Tropical Heist

Plus 1

Jimmy's beer hit the floor with a loud crash, no one was prepared for what just happened. The voice continued behind me, but I wasn't paying any attention. My mind went into overdrive, all my flat mates left, I saw them all leave. How was someone possibly here? I was too scared to turn around and put a face to the voice, but I no longer needed to, as Ramon greeted her. It's maybe the highest pitch I've ever heard any guy hit, "Hey Zoe! How goes it?" he shrieked.

As I turned to look, I could understand why everyone else was so perturbed. It wasn't just the fact that she was there, but she was also scantily clad. I quickly turned away and gulped some of the beer down. Her attire made the whole room nervous, but what had me more wound up than anything was that this was Mark's girlfriend. At that very moment, it was hard to tell how much she had heard, or if she had heard anything at all.  

She went to the kitchen and grabbed a beer for herself while the rest of us shared a few nervous chuckles. "Get the mop," I said while signalling to Jimmy. Zoe grabbed a chair and propped her feet on the coffee table, which maybe wasn't a the wisest idea considering she barely had anything covering her legs to begin with. "So what are you guys up to?" she asked before looking at me and gesturing, "I thought you went to the dinner this evening?" Deep down, I'm sure she knew I wasn't going and just simply assumed she was making small talk, "Not this time, that restaurant is too expensive. Why didn't you go with Mark?" I rebutted just to simply nudge the small talk along. She answered but I didn't hear a word of it, my eyes were fixed on the twins, they were both using their eyes to signal me. The small talk wasn't really cutting it for them, it really wasn't for me either. We all just really wanted to know if she heard anything, and if she did, how much of it did she hear.

Zoe twirled her curly hair and giggled after every sentence. If you don't know her, she's someone people would quickly regard as ditsy, but she's definitely quite the opposite. In all honesty, I genuinely think that's her play, it's how she catches people off guard. That orthodontically perfected smile, and a few giggles here and there and it's like you're in a trance. Today, it wasn't happening to any of us. Just as Jimmy was about finished with the floor, Zoe pursed her lips and looked me dead in the eye. The tension increased ten-fold, my eyes darted around the room as if I was looking for an escape route. My focus then settled on Zoe, and the only words I could muster up were, "Umm, could you put on some clothes if you're gonna sit out here with us?"

"Oh skunt Steve!" roared Rory, "Are you serious right now? Just ask the raas question already!" The gravity of the situation hit me then, because prior to that I had never heard him curse, worse yet it's the first he's actually sounded Guyanese. Rory wasn't the religious type, but there's a quote he always referred to, "Manners maketh man," he would always say whenever I cursed. I jolted to action immediately and got to it, "Zoe, did you hear anything before the toast?" I inquired. The smile reemerged, "Why do you ask?" with a giggle that really erred more on the side of annoyance than being cute. I spoke directly now, in a tone that reflected my imposing physique, "Zoe, is a simple question u know my girl, just answer nuh!" Her smile remained ever so bright,  "The tellers or the safe?" she retorted, the giggle now absent and the smile slowly wiped away to reveal a smirk. 

Ramon's head was buried in his hands, and I could see a few grey hairs from where I sat. I don't know if they were there before or if the tense stand-off had a hand in it, but he was absolutely stressed. Ramon was never as composed as Rory but he was surprisingly handling better than his brother whose eyes were watery. It was as if a dam was about to break, but I guess the prospect of jail time could do that to anyone. Jimmy perched against the wall with the mop still in hand, his brows furrowed, but no real sign of discomfort. I could see  his lips move as if to say something and then he stopped. I heard a mumble from Rory and then Jimmy interjected, "I think the tellers are our best bet, wah you tink?" Zoe nodded ever so slowly just acknowledging his response with a look of disappointment on her face and then looked towards me, "Who is the point man?" If she didn't know before, the guys didn't make it difficult for her to guess, as they all raised their hands in unison and pointed to me. "Me I guess," was the reply, the booming tone was no more, as I was contemplating an escape from this whole debacle that were now faced with.

