Cocktail's lunch

“Things are running behind schedule, don’t dawdle, so we can be on our way.” Jodie had just gotten in the door and had taken off her coat when Adam’s mother Iris came around the corner. She didn’t think she was late, but making Brandon stop so she could purchase a pair of shoes to go with the new dress wasn’t a quick trip. Once upon a time Jodie was in and out of stores, but she must have tried on thirteen different pairs of heels till she found the ones she liked. They were so pretty, six inch heels with an inch platform for the rounded toe heel, the entire thing sparkled in the light form the silver glitter covering them. She hoped they weren’t too much, but they would go just perfectly with the dress and it wasn’t like she could wear anything lower than a five inch heel with how low the back of the dress went. Jodie bit her lip, she maybe could have asked them to shorten that just a little, but it was too late for anything like that. “I just want to like say hello and bye to Adam real fast.”

Jodie watched Iris put one hand on her hip, the other clutching her pocket book. “Dear, we are already running behind. I assure you my son understands the demands on your time if you are with me, but if you like you are welcome to spend the afternoon with him while he works instead.”

Giving the older a few quick nods of her head Jodie moved to put her coat back on when she stopped to look at her face in the mirror to make sure her makeup was still right. It seemed like she might be upset about being late and Jodie had just asked if she could hold her up some more and felt guilty for it, but couldn’t help herself when passing by a mirror. “You look fine dear, now we need to go.”

Following her out Jodie saw why Iris never had any trouble with the gravel and wearing heels. The large black suv had been pulled up directly in front of the door for her to step into and a uniformed man stood outside it ready to open the door. Now she felt extra guilty, he looked cold standing there waiting for them to get inside. “I’m totally sorry I made you had to wait because of me.” she said to the man as she got into the vehicle, making sure her long skirt was smooth as she got inside.

“No real sense in talking to him, I don’t believe he speaks much english.” Iris said to Jodie, both sitting comfortably in the leather warmed back seat of the SUV. “He gets our itinerary before we depart. The man is marvelous, always on time and just always seems to avoid traffic. No talking back and you know your conversation is private. Not everyone is getting a bonus this year, but I made sure my husband knew to give him a substantial one.”

The miracle of avoiding traffic was easy for Jodie to see, when she was climbing in she saw a phone on a little arm set to a map application and she was pretty sure she saw a single earbud in his left ear. The rest she wasn’t sure about, but it was nice to hear Iris was big on rewarding those that did their job well. That seemed like one thing she had in common with her younger son.

The building they went to was a warehouse, not some old rusted thing. It had a built in covered walkway for people to pull up and had a sign that read Cocktail’s Catering. Inside they were greeted by a young blonde thing that Jodie thought if she was running such a place she would also have left up front to greet people. She was cute with almost chipmunk like cheeks and a nice figure. Someone she would have tried to pick up at a bar, but with her cutesy voice she couldn’t imagine staying with her. Jodie’s mind wandered a little at that thought, the voice could be okay depending on how she was in bed. “Girl, we are going back now. Do keep up.”

Snapping out of it, Jodie moved to catch up to the pair as they went through a door into part of the warehouse that had about a dozen tables setup with different table clothes, napkins. Every other table seemed to have them folded in a different manner. All of them were setup with plates and silverware, and even had the large plate under the normal plate that Jodie never understood the point of. Now seemed like as good of a time as any to learn something about why there was an extra plate and the various eating utensils, just way too many utensils. “I like always wanted to know, what is the big plate for?” Jodie said, pointing to a large red plate that held an off white plate with a gold line around its edge.

“That is a charger plate, a decorative base and that red one with the plates over there on that table.” The employee pointed off to the other side of the room. “Is one of my favorite setups.”

The three kept walking to the far table and sitting on each plate with a tiny menu. “Our chef Alexander Dupont will be with you ladies in a minute. Could I get you a beverage while you wait?”

Iris waved her off, and while Jodie was thirsty she turned down the offer since Iris was. She wasn’t sure if the question was just to be polite and she didn’t want to sound more stupid than she already felt with asking about what a charger is. The idea of an extra plate sounded silly, just something extra that would have to be cleaned up, but at the time they did look nice and she thought about that red charger and maybe a green one to use for Christmas. Maybe she could do that for dinner to surprise Eric. She would need to find a place to pick up a nice dinner, it wouldn’t do any good to have a nice setting and ruin it with her cooking. “Tell me dear, what do your parents do?”

“My parents!?” Jodie was surprised by the question, she didn’t think much about her parents and she wasn’t sure the last time, if any someone asked her what they did for a living. “My Dad was a garbage man, he was like always gone super early and liked having the house quiet when he got home. He like, worked hard and expected the same from everyone.” She tried to think of something nice to say about him and the best she could come up with was he worked hard.

