Love at First Hate

by Muriel Garcia

  “And don’t you forget it.” I wink at her.

  “Who is going to be your plus one?” Gabby asks.

  “I don’t need a plus one, baby. I’m fabulous!” I chuckle.

  “True. Maybe I could take your neighbor with me.” Gabby waggles her eyebrows.

  “Don’t you dare, I put dibs on him.” I look at her sternly.

  “He’s straight, you said it yourself.” She has a point.

  “I’m not so sure about that.”

  “What?” Haven and Gabby exclaim at the same time.

  “The last time I fucked some guy in the living room, he came knocking on my door asking us to be quieter. He checked me out, long and hard, and he was getting hard himself.” I smirk seeing their smiles falter.

  “That’s not fair. Why are all the hot one’s psychos, gay, or taken?” Gabby pouts.

  “You’ll find your mister right, babe. I know it. Besides, I don’t know much about Nate. He could be a psycho too.” I shrug.

  “Doesn’t he have a girlfriend?” Haven asks, crushing my little hope to have a go with the sexy man living next door from me, although he’s a right asshole. He’s still mighty fine, and I wouldn’t mind ruffling his feathers.

  “Yeah, sadly. A whiney bitch. I don’t know why he’s with her. They have nothing in common. She seems to be the most boring woman on earth, and I don’t know, there’s something off about her.”

  “Or you’re just jealous that she has a man that you can’t have,” Gabby says in a singsong voice.

  “That too.” I chuckle. “I’m not going to lie. He’s hot, and if given a chance, I’d fuck him. Even if he’s not into men. There’s no shame in my game.” I shrug.

  “You’re something.” Haven laughs.

  “I know. I’m fucking awesome!”

  “You are as awesome as you are full of yourself.” Gabby sniggers.

  I think for a second. “Yeah, that’s about right.” I chuckle.

  “How many guys have you been with since you ended things with John?” Jessica asks.

  “It’s been over a month, I’ve lost count.” I shrug.

  “Seriously? Why are you going for a different guy every evening? Why not stick with one?” Jessica asks, sounding genuinely curious.

  “I’m joking. Maybe five in total. They are all the same. Boring, uninteresting, and not boyfriend material.”

  “Why don’t you join a dating app? At least you can filter through the guys, and we could have some fun making your profile.” Jessica sniggers and the other two start plotting with her, scaring me half to death about what they could have planned for me.

  “You do realize that there are fucking psychos going on there to lure people and possibly kill them? Do you want to get rid of me?” I narrow my eyes at her.

  “No, don’t be silly. I think it could be fun! You could meet them in a public place, and one of us could be there and give you a thumbs up or down depending on how they are behaving. It could be a lot of fun, and I could live my love life through you.”

  “Don’t be silly, you’re gorgeous. I’m shocked guys aren’t lining up after you to get your number and take you on dates.”

  “That’s because they are blind and they all suck. Besides you, Spencer, and Valentine, of course,” Haven says.

  “Meh, I’m not fussed at the moment.” Jessica shrugs. “So what do you think of my dating app idea?” She grins evilly, and I hand her my phone.

  “Have fun.” I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad idea to actually give any of them my phone and let them set up a dating profile for me, but what’s the worst that could happen? Knowing them a lot of things could go wrong, but hey oh. You only live once, right?

  “You’re going to love this!” Jessica exclaims ten minutes later after they’ve been typing away on my phone.

  “What have you three done?” I look at them suspiciously, expecting the worse coming from them.

  “Us? Nothing, my darling,” Haven says, and they all smirk at me. Fuck me.

  “I’ll believe you when pigs fly.” I take a sip of my coffee. “Go on then, read that for me.”

