by Mia Madison
Her sentence didn’t stop until we were upon him, so my choices consisted of assisting him or fleeing like some kind of crazy person. The only thing that kept my feet stuck to the ground was the fact that she was totally right—I had to get used to it.
Besides, what did I intend to do if someone came in after she left? Ignore them completely?
“Hello. Can I help you with anything?” I rapidly forced out.
I met the man’s eyes and was surprised at the knowing look I found. My head tilted in confusion as he gave me a warm smile.
“You’re new here.”
How often did this man come to the shop that he would know that? Instead of asking, I settled for a mute nod. The bell jangled and I spared a glance to the door, watching as the woman left the shop. That meant Mona would be gone in a matter of moments.
“Well, I know my way around the store well enough, but I could use a woman’s opinion this evening. Would you mind?”
“S-sure. Just one sec.” Mona was rushing toward the door behind me as I called, “Mona, wait!”
“Can’t! Already late!”
“You’re supposed to call Bobby before you get Jake! I wrote the number on a sticky note!”
She froze in her tracks and literally ran to the register, snagging the sticky note and holding it in the air as she yelled, “Thanks!”
She was out the door before I could utter another word.
“How can she move so fast in those shoes?” I muttered, completely forgetting about the gentleman waiting for my assistance until he chuckled.
“Lots of practice, I’d wager.”
His hand gently touched my shoulder and I jumped—startled both by the touch and his voice. He removed his hand immediately, holding it up with an apologetic expression.
“Didn’t mean to scare you. Just wanted to turn your attention where I need you.”
His hand gestured toward a rack and I muttered an apology before joining him. It was on the tip of my tongue to mention that—woman or not—I had no experience to make my opinion worthwhile. But how could I admit that to a total stranger?
I wasn’t brave enough. All I could do was wait and pray that he wasn’t going to ask about double-ended dildos.
“My wife wants me to pick out an outfit for her. We do it every anniversary—she gets something for me, I get something for her. But I do appreciate getting a woman’s opinion on what might make her feel sexy.”
I glanced at the lingerie on the clothing rack then back to him. Sure enough, a quick glance at his hand revealed the gold band.
“May I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Why do you pick something you think she’d feel sexy in? Isn’t the point for you to pick something you like?”
The man froze in his mission to flip through items and gave me a quizzical look.
“Because if she doesn’t feel sexy, it doesn’t look sexy. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about the lingerie as long as it comes off later.”
I was floored. Even the wink at the end of his sentence couldn’t snap me back to reality. It just made so much sense that I wondered why I had never thought about it before.
This... This I could handle. I wondered if Mona knew that. The thought made me feel slightly less abandoned.
“I’d be happy to help you with this,” I said, taking up a spot on the other side of the rack and ignoring the remaining pangs of embarrassment. “Does she have a favorite color to wear?”
When he smiled and started to rave about his lovely wife, I realized that maybe this job wouldn’t be so embarrassing after all. Maybe I’d even learn something.
Half an hour later, I waved goodbye to John and wished him and his wife a happy anniversary. We’d gone through the entire stock of lingerie together before deciding on two different options—both of which being my personal recommendations. He thanked me heartily for my assistance before opting to purchase both items.
With no other customers coming in behind him, I was ready to close up for the night. I turned off the sign, locked the door, and approached my nemesis—the security system’s panel.
I avoided it like the plague since my first day—save for the times I watched Mandy turning it on and off. I bit my lip and narrowed my eyes as I entered the buttons I was sure would arm the system. If I did it right, it’d beep twice and the creepy monotone voice would announce that the system was activated.
But nothing happened. So I pressed the buttons once more, frowning when I didn’t recognize the message on the screen. What did those rapid-fire numbers mean?
“Oh my God!” I screeched as the system suddenly began to wail. I covered my ears as I yelled, “Crap, crap, crap!”
I ignored my throbbing ears and ran to the counter, blindly reaching for the computer screen and grabbing the sticky note before running back to the system.
“Okay, okay. It was five, nine... uh-oh.”
Clenched between my fingertips was a note clearly written by my own hand—the one meant for Mona, where Bobby’s number was neatly recorded.
With wide eyes, I looked between the paper and the system, praying for the remaining numbers to magically pop into my mind. It didn’t work.
“Fuck!”
I dug my phone out of my pocket and called Mandy, but the shrill sound of the alarm began to die off. I was too late.
“Hey, Jess! What’s up?”
“I screwed up the system! I-I must have armed it and didn’t realize it so when I tried to arm it again, it thought I was tampering and—”
“Did you enter the code?”
“No! Mona took the wrong sticky note!”
There was a brief pause before Mandy dryly said, “I don’t know what that means, but I’m assuming this is her fault. Look, the police won’t take long to swing by. Usually it’s someone already in the area with nothing else going on. They’ll drop in, make sure everything’s fine, and go. It’s no big.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Just wait for someone to show and apologize. Maybe ask them to wait for you to arm it correctly before heading out.”