“Well at least he had a steady job working for the city.” Jodie was thinking about all the times the man threatened to throw his stereo away when she had forgotten to lower the volume before he got home from work. She was looking down at her nails, wishing she brought up another topic or she would have noticed the look of distaste on the woman's face. Jodie **** a smile to her own face, at least Iris was talking with engaging with her, that was a step in the right direction. “And your mother? Was she around?”

“Oh yes, she was around.” Around enough to be mad at me for trying on her eyeliner when all I wanted to do was look like a rockstar. “She worked part time at our church as a choir director.” If she was mad about eyeliner she would be furious to see her little boy now.

“A job with the city and working for a church. That sounds respectable…” Iris looked down at the menu they were to select food from, she had already looked it over and was going to try a sample of each to make sure everything was perfect. “Your first name, it was short for something wasn’t it?”

“Yes, my name is Jordan, Jordan Applegate Ma’am, but my best friend started to call me Jodie. She even got my name plate for my desk to say as such.” It was annoying at best when it happened, but Jodie fit much better with who she was. Jordan was always fine, it still was, but Jodie. That was like putting on a dress that hugged her body and fit just perfectly.”

Jodie figured Iris was not great with names, that was easy for her to understand she seemed to have a hard time remembering a lot of things recently. Just a lot of things didn’t seem as important to her and somethings that were took a back seat to other new things in her life. New things like that video on how to do a double braid into an updo she watched this morning. She had tried it and failed twice, before giving up and going with a single braid and pulling it to the side like she had done the previous day. While she was trying to think about what she did wrong someone else joined that at the table and Jodie let out a giggle as she realized she hadn’t been paying attention to catch his name.

“Today we are going to start you two lovely ladies with mini pork belly tourtieres. Slow cooked pork belly, cream cheese pastry instead of traditional pie crust. I promise.” The tall man took the time to look Iris and Jodie in the eye. “You will like this, and if you do not. I might eat my hat.”

The talk of food and it being lunch time made Jodie’s stomach gurgle. She was hungry, but the way he was sitting with the chair pulled away from the table and his legs wide apart. Her eyes went down between his legs as she licked her lips. “Mmmm you sound good.” Her mouth was salivating the food sounded good, but she was thinking about something else. “Oops, I mean like. Umm that sounds delish.”

“That does sound… delish.” Iris said watching Jodie be scandalous in her advances. This was the type of woman Adam brought home, she shouldn’t be surprised. “How about we try that with the Steak, blue cheese bruschetta. The smoked salmon deviled eggs and the greek salad tartlet bites. Then for something sweet the dark chocolate covered cheese with black sea salt and the Choux a la creme.” Iris looked over at Jodie. “French cream puffs dear.”

The word cream made Jodie look back to the man sitting by her, the Chef she had figured out. “A cream puff sounds exactly what I would like right now.” She touched a hand to her chest, right over her bosom and looked away from him, she needed to distract herself. She had never looked at other men like this, he wasn’t even handsome. She shook her head, it wouldn’t mater if he was handsome. She picked up the menu, they had been talking about appetizers and skipped right to deserts. “What about the main course?”

“Has something changed? Do you not like what we chose before? We of course can change, but you see we already had the delivery for the food to prepare.” Jodie go the impression she said something wrong as the man looked between her and Iris.

Iris let out a sigh, glanced at Jodie before she cleared things up. “Alexander, I would never change my mind the day before. I wish our schedules aligned better so that we could have had this meeting days ago, but Jodie here. She must have been distracted by something when you came out saying how much we are going to love the main courses we chose.” Iris said stressing the word something.

“Bonne,bonne. We are good then with the Cedar Plank Salmon, the smoked duck caesar salad and the seared scallops with basil risotto?” Jodie could still hear the worry in his voice even after Iris had assured him everything was fine. She didn’t recall them saying that at all, but she was thinking about… she wasn’t sure what she was thinking about at the time, just the tall man Alexander sitting down and… Jodie bit her lip, refusing to look towards the man again.

“Alexander here is one of the best cooks in the area, I have tried to hire him for my staff.” Iris shook her head disappointed even now at his replies to her request. “He stays here for love, his wife owns and runs the business. Though and please do not take this the wrong way Alexander, but you get awfully worried when you think someone might not like one of your dishes. Though I’m not sure that has ever actually happened to you.”

The tall chef smiled and let loose a friendly, but short laugh. “HA, ha. This is true, I can be.. The word. Sensitive, but that is only because my Zoe is so picky. I made this lamb last night and she would not eat a bite! This is why I do not wear a hat, I would have to eat it with how often my love has said no to my food. Though she has tried what I made for you today and she loved it. You will too.