  “Okay.” Jessica takes a deep breath and starts. “Nickname: MattTheGod, age: thirty-two, location: Denver. I’m a normal, happy, hardworking guy with a very easy-going nature. I do the things I love, pursue the dreams I have, and live the life I love. I’m on here after breaking up a long-term relationship, looking for some innocent fun and more if the occasion presents itself. I love a good adventure, spontaneous road trips, and doing things spur of the moment. I’m a pretty good cook, but there’s only so much you can cook for yourself. I’m a passionate and affectionate soul, very tactile. I’m never happier than when I’m giving cuddles and warmth to someone special, and although I’m incredibly cheeky and playful, I take care of business and make sure the ones I love are looked after. I do enjoy fashion and made it my job to criticize how others dress. If you are looking like a hippie, we won’t get along.”

  “That’s pretty accurate actually. I’m surprised you could describe me that well.” I smile, it’s not half as bad as I thought it would be.

  “See, you have no faith in us.” Haven shakes her head sounding heartbroken.

  “Well, considering the fact that you three are ganging up against me on this, I was bound to expect the worst. Now the real question is which pictures did you upload?”

  “We’ll be nice and let you decide.” Gabby hands me back my phone with a sickly sweet smile.

  “That’s a first, you being nice to me.” I chuckle and put my phone in my pocket, not wanting to go through the pictures now. I wouldn’t want to scar them for life with the pictures I have on my phone. “How about we go dress and suit shopping for your big day? Where are you getting married anyway?”

  “Hawaii, baby!” Haven claps excitedly.

  “Fancy!” Jessica chimes in.

  “I need a vacation, this is perfect.” I smile rubbing my hands together.

  “My gift to you as my Master of Honor will be an endless supply of condoms for the week we’ll be spending there. I don’t want you to catch anything.” Haven looks at me concerned.

  “I always wrap up, babe, don’t worry.” I wink at her and pay for our food.

  “Good to know, big bro.” Gabby elbows me.

  “Even with John?” Jessica asks as we leave the café.

  “Yes, I’ve never had sex without a condom.” I shrug.

  “I’m not gonna lie, I’m quite surprised. I thought you’d be careless,” Haven says shocking me.

  “Always wrap up, you never know where the person you’re with has been or is still going.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders, and we walk to a nearby shop, walking past the new tattoo shop that has opened in the neighborhood. To my surprise, I see Nate standing in the window, painting something on the side of the wall. I wave at him and lick my lips seductively.

  “Who’s that?” Jessica asks.

  “Nate, the screaming neighbor.” I chuckle.

  “He’s hot!” Jessica fans herself.

  “But annoying, you wouldn’t want to be with him.” I wrap my other arm around Jessica’s shoulders, and we keep walking. I can’t help but notice the annoyed glare Nate threw my way. What was that all about? Jealous of my harem?

  We head to the dress shop and walk in. The shop assistant looks at me as if I’m not welcome. She’s not worthy of being in the presence of Matt the God. She kicks off and makes sure I know I’m not supposed to be here, which causes the girls to kick off. These women are priceless. I reassure Haven that all is good and head to another shop while they have some fun trying on countless dresses. It’s not a bad thing that the lady didn’t want me there. As much as I love fashion, shopping for wedding and bridesmaid dresses with them three would have taken hours. After all, I need to pick my suit, but first on my to-do list: Nate. Or rather, go annoy Nate. I’m in a playful mood today.

  I go back the way we came from and walk through the tattoo shop door.

 
“Welcome to Smash Monkey Tattoo, how may I help you?” a beautiful bottle red asks me.

  “Just popping in to say hi to my buddy Nate.” I chuckle as I hear a muffled fuck off.

  “You two know each other?” she asks with too much excitement in her voice.

  “Yes, we’re very intimate,” I drawl.

  “What do you want, Matt?” he walks toward me wiping his hands with a dirty cloth. His limp making it look like he has a natural swagger in his step. So hot! However, I do wonder how he got that limp.

  “You left so quickly last night. I missed you,” I whisper stepping closer to him, and he glares at me. I’m not sure if he’s embarrassed by my teasing or if he is turned on. I hope it’s the latter.

  “This is so hot,” the girl whispers fanning herself.

  “I know. We’re perfect for each other.” I wink at her and wrap my arm around Nate’s shoulders.

  “I’m trying to work here, what do you want?” He glares at me, and I drop my arm.

