by Piper Rayne
“Oh.” She puts the champagne Oscar purchased back down on the table.
“Please, go ahead.” I reach for the bottle, but she picks up her water bottle.
“I wasn’t here when it was opened, so…” She lets her sentence trail off at the end.
I’m glad to know she looks out for herself. “Have you seen Oscar?” I ask. Usually he’s on my heels all night, but when my mom called I had to step out to answer it. She’s still upset with me not making it home for Christmas this year and is demanding I get my ass home for Mother’s Day in a few weeks.
Teegan glances around to the other tables, mostly filled with couples making out. “No. Not since I went dancing.”
“I’m sure he’s somewhere.”
She inches away from me, crossing her legs and straightening her back. As she gulps down more water, her gaze remains on the dance floor.
“Don’t let me stop you from dancing.”
She shakes her head. “No. I need to rest my feet anyway.”
“Why are you here?” I ask the question that’s been plaguing me since I first caught a glimpse of her on my way back to the table.
“Soph. She didn’t want to be hit on tonight, so here we are.”
Should have realized it was the crazy friend’s idea. “You do know not everyone who comes into a gay bar is gay, right?” I eye her, my gaze dipping to her tits and then back up to her face. Her short dress clings to her body and she’s displaying more skin than I’ve ever seen her show, although she’s still wearing more than she is during my beat-off sessions when I’m imagining her every night.
“I doubt there are very many straight guys here.” She sips her water.
I slide closer. “What about you?”
“What about me?” She’s yet to look at me while we’re talking.
“Did you come here to get hit on?”
Her eyes move to mine like a raft in a lazy river, slow and leisurely. “What?” Her voice is low and unsure, but she’s staring into my eyes.
She has to feel this pull between us. The one that I’ve felt since she first walked into my shop. It’s half the reason I wasn’t going to hire her. My attraction was immediate, my lust out of control. Visions of her bent over my counter, ass for my taking, overtook my mind. Doesn’t she feel it?
Surely, she doesn’t think that I’m…no way.
“Teegan, you do know—”
“There you are.” Oscar falls into the booth, his hand grazing down my bicep as he does.
Every time I leave him alone in this place he comes back high. He leans lopsided against the plush back of the booth, mouth hanging open and his eyes half-closed.
“Whoa, you have your hands full.” Teegan’s gaze pings between the two of us.
I help Oscar into a sitting position. “Early night for Oscar.” I glance at him and then to her. “Do you want to come with me? We can drop him off and then I’ll take you home.”
Her lips are tight and her eyes have a strange quality about them, almost like they’re filled with sadness. “No.” She swallows. “I have Sophie, so I should make sure she gets home okay. I’ll be fine.”
I stare at her for a moment. Her friend. Right. Stupid of me to suggest taking her home.
“I can take you both home if you need a ride.”
Her usual smiley and happy self disappeared once Oscar came into the booth. Actually, maybe she’s been this way since she saw me. She seemed happy before I came to the table and even happier when she first saw me, but now…
“Thank you, but we’ll be okay. You have enough to handle.” She looks to Oscar, who’s now reaching for my hair. Looks like déjà vu once again and he wonders why I cancel on him every chance I get.
“Yeah, I guess I do.” I push Oscar out of the booth and he falls down to his ass.
“Hey,” he says to another guy walking past him. “Watch it.”
The guy glances down.
“Sorry, he’s going home now,” I say to the stranger.
The guy bites his lip while studying my crotch. “Lucky him.”
Teegan coughs out a laugh, cascading a stream of water all over the table. “Blunt.”
I nod. The stories I could tell her. With Oscar slung over my arm, I stand on the opposite side of the table, waiting for what, I’m not sure. I just don’t feel like leaving her presence. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yep. We’ll go over the plans for the interview and our travel arrangements.” Her smile is about as genuine as the fake Louis Vuittons they sell in Chinatown.
“Great. Thanks again for working on this.”
“Let’s go, Leo. I think I’m going to be sick,” Oscar says.
“You better get going.” She eyes Oscar one more time.
“Yeah. See you.” I take a few steps away, Oscar’s feet dragging next to me. I want to tell her to call me if she needs to. I’ll come and get her, but from the look of her she doesn’t want that. From the look of her she wants me as far away as possible.
12
Teegan
“I don’t get it. I swear he was moments away from kissing me, Soph.” I opted to run with her instead of my usual yoga class because I needed something a little extra to burn off the anxiety occupying my body lately. I’m not sure what I was thinking. I should be in a zen state right now instead of shin splint hell.
“We’ve been over this, Teegan. You’re projecting.” She slows her pace, so I can catch up. “Besides, that was four nights ago.”
Four nights ago and yet it feels like yesterday. Now I’m due to fly to New York with him in three days and we’ll be spending two nights there.
“Maybe he swings both ways?” I ask, making Sophie stop in her tracks.
She places her hand on my forearm, that damn concerned friend look marring her brow and suggesting that she knows better than me. “He doesn’t. It’s common knowledge that Leo Vaughn is gay. I’m sorry, Teegan, I know you have that destined feeling when it comes to him, but your gaydar is off and guiding you in the wrong direction.”
