by Wild, Nikki
“Yo, back up. Don’t come over here like you’re gonna start a fight because we’ll fuck you up.” Number Two said it, but it was empty. Even he knew by the time the sentence was half way out of his mouth that it didn’t have any bite behind it.
The trailer’s opening was at my back. The two dickheads were effectively cornered. Despite the logic, I had them outnumbered. I took two more steps and they backed up the same distance. Number One tripped over a stack of papers and fell on his ass. As I got even closer, I could hear his teeth chattering together.
“Mr. Eason!”
The voice came from behind me and it was vaguely familiar. I didn’t turn around. The anger had me.
“Mr. Eason!”
“You guys fucked up,” I whispered. “I gave you a chance to get yourselves off the hook.”
“Troy!”
That’s when it registered. A voice that had sounded far away, as if in a dream, when it was calling “Mr. Eason” ripped my attention to it when it called me “Troy.”
I whipped my head around to see Riley standing on the loading gate of the trailer with her hands on her hips. “What’s going on here?”
Was it Monday already?
The boys in front of me stared over my shoulders at her as if she was their savior. She was.
“Riley,” I started. “I didn’t think you’d be here until the end of my shift.”
Her hands stayed where they were and she only answered me with a cocked eyebrow.
“Go down to the office, I’ll be right in. I think I’m gonna clock out early tonight anyway.”
“I’ll wait right here by the truck,” she said. “It’s cold out here so if you’re done with your work, please hurry.”
“Sure.”
She stepped off the loading gate but held eye contact with me for an agonizing few seconds before she turned and walked a few paces out of view.
I wheeled back around on Numbers One and Two. They threw up their hands in self-defense.
“I’m only going to tell you this once,” I said. “I’ve been busting my ass to get my life on track and if either one of you decides to fuck with that, I’ll kill both of you. Do we understand each other?”
They both nodded like bobble-head dolls on crank.
“No shady stuff when I’m around… as a matter of fact, don’t do it at all. If the two of you think you’re gonna be criminals, you do it somewhere else. Got it?”
“Yes.” I think Number Two even said “Yes, Sir,” but he mumbled. It would have been a wise decision on his part if he did—probably the first one he’d made in his entire life.
I spun on my heel to go catch up with my beautiful keeper. It was possible—no matter how slight—that I could have given her less credit than she deserved. I would have expected a sheltered one like her to run for cover at the first sign of trouble. But to speak up when a bunch of rough guys were staring each other down… it made me think twice.
“You’re joking, right?”
“What?”
I gripped her by the elbow and tugged her toward the supervisor’s office. I wanted to get her papers signed and be away from this place as fast as humanly possible. She resisted my hand at first, but when I didn’t let go on her first attempt to pull away, she let me keep her arm.
“I show up to your jobsite for the first time and I walk in on what looks like you about to start a fight with two of your co-workers?”
“Aw, that?” I asked, incredulously. “We were just playing around. That’s what guys do on jobs like this. I wouldn’t expect that your dad or any of your brothers ever worked any manual labor, so I understand that you’re confused.”
She stopped short of the door and pulled her arm away for real this time. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means,” I challenged. At first I was just giving her a hard time, but now I wasn’t so sure anymore.
“So, what? You think I’m just some clueless kid from a wealthy family?”
“You said it, not me.”
“You’re an as-”
She cut herself off and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry,” she said, changing the subject. How about we go get your supervisor to sign this form and then we’ll talk about what you think your future looks like here with the company.”
The weather was brutally cold so we moved the conversation to her car. I wasn’t surprised to see it was a fully-loaded current year Mercedes with aftermarket accessories.
“I need to verify where you’re living,” she said.
“Yeah, I write down on the millions of papers you guys make me fill out. I’m over on Cardale Road. Hell, your boss wrote the recommendation that got me in the building. What is there to verify?”
Riley started the engine and cranked the heater to the max. It was taking every last bit of effort she could muster not to start shivering in front of me.
“I know that,” she said. “But I have to make sure you’re physically occupying the dwelling.”
“The dwelling?”
“You know what I’m saying,” she said between exasperated breaths. “I have to sign off that you’re living where you say you are.”
“Why would I live anywhere else? Why the hell would I bust my ass to pay rent on a place I’m not staying at?”
“Jesus!” Riley slammed her hands down on the steering wheel. The beep of the horn made her jump six inches off her seat. “Why do you have to question everything I tell you? It’s part of the process, okay? Is that okay with you or are you gonna come up with more stupid questions?”
“Rough day?” I knew I shouldn’t laugh at her, but something about the way she got her anger out touched me in a weird place.
“Yeah,” she said in her smallest voice. “We had this work party last week and I drank a little too much. I’ve been trying to catch up on my sleep ever since and I guess it’s made me a little be short. Sorry.”
My jaw practically hit the floor. I wasn’t expecting her to drop the act long enough to let me see her true colors. The way her face changed when she did it got me a little excited.
