The laughter was loud again and I hated that it was me and my miserable life that seemed so funny to him. Roan stood, slapping me on the shoulder. “There’s worse things in life than being all sprung over a woman.”
“Like?” I asked because I couldn’t imagine anything worse.
Roan’s eyes sparkled then, lit with something that brightened his dark skin. “Not being with one at all.”
Ten
Nash
The lobby was dark when I finally made it back to our building and the silence, the eerie quiet, put me on alert. There were only two people near the elevators, and I might have not noticed anyone at all, except one of them was Willow. Her back was to me, so she hadn't seen me, and I just stood there watching her twist a strand of her chaotic hair around her finger. Then came her laugh, sweet, high pitched, and I noticed with a start that she was laughing with the guy standing next to her. That’s when the alert I was already on flared and my temper made me a little hot.
She wore an oversized sweater and tights, boots that hit above her knee, and a chunky scarf that made her look like she’d prepared for a hayride in the country and not a Friday night sitting in front of her T.V. or, whatever it was that crazy chicks like Willow did when they weren’t reading auras and basically messing with the calm of complete strangers.
“So,” the guy said, as he leaned against the wall right next to the elevator. “You think that’ll work for you? Next weekend?”
“Yeah. Sure.” She sounded so excited, so upbeat.
Funny thing about jealousy; it stings a lot more when you’re the one feeling it, which made no damn sense in the least. I wanted her out of my hair. I wanted Willow to stop blocking my focus and keep clear of me. From the looks of it, she was working on doing just that. So why the hell did me seeing some muscled-up pretty boy standing a little too close to Willow, speaking with too much sweetness in his tone, make me want to tussle with him until he stayed the hell away from her?
“All right then, lucita. I’ll see you next weekend.” The asshole nodded at me as he walked away, but I didn’t bother to return the gesture. I was too damn focused on ignoring Willow as I reached in front of her to push the up button.
A small voice whispered in the back of mind, telling me the jealousy was misplaced. Willow was the opposite of what I wanted. She was all rainbows and noise. Impossible chaos and busy nonsense. That wasn’t the American Dream I should want for myself. At least, that’s wasn’t what I’d planned. When it came down to it, I’d always imagined being with someone classic, refined, elegant. Someone like… Harmony? Maybe it was the way she carried herself and how nothing about her reminded me of Willow. She made more sense. She fit the mold of a CEO’s woman. But then Willow pushed back the hair from her face, barely managing to contain the mass of curls and I lost my train of thought.
“Nash?” she said, standing next to me as we waited for the elevator to hit the lobby.
“What’s up?”
I could feel her eyes on me, that cool, calculating stare like the sun against my face, but I took a breath, not looking at her as I pushed down the need to ask her who the hell that guy was and why she’d been talking to him. I hated feeling this way—out of control and unable to handle myself, even if I kept silent. But damn, it bothered me that Willow was getting attention from anyone else—and bothered me even more that it had worked my nerves.
“Nothing’s up,” she said, looking up at the display as the numbers above the elevator got lower and lower. “So, I guess you’re still avoiding… things.”
My breath was loud as I exhaled, regretting that I hadn’t taken the stairs the second I spotted Willow in the lobby. But it had been a long night coming back from Roan’s and the lack of sleep and the stress of everything surrounding me had made me exhausted; my body felt like dead weights locking my feet to the tile floor as I stood there.
“Willow, I’m not in the mood.”
“Oh, you don’t have to tell me.” She looked to her left and I glanced at her, held back a head shake when she moved her gaze up and down my body. “Your aura is off again.” She waited a beat and I could have timed her next question down to the second. “You want me to—”
“No, I don’t.” I stared down at her, frowning when she looked a little hurt, but I was too damn tired to care that she hated my answer. “I’m tired. I just wanna crash.”
The elevator bell sounded and I waved Willow in, tired but not a complete ass, and she slipped inside, automatically pressing the buttons for both our floors. The ride up was slow, but then it always was. Mickey didn’t invest too much money in maintenance to anything in the building and the elevator was no exception. It was always getting stuck or stopping in the middle of different floors or, if it had been a really long time since it had been serviced, it would take a solid three minutes to move between floors. By how slowly we moved, I figured the ancient elevator was due for an update.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you.” Her voice was slightly breathless. I wanted to ask her about it, urge her on, but couldn’t take the risk.
“Thought you did that the other night.”
She moved next to me, flinging her hair over her shoulder and I caught a whiff of her shampoo. It reminded me of honeysuckle and sweet pea flowers, something I hadn’t been around since I was a kid back in the south.
“You know that wasn’t planned.” She looked down at the end of her loose braid as she raked her fingers through it, unraveling her hard work. “I’m… sorry if I was pushy the other night.” She glanced at me, holding my gaze for a minute longer than I’d intended. “I was, wasn’t I? Pushy, I mean.”
Something in my brain told me to give her something that would take the worry from her eyes, but I was nothing if not stubborn and even though Roan had promised I’d regret being all alone with my money and success, I wasn’t ready to give up on that American Dream quite yet. I had to play cool, let her know that I wasn’t interested. But, damn it was hard.
“You were fine. It was late.”
“Nash…” I recognized the tone in her voice. It went all soft and sweet and Willow's hand touched the back of my arm, standing closer than she should, but not close enough for what I wanted, dammit. I closed my eyes, wincing a little when she grabbed my hand. “I think I figured out what—”
But Willow didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence. The door slid open, and I stepped through with her right at my heels, trailing behind me, intending no doubt to continue the conversation in my place. But leaning against my door was a pretty chick with big eyes and a stupid grin already shaking her head at me, just because she knew me well. She was thinner than when I’d seen her last, and when she saw me, her smile went megawatt and I forgot about Willow for a second.
“Hey,” she said, glancing between me and Willow, her smile never dimming.
My crazy neighbor dropped my hand like my fingers stung her, and I could feel the tension snap as she stepped away from me. I should have explained. It would have been the decent thing to do, but my jealous ego was still smarting from Willow being chatted up by that flirty Puerto Rican down in the lobby.