Days Of St Croix

Three

  Tibby saw Jas arriving and waved at him from a table near the back of the restaurant. She had gotten his text message that morning saying that he wanted to have lunch with her, Brand and Mills before they all traveled up to St Croix together in the afternoon. Jas saw her and waved back. He's looking fine, thought Tibby, checking out his tanned face and his ruffled hair. She had always had a little thing for Jas, even though they had never hooked up. Jas was Mills' property, and Mills was Tibby's best friend. Still, it wasn't a crime to look, was it? Tibby had made her father get a big table so that they could all sit together. She knew Mills would be arriving soon, and she expected Jas's buddy Brand to join them, too.

  They were all friends, really, ever since last year, when they had all been freshmen together at St Croix.

  As he approached the table, Jas spied Tibby's dad sitting with a glass of white wine and he cursed silently to himself. It wasn't like Mr Richmond wasn't cool, but Jas had some business to attend to. He had a large package of pills to offload, and he'd chosen Aramanth as a good place to meet his contact, Paige's older brother. Paige had set it up and everything. Now he would need to change his plans.

  "Tibby! Long time no see!" He leaned forward and embraced her, pecking her on each cheek, like he saw his father do when he met old friends. He thought it made him seem worldly and European.

  "Hi Jas! So great to see you again." She squeezed his bicep gently, but he was already turning towards her dad.

  "Mr Richmond, how do you do. You're well, I hope?" He extended his hand and shook Tibby's dad's firmly. Men like firm handshakes, he reminded himself. They're reassuring.

  "Very well, thank you, Jas. And please, call me Oliver. I trust your vacation was suitably relaxing?" Jas liked Tibby's dad. He had the sort of classiness that Jas hoped to exude himself. Polite, well-spoken, and permanently at ease. Still, he wasn't about to conduct a drug transaction in front of him, so he excused himself before he sat down and headed for the men's room, pulling out his cellphone as he went.

  Brand didn't have to walk very far to Amaranth. It was practically his neighborhood restaurant. His parents knew the owner, and they occasionally grabbed a drink and a bite there late at night when they got peckish. Brand was fond of it, too, and he was pleased that Jas had suggested it. He was even more pleased that Tibby was going to be there, since he'd had a crush on her ever since meeting her a year ago. In his mind she floated on air, and when Jas had started dating Mills at the beginning of their freshman year, they had hung out quite often. Tibby was friendly towards him, but it was pretty obvious to Brand that she wasn't into him the way Mills was into Jas. In fact, sometimes it seemed like Tibby was into Jas, the way she hung off him. Maybe he was just imagining it; Mills certainly hadn't noticed, and he wasn't about to mention it.

  As he rounded the corner onto East 62nd he saw Mills getting out of a cab in front of the restaurant. He waved to her,

  "Mills! Hey! Wait up!" He jogged up the block and they entered the restaurant together. Tibby's dad had ordered a round of Champagne, and they clinked their glasses as they settled into the soft fabric of the chairs.

  "Here's to your sophomore year - let's hope it's a good one!" Oliver beamed at Tibby and Mills. He didn't know Brand, although he had heard Tibby mention him a few times over the summer. He had met Mills when she had visited them over the Christmas vacation at their home in Lake Tahoe, and he had liked her immediately.

  "Camilla, how is your father's campaign going? He's running for re-election, isn't he?"

  "I think he's confident, but he's still pretty busy." Mills thought back to her summer on Long Island. Her father had shown up from time to time, but she had spent a lot of time alone. The beach house was beautiful - her mom had loved staying there as a child, and when she met Nestor and they got married, they spent their summers there. After Mills was born and her father was elected to the senate, he had returned to Fire Island from Washington on weekends during the summer, and the three of them would grill fish on the deck and watch the sunsets turn the sky to deep crimson. When her mom had gotten sick and it was clear she wasn't going to get better, she had wanted to spend her last few weeks at the house. She had died at home a few days before her thirty-ninth birthday. Mills was twelve, and she still missed her mom like crazy. Maybe that's why her dad was so obsessed with working while he was there; the house held too many sad memories. He would probably sell it if it wasn't for Mills, but she would never let that happen; the house was all she had left of her mom.

  Jas sat down on the toilet seat and fired off a text message to Paige:

  JasGen: P...slight prob...friend's dad is here...where's your brother? Need to arrange another meeting.

  A few seconds passed, and a new message appeared on his phone:

  PaigeGrrl: WTF? OK...I'll txt my bro...hold tight.

  Jas ran his fingers through his hair and pulled out the parcel and looked at it again. It was about ten inches long, five inches wide and three inches thick; the size of a man's shoe, more or less. It felt solid, and it seemed to have been vacuum sealed, because it was dense, firm and heavy. The bag was black plastic with no markings on it. In fact, it didn't look suspicious at all - it could have been almost anything. A thought started to form in his mind when his phone beeped again.

  PaigeGrrl: J...bro can't make it, stuck in traffic...can you meet him tmrw?

  JasGen: Shit, no...leaving for school after lunch...any other ideas?

  There was a pause for moment, then,

  PaigeGrrl: I have an idea. Can you leave it in the toilet tank?

  JasGen: What? R U crazy? No way.

  PaigeGrrl: Srsly...it'll be fine...no one will find it there.

  JasGen: R U kidding? Everyone hides drugs in the toilet tank!

  PaigeGrrl: Maybe they do in your school, but not in a Michelin-starred restaurant on the Upper East Side...it's perfect.

  JasGen: OK...if you think so

  PaigeGrrl: Hide it well, tho...that's $15,000 you're stuffing in a toilet.

  JasGen: Don't sweat...it'll be fine...txt me ltr.

  PaigeGrrl: XX

  Jas smiled. He was happy to do this small thing for her. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, but she got him excited in ways that Mills just didn't. It's not like he had cheated on Mills or anything; Paige had kissed him briefly when he had offered to take the package to New York for her, but that was all. Anyway, it was no big deal, it was just a favor. There were definite advantages to having a father with a private jet. In fact, he had invited her to fly to New York with him, but she had declined; she had promised her parents that she would stay in Carmel until the end of the week to look after the house. Jas was disappointed, but there was always the possibility that she would come later on. At least he hoped so.

  He lifted off the lid of the toilet tank and carefully rested the package on top of the valve. Then he replaced the lid, washed his hands, checked his hair in the mirror, and headed back out into the restaurant.