“O-Okay,” I said, nodding to myself. “Wait, I think there’s a car pulling up. That was fast.”
“They usually are. I’ll text you the alarm code in case you need it. Call me after you get everything square, okay?”
“Will do. Thanks, Mandy,” I said as I ended the call and shoved the phone back in my pocket. I hurried to the door and undid the remaining locks, the apology already forming on my lips.
“I’m so sorry, officer. This is all my fault. I’m new and—”
“Jessa?”
My explanation died in my throat.
There he was. A head taller than me, uniform taut against his massive amount of muscle, green eyes wide with surprise.
Officer Aaron Wells. My dad’s good friend and next door neighbor.
My secret crush.
Oh no.
Chapter 3
“What are you doing here?” Aaron asked as soon as the shock of seeing me wore off. “Were you trying to...”
Was he seriously about to ask if I was trying to break in? Embarrassment gave way to total disbelief. I propped my hands on my hips and scowled.
“I work here.”
He blinked a few times, giving me the same blank stare he gave to my surroundings as he glanced around the shop. I could practically hear the wheels turning in his head as he mentally took in the sex toys and my presence and tried to connect the two.
Ah, there was the humiliation. Right on time. I wish I had turned the lights down before he showed up. My face was on fire.
“You work here?” he drawled, an eyebrow cocking up in disbelief. “Since when?”
“Since Monday. I-I’m sorry to bother you. It’s my first night closing up by myself and I messed up when I tried to arm the system.”
Aaron nodded slowly, but his eyes were still floating around the store. As much as I wanted to close my eyes and attempt to convince myself t
his was just a terrible nightmare, the reality of it was all too clear. There was no way I could imagine such awkwardness on my own.
So I did the only thing I could think of—I rambled mindlessly while I tried to divert his attention away from the store and its contents.
“Like I said, I’m so sorry. I tried to disarm it when it started to make that noise but my coworker took the sticky note that I had the code on and I tried to call Mandy but it was too late and—”
“Slow down, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart. I managed not to outright swoon, though it did shut me up instantly. It wasn’t anything new coming from him, but it’d been a few months since I heard it. After moving out of my parents’ house, our interactions were sparse.
It broke my heart a little when I left even though I knew it was for the best. I needed to move on from my ridiculous crush.
Yet three years had gone by and I was no closer to forgetting about Aaron and his charming personality. I had no new love interests and the sight of him still made butterflies bat around wildly in my stomach.
“Would you mind waiting to make sure I don’t mess it up again?”
Aaron’s gaze swept back to me and a small smile appeared as he said, “Sure thing.”
Once the noise fully stopped, I carefully entered the sequence to arm the system once more. This time, the double beep and the robotic voice hit my ears and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Let’s go before I somehow set it off again.”
Aaron grabbed my purse from the counter while I made quick work of the light switches.
“Let me. These systems can be a pain in the ass,” he said after we stepped into the back. He punched something in on the security panel and opened the door for me, pausing only to ask, “You’ve got keys for this door, right?”
“Yeah.”
After locking the back door behind us, we walked in silence to the side gate. I unlocked the chain and slid it open before stepping back to linger beside my borrowed car.
“Again, I’m really sorry to waste your time.”
Aaron waved it off with a smile. “It’s no trouble. Isn’t that your mom’s car?”
“Yeah. She’s letting me borrow it while they’re on vacation.”
I could see the recognition dawn in his eyes before he even nodded.
“Oh yeah. Europe, right? When did they leave?”
“This morning. I agreed to get the mail and feed the cat in exchange for using the car.”
“Good deal.”
“I thought so.”
He was still smiling at me, but that didn’t stop the awkward silence from descending. I shuffled around on my feet, grimacing to myself as I finally realized how sore they were from my first week of steady work.
“I, uh... I need to drive through the gate so I can lock it behind me.”
I fully expected him to take the dismissal, wish me a good evening, and disappear through the gate. Which was why it was so alarming when he gave me a blindingly handsome smile and moved to the passenger side of Mom’s sedan. Since I already pressed the button to unlock the doors, there was nothing to stop him from dropping into the seat and pulling the door shut behind him.
I froze. We hadn’t been in such close quarters in a very long time. Not since he gave me a ride home when I was still in high school.
It felt different now. Now... I was an adult. Did he see me as an adult? Or was I still Roger’s little girl? Could I be both of those things at once in his eyes? Was it even—
Tap, tap, tap.
I looked down at the driver’s side window and felt my face flame when I spotted Aaron’s questioning face.
“You okay?” he mouthed from behind the glass.
“S-Sorry!” I spluttered as I opened the door and got in. “Like I said earlier, it’s my first time closing up by myself. I was mentally going through the steps to make sure I didn’t forget anything.”
Talk about a smooth move. He nodded in understanding while I praised myself for such quick thinking.
I buckled my seatbelt and Aaron laughed, causing me to frown and glance over at him.
