Page 6 of Accidentally Perfect

“Can we have two more of the sparkling waters with the extra fruit juices?” I ask the waiter as he starts to pass by.

After a hard workout at the gym, one that neither Troy nor I enjoyed, we went for a run. It sucked ass. Working out and running when you’re hung-over is not something I want to experience again. Recovering is another thing I've noticed that's changed since I’ve gotten older. “Why is it that we were able to party and drink our asses off and then get up for drills ten, twelve years ago, in the middle of the heat and sand, but today when we’re stronger, in better shape, it kicks our asses?” Troy asks as we grab the waters for the ladies we see lounging by the pool.

“It’s easy, we were, ten, twelve years younger. Youth beats strength any time.”

“Here I thought it was brains all this time.”

“If we had the brains then we wouldn’t have partied until three in the morning and then thought it was smart to get up at seven and work out.”

“True that.” he agrees as we make our way over to the pool.

We stand at the foot of the cabana watching the girls sleep. I can’t help but smile thinking of how much dancing we did, how much fun we had last night. Laney is stretched out on the lounge chair wearing a white two-piece with a big white hat covering her face. Stella is donning a yellow wrap around number and big black sun glasses. “If there's alcohol in those drinks you can go ahead and return from where you came from.” Stella says in a groggy voice.

“How are you girls feeling?” I ask as Laney pushes her hat from her face.

“I think we would be feeling a hell of a lot better if we were actually girls and not grown ass women. I believe age sucks away the ability to consume alcohol. It’s like you may grow in knowledge but your body loses the ability to metabolize alcohol.”

“What she said.” Laney adds. Troy and I sit in the extra chairs that take up the cabana. “Go ahead,” Laney swings out her arms and smiles. “Join us, again.”

I laugh. “So what have you ladies been doing this fine morning?”

“Well, I’ve been telling Laney here about the facts of life and how she needs to open her eyes every once in a while and see what and who is around her.”

“You don’t say. And why is that?”

“Because she tends to miss the details.” Stella gives me a wink while Troy laughs.

“Are you guys seriously talking about me like I can’t hear you? I get it, Stella. I need to really live my life and not go through the motions of the day-to-day. It’s just hard and you know why.”

“This is too deep for my hung-over ass.” Troy gets up. “I’ve just spent a couple of hours lifting weights and sweating my ass off after a night of heavy drinking. I don't want to talk about the changes we need to make in our lives at this point.”

“I hear ya, sexy. Let’s go hit the pool.” Stella gets up, grabs Troy’s hand and leaves the cabana.

“Do you want to join them?” I ask

“Not yet. I want to veg, you know. I don’t know when the last time was that I was able to just sit.”

“I completely understand. What makes it so you can’t just sit?”

“Life.” She smiles as she gazes onto the waters of the pool in front of us.

She looks over to me after a few minutes. Her eyes are shimmering this morning. Maybe it’s because of the glossiness of being hung-over that’s making them so bright, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen more beautiful green eyes than the ones that are looking at me right now. Her skin is brushed by freckles. Small, delicate marks that flow over her shoulders and down the cleavage of her chest. There's a small dusting of freckles that run across her nose. These little things I didn’t see last night in the darkness of the clubs, but now, in the light of the day, Laney is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. It isn’t just about the physical-ness of her beauty; it’s her as a whole.

I’ve met a lot of women in my life and only two have really made a positive impression on me, maybe because they’re my family. I may be a little biased, but I don’t think so. I feel that Laney’s right up there with my mother and my sister. My mother was very knowledgeable in life, maybe not in love, since she seemed to be blinded by it when it came to my father. But in life, she was brilliant. My sister, she’s sharp-tongued, witty and very perceptive. She’s just aware of life, of everything it holds. I’ve made a career out of reading people. First in the military and now as an owner of a security company, I needed to have that sixth sense type thing going in order to be successful in the business I’m in. If I wasn’t, then I wouldn’t be good at what I do, and I know that my firm is the best at what it does. Just ask the government officials who constantly call.

Laney is fun; she can give just as she takes. Stella kept her on her toes the entire time we were with them last night, Laney never once faltered. Whereas Stella is tough as nails with her no nonsense attitude, I see Laney as the exact opposite. I see such softness when it comes to her, but I can also see her strength and that’s what I’m most attracted to. She is an able woman, exceptional, really. “So, just life?” I look over at her. “You aren’t going to give me more than that?”

“Do you want more, because to be honest, I’m not sure how much more can be given. A few more days, at least for me anyway, and I have to head to my normal life. To my reality, my everyday real life. I think there are a lot of changes in my life that need to happen, like yesterday.”

“Does this have to do with Michael?”

From speaking with Stella the night before I heard the more detailed version of what went down with Laney and Michael. It wasn’t the funny version that she first shared with us in the beginning of the night.

“Not only him, not really. I knew he wasn’t a lifelong love. Hell, I knew he wasn’t love at all. I’m in my late twenties and I haven’t found it yet. Love, I mean. I’ve felt it. My father loved me fiercely. He showed it to me every day, so I’ve felt love. The completeness it makes you feel, the safety net of it. But I haven’t found it outside of my family I thought I had, with Brad, but I didn’t. Not really, not in the way I should have. I know for sure Michael wasn’t it. Those are the only two experiences I’ve had with love and none of them panned out.” She shrugs her shoulders like it’s not a big deal. But the sadness that overcomes her face as she talks about it says something different. “What about you?”

“Me?” She asks me like she doesn’t know or hasn’t read up on my life. “Love is something I’ve never really thought about. I never tried looking for it because the example that I grew up watching was destructive and evil. My father is a coward to greed and money and because of that, he's a rotten excuse for a man and a father. My mother treated him like gold and he did everything to make her look like a fool. Love was a one-way street in my house, she gave, he took and never gave anything in return. How can I as a man look to find love when all I ever saw it do was destroy someone I cared about?”

“That’s awful.”

“Well, that’s Joseph Riley for you. Prime example of asshole 101.”