  “Spoilsport. I just came in to say hi, and I want you to tattoo me.” I smirk and see his face fall. I’m not sure if I should be offended or amused.

  “Why me?”

  “Because you’re a good tattoo artist, even though you can be a jerk. Talent is talent.”

  He groans. “You know I could easily fuck it up for you.” He smirks.

  “And you know I could easily fuck up your reputation if you do such a thing.” I raise my eyebrow at him.

  “Fine, what do you want to have done?” He sighs, clearly unimpressed by my statement.

  “I started a Japanese leg sleeve a while back, and I want to add to it. Anything you think will fit with the rest of the design.” I’m not fussed about what he’d tattoo on me as long as it keeps with the theme and flows nicely. It often works best to let the artist draw what he feels would fit.

  “I noticed,” he says through gritted teeth as if he’s frustrated that he actually saw it or maybe he wanted to see more than just the tattoo.

  “Only the outside of your thigh or inside too?”

  “Inside too.” I smirk seeing his discomfort.

  “Obviously.” He rubs his face. “Can you get me my schedule, Mina?”

  “Here you go.” Mina, the shop manager, hands him his schedule, and he flips through it.

  “When do you wanna do it?”

  “When do you have an opening?” I walk closer to him and place my hand on his shoulder, and he tenses. It’s out of habit, I’m very tactile, no matter who I’m talking to. Some people don’t mind it, some hate it.

  “After the opening party, it’ll be tight to fit you in before then.”

  “A tight fit can be good.” I smirk, and he looks at me. I don’t know if I detect disgust or lust in his eyes, but his face is made of stone. “After the party is good. I’m easy.”

  “Don’t I know it,” he mutters.

  “I heard that.” I chuckle, taking no offense.

  “What’s going on between you two?” Mina asks.

  “Nothing, we’re just neighbors.” I wink at Mina. “I need to go back to my busy day. Have a good day, and if you need to see my thigh in person before the big day, you know where I live.” I wink at Nate before walking out of the shop, rather happy with how my day is going.

  It took the whole of ten minutes from when I walked through the door of the outlet store until I paid for my suit for Haven and Spencer’s wedding. I never take long when I shop, much to my sister and girlfriends’ despair. As much as I enjoy fashion and shopping, I don’t really fancy spending hours looking for something.

  Remembering how the lady was to me in the bridal shop, I decide to go to the café next door to the shop to wait for the girls to finish. I was gone for an hour, and they still aren’t done. Women…

  Three hours later, the dresses picked and cake consumed, Haven drives me home. I tell her about my time spent torturing Nate at his shop, and she tells me about her afternoon shopping for dresses. She shows me pictures of her in the dress, and she looks marvelous in it. I can’t wait to see her on her big day. Seeing her this happy to plan her wedding makes me wonder if I’ll ever have my own.

  She drops me off at home, and I log onto the app, amused that even without pictures, I have quite a few messages already. I upload a few carefully chosen ones, without showing my face. I don’t want anyone to recognize me, especially if they are clients. Not that I’m ashamed of it, but it could end up being awkward.

  I take a quick look through the app at who’s online and do recognize a couple clients. Some have their fetishes listed, and I never suspected that from some of them. I will have to thank the girls for setting up the app for me. It’s highly amusing on this boring evening spent on my own.

  I could go out or just find someone to fuck on the app, but I can’t stop myself from thinking about Nate and the things I wish I could do to him, even though he annoys the shit out of me.

  Matt had to come to the shop and taunt me. Who does that? It’s so fucking childish, and it’s messing with my head. I wasn’t expecting to see him at all today. We don’t see each other that often despite being neighbors. It’s usually on Sundays when he goes for a run and I come back from the gym that we cross paths, or whenever he’s being too loud, or when he was with his boyfriend and I had to ask them to be quieter, because they were fucking or arguing. Most of the time it was the latter. Thinking of it, the amount of time I had to go over there to ask them to be quiet because they were fucking can be counted on two hands.