Jimmy had seemed to be conjuring up something in that head of his, and whatever it was, I wanted him to spill it fast. Even though I was seated directly beneath the ceiling fan, I was sweating bullets. The last time I was this nervous was 2009 during a robbery, and a gun was pressed to the side of my head. There were no guns in the room, but it surely felt like there was, as Zoe now held all the cards. She re-positioned in the chair and now asserted her dominance in the room, with both her feet planted firmly on the ground and both hands gripping the arm of the chair. The only thing she needed now was a crown and a sceptre to complete the look.

My t-shirt was now soaking wet, we were caught before we actually even did anything, what was I going to do. I glanced at Jimmy with a great hope, looking to him for a lifeline, but there was none to be had. He looked as stumped as I did. My eyes turned to Zoe again, this time she looked a lot lighter and her smile not as menacing. "I think the safe is the best option, that way we can get our hands on multiple currencies, you don't only want TT do you?" she said, "You're right, dat a guh tek more time, and that's time weh we nuh have," retorted Jimmy, "You didn't watch the heist movie dem? It's the greedy ones that get caught."

Words went back and forth between the two of them, while the rest of us just watched. They were engrossed in the conversation and Zoe's face lit up as she spoke, It's something I didn't quite see before. There was this excitement in her, for whatever reason I did not know. Why would a rich daddy's girl be excited about a bank robbery?  It was a hard concept to grasp, but if she's excited she might just keep quiet about it after all. 

The atmosphere was far less tense, it's almost as if Zoe was supposed to have been there from the get go. The conversation opened up with everyone adding their piece over another round of beers. The air was now filled with laughter, as we shared our favourite heist films and watched The Bank Job, which was quite a fitting movie. There was however still a very large elephant in the room, what's gonna happen with Zoe.

As the film rolled on and we were on maybe our fourth or fifth round of beers, Zoe chimed in, "When do you guys think this is gonna take place? we're almost at the end of the first semester." It was a very valid question, one which I didn't have the answer to, not yet at least. "We haven't worked it all out yet, but why are you so concerned though?" I asked, but if I was to be honest, it was already kind of obvious. "Well Steve, I've been here almost two hours already, I thought it would have been obvious that I wanted in, but I guess I wasn't forward enough," she said with her usual giggle and smile, "I wanna rob a bank."

I scratched my head and looked to the guys, who really didn't seem to mind. Jimmy actually gave a nod of approval. I pondered for a bit and then proceeded to express my thoughts, "Could you give us a minute to--"

"We don't need to think about anything Steve," Rory added while swiftly cutting me off, "I think it would make sense, I mean after all, she already knows." He was right in a sense, she heard just about everything, and it was either we work with her or run the risk of her ratting us out. Though I doubt that even crossed her mind. Ramon was still verbally silent on the matter, but it wasn't hard to see that he agreed with every word his brother said as he nodded after just about every word.

The more I thought about it, the addition wouldn't have been a bad idea. It wasn't even just the added help, but she had a lot more resources than we did. It would be almost criminal to pass it up. The guys all seemed to be on the same wavelength, and I would be a fool to engage the team in an unnecessary disagreement this early in the game. I did have one genuine concern though, what about Mark, was he gonna be involved? I wasn't comfortable with the team becoming too big. Something that's never really addressed in heist films is how important it is to manage your team. There's always the talk about choosing the right people with the right skills, but the right personalities were equally if not more important. Zoe would have added a new perspective to the all-male team, and she already gelled so nicely with them.

I took a sip of the now lukewarm beer and looked towards our new partner in crime. The team didn't really need my say-so but it just seemed appropriate.  "We'd be pleased to have you as a part of the team," I said, my voice booming with confidence, as I assumed the role of top dog. With a broad smile now plastered across my face, I went on to add, "Consider yourself invited to the party, but please, no plus ones."