by Michelle Amy
His dark eyes slid down slowly to me. I stood looking up at him and felt immediately intimidated. His jaw was sharp and covered in a couple days growth of black hair. The soon to be beard met up with his black hair that cascaded down over his forehead and hung just above his lashes. He shifted his weight and rested his left foot behind him on the gold footrest that trimmed the bar. “You need something?” He asked, unblinking.
Carly was beside me again. “Nope, she’s fine. Just thought she knew you from somewhere. She’s a dolt, sometimes, don’t mind her. Come on,” she hissed in my ear. She tugged at my arm.
He raised his beer to his lips and took a slow mouthful. Then he nodded his chin at Carly. “You were the one spilling your dinner on the grass the other night.”
Carly flushed an astounding shade of pink. I felt her embarrassment, but couldn’t make my thick stupid tongue work in my mouth. He was a God. He was a man of incredible height and even more incredible good looks. I had thought Jason was attractive. McCoy made my ex look like a toad.
When neither of us spoke, the firm line of his mouth softened and one corner curled upwards for the briefest moment. It lent a warmth to his eyes that vanished as soon as it appeared. “No shame in drinking too much,” he said, his eyes leaving us and surveying the rest of the bar again. “Must say I’m surprised to see you both out again so soon after all that. It’s either bravery or stupidity. Or a bit of both.” His gaze fell to us again and that ‘almost a smile’ twitch graced his lips once more.
I wasn’t sure if he was being rude. I found that I didn’t really care.
Carly laughed nervously and tugged me again. “Well, I know which one it is,” she said, and then muttered under her breath, “it’s the latter. Now let’s go before you show him your O-face.”
I blinked and my cheeks burned the same bright red as Carly’s.
McCoy chuckled and I was horrified to realize that he had heard what Carly said. He took another swig from his beer and put it down behind him on the bar. The lazy sprawl of his body and the way he braced himself against the bar was doing all kinds of things to me. His eyes and his bare forearms made me feel like my knees were going to buckle beneath me at any moment. I wondered if he had the same effect on Carly.
Finally I found my voice. “Thank you,” I blurted out in a weak voice.
His right eyebrow arched ever so slightly.
“For helping us the other night. If you hadn’t been there we would have been-”
He waved his hand at me to make me stop talking. I did. I succumbed to silence before him and waited for him to answer. He took his time. When he finally found what he wanted to say, it surprised me. “You would have been in over your heads. Maybe next time have the mind to call a cab.”
Had he been anyone else, I would have given him an earful. I would have mustered all my ‘I am woman, hear me roar’ attitude and told him that there was nothing wrong with two girls walking home. But my lips stayed closed and I stood there staring at him like an idiot as he rolled lazily away from us and plucked his beer off the counter. I watched him make his way to the patio outside on the street front, where he lit a cigarette at a table by himself.
I looked over at Carly.
“He’s a jackass,” she said.
“I know.”
“He’s dangerous.”
“Maybe.”
Carly grabbed both my hands in hers and shook them. “Don’t be one of those stupid girls, Veronica. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the broody attitude and the body and his eyes and-” she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “He’s hot. Okay. He’s super hot. But he’s also a dick who happens to hang around with guys who tried to load us into their car the other night. You want to throw down with him?”
“I just want to know more about him.”
Carly threw her hands in the air. “Fine. Fine. Do what you want. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you go over there… whatever. I’m going home.”
I didn’t try to stop her. I watched her leave and hail a cab outside. Then I went out on to the patio and stood in front of his table as he took a draw from his cigarette. When he looked up at me he didn’t look surprised. His expression told me that he had expected this. He put his boot on the seat of the chair across the table from him and pushed it back. “Sit,” he said.
I sat. I crossed my legs and left my hands on my lap. I looked anywhere but at him as he finished his cigarette. When he put it out in the ashtray between us he rested his forearms on the table. “Where’d your friend go?”
“Home.”
