“You know why…” I said with a smile, trying to make it seem like I was unperturbed. “Really, we’re gonna do this?”
“Do what, Jewls?” he asked, and now he seemed utterly frustrated. Like he truly didn’t know what I was talking about. Damn, he was good, devious. But I was smarter than they had given me credit for, I was sure of that.
I might not be the prettiest, or the skinniest, but damn it, I was smarter than that.
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Micah
Well…safe to say none of it was going to plan. I had asked her out, on a date, something I had never asked a woman before and me being me – arrogant, cocky and self-assured – it never occurred to me for a minute that she would say no, and more, make it seem like the most ridiculous idea imaginable.
“The other day…I saw you and Alex. Chatting away, smirking and looking my way. Shaking hands. Then today, he asks me out on a date. Now you…doesn’t take a genius, does it?”
Oh holy fuck, I knew she’d seen that, I just knew it. And what the fuck was Alex playing at? That was not part of the bet at all, he wasn’t meant to intervene. Shit, how was I gonna salvage this?
Humour, that was sure to work. Denial. Grovelling if necessary, I was obsessed with her, and would have done anything by that point for her to say yes. I wanted to kiss her so bad, just thinking about doing it made my cock stir.
“Oh…oh, you think-”
“It’s not what I think, it’s what I know, Micah. I’m sure…you both thought it would be pretty funny, but…you’ve had your fun now, so let’s just…pretend like today never happened. Neither of you win, neither of you lose, you can both keep your money…”
“You think we had a bet?”
“Didn’t you?”
Fuck. I was raised, from the age of six, by my brother Nic after my mamma died and my papa took off. He did his best to be the same kind of parent she was…teaching right from wrong, and one of his major rules was no lying. Never lie, always tell the truth. And I seriously cannot lie for shit. I will try to wriggle out of things, but out and out ask me a question and I will always answer honestly, it’s like a reflex I have no control over.
“Well yeah, but…” at that her face just crumpled and her hurt was just…palpable. I felt it; I mean I physically felt it. Almost like she had slapped me full force. Which she then did, her palm connecting with my cheek with sharp precision. It stung like hell. “Jewls, it’s not like you think…”
I don’t think she could believe she had slapped me either. I think she actually wished she could take it back. I was quite happy to pretend it never happened, so long as she wasn’t mad at me anymore. It was hard to think I had elicited such a reaction from her. To know that as much as she tried to hide it, I had hurt her.
She nodded erratically. “You had a bet, the two of you. See which one of you could get the fat ginger girl to agree to a date with you. I’m guessing the stakes were high, to reflect the risk.”
I frowned. “Risk?” I said, temporarily forgetting about the bigger issues here. Like her thinking this was all a game. Of her seemingly automatic put-down of herself.
“To your reputation. If I had said yes, would you have gone through with it? Taken me on a date?”
“Of course,” I said immediately, “that’s why I asked.”
“You asked for the same reason Alex did. So was it big money?”
I closed my eyes, feeling the truth sliding out from between my lips, almost beyond my control. “Twenty quid…” I muttered, and although at the time it had been completely harmless fun, now I felt cheap, nasty and distasteful.
She nodded and I thought I saw her eyes glisten with the threat of tears. “Right…”
I rolled my eyes. “Jewls…Alex bet me I couldn’t get a date with you. I took the bet and added that…”
Oh God…this was getting beyond uncomfortable and I was about to make it even worse. I couldn’t remember any girl ever making me feel like this, like I wasn’t good enough, like I didn’t deserve her. But then I had never met a girl with as much class as Jewls possessed naturally, without even realising it. If I had ever called her classy she would have laughed me off.
“Added what?”
“That not only would I get you to go out with me…but that you would be my girlfriend by the end of the month.”
Again, she frowned, as though totally and utterly bewildered. “Why would you say that?”
I smiled, couldn’t help it. She was just too much, too adorable. “Because I want you to be my girlfriend.”
