Page 8 of Believe in Caloosa Springs (Caloosa Springs #3)
Porter
“I don’t understand why we are spending our free afternoon still working,” Henry complained as I pulled off past the gate and onto the highway.
“We’re not working,” I repeated for the third time since I’d told Henry I wanted to head into town and check out the dispensary. And the town, for that matter. I knew from the Google searches I’d conducted before coming here that Caloosa Springs was just a tiny little country place and didn’t have too much to offer as far as retail or fine dining went, but the pictures online had given it a nice, old-timey feel. If I was going to be living here for the next year at minimum, I wanted to see what I was working with. That’s what I’d told Henry, anyway. “Don’t you want to see our new home? You’re not curious?”
Henry sighed and opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “What happened to throw caution to the wind and abandon our entire lives for a new adventure and to live on our own terms ? Where’d that attitude go?”
I could see Henry rolling his eyes in my peripheral vision. “Yeah, we did the whole running away thing. It was very stressful, and now I’m tired.”
I chuckled, “Fine, we’ll just pop in the place real quick, check things out…” I paused, “ Buysomeweedandthenleave ,” I finished, quickly.
Henry whipped his head around and stared at me; his eyes wide as saucers. “You’re going to buy drugs ?”
“Is it considered buying drugs if it’s legal?”
“There’s not enough of the stuff back at the farm? I mean, we’ve been around it all day. They said you can’t get high just from being around it or smelling it when it’s not lit, but I definitely started to feel light-headed after a while.”
“I can’t say I had the same experience. Besides, they were all talking about building a big fire and grilling out tonight. I don’t know what the etiquette is, but I don’t want to show up empty-handed.”
“If we aren’t doing any drugs, why would we be expected to show up with said drugs?”
I turned my blinker on—not that there was anyone else on the road with us—and parked by the entrance at Booked. There were two other cars in their parking lot. I assumed (hoped?) one of them belonged to Mandy. I’d never bought any weed before, and I had some questions. I didn’t want to look like a fool in front of any more people that I had to.
“We aren’t doing any drugs… right, Porter?”
Without answering, I got out of the car and headed for the entrance. When I walked in, Tian and Mandy looked up from the computer screen they had been scrutinizing.
“Oh, hey… Henry , right?” Mandy asked with a half-smile.
They looked like they had been busy, and now I was nervous I had interrupted.
“Uh, Porter, actually. My cousin is Henry.” As I said his name, he walked through the door. I gave another awkward smile and gestured towards him. “Henry.”
Mandy nodded and then we fell into silence. Why was I being so weird?
“You guys just came to check it out?” she asked. “I thought Tyler was bringing everyone up to see the store tomorrow afternoon. Little company field trip.”
“Um, yeah. We just wanted to come check things out and maybe stock up for the bonfire tonight.”
Mandy laughed. “You work on a weed farm; you don’t have to pay for cannabis. Consider it a perk. Just ask Tyler for whatever you need.”
Maybe I’d messed up. Coming here now seemed like a terrible decision.
“Oh, okay. Sorry; I didn’t know. C’mon, Henry,” I smiled and gave a quick nod before turning to leave.
“Damn, Mandy,” I heard Tian say under his breath.
“Oh fuck, I’m sorry,” she said hastily. “I didn’t mean it like that, Porter. You are welcome to come in. Thank you for coming, actually. That was rude. I just didn’t want you to think that you had to pay for smoke.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine. We should probably have just waited until tomorrow. I guess Henry and I were just looking for an excuse to get out and explore a little bit.”
Henry glared at me, but I ignored him. I was getting really good at that.
“Where have you been so far?” Tian asked, his eyes taking on a silvery tone as the fluorescent light caught them when he tilted his head just right.
“Well, um… here,” I shrugged. “This was kinda our first stop?”
Tian nodded. “Well, having seen most of Caloosa, I hate to tell you that this is probably the coolest place in town.”
“Well, nothing like starting with the grand finale,” I joked. That made him smile. “So, I imagine there’s lots to do when the sun goes down around here?”
Mandy scoffed. “Hardly. Even the saloon closes at nine.”
“That’s not too different from back home.”
“Salt Lake?” Tian asked, quirking a perfectly-manicured eyebrow.
“How’d you know?”
“You both look like you just came off a Book of Mormon billboard.”
“We are LDS,” Henry spat, crossing his arms across his chest.
“Our families are LDS,” I corrected. “Anyway, we are having a bonfire at the farm tonight, and we just wanted to be prepared for the evening.”
“Yeah, I’m happy to give you anything you want, really. But I’m serious when I say there’s a stash set aside back at the farm for you guys.” Mandy cupped her hand over her mouth as if she didn't want anyone else to hear. “And the stuff at the farm is the good shit we reserve for ourselves. Actually, you know what…” Mandy bent down behind the counter, momentarily disappearing from view. When she came back up, she had two small glass jars in her hand.
“Take these and let me know what you think. It’s a new strain I just harvested. I’ve been playing around with different sativas trying to better isolate the terpenes. Particularly terpenes normally more characteristic of indica-dominant strains, like myrcene and linalool. There’s a strain in Nevada called Head Cheese that’s a sativa strain, but it’s really heady without putting you to sleep like most indicas do because of the unique terpene profile.”
I didn’t understand about three-quarters of what she had said, but she had stopped talking, so I nodded and said, “Sounds great, thank you.” I took the jars from her hand and quickly passed them over to Henry, who looked like he was going to explode. “So, are you guys coming out to the farm tonight?”
“Probably not. The Great British Baking Show has a new season starting tonight, and the smell of a fire always sticks to my hair,” Mandy replied.
“ Bake Off is on Netflix; you can literally watch that shit anytime,” Tian interjected.
Mandy curled her lip. “I thought you said you were excited for the new season, too.”
“I am, but I can be just as excited for it tomorrow. I’ve never been to a bonfire before. They tend to frown upon fires in the middle of Las Vegas.”
I chuckled, imagining some dystopian scene with large piles of burning rubbish in the middle of the Strip.
“I could pick you up, if you want,” I offered, my gaze falling to the floor. Did I sound too desperate?
“Really?” I glanced up to see a small smile cross Tian’s face.
“Yeah, I’d be happy to.”
I heard Henry huff out a breath next to me, but chose to ignore him. “Maybe I could give you my number, and you could just text me when you are ready?”
Tian pulled his phone out of his back pocket. “Sure.”
It was at that moment I realized I had no clue what my phone number was. It was brand new, and I’d never had to call it. I inhaled nervously. “Uh, I actually got a new number last week and I don’t know it yet.”
“Oh, okay. Mine is 702-555-1121.”
I punched the numbers into the dial pad as he spoke them and hit send. After a moment, his phone lit up in his hands. “Got it.”
“Cool. So, I’ll see ya later?”
“Yeah, see ya later.”
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