He nodded- at least, that’s what I assumed the miniscule tilt of his head was. Every gesture was so subtle they were hard to catch. I paid close attention as he scratched the stubble on his jaw. “She doesn’t approve.”
His intuition was impressive. “No, she doesn’t.”
He fell back in his chair and stretched out one of his legs. “She’s smart.”
“Sometimes.”
His shoulders moved up and down in the smallest shrug I had ever seen.
“Why did you help us the other night?” I asked. I couldn’t help it. The encounter had terrified and confused me. The three men, despite their malicious intentions, made sense to me. Their motives were clear, their character was clearer. But McCoy was different than them. He dressed differently, spoke differently, and stood up to three of them to turn down something that was likely to work out in his favor. If he was as terrible as Carly suspected, why would he have bothered sticking his neck out like that for two drunk girls?
“Why does it matter?” He asked.
It didn’t. I shouldn’t have even asked him.
My silence seemed to irritate him. “Look,” he said, his eyes narrowing on me, “I don’t want your gratitude. I don’t want your big eyes looking at me like I’m sort of hero. I wasn’t in the mood to fuck two drunk girls who could barely walk.”
“You’re lying,” I whispered, surprising myself.
Apparently I surprised him more. He stared at me with hard eyes and I grew anxious. He leaned in close to me again. I could smell the beer on his breath and the remnants of his cigarette between us. “I’m no liar. If I bed a woman it’s not like that. She’d better want it.”His eyes made a full sweep of my body and he showed me his teeth for the first time in a smile that made me shiver. “She’d better beg me for it, or she’s not worth it.”
Had we not been sitting on a patio surrounded by dozens of other people I would have sat on my knees at his feet and begged. The urge both repulsed me and turned me on. I was powerless against the feelings he sent through my body. I wanted him. I wanted him more than I had ever wanted Jason. McCoy made Jason feel like he had never meant anything to me. He had been a boy. A boy with nothing to offer me except for lies hidden behind bouquets of flowers every other week.
McCoy made me feel something again. But he also made me feel sorry for him. I hadn’t realized it, but part of what made me so curious about him was how mysterious he was. He wasn’t someone who seemed jovial nor dejected. He was distant, somewhat angry and cold. “What’s your real name?” I asked.
He laughed and drew away from me. He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand while the other rested at the base of his beer bottle on the table. “You’re a different kind of girl, I’ll give you that.” He lifted his beer as if in a toast to me before taking a final mouthful. “Why do you want to know?”
I shrugged. “I’m curious.”
“You tell me yours. Come on now, what is it?”
“I’m Veronica.”
“You can call me McCoy.”
“It suits you,” I told him.
We stared at each other for a minute; everything about him was so peculiar. He caught the attention of a waitress and ordered himself another beer. He looked over to me and nodded expectantly. I ordered a glass of wine.
When we both had a new drink in our hands he started asking more questions, and we went back and forth.
“I’m an assistant to
an editor,” I told him when he asked me what I did for work. “Mostly I prep her meetings and make sure everything is how she wants it. Get her coffee. Help her review manuscripts...”
“So, you’re her bitch?”
“No.”
“Yes. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just make sure that when you take her job she never sees it coming.” His eyes sparkled deviously.
I couldn’t help but laugh. I did want her job. My sights had been set on it for the last four years. I knew that I would have the chance, eventually, to step up and fill her shoes. “What about you? What do you do for work?” When I asked the question it dawned on me that there was a chance I didn’t want to know. He affiliated with men who had the intentions of taking me home. Your social circle usual dictates what kind of person you are, at least that’s what I’ve been told.
“Right now I’m working a shitty construction job. Got a buddy who hooked me up.”
“You don’t seem like a construction crew kind of guy.” Which was true, he didn’t. When he gave me a skeptical look I shrugged. “I bet you don’t own anything by carhart, and you’ve probably never worn regular blue levis. I’d bet money on it.”