“He asked me if I wanted to go to dinner and a show with him in New York.” Our pace crawls to a walk.
“What did you say?”
“I said I had college friends I was going to catch up with.” Much to my dismay.
“Good. Don’t get too personal. Keep it professional. You’ll find someone else who makes your heart pitter-patter and Leo Vaughn will just be a client to you.”
Sophie couldn’t be more different than me. She’s all business and I’m not. I blame it on my mom and her inability to parent that makes me trust my gut. It’s gotten me this far in life. It chose the college I attended where I discovered my love for communications. It chose the apartment where I met Sophie. It’s guided me to a lot of good and now it’s telling me that Leo is the one, or at least that he’s a viable option.
“Maybe I should just ask him if he’s gay.”
“No!” Sophie yells and the people passing by gawk at us. “If you ask him”—she lowers her voice, leading me over to a bench—“if you ask him he’ll think you do like him, which means he’ll fire you. No one wants the stalker chick working for them.”
She has a point. “But—”
“You need the money, right?”
I nod.
“And you need him as a client so you can get more clients, right?”
I nod.
“Then ride this out. Wasn’t there a crush or something back in the day who you had to pretend you hated?”
I rack my brain. “Maybe in high school.”
“Good. Channel that. I remember there was this guy in my high school. King of the school. Every girl wanted him, but when he approached me to ask me to prom, I fluffed him off like I didn’t care either way.”
“This isn’t high school and he’s not asking me to the prom.”
Sophie rolls her eyes and stands then bends down to touch her toes. The guy running toward us fixates on her ass in the air, running into an older lady walking on the
path. She looks at him with disgust.
“Get up before you cause that woman a hip replacement.”
Sophie stands and looks around, not understanding what I’m talking about. “You’re just not getting it, Tee. He’s gay and obviously, this Oscar guy is his boyfriend. You need to disengage. Keep it professional, but act like you don’t give a shit.” She runs in place, her boobs bouncing up and down.
“You’re flaunting.” I point to her breasts and stand from the bench.
“Oh, they’re horrible. You’d hate them, believe me. My back and…”
I run next to her, ignoring her going on and on about the problems of having big breasts.
For the rest of the run we talk about her magazine and how she tried to get her boss to agree to pay for breast reduction surgery so she could do an article on it. He declined. She’s not happy. I’m not surprised—there’s little Sophie wants that she doesn’t get.
Me, on the other hand? It doesn’t seem like I’ll be getting what I want either.
“You’re late,” Leo says, his voice stern and boss-like.
“No, I’m not.” I walk through the door of his shop. I’m never late.
“Sorry, Teegan, I’m talking to John behind you.”
I glance behind me and sure enough, John, who I met a few days ago, is panting for breath, his bike helmet still on.
“Spare me, I almost lost my life,” he says. His face is red and if I had to guess I’d say he does look like someone who just faced death. “Hey, Teegan.” He bypasses me and walks to the counter. “Sorry, Leo, I swear the car doors were all trying to get me this morning.”
“Well, I don’t have time to be running this place by myself. I have a zillion things to do.”
John shoots me a fleeting look. I’ve never seen Leo so short with anyone before.
“And Teegan, when exactly are we leaving? I need an itinerary for the trip.” Leo rounds the counter, tapping his leg so Cooper follows. “Send it to me ASAP.”
Once he’s behind the glass of the salon, John shrugs off his coat and hangs it up behind the counter. “What’s up his ass?” He keys in on the register to clock in for the day. I slide behind him, my laptop already in my hands before I sit down.
“I’m not sure.” The print-out on the counter might give me a giant clue though. By the looks of it, it’s been printed off an online gossip site or something and the title at the top reads Canine Couture Owner Pawsitively In Love. Scribbled in the margin in ink is a note that says, Look! We made it into the press. Gay gossip sites still count, right? LOL.
“Oh, shit,” John says, picking it up. “Oscar?” he questions as though it’s absurd. “Leo is not gonna like this.”
I stare at John, confused. He glances my way and then stops moving. “Oh, did you think you had a chance?” he asks and laughs like I just told him I believe in Santa Claus.
“No, I didn’t.” I snag the paper from his hands.
The picture was taken last night, I was literally on the other side of Leo in this picture. Oscar is petting his hair in the booth, and whoever took it, it looks like it was done with a camera phone.
The paper gets plucked from my hands. “Do you two have nothing better to do but read a bunch of gossip?” Leo says and tosses the paper in the trash.
John’s eyes go wide and he presses his lips together, sidestepping past Leo to get to the floor. I’m thinking this is not the first time he has witnessed the wrath of Leo.
“Teegan, I need the information. I have to tell my dog sitter.” Leo eyes my computer and I quickly open it up.
“I’ll email it right now.” My fingers work overtime to get him what he wants.
“John, I need those marked down.” He points to the swimsuits he just put out yesterday.
“But they’re this season,” John argues, but puts his head down when Leo sends him a death glare. “Okay.”
Cooper rubs against my leg. When I don’t reach down to pet him, he slides under my legs.
I’m scared of your owner too. He’s rather grumpy today.