Jodie smiled at Alexander, he got particularly animated when he spoke of his Zoe.Clapping his hands to his thighs the tall man stood up. Her gaze moving to his crotch as it got closer to her eye level while she was sitting. “Time for the food I think. I shall be right back and you will tell me how much you love my cooking.”

“So how are things with you and Adam?” Jodie turned her head slowly to look at Adam’s mother. How much had Adam told her about their relationship? Jodie thought, missing that she had noticed how Jodie was eyeing the man.

“We are totally fine and happy together. I bought him this thick ivory weather with a high collar and he did not like I could tell, but it looks so good on him. Did you have trouble with getting him to wear things when he was little? I mean he wore it, but I think he only did that for me.” The sweater was an impulse buy, she had gotten one for both him and Eric and by the time she gave it to them she was completely worried she mixed up the boxes. Adam was a much smaller build that Eric and they would totally not fit in each other's clothes. It seemed odd in retrospect for her to buy something for the man she wanted to break up with her, but it made her happy seeing him wearing it even if he should get a little better taste, because he looked great in it.

The shrewd woman put her hand atop Jodie’s, noticing how after asking the question she started to zone out. She wondered if this girl was really this much of an air-head or needed medication to help her stay focused on things. “Adam often does what Adam wants with little concern for what the family might think, but no as a child I do not recall him giving anyone trouble with what he was told to wear.”

Jodie giggled thinking of Adam the confident man that demanded obedience as the one following directions, though the way she phrased that answer was odd.

When the two finally left Cocktail’s Catering the vehicle was waiting in the same spot and she wondered if it was left here the whole time. They had been inside for over an hour and she wished she had thought about the driver. She was sure he would have loved some of the delicious food they got to taste. If she could eat like she used to, Jodie was positive she would eat an entire tray of that pork belly when the party happened, but as it was she felt so full. Between that and the overcast weather she considered taking a nap when they got back to the Wesker residence.

When the SUV pulled up to let them out Iris put her hand atop Jodie’s as the passenger door opened for them to exit. “Dear, it was a pleasure having you join me this afternoon. I am understanding why my son would be interested in a lady like yourself.” Iris patted the back of Jodie’s hand before she got out.

“I had like a lot of fun too, thank you!” Jodie yelled after her as she climbed out and giving a large smile to the man that offered his hand to assist her. Getting to her feet she leaned forward and gave him two quick kisses on the lips. After being with his mother and brother today she was happy to see Adam again.

“Was everything okay? Are you okay?” Adam asked after hearing the farewell his mother gave Jodie. He was close enough to hear the exchange and he was sure his mother was aware of that. The most he got for a greeting as she got out of the vehicle was her saying his name.

“We had a blast, I found out that she is giving a big bonus to her driver and that she wants the chef from the caterer to come work for her, but he wont because he wants to keep working his wife and oh my god Adam the way he talked about her was sooo cute.” Adam took the arm of the woman he loved and walked her inside as she told him all about the afternoon trip with his mother. Trying to not think about what his brother had said about their trip earlier that day.

“Your girl is hot, I will give you that and you know that bet we have? When we were in the dressing room, fireworks. She is a great kisses little bro, and while she told me she wanted my cock… well I decided she wasn’t for me. I’m not much into slopping seconds, even if I”m sure she would give a great hummer.” Adam had gotten angrier and angrier as he listened to his brother talking.

He wasn’t blind to how Jodie attracted other men, but she hadn’t been one to cheat. She was his and while she had her cravings and a little trouble not touching herself when he wasn’t around, in no way would she be thinking about his brother like that, let alone say those words. He was ready to explode, and then when he said sloppy seconds, that was it. Adam reared his arm back and punched his brother right in his cheek, then followed up with a punch to his gut. It didn’t matter if Brandon was bigger, Adam was not going to tolerate him talking about Jodie like that. “You do not get to talk about her like that.”

Adam was ready for the fight, he had fought his brother a few times growing up like he assumed most brothers did, but he had never won or even came close to it. It didn’t matter, not right now. Brandon stepped closer, but instead of pulling his arm back or charging he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a folded envelope and slapped it to his little brothers chest. Adam looked down at it, not taking it. He just looked at his older brother in confusion as the envelope fell to the floor. Instead of retaliating Brandon simply looked over his shoulder as he walked away. “The ten grand from our bet, minus what I paid for your… girl’s dress and shoes. You won the bet little brother, not like you should have though.”

Holding Jodie now felt like ice on a sore limb, something he should really do to his fist. He had sucker punched his brother twice and got away with it, but maybe he hadn’t actually hurt him enough for it to matter. He knew he was in good shape, but Brandon was like a monolith. It didn’t matter, the money was in his pocket and his girl was on his arm. Best of all she seemed happy and maybe that was worth owing his mother a favor.