His smile touched his eyes again and he laughed lightly. “Fair enough. It may not be my first choice.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“Why do you care?” His tone was defensive, irritated.
“I’m just making conversation,” I said, “you know, conversation? Where you ask people questions and find out why they do what they do? If you don’t want to tell me that’s fine.”
He thought about it for a moment. “I’m doing it because I have a record and no one will hire me. Does that tell you why I do what I do?”
He was trying to scare me. It was working a little bit. But it didn’t quench my curiosity. I wasn’t going to let him off the hook right when he was finally starting to really talk to me. Carly’s little voice in my head told me to leave it alone. I didn’t want to. “You went to prison?”
“That’s usually what people mean when they say they have a record.” His tone was flat and he wouldn’t look at me as he finished his second beer.
“What did you do?”
“Why do you assume I’m guilty?”
“Aren’t you?” I asked as my eyes caught his.
“I used a baseball bat to try to kill someone.”
His flat answer left me feeling unsettled. I watched his eyes as he spoke. They were hard and I knew he was remembering every detail of what he had done. He pulled his chair closer to the table and leaned over it. He reached out with one hand and touched my cheekbone on my right side. “I hit him here, as hard as I could. His cheek blew apart under his skin. He went to the floor. I hit him again,” his hand left my face and fell upon the knee I had crossed over my left leg, “right here. He has four screws in his knee now. And I kept hitting him until he didn’t move anymore. I didn’t stop until I thought he was dead.”
I swallowed.
“And then I went to prison for four years. And here I am. Unable to get a damn job because I have a bad temper.” He fell back into his chair again. His eyes looked down at his hands.
I jumped when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I twisted in my chair and looked up into a pair of familiar blue eyes. It was Jason.
CHAPTER THREE
He stood beside a slender young girl wearing a tight skirt and a crop top that showed off a pierced navel on a flat stomach. She had both hands wrapped around Jason’s arm and was leaning her cheek on his shoulder. Her eyes were resting on me and a coy smile brought one corner of her mouth upwards, revealing a dimpled bronze cheek.
“Hey Vee,” Jason said, his voice chipper. “Been a while.”
He was the only person who called me Vee. Hearing it on his lips brought back a wave of emotions that I had been trying to put behind me for nine months. I forced myself to smile and felt like an idiot. “Yeah, it has. How... how are you?”
“Great, I’m great.” He drew the girl forward who was clinging to his arm. “This is Denise.”
Denise reached out a hand that was decorated in sparkling jewellery. I shook it. “Hi, Veronica, Jason has told me so much about you. I’m so happy to meet you.” Liar.
“Nice to meet you too,” I said, shaking her hand. Her grip was firm and I wanted to sink deeper into my chair to escape them both.
Jason’s eyes flicked over to McCoy, who remained casually draped over his chair. I collected my manners from the floor and looked to McCoy. “This is McCoy,” I offered. “McCoy, this is Jason and Denise.”
McCoy didn’t move. His eyes went from me to Jason. He never so much as glanced at Denise. This bothered her. She put a hand on her hip and flicked her long blonde hair back over her shoulder to reveal her cleavage that was nearly spilling out of her crop top. “Hi McCoy,” she practically purred, “How do you kids know each other?”
McCoy looked back at me. Clearly, he wasn’t going to engage in any sort of conversation with either of them. I answered for us. “We actually just met the other night.”
“Oh, a date I see,” Denise said playfully. She planted a kiss on Jason’s cheek. “We’re out on a date ourselves. Jason is just the sweetest. I suppose you know that already.”
“Oh yeah,” I muttered, “He definitely is.” I caught McCoy watching me out of the corner of my eye. I found myself wishing he wasn’t there to see me all flustered.
Jason was watching McCoy and wasn’t trying to hide the unimpressed look that had washed over his features. He pulled up a chair from one of the empty tables nearby and dragged it up to our table. Then he dropped into it and put his elbows on the table. He entwined his fingers and leaned towards me. “So, what’s new with you?”
