“Why? You remember something I don’t?” He gazes down at me, trying to read into the scowl I can’t wipe off my face.
“No, nothing.” The disappointment in my croaky voice is so impossibly obvious I wish I could suck the words back in and give this another shot.
“You sure?” He arches an eyebrow.
“Positive.”
He nods, turns away, and retraces his steps to the back door. Right. He was just on his way out. I watch him twist the knob, despising my stupid, flawless memory for remembering what his won’t. A split second before he’s out of the door, he shoulder checks me and says,
“Funny. One would think you’d remember my hands up your dress.”
My lips part.
He doesn’t give me a chance to pull myself together, enjoying every bit of the shock swimming in my gaze.
Then he’s gone.
“I’m so sorry I’m late. Traffic was crazy.” I burst into the empty pet store five minutes after the beginning of my shift. I had to drive Zoey back to her place, and truthfully, I wasn’t looking forward to an eight-hour shift alone with Jenny. It’s not that I don’t like her, but I can’t seem to get past her professional, guarded personality.
I’ve tried connecting with her, the way I’ve connected with Ethan, in vain. The two of us are worlds apart, which is weird considering the relatively small age gap between us. Behind the counter, Jenny is adding up the register cash. She doesn’t acknowledge my presence. She looks… sad.
Something’s wrong, no doubt.
“Jenny?” I request her attention.
She looks up.
“Oh, hey” is all she says.
Not a single comment about me being late for the first time. She doesn’t crack a smile or initiate her go-to polite chitchat. Trying not to look too far into this, I drop by the break room to dump my belongings and return to the storefront. Ten minutes of awkward silence later, I succumb to curiosity. The store is completely empty. Might as well confront her and spare myself a mind-numbingly boring eight hours.
“Jenny, what’s wrong?”
Color spills from her face. She knows she’s busted.
“That obvious, huh?” she breathes.
“I knew from the moment I walked in.”
“I’m going to put my happy face back on in a minute, I promise. I just need a second.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” I question.
“No, it’s fine.”
“Look, you can either talk about it or let it ruin the rest of your day.” I recycle my dad’s line. That’s what he used to say to get me to spill the beans as a kid. Taught me it was better to let it out, deal with your issues, and move on.
She pauses, hesitant to open up.
“So… there’s this guy,” she gives in.
She goes on to tell me she met him a year back. Some eye candy she was instantly attracted to. The feeling was mutual, but not only was he a taken man, he also had a kid with his partner. He kept coming in and out of her life, playing with her heart every time he felt like it, and while she knew he was wrong for her, she couldn’t stay away. I nod my head along to her story. She explains her family immediately disapproved of her dating him. Viewed her as a homewrecker. He’d constantly dangle promises of telling his girlfriend about them in front of her eyes but never did.
Until a while ago, when the guy’s girlfriend found out on her own. Jenny tells me she feels this relationship has been destructive and wonders if she made the right decision by staying with him.
She doesn’t elaborate after that, and I spend the first two hours of my shift comforting her. I end up making her smile again, which awakes an unexpected sense of pride in me. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Jenny and I can grow to develop a real complicity after all.
Will
“What the hell is up with you today, man? You still hungover or something?” Alex observes as he steps back into the ring, chugging the rest of his water bottle.
“I don’t know. Just a little out of it, I guess.” I wipe the blood dripping off my mouth with the back of my hand, and Alex grins. I have to admit he got me good.
“I don’t mind. I can beat your ass all day,” he mocks, but we both know he can’t pull off cocky. Alex doesn’t have a single bad bone in his body.
“Yeah. Try that again. See what happens.”
Alex is a good fighter, but I’ve been fighting longer than he has. I usually go easy on him, but today, my head’s not in it. It’s pounding like a little bitch, courtesy of yesterday’s party.
“Can’t really blame you. You looked gone last night.”
“You have no idea,” I mutter under my breath.
“Get any sleep at all? Or did Callie keep you up all night?”
Blurred, distorted memories wash over me. All I could see were shapes as Callie dragged my ass into a cab less than five minutes after Kass left me stranded with a boner.
“You saw us leave, huh?”
“The whole party saw you leave. Piece of advice, if you’re going to keep banging Callie Cooper, wrap it before you tap it. The girl’s been known to give dudes baby scares.”
I scoff. “Noted.”
I could tell him he’s got it all wrong. That even though Callie brought me back to her place, palming me through my jeans the second I stepped foot through the door, nothing happened.
But I won’t.
And I especially won’t tell him that it didn’t do shit for me. That she didn’t do shit for me. That I jerked her hands away before she could get my pants down and bolted. Frankly, I don’t think she’ll ever speak to me again. Not that I care. I’ve got more important things to worry about.
Like why didn’t she do it for me?
Is my dick broken?
Nah, it can’t be broken, dumbfuck. Not when it twitched in your pants when you saw Kass without a bra.
Fuck, I’m thinking about it now.
Yeah, definitely not broken.
“Where’s Kendrick?” I change the topic, glancing around the old, abandoned gym we use to train whenever we can’t work out in Alex’s attic.
“On his way over. He’s going to try, but no promises.”
I’m not the least bit surprised. Kendrick took such a savage beating that he had to slow down. We’ve been trying to get him back into the game unsuccessfully. We can’t push him too far for now, but we need our leader back. The timing was terrible, to top it all off. The fight Haze Adams challenged him to is coming up quickly. He better have his shit together by then. His cousin Winter’s future depends on it.
“Hey, you haven’t heard the news.” Alex captures my attention. “Blake’s getting back together with Kass.”
What the fuck?
“Sorry, he wants to. Told me he missed that ass last night.”
Again, what the fuck?
“Woah. Everything okay, man?” Alex flinches.
“Yeah, why?”
“You looked like you wanted to murder someone for a second there.”
I did?
I must still be wasted.
“Sorry.” I rub my eyes. “Just running on three hours of sleep.”
“Anyway, he’s going to be disappointed because I’m not covering for them anymore,” Alex resumes. “They barely got away with it the first time. Kendrick would rip his balls off if he found out Blake deflowered his baby sister.”