Flopping down half the crap I’d carried from the car, I handed Tinley her drink and started to dig through the large bag for her meal.
“Chicken nuggets and fries,” I said. I smiled at her and her face lit up. She eagerly held out her hands for the fast-food goodness I was about to fill her tummy with. My sister would kill me later, but the smile on Tinley’s face right now was worth it. “Your favorite Aunt B food.”
“Nuggets, nuggets!” Tinley shouted with a wide grin.
Squeezing some ketchup into the top part of the little cardboard box for her nuggets, I glanced around to see who all was here today. A girl I went to school with stood at the swings, pushing her little girl, who appeared to be around Tinley’s age, while she talked on her phone. It was always strange to see someone I’d graduated with playing with a kid of her own. I couldn’t imagine having such a large responsibility at this age.
A guy who was probably in his mid-thirties sat at the bench to my left, watching a group of three little kids play. I hoped they were his, because I would call the police in a second if I thought he was sitting here scooping out innocent little kids. Even in a town as small as Croldcreek, you still had to watch out for weirdos and perverts. I imagined it was that way anywhere though. A little girl with her water shoe half off ran up to him yelling, “Daddy, my shoe came off,” and put my mind at ease.
“So, what are you planning on doing first?” I asked Tinley as I took a bite of my burger.
“Water!” she said without a moment of hesitation.
Glancing over at the water feature, I took a nibble off one of Tinley’s fries and smiled. Water would have been my first activity too. There was a mass of colored bathing suits cramming the entire area, but not one kid looked like they weren’t having fun.
“Can I play?” Tinley asked.
She quickly finished her meal and downed half her soda before I could eat more than a quarter of my burger. The anticipation of fun must have been too much for her. I took the trash from her lap and dumped it back into the bag.
“Go ahead, you can play,” I said.
She raced off at lightning speed and darted straight through the first sprinkler, laughing. It was a great sound. It made me wish I could visit with her more often. She was growing up so fast. I took another bite of my burger and felt a warm breeze blow through the park.
“Aunt B, look!” Tinley shouted.
Shifting my gaze to her, I watched her run and jump through a sprinkler that put nothing out besides a slight mist. Tinley made a high-pitched giggle and turned around for round two.
“Fun!” I shouted back.
Pulling my phone from where I’d crammed it into the front pocket of the bag Bonnie had packed for Tinley, I decided I’d check my Facebook real quick—on the off chance Jason had posted up a new status. I never made it to scroll through my news feed, because there was a private message from him waiting on me.
So, can I pick you up next Saturday for drinks at Shooters?
I nearly choked on my burger. Jason Bryant wanted to pick me up on Saturday to have drinks at Shooters with him? Holy hell.
CHAPTER TEN
JASON
I’d only been on the road for an hour, but I was starved so I’d taken a minute to swing through a fast-food joint. While waiting in the never-ending drive-through line, I’d snatched out my cell and sent Blaire a message on Facebook asking her out next Saturday. A bar near the college wasn’t the best place to go for a date, but I figured it might make things seem a little less awkward and hopefully it wouldn’t be as noisy as the party had been.
Those were my thoughts anyway.
If she agreed to go out and things went well, the next date would be dinner and a movie. I finished my cheeseburger, checked my Facebook, and nearly flipped a lid when I saw Blaire had seen my message already. She just hadn’t responded back yet. I waited for a while, browsing around looking at others’ stupid pictures and whiny updates they’d posted . Some people made Facebook such a drag. My heart began to race as a message from Blaire popped up on my phone.
I think I have to work. Sorry.
My head fell back against the headrest of my Jeep and I let out a long breath. Shot down. Either Blaire really wasn’t that into me, or else she was good at being vindictive and playing hard to get. I’d dealt with both before and in my experience, it was always the ones who played a little hard to get that were the keepers.
With a smile, I replied back:
If you change your mind, I’ll be the lonely guy sitting at the bar on Saturday night.