John busies himself with the sales. I email Leo the itinerary while he’s in the back shampooing some Labradoodle. I use the time to follow up with a few leads.
“Why do you come in here everyday?” John asks from across the store, eyeing Leo back in the shampoo station to make sure he’s not paying attention to us.
“Me?”
John shoots me a look to say, Who else?
“I’m a firm believer that I need to see day-to-day goings on so I understand the business and so I can get a better idea of what we can highlight in our PR efforts.”
“That sounds like bullshit to me.” His head is turned down to write down on the tags so I can’t tell if he’s serious or not.
“When you’re a PR rep you can give me your advice.”
“Calm your tits.” He’s smiling at me now. “I just thought maybe you liked the boss.”
“I don’t.” I’m quick to answer. The last thing I need is for his employee to think I have a crush. I don’t know John that well, but I do know he’d razz me endlessly about it.
“Okay, it’s just I catch you checking him out.”
“I have a boyfriend.” My stomach tightens.
Where did that lie come from?
My mouth. Shit. I hate liars and now I am one.
“You do?”
“Yes.” Shit, there I go again. I hop down from the stool. “I do look at Leo because hello, he’s hot. And”—I widen my eyes at him—“I’m not the only one in this store who does so.” I raise a brow.
At least John is playing on the right field. I’m outside the park waiting for a foul ball that’s never coming my way.
“I’m not even sure he knows how hot he is. I mean…” John glances over his shoulder.
My eyes follow his line of vision and my mouth gapes open. Leo’s shirt is soaked, indenting every muscle of his chest. The tightness in my stomach moves farther south.
“The man is positively sinful. But don’t ever tell Lloyd, he’d freak. He’s already jealous of him.”
“Lloyd?”
“My boyfriend. What’s yours’ name?” He continues to use the red marker on the tags, barely looking up.
“Um…” I try to pry my gaze away from Leo, but my head refuses to turn. Leo’s lips are moving to some song he has playing in the back, his forearms contracting, his hands covered in sudsy soap.
“Teegan?” I feel something poking me in the shoulder. “Earth to Teegan.”
I inhale a deep breath and look over my shoulder.
John is bent over the counter, knocking the red pen against his teeth. “If I look anything like you do right now, I can see why Lloyd is the green monster when he comes in here.” He laughs, shaking his head, heading back over to the clothing racks.
“What do you think is wrong with him today?” I ask, moving our conversation on from boyfriends.
His eyes veer to Leo, but only for a second. “He’s private and doesn’t like his business out for the world to discuss.”
“I can understand that.”
“Imagine you hooked up with someone and then it was plastered on a magazine the next morning.”
“Yeah, I suppose, but Oscar—”
“Oscar’s a douche. They’ve been having issues off and on for years now. Oscar’s just insecure.” John looks off into the distance. “I don’t really get it.”
“Get what?” I inch forward, wanting … needing more information. What am I missing?
John’s forehead crinkles. “Just, Oscar and Leo have worked side by side for years and—” John’s pen slips from his hand and it falls to the floor. “What’s in your coffee?”
“Why?” I sip my coffee at the exact point that Leo comes out from the back, new shirt adorning his body.
“I told you both already, stop the gossiping. It’s just the press. Why do they give a shit about my life?” Leo bends down behind the counter, digging around for something.
“Do
you really need me to answer that, boss?” John says, laughing to himself.
I laugh along, trying to lighten the mood, not really understanding the joke.
“Listen. It’s raining now and I can’t focus today. Both of you, take the day off,” Leo says.
“But—”
“With pay, John. No worries. I just… can’t today.” Leo grabs Cooper’s leash, the dog he was washing earlier already on another leash in his hand.
“I’ll gladly stay—” John starts.
“No. We’re not going to get anyone as long as the weather stays like this. People don’t like their dogs to get wet and muddy in this town. It’s like they think they’ll melt.”
Leo couldn’t be more right.
I walk toward the counter and start packing up my bag. Leo’s concentrating on something by the register and that’s fine by me. I don’t need my head bitten off twice.
“What are you going to do, Teegie?” John asks, putting his yellow raincoat on.
“Teegie?” Leo asks with a raised brow, and grants me a fleeting look before returning his concentration back to what he was doing.
“I think I’m going to go to yoga. I tried running today and it did nothing to relax me.”
Leo glances up once more and my heart speeds at the sight of his blue eyes.
“Borrriinnnggg.” John pretends to yawn and stretch his arms. “I’m going to the movies. Interested?” He playfully punches Leo’s bicep.
“No.” Leo’s voice is firm and a tad on the mean side. “Have fun.”
“Oh, I will. Thanks, boss!” John walks toward the front door. “See you, Teegie.”
“Turn the sign over on your way out,” Leo calls out and John raises his hand in the air.
“Bye, John.” I put the bag over my shoulder, ready to get out of the freezing cold temperature here in Canine Couture today.
A rap on the door startles me and my hand flies to my chest. An older lady in her mid-sixties stands there keeping dry under a Louis Vuitton umbrella. Leo walks past me with both dogs, unlocks the door and opens it.
“Hi, Mrs. Langley. Trixie’s all set for you,” he says to the smiling woman.