“That’s all you had to say,” I told her. “C’mon, let’s go to my place. I’ll take it easy on you for the rest of the night. You can have whatever you need.”
Riley
My poise had always been a strong suit, but now it was more than wavering. After I snapped at Troy, he seemed to calm down a little. Maybe it was wrong, but I was just glad it worked. My nerves were rattled enough just from the pull his body had on me, but when the teasing was added to the top of the pile, I couldn’t take it.
He lived in a corner unit on the building’s west end. I checked my paper and the unit number matched up with the one we had on file. I don’t know what I was expecting to be different. I’d looked over the paper more times than I could count already. I think I just kept doing it because I was nervous.
“Satisfied?”
“I just have to come in and, you know, look around.” It felt so stupid to have to do this, but he was accommodating, if not a decent sport about it.
Of course, I knew he wasn’t lying about where he lived, but I’d always been taught to be a stickler for the rules. There was really no reason for me to have to go in there other than that.
“Whatever you say, Boss.”
“I’m sorry. I know this is an invasion of privacy and it’s my least favorite part of the job but I have to do it. I’ll be quick.”
Troy turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open. I stepped in front of him to walk in, but he caught me by the skirt and pulled me back. “Wait, let me check it out first.”
Looking around, I realized he didn’t exactly live in the greatest neighborhood. It wasn’t a slum by any means, but I guess a person had to be careful. Maybe I was sensitive after all the things he said to me, but it seemed like my brain had to highlight everything that came off as “out of touch.”
“Alright, come on in.” He flipped a wall switch that lit up a small lamp on hi
s side table. “Have at it,” he said, “but if you find my stash you have to promise not to steal it.”
“I’m not a cop, Troy. Even though I know you’re just messing with me, please understand that I’m not here to get into your business.”
“Really? Because that seems like all you guys at Fitting In ever do.”
I took the quick tour of his place. It was a small one-bedroom with a bathroom the size of a postage stamp so it didn’t take long. My head was hammering too hard to focus on the details, but I saw a bed that had been slept in and folded clothes on top of his dresser. That was all I needed.
“Okay, I’m done. That wasn’t so painful, now was it?”
He was kicking off his work boots and looking for something on the kitchen counter. “Not for me, but it looks like you’re struggling a little bit.”
“Huh? Oh, I just have a little headache. Once I get home I’ll throw a hot towel over my eyes and it will go away.”
“How about a couple of aspirin?”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t bother you; but, thanks.”
“Hang on a second.”
Troy stepped into the bathroom and I heard the medicine cabinet open and then close again. He rattled a bottle of pills in front of me. “Take two. By the time you get home, you won’t need that towel anymore.”
“Thanks.”
He weaved around me and went to his refrigerator where he found a cold bottle of water. He tossed it over his shoulder to me and after fumbling around for it for an embarrassing instant, I caught it and drank the pills down.
“So, how long have you been with Fitting In?” he asked. “It seems like you’re awful young to be doing a job like that.”
“That’s because I worked hard,” I said. “It wasn’t given to me if that’s what you were thinking.”
He cocked his head to the side and then shook it. “Nope. I wasn’t thinking that.”
“I graduated from school a semester early. This is my first real job.”
“Is that so?”
Troy was hustling around his apartment doing this and that. When he walked by me to get to his bedroom, he peeled his shirt off in one quick motion. I turned away before he could see my cheeks go scarlet.
“Yeah, it’s kind of always been my dream to do something like this.”
“Like what?” he called. “Deal with criminals like me who need to have their hand held?”
“No! Stop saying that. I’ve always wanted to help people who were-”
“Don’t you dare say it,” he warned as he stepped out of his room wearing a fresh t-shirt.”
“What?”
“I swear, if you end that sentence by saying ‘less fortunate’ I’ll throw you out of my house right now.” A smile flickered on and off his face like a broken neon marquee and I couldn’t tell how serious he was being.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I just wanted to help people.”
“Hey, I can’t argue with that. It’s a noble goal to have.”
He was standing straight ahead of me with his shoulders squared. He was wide at the top, thin in the middle, and sturdy at the bottom. My knees wobbled when he crossed his arms and coolly leaned against the wall. “Well, I guess I should get going. Thanks for letting me cross this one off the list.”
He didn’t budge and his grin didn’t falter. “Who says you have to leave now?”
“I… what do you mean?”
“We were just getting to know each other. This is the first time you’ve let me see the real person behind the wall. I gotta say, I kind of like it.”
He leaned into my personal space and I didn’t stop him. I put my hand on his chest… but I didn’t stop him.
“Really? I guess it’s nice to talk to one of my clients on a more personal level as well.”
“Mmm, yeah. Personal. Everyone is so impersonal these days.”
I pushed my hand up his pec and flicked a piece of lint from his shoulder. It flexed back against me.