Instantly Facebook said she’d seen it, because she was “active now,” but she never replied back. Chucking my phone into the passenger seat, I took a swig of my soda and popped my Jeep into reverse. I’d given her something to ponder, and if she was the sweetheart from high school I still thought that she was, she’d respond back later tonight telling me that she’d be there. Maybe I was a dick for playing that whole guilt card thing, but what else was I supposed to do? I wanted a date with Blaire and I wasn’t above making her feel guilty to get it.
* * * *
It was nearly 8:30 PM by the time I finally made it to my apartment. It was a four-hour drive from Coldcreek, North Carolina to Dormere, Tennessee. I always took the back-road route. It broke up the scenery and cut down the straight-as-an-arrow highway miles to a bare minimum.
Central Ridge Apartment Complex had a total of five buildings, each of them marked with numbers and designated their own alphabet letter. Mine was 515 G in the second building. Why they started out with the number 515 I had no clue. The buildings were cookie-cutter—all a tan shade of vinyl siding on the top, fake brick along the bottom, and plastic-looking shutters at every window. They were fully furnished, adequately sized, and decently priced. Really, that was all that mattered.
Brian’s truck was parked in its usual spot, but not at its usual time. Normally Brian was a night owl, it was rare he was ever home before one in the morning. How he managed to keep up his grades, work, and find time to sleep baffled me. The dude was always on the go. But that was why we worked so well as roomies. We were hardly ever home at the same time to grate on one another’s nerves.
Cutting my engine, I climbed out of my Jeep and reached into the back for the duffle bag I’d stuffed with my weekend clothes. I headed across the parking lot and then through the breezeway toward the stairs. Taking a swig of my soda, I listened to the usual ruckus of the building with a smirk on my face. The couple in 515 E were at it again.
They were your stereotypical couple dealing with the love/hate syndrome. He’d call her a bitch and she’d smack his ass silly, they’d scream and shout, and then eventually the screams and cries of annoyance would turn to ones of pleasure as they made up, allowing the rest of us the satisfaction of hearing it whether we wanted to or not. Either the guy had some serious moves or else she knew what she liked and how to make it happen, because I was pretty sure no girl I’d ever slept with had sounded like that while I was going at it.
It had been about a month since I’d gotten any though, so maybe I’d forgotten all the noises I could compel a woman to make. If any.
Jogging up the stairs, I caught the stench of marijuana either seeping from beneath Cage Sanders’ door in F or drifting from his deck. Cage was a total stoner. The first time I’d met him was when I had been unloading my stuff and hauling it up the stairs to G. He had come out to lean against the banister and stare at me. The first thing I’d noticed about him was that he had a mass of dirty blond dreads. The second was that he wore a pair of cut-off shorts that were way too short for my comfort. And the third was that he’d had no shoes on. But it was the very first thing he ever said to me which stood out most: He’d asked me what my major was.
Shocked that would be the first question out of the mouth of a guy who looked like that, I’d answered with the truth and a lopsided grin, psychology, and then moved on. Cage had followed; he leaned against the doorframe of the apartment, lit the fatte
st joint I’d ever seen, and then asked me if I smoked. My answer had been “Sometimes,” because I figured a flat-out no wouldn’t put me on his good side. My answer must have been sufficient enough, allowing him to think I was a decent guy. Ever since then, he’d tried to get me to take a puff whenever I saw him. More often than not, I turned him down.
As I rounded the top of the stairs, heading past his apartment, I wondered if I would have the strength to turn him down if he asked me right now. I didn’t have to worry, though, because that moment never came.
Opening the front door to Brian and mine’s apartment, I walked right in on him and his girl going at it full force on the couch. I’d never seen Sarah butt-ass naked before, but I would be lying if I said I’d never imagined it. I would never consider myself a pervert, but with a body like Sarah’s, any guy was destined to have at least one undressable moment in his mind’s eye with her.
