Read Border Crossings: A Catherine James Thriller for Free Online Page B

yet couldn’t help laughing at the scene.  Jamie had four guys eating out of the palm of her hand.  They hadn’t paid for any drinks since the first round of tequila.  The moment any of their glasses got halfway empty, someone was offering to buy them another drink.
    Taylor had retreated some feet away from Jamie’s new entourage, as she didn’t feel like being mistaken for a salt lick in a stag party.  So she sat back a bit and enjoyed the spectacle while Kendra was off bumping and grinding.
    She saw him coming out of the corner of her eye and thought to herself, Oh, boy, here’s a winner.  Khaki slacks, white, crocodile leather shoes no less, one of the lamest looking shirts she’d ever seen on anyone other than Disco Stew on the Simpsons and perhaps Mr. Furley from the old re-runs of Three’s Company, and a thick gold necklace complete with a gold medallion for good measure.  Oh, good Lord, she thought .  She wondered if Steve Martin was about to jump out next to the man and exclaim, We are two wild and crazy guys!
    “Hello,” said the man when he reached the bar, his black hair gelled back and a goatee trimmed neatly on his face, his lips opening into a thin smile revealing a gold molar glinting in the corner of his mouth.
    Sexy, she thought.  “Yeah, um, hi.  I’m waiting for someone,” she said automatically.
    The man’s face became taut, “Oh, really?  Because I’ve been watching you from over there,” he pointed, “and I haven’t seen you with anyone.”
    “I’m here with my friends,” she said, pointing to Jamie down the bar.
    “Well, I’m here with my friends,” said the man “So if you wait for your friends here at the bar, may I not also wait for my friends here with you?”
    Taylor wanted to be polite but she just really wasn’t in the mood for this kind of guy.  “Free country, I guess.”
    “Is it?” said the man with a smile.  “I don’t know about that.”  Taylor shrugged.  Weird one.  “Can I buy you a drink?”
    “No, thanks, I’ve got one,” Taylor said, holding her drink up.
    She turned her back a bit to him and pretended to be very interested in what Jamie was doing, but she could feel the guy standing directly behind her watching her.  “What’s your name?” he asked.
    She turned back to him.  “Taylor.  Look, I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but I’m just here with my friends.”
    “Well, as I said, I’m just here with my friends as well.  I’m Martin,” he said, holding out his hand.  He’d stressed the tin in his name so it sounded like ‘teen’.
    She shook his hand automatically although her thoughts were saying, Guy, take a hint.  “Well, nice to meet you, Mar teen .”  She then turned back around and did her best to ignore Mart een as best she could, hoping he’d buzz away like the annoying fly he was becoming.
    But he didn’t.  Instead she could sense him still standing behind her and it made her uneasy.  She took her drink and sucked on the straw, then set it back down. “That’s a nice ring,” he said, reaching around and trying to point at the cheap silver ring she wore on her right hand.  In doing so he spilled her drink and it sloshed against the front of her shirt and down her legs and she jumped backwards.  The man quickly apologized, “Oh, damn, I’m so sorry,” he said.  He reached for a stack of napkins and handed them to her, “It was an accident, really, I’m sorry.”
    “It’s fine,” she said, exasperated, taking the napkins and cleaning the icy pina colada from her shorts.
    The man called out to the waiter, “Pina colada, por favor.”
    “No, it’s fine,” said Taylor, realizing he was ordering her another drink.
    “Please, I insist, señorita .  I’ve made a fool of myself and the least I can do is replace your drink.”
    She was tempted to just turn and walk away but he seemed genuinely embarrassed so she did the politically correct thing to do and smiled half-heartedly and said,