Riley, stop it! What are you doing?
“This is nice,” Troy said, grabbing my shirt where it billowed out on both sides. “Feels like silk.”
“I… I don’t remember. It was a gift.”
“What about this?” his fingers walked down my sides to the hem of my skirt. His dark eyes almost glowed when he locked on to something he liked. He rubbed the material between his fingers for a tantalizing second.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked.
He shook his head, dismissing the question. Troy was the pragmatic type. There was a time and a place to talk about what was going on in our heads, but this wasn’t it. He only cared to live in the moment.
“Do you always dress like this?” he asked, raising his chin so that we could look at each other. He was at least half a foot taller than I was so I had to lean back to catch his eyes.
“What do you mean?” I self-consciously tugged my shirt flat against my belly.
“These designer skirts and high end blouses,” he said, slipping the button at my collar free from its binding.
“I don’t know. I guess it’s just my style.” My neck tingled where his fingertips brushed my skin.
“Your style is a six-hundred-dollar skirt from some store that I’ve probably never even heard of?”
“It’s just what I-”
He pulled me by the elbow until it turned me around. His hand stayed on me like a vice grip. A dull heat began to rise in my cheeks.
“I never understood that,” he said. Though I couldn’t see him, I could tell we was looking me up and down while he spoke. “What is it about you rich girls that makes you think that just because you have it, you have to spend it on bullshit?”
“Excuse me?” I said, trying to twist out of his grip. A calm, almost peaceful, look rested on his face. His fingers didn’t loosen on my arm even a little bit.
“I don’t mean anything by it, but it just seems like you’re trying to keep up appearances that real people don’t even care about. Are those million-dollar-assholes who work down at your office really that important to impress?”
Troy pulled me closer. I pretended to resist, but both he and I knew that I was faking it. I ended up standing on his toes. It didn’t seem like he minded.
“First off, you said my clothes were ‘bullshit’, so you can’t tell me you ‘didn’t mean anything by it.’ And second, just because someone comes from money doesn’t mean they’re too out of touch to be a good person.”
From this distance, I could smell the minty gum on his breath. The way he kept cocking his head to the side when he listened was making my ninety-two-dollar lace panties wet. He’d probably love the irony in that.
“Besides,” I continued, “this whole program seems like it’s working out okay for you. I didn’t hear any complaints when FI assisted you with getting in to this apartment.”
He nodded slowly, but the grin was only getting closer to appearing on his lips. Nothing I could say was going to faze him. “Yeah, but that was court-ordered.”
“Maybe I should just show up to our meetings in rain boots and a potato sack. Would that make this more comfortable for you?”
“Forget about the clothes,” he chuckled. “It was just a question. You ask me questions all day, so I thought I’d turn the tables.”
Troy’s eyes were like laser beams, boring straight in to my soul. He was the kind of man who could make other men nervous from across the room with just a look. According to what I read in his file, there were probably a lot of people who’d been on the business end of that look.
“Anyway, I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”
There was no shame in the way he studied me. When his eyes moved all the way up, he reached forward and freed another button. The material pulled further apart, exposing the top of my cleavage.
“Troy, this isn’t-” I shifted my weight to my other foot and it caused me to bump against him. The distinct ridge of his rock-hard erection prodded my upper leg. I gasped and stepped back.
This time he let my arm go.
“I’m listening.”
“Huh? I mean, excuse me?” My words were coming in staccato bursts. The feeling of his cock against my leg shattered any remaining façade that I was keeping my shit together.
“You started to tell me something.” He pulled his t-shirt away from his body and flapped it up and down to fan some air on to him. When he did, I saw the defined lines in his abs. My underwear was ruined.
“I… I was saying this isn’t appropriate. We shouldn’t be meeting this late. At least, not this late unless we’re at the FI offices. It’s my fault. I probably shouldn’t have come by.”
That grin finally spread across his face like wildfire. It was absolutely devilish now. “But… I needed my assistance,” he said, mocking me by sticking his bottom lip out for effect. “I’m a hopeless felon who can’t get anything done without the help of a great organization like Falling In.”
“Troy…”
He closed the small amount of distance that I’d just created between us. We were almost magnetically drawn to each other. “What is it, Riley?”
My name rolled off his tongue like he’d been saying it all his life.
“I… I have to leave now.”
What?! No!
“You do?” his tone was impossibly even and measured. “Then, I suppose you have to do what you have to do.” His head stayed still and his eyes remained uncovered passages into his deepest and dirtiest thoughts.
I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to go anywhere but straight into his arms. Visions of workplace drama and public shame danced in my head, but so did his rock-hard body.
“I have to go,” I finally shrieked, tearing away from him and falling into the wall.
Troy raised an eyebrow but didn’t say another word. I flailed for the door knob and yanked at manically. When it flew open, I stumbled into the cold night air and ran for my car like a fool. I didn’t have the guts to look back over my shoulder.