Sarah was tall, with a petite frame and long, lean limbs. She had the body of a dancer and rightfully so—considering she’d been a ballerina since childhood. She had strawberry blonde hair that fell straight as a board to her hips and skin the color of caramel. I knew it was a fake bake, or at the very least a spray tan, when I first laid eyes on her, because I had never seen a redhead with such naturally dark skin before. It wasn’t possible—there was no way she could obtain a golden-to-perfection tan like that from the natural sun with genes like hers.
Sarah jumped off Brian so fast, I thought there was a good chance she could have broken something of his in the process. From the way he was glaring at me, it might be a possibility. I downturned my eyes and covered them with my hand, but not before I caught sight of a tattoo I didn’t know Sarah had. It was a vine of some sort that zigzagged its way from her hip to her underarm. It was exotic and sexy looking, and I knew I would be seeing images of it for a while after this that would be beyond my control.
“Jesus Christ, Jason! What the fuck are you doing home so soon, man?” Brian asked.
When I opened my eyes I noticed he’d draped his T-shirt over his nether regions and was smoothing a hand over his face. Sarah had wrapped a sundress from somewhere around her and was scurrying to Brian’s room. It was safe to look now, safe to enter the apartment, but that didn’t mean I wanted to. This was beyond awkward. It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened between the two of us—hell, once it had even been reversed roles—but that didn’t lessen the sense of discomfort embedded in the situation any.
I rubbed my forehead and chuckled. “I said I was on my way home. I texted you and everything, dude.”
“I know, but damn it, I thought we had a little while. Shit! Now she’s gonna wanna leave. Fuck, man.” Brian tossed the T-shirt he’d been using to cover himself with at me. I dodged it and caught sight of his bare ass as he made his way down the hall to retrieve Sarah.
Closing the front door behind me, I laughed and tossed my duffle bag in the recliner. The couch would be tainted to me for a while, maybe forever. Murmurs from Brian’s bedroom met with my ears. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it didn’t sound like they were picking up where they left off. I wondered for a moment if I should head somewhere else for a bit to give them a moment of privacy so they could do just that, but then I remembered I was the one who’d just driven four hours. They’d just have to deal with my presence or go someplace else.
Dumping my watered-down soda in the sink and tossing the cup in the trash, I pulled out my cell and got on Facebook. The desire to see if Blaire had given in like I thought she would was eating me alive. I waited for the page to load and heard Sarah coming down the hallway.
“Hey, Jason, glad you made it back okay.” She smiled. “Sorry you had to come home to…that.” Her cheeks tinted a pretty shade of pink and she darted toward the door.
“Don’t leave,” I said. “You two can pick up where you left off. I can always sit on the deck if you’re worried I might hear something.”
She’d paused at the door and turned to glance at me over her shoulder. “I don’t think so, I needed to head to work anyway.”
“All right, if you’re sure.” I grinned, unable to help myself. This was such an awkward conversation.
“I’m good,” she said. “He might need another minute or two, though.” She flashed me a wicked smile.
I knew exactly what she was talking about and I’ll be damned if this little joking thing we had going didn’t turn me on, regardless of the topic. It was official, I really needed to get laid.
Sarah left without another word. I was glad, because it was wrong on so many levels for me to even be thinking about her the way that I was. Some guys were like that, I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t enjoy stealing another’s girl, nor did I enjoy undressing them with my eyes, or having fantasies plague my mind while in their presence. Shifting my attention back to Blaire and Facebook, I realized I still didn’t have the response back from her that I wanted.
“You’re timing totally sucks, bro,” Brian said. He made his way to the kitchen, dressed in a pair of blue basketball shorts, and grabbed himself a beer from the fridge.
I followed suit, popping the top with the belt buckle I’d bought for this sole reason. “Glad to see you have some damn clothes on,” I replied. “That was sick, man, don’t ever walk through the apartment naked again please.”