  I was fine with just seeing each other once every other day or week, but now that he knows where I work, I’m wondering if I’ll be seeing him more often. A part of me wants to. He’s easy on the eyes and wakes something in me that I didn’t know existed. The other part of me wants him to forget I even exist and to leave me alone. That part is usually very quiet and rarely able to cloud my mind.

  He wants me to tattoo him. To tattoo his leg. Right by his dick. I don’t know if it’s done on purpose or if he just genuinely wants me to finish his leg sleeve. From what I’ve seen, it looks impressive. I’ll be honored to add to it, but it’ll take all my might to focus on the task ahead and not want to grab his big cock and suck it off. What is happening to me?

  I groan in frustration and hoist my bag on my shoulder. My work is done at the shop for the day, and I’m so glad it finally is. It’s quite stressful to get a shop up and running when you have a set date, and my encounter with Matt is still messing me up. I need to go to the gym to blow off some steam.

  Knowing Lindsey is going to be coming tonight isn’t helping my stress levels. I don’t want to be mean and take out my anger on her. She has nothing to do with the fact that I feel nothing for her. I should cut her lose, but I can’t.

  “Have a good night, Nate,” Mina says as I leave the shop, bringing me out of my thoughts.

  “You too, doll.” I smile at her and walk through the door and to my car. I get in and throw my bag on the seat next to me before setting off for the gym.

  Two hours later, I’m finally back home. I need a long relaxing shower and a good wank. The built-up tension there was in the shop with Matt earlier still has its effect on me. I’ve had a boner since he came into the shop, and the last thing I need is for Lindsey to think I’m hard for her.

  “Fucking hell!” I exclaim loudly as I see Lindsey’s car parked in the driveway. Just what I fucking needed. I park in the street so that she still has space to leave. I really don’t want her to spend the night here.

  I pick up my bag and my gym bag and get out of the car. I really don’t want to see her but the sooner I go in, the sooner she’ll leave. And she probably heard me come back. It’s not like you can go undetected with an Impala, she purrs loud and proud. Like Matt.

  As I’m about to open the door, I see Matt being dropped off by the beautiful redhead he’s often with. He gives her a quick peck, and she slaps his chest before shooing him out of the car. What is going on between them, and why do I suddenly feel jealou
s? I need to get a grip before I go in.

  I quickly unlock the door and walk in. The delicious smell of chicken parmesan greets me as I close the door. At least that’s something to look forward to, home-cooked food.

  “Hi, baby.” Lindsey’s annoying voice greets me. My suspicions of her making a double of my house key behind my back are confirmed now.

  “Hey. Didn’t know you had a key to my place?”

  “Oh yeah, your father gave me one. It’s about time we have a key to each other’s places, not that we’ll need to live in different houses much longer. Your father might be able to secure us a deal on a brand new house. It looks amazing. I have so many ideas already on how to decorate it,” she says excitedly, busying herself in the kitchen.

  “Great,” I groan and walk upstairs without kissing her. My mood turned to shit when I saw her car in the driveway, but knowing that my father is looking for a place for the both of us isn’t something I was prepared for. At least not at this time.

  I spend as much time as I can under the warm water, wanting to avoid Lindsey. I really should break up with her. It’s not fair to either of us, I just don’t know how to approach the subject.

  A loud bang on the door makes me jump and brings me out of my thoughts of breaking up with Lindsey.

  “What?” I shout.

  “Dinner’s ready, baby!” she yells from the other side of the door.

  “I’ll be down in a minute.” I sigh and turn off the shower. I step out and pat myself dry. Images of Matt from last night invade my thoughts. Why is it that when you least need it that you have those kind of images go through your head and get you hard? I really want to know.

  I put on boxers and sweatpants quickly before going downstairs. If I take any longer, she’ll think something is up.

  “Took you long enough.” Here comes the nagging.

  “You know it always takes me some time to take care of my leg.” I sit at the table and open my beer bottle.

  “No kiss or hello or how was your day?” she asks in an offended tone.

  “How was your day?” I lean over and peck her lips quickly before diving into the food.

  “I went shopping with your stepmom. We saw the perfect wedding dress for whenever you decide to propose.” She smirks at me, and I choke on a piece of chicken I was just swallowing.