away from me?”

Tom flinched, “I… guess not. I’m sorry, I’ll go.”

“You can stay if you want.”

Tom hesitated, but closed the door and took a seat next to me. He didn’t say anything, instead he sipped his drink with me. I looked over at him, expecting him to be looking at me all puppy eyed, but instead I found him looking at the pool. I looked back at the water and took another sip of my drink, and I found myself content in his presence. Finishing my drink I sighed and sat quietly with Tom.