Tempest Brewing Tropical Storms Part 1 Read Online Free Page B

she got back, Shane told her that Eric was
looking for her. Damn, she thought, I wasn't gone that long.
    As she approached Eric he starting singing "Opie
and Joy, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G."
    "What?" Joy demanded.
    "You got an admirer" Eric announced. Opie, or
whatever his name is, the hick guy that gave you the compliment
came back and wanted to know if you were working tomorrow. I told
him we didn't give out that information."
    Joy was disappointed but didn't let it show.
    Eric continued "But I shook my head up and down
as I said it." And winked at Joy.
    "Okay then, thanks" Joy meekly replied, "He's a
dentist from Georgia, first day."
    "Oh, did you tell him about Bourbon Street?"
Bourbon Street Pub was a gay bar that had pretty men in G-strings
giving lap dances to men on vacation with money. A few locals also
regularly frequented the notorious spot.
    "I did and he wasn't interested. Sorry."
Joy admitted.
    "He's all yours then girl, have a go at it!" her
friend shouted, as he walked away.
    After her shift ended she went to the bar to sit
and have her shift drink. Frank was sitting at the bar with his
mother Lee who had just gotten off her shift as well. They were
both smoking a cigarette and sipping cocktails.
    "Did you find what you went after?" Lee asked,
because she had seen Joy take off earlier. She didn't ask with
malice, just motherly interest. If Key West was a small community
with few secretes kept, the Schooner Wharf was like three families
sharing a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment. Any secretes weren't
kept for very long.
    Lee was truly a unique personality in the Keys.
Petite and tiny, in contrast to her tall and broad son, she had
Lucille Ball dyed red hair and an easy smile. She loved her 40 year
old son, loved her job, loved living in Key West and loved sitting
after work with a smoke and a drink.
    "It was nothing." replied Joy as she sat next to
the mother-son pair.
    "Thank means you didn't find anything, not that
it was nothing." Lee had a way of cutting to the point. In her mid
sixties and living in the Keys had rendered her an authority on
relationships and life situations. She had, after all, pretty much
seen or heard it all.
    Frank was sitting between his mother and Joy. He
tried to lighten the conversation with his typical opening. "What
to see a card trick?"
    Joy leaned towards him and kissed him on the
cheek. "Save it for the paying customers," she said.
    "Well okay then" Frank said, feigning to be hurt
by her rejection. "How about a reading? Just pick three cards and
I'll tell you your fortune. The cards don't lie." All that Frank
really intended to do was dispense some generic, ego-pumping
observations and a positive forecast to bolster Joy's obvious sad
mood. Joy picked out three cards slowly as she sipped her fireball
and Red Bull.
    "Ahh," professionally expressed Frank the
showman, "Seven of hearts shows a tall dark man in your life. He
finds you attractive and can introduce a stable force in your
life." Frank of course was referring to himself, but Joy
immediately thought of the dentist.
    "The jack of spades forebodes of deceit.
Following the seven of hearts, however; means that together all is
revealed."
    "Oh my, my, my, the queen of diamonds. The queen
is you and the suit tells of fortune and luxury in the future. It
says that all of your dreams will come true. How about that? All
lucky cards. Well, not the jack of spades exactly, but placed
between the seven of hearts and the queen it's all good." Frank
could sure create a magical environment, even if he tried to
further his own interests now and then.
    As she prepared herself to go home, Joy thought
about dinner. Without having talked to Brian, she didn't know if
she should cook, order in or what. Just as she was contemplating
dinner her phone buzzed a text message. It was from Brian and it
simply said "Going night fishing with the boys, see you later."
    "Night fishing" was a euphemism that meant "I'm
smoking pot and drinking beer