He chuckled and took a swig of his beer. “Well, next time coordinate with me a little better about when you’re coming back, don’t leave me guessing how much longer, because I apparently suck at that.”
“That you do.” I leaned against the counter and smirked.
“So, how was the trip? You get everything you needed to get done?” Brain asked. He knew everything I’d been going there to deal with. He also knew there was a possibility he might have to find a new roommate if things went south and were going to take longer than I anticipated them to, which was pretty much my life story.
“Mostly.” I fingered the bottle cap I had yet to throw away and stared off into space. “I plan on going back next weekend. There’s still a few things I need to get done and my mom should have the list of repairs by then.”
“Okay, so I hate to even bring it up, but do you think you might be gone for a while?” he asked.
I knew what he was getting to, but Brian was too decent of a guy to come right out and ask.
“I don’t think I’ll be moving out any time soon, if that’s what you’re getting around to,” I said. “I know I’ll probably have to go there more than one weekend over the next month, but I’ll still find a way to pay rent and all that shit.”
He shrugged a shoulder like it was no big deal, but I knew it was. Brian couldn’t afford to float the rent for me. He had a roommate for a reason.
“No worries, man,” he said.
“If I think I’ll be moving back or something for whatever reason, I’ll give you a heads up. I wouldn’t leave you hanging.”
“I never thought you would,” he said.
We both took a swig of our beers and ended the conversation.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BLAIRE
I had taken Tinley back to Bonnie’s around four in the afternoon. Bonnie had gotten a lot done in the sewing department and there was a large stack of boxes varying in sizes by the front door ready to go to the post office tomorrow. I’d pulled away from her house, realizing I needed to make more of an effort to spend time with both Bonnie and Tinley. My cell chimed from in my cup holder, alerting me of a new text. I waited until I was stopped at a traffic light before I picked it up to read it. It was from Paige.
You eating here tonight?
Yeah, on my way. Why? ~ Blaire
The light turned green and I set my phone back down. When I got to the next light, I picked it up again to read her response.
Ordering in Chinese and wanted to know if I needed to get extra.
I smiled.
Yes, please! ~ Blaire
My stomach grumbled at the thought of fo
od. Chinese food was a favorite of mine. A song I hadn’t heard in a while came on the radio and, for whatever reason, it instantly made me think of Jason. I turned it up and thought about the message he’d sent me last. Why I’d shot him down I had no clue. I’d already gotten my little bit of revenge and spoke my mind about what I thought about him and what he’d done back in high school. My declining him really wasn’t about that. It was more along the lines of I knew the type of guy he’d grown up to be and I didn’t want, didn’t need, to be around a guy of that kind. He was bad for me. He’d reel me in like a freaking trout and then toss me back, bleeding, like I was nothing. It was catch and release with guys like him. I’d witnessed enough of Paige and Lauren’s past relationships to be able to spot a guy like that early on.
Jason Bryant was definitely someone I needed to avoid.
The drive to my apartment was long, nearly forty minutes. When Calmount Apartments came into view a sigh of relief escaped me. I was dog tired. Lugging my exhausted ass up the minimal stairs leading to our apartment, I opened the door and was greeted by the heavenly scent of Chinese food.
“Hey, chick,” Paige said from the couch. She was stuffing her face with noodles of some sort. “You look like crap. Did Tinley wear you out or something?”
“She’s such a handful. I have no clue how my sister does it.” I flopped down on the couch beside her and plunked my heavy purse on the coffee table. “I took her to the park. At first I just watched her play in the water feature thing they have, but then she wanted to swing so I had to push her. Then she moved to the slide and wanted Aunt B to go down it with her, like fifty times. I’m so tired I think I might fall asleep while eating.”
Paige laughed. “I can’t believe how big she’s getting. I bet she’s so stinking cute now though.”
“She is.” I nodded. I scooped up a box of what looked like chicken fried rice and the fork Paige had set out for me.
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