Big mistake.
His body—a little too large to comfortably fit in the small space—was turned toward me. One arm was up against the window and his knees were spread as far as they could go. My face flushed as I immediately noticed how tight his slacks were in this position.
If his shirt was undone, it would look like a picture on the cover of one of those romance novels Mandy had at her place. The ones I was always too embarrassed to ask if I could borrow.
“Did you forget something?”
His low voice drew my attention up to his blazing eyes and I knew I’d been caught checking him out. The smirk was evidence enough. I was just lucky he was nice enough not to throw it in my face.
“No. But you forgot your seatbelt.”
His mouth parted as if to argue, but he snapped it shut after a split second and softly chuckled as he reached back to pull it across his chest.
“Guess I don’t have to worry about pulling you over for anything.”
He really didn’t, but that didn’t stop my imagination from running wild. I pictured myself leaning against the car with Aaron standing directly behind me, feeling the warmth of his body while he handcuffed my wrists behind my back.
Where did that come from?
Before I could dive into yet another zone-out session in his presence, I started the car and pulled forward. When I started to unbuckle to get out and lock the gate, he snatched the shop keys from the center console and hopped out.
I watched him in the rearview. He pulled the gate closed and fastened the lock, jerking the chain a few times to test it. When he turned around, his eyes went right to the back window and seemed to stare into the mirror I was watching him in.
How did he know? I looked away as he approached, pretending to fiddle with my cell phone. I was so engrossed in my coy act that I jumped when he tapped on the window.
Once the glass rolled all the way down, he leaned in and dropped the keys gently in my palm.
“It was good to see you again, Jessa.”
“Y-Yeah. You too. I’m sorry about—”
“No need to apologize. Seeing you was the high point of a long, boring shift. Most of these night shifts involve chasing off teenagers that are making out on private property. It’s pretty dull.”
“At least you’re not being shot at or something,” I said half-jokingly.
In truth, I used to worry about him far more than I should. Being a police officer always seemed very risky to me—much like being a firefighter. The last thing I wanted was for Aaron to get hurt.
“In a town like this? It’s pretty unlikely,” he said with a laugh. “You never know, though. I’m as careful as I can be.”
“That’s good to hear. Thanks for your help tonight. I’ll try not to do it again.”
“I wouldn’t mind it if you did.” Before I could respond to that, he straightened up to full height and said, “Have a good night, Jess.”
“Thanks. You too.”
He waved before heading to his car. I didn’t hesitate to pull out of the lot and start driving home. I certainly didn’t want him to think I had turned into a total space-case, even if it was starting to be kind of true.
Space-case or not—it didn’t escape my notice that his headlights followed me all the way to my apartment complex.
Chapter 4
“Sugar? Here kitty, kitty.”
As soon as she heard me calling, the white cat came flying out of nowhere to rub against my legs. I closed the door behind me and bent down to pet her a few times, the familiarity of home starting to lift my sour mood.
I had to get through a day of errands and work while running on four hours of sleep. Shortly after moving out, I discovered I needed at least seven if I wanted to feel like a functioning human being. It was awfully hard to drag myself out of bed to fulfill my end of the bargain this morning.
It wasn
’t until I was in the shower the night before that the thought of Aaron telling my parents about my job crossed my mind. I was already ramped up from the embarrassment that he knew—thinking about it spreading to them before I was ready made it worse.
I had no intention of hiding it forever—there was no way I could with the rumor mill at work—but I wanted them to hear it from me. After I had mentally prepared myself for their possible reactions.
Mandy couldn’t understand why I was so worried about it. She thought my parents were fantastic—and they definitely were. But while they weren’t super religious, they both leaned to the conservative side and my upbringing displayed that. As a teenager, the birds and the bees talk had been handled almost entirely by my aunt and heavily moderated by my father.
I learned more in health class than I did from that censored discussion.
My parents were always a little weird about sex—or at least sex in relation to me. I knew they would question why I took a job in a store devoted to something I was taught to avoid. It was a delicate matter I wanted to handle by myself.
Sugar meowed pitifully from her food bowl and I snapped back to the present. I placed the mail in the labeled box Mom left sitting on the counter and went into the cupboard for her food. After serving a small plate of wet food, refilling the dry food, and getting her fresh water—I was done with my duty for the day.
The urge to linger in the house and stay lost in memory lane was strong. I knew it was only happening because there was one final thing I needed to do while I was here, and it was something I would give my left ear to avoid.
But I had to do it.
“See you tomorrow, Sugar.”
Seeing as I was completely ignored in favor of her lunch, I took my leave. I locked the house back up and marched next door before I lost my resolve. The moment I stepped on the porch, I rang the doorbell and grimaced.
For some reason, this felt even more embarrassing than the night before.
It was made worse when Aaron swung open the door in a pair of loose shorts and no shirt. It was clear that I woke him up from the lack of clothes, his bleary eyes, and the way his wavy brown hair stuck up in all different directions.