Denise pouted behind him. I remembered when he used to do things like that to me. She crossed her arms and popped out a hip. McCoy surprised all of us by reaching out and lazily dragging up a chair for her. She sat down and thanked him shyly. He remained stoically silent. Jason cast him a wary glance before settling his attention back to me.
“Nothing new, really-” I started.
“Still working for that crazy bag? What was her name? Alicia? Amy? One of those, right?”
“No, her name is Lisa. And yeah, I still work there. But-”
“Damn. You been there a long time. Still sticking it out for that promotion? Sales right?”
“Publishing,” I corrected.
“Yeah, yeah, publishing. What else are you up to? Still hang out with Carly?”
“Of course I do, she’s my best friend.”
Jason crossed his arms on the table and I found myself wishing he would give me a bit more space. “Yeah, but she’s kinda crazy, you know? I always told you that. She’s probably what’s holding you back. I don’t know why you never listened to me when I told you-”
Jason stopped talking when McCoy pushed his chair back and stood. His intimidating height forced Jason to crane his neck to look up at him. McCoy offered me his hand and I stared at it like a fool. He encouraged me with a wiggle of his fingers.
I took it, and he guided me to my feet. Then he turned his attention to Jason, who remained in his seat staring at McCoy with his mouth hanging open. “I’d like to say it was a pleasure meeting you both,” McCoy said, grabbing my purse from where it hung off the back of my chair and handing it to me, “but, it wasn’t.”
My hand darted to my mouth to suppress the laugh that nearly escaped.
Jason was on his feet and his face was screwed up with anger. I had seen it a few times when we were together. He used to get mad at me for making plans without consulting him. Not this kind of mad, but close enough. I also saw him get into a scrap once because a guy in a club slapped my ass. That had been a long time ago.
Jason glared at McCoy, who was staring down at him with a bored expression. I intervened by slipping between them. My back was pressed up against McCoy. I could feel the buckle on his belt against my lower back. My shoulder blades were a
gainst his chest. I held up a hand and said Jason’s name. “We’re just gonna go, okay? It was nice seeing you again. Nice meeting you, Denise. You guys have a good night, okay?”
“You’re going to leave with this guy?” Jason barely looked at me and kept his gaze fixed on McCoy.
“Jason, it doesn’t matter who I’m leaving with.”
“Oh yes it does,” he said, jabbing a finger past my ear and up at McCoy’s face. “You’d better not lay a hand on her, you piece of-”
I slapped Jason’s hand down. “I’m not your girlfriend anymore, Jason. You don’t get to decide who I’m with. You don’t get to decide anything. So sit down and shut up.”
McCoy put both hands on either side of my hips and pulled me against him. He pressed his cheek against mine and pulled my hair off my shoulder. “Yeah Jason,” he said confidently, “sit down and shut up.”
So maybe McCoy was more confrontational than I had expected. The anger that had just started to subside in Jason’s eyes was relit and he was vibrating with rage. I wanted to tell him to calm down, but I was distracted by McCoy’s closeness. When he pressed his lips against my neck just below my ear I almost turned to butter in his hands.
Jason exploded. I watched it happen in what felt like slow motion. The vein on the right side of his forehead doubled in size. The tendons in his neck stood at attention and a primal yell broke free from him as he lunged forward.
I was slow to react. I hadn’t expected him to come forward like that. I was standing in his way, after all. But my presence didn’t seem to matter. As I watched his angry fist come hurtling towards me I wondered how I ever loved him. He was about to strike me because he let himself be provoked by a man he didn’t know.
McCoy’s hands on my hips pushed me sideways. I spun out of the way and landed back in my chair. McCoy stepped into Jason’s punch and took it on the shoulder as he wove himself around Jason’s outstretched arm. Then he came in with a knee to the gut and an elbow to Jason’s back.