Restraint is Useless Here

Chapter Sixteen

Author's Note: has it been almost a year since my last update? Yes.
Is this chapter almost 7300 words? Also yes.
Will it take me another year to write the next chapter? Odds are pretty good.
At any rate, thanks to anyone who still reads this <3

"And then. AND THEN," Jimmy shrieks, beer spilling from his bottle with a gesture toward his two friends—the dimpled one was already cackling while the green-eyed one shook his head sternly. "Matt ducks left and Zacky takes a right hook to the fucking eyeball right before the show!"

Anna watched as the others erupted into laughter, the glow from the fire pit lighting their faces. A whooping Jimmy doubled over into Zack's shoulder—who, despite being the butt of the joke, couldn't help but crack a smile, too.

"Mi amor!" Jimmy called, seeing that he'd nearly emptied his beer on the ground. "El tequila! Por favor mucho arriba!"

Next to Anna on the outdoor sofa, Maria clucked her tongue at Jimmy's poor attempt at Spanish. "That boy is wasted."

A phrase she normally used with such derision when they'd serve countless slobbering men at Diamond Bar. But right now, she didn't look annoyed.

Right now, she beamed. She beamed as brightly as a resting bitch face could beam.

Anna glanced up at Maria. "He does appear that way, yes. But what about you, mi amor? When did you get your I Heart Jimmy sandwich board? Maybe a bell to ring, too? Do you have time to discuss when and how all the amor transpired?"

"Good to see you still have that sass in tact," Maria's face resumed its stance, walls up, as clucked her tongue once more. "But not a chance in hell."

"About the same odds that you won't be hanging around this house regularly with us, then." This earned Anna the sort of searing glare that used to terrify those drunken male customers.

"AMOR," Jimmy shrieked again, capturing their attention. "Amor. Babe. Tequila. Right now my liver's doggie-paddling in the kiddie pool and it wants to fucking SCUBA."

"Dios mio, Jimmy!"

"Okay, okay," he held up his hands, twirling a stick in one. "You're right. I'll punish myself." An eyebrow rose suggestively. "Or you can punish me later."

Maria just stared.

"No? Okay, I'll punish myself," Jimmy cackled, rubbing his hands together. "Old faithful it is, then. Jim's going solo tonight!"

The strangest pair, Maria and Jimmy. Even in Anna's most suspended reality, she couldn't make sense of it.

"Better hurry, 'babe,'" Anna joked in a deep voice.

Maria shook her head but obliged. Standing up, she narrowed her eyes at Anna for a moment before lightly flicking her nose. "You know, I don't remember you being this much of a smart ass before. I'm not sure I like it." But a quirk of her lip betrayed her.

"Product of my surroundings, I guess," Anna replied, both of them glancing once more at Jimmy as he tried to rope Matt into singing something about a girl named Lucky. "But come on. I can't get a grip on this. Throw a girl a bone here."

"I like his mind." With a shrug, Maria smiled and began heading toward the wet bar. When she was certain nobody else watched her, she spun back around. "And speaking of bones," she hissed, then held her up two pointer fingers about 10 inches apart.

Oh. Oh. Anna squeezed her eyes shut in attempt to banish the image burned into her retinas, but failed miserably to erase the knowledge that her wonderful, sweet friend Jimmy was packing heat.