“Ha!” she blurted out, surprisingly loudly. “Sure, right! You want me as your girlfriend. Okay…yeah, sure.” She let out an exasperated sigh and paced a couple of times before turning back to me. “Okay, look…I like you, Micah. I thought…I thought…”
It was my turn to frown again. “You thought what?”
She shrugged, almost as though disappointed. “I thought we were friends. Me and you, and me and Alex. But-”
“We are friends.”
“If that’s true…then you’ll say no more about this. You’ll leave it alone, and tell Alex the same. A joke’s a joke but…enough now, yeah?”
“Jewls, please don’t be upset. I hate to think I’ve upset you.” I really did too; it was a million miles from how I would ever want her to feel.
“You haven’t, I’m fine.” she said abruptly, and I might have believed her but for the tears still making her eyes sparkle. “Uh…sorry I slapped you, dunno where that came from.”
I shrugged it off dismissively. “I deserved it. But it honestly isn’t how it looks. I swear to you. He picked up on the fact that I like you, and he was poking fun. He said no way would you ever go out with the likes of me. That’s how the bet came about. But I asked you because I wanted to. Because I truly do want to go out with you. Because I genuinely do like you. I genuinely care about you.”
She nodded to that and let out a deep sigh, seeming to compose herself. “If that’s true…don’t ask me again.”
I opened my mouth to respond and let out a sigh, closing it again. What was I meant to say to that? I was going to have to cut my losses – for now, at least.
I couldn’t find the words to say, and I didn’t want to say okay, I won’t, because I already knew it was a lie – I would never be able to stop wanting her, or stop trying, but I was going to have to stop today. But I did manage to nod, and she visibly relaxed.
“Best get back to work, huh?”
“Yeah…” I muttered, feeling something I had never felt before in my life – utterly rejected. I know it’s arrogant to say it, but no woman had ever knocked me back before, and I didn’t like how it felt. To her, my subsequent relentless pursuing of her was probably a result of my bruised ego, I can see how it would have looked that way to a negative, sceptical mind like hers, but it wasn’t like that.
I just wanted her, that was all. And the hardest part of it all was that I was certain – certain – that she wanted to me too. And with that knowledge, I just couldn’t understand why she was holding out on me.
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Jewls
Idiot that I was, I had just turned down a date with Micah. Even I couldn’t believe I had done it. Okay, so my fears about the bet had been confirmed, but even with that knowledge he had actually seemed completely genuine, almost had me convinced for a moment there. Part of me wished we could rewind ten minutes, back to the start of this whole conversation, and preferably back to before I had slapped him. Jesus, where had that come from?
Now the moment was gone, I had said no, and I knew he wouldn’t ask again. Because, I thought, he genuinely liked me as a friend and I knew, although I hadn’t known him all that long, that he was not the sort of man who would deliberately be mean, spiteful, or hurtful.
When he turned to walk back to the park, he had almost looked dejected somehow.
And then he stopped and turned back to me. “Okay, so you don’t wanna go out with me. There�
��s nothing to stop us hanging out as mates though, right? We are still friends; I haven’t just wrecked that, have I?”
And there it was. Jewls Dempsey, slotted into the friend zone, as usual. This time all my own doing. I found a smile from somewhere and nodded. “Of course we’re friends. And no, I guess there’s nothing to stop us hanging out as mates.”
“Cool. Give me your phone a minute.”
Oh blimey, this was about to get embarrassing. “Uh, I don’t have one.”
He rolled his eyes, assuming I was joking. “This isn’t some sort of prank. I just wanna put my number in it. So we can arrange to meet, as friends. Platonic, boring friends with no benefits whatsoever.”
He was grinning, a mischievous and oh so sexy grin that made me smile back. “Seriously, Micah, I…I don’t have one.”
He frowned at that. “How old are you, Jewls?”
“Twenty five…” I said, wondering what that had to do with anything. And then for some reason I added, “I’ll be twenty six in November.”
“Nearly twenty-six and you don’t have a phone? How is that even possible?”
I shrugged uncomfortably. “I uh…I lost it when I moved up here.” What else could I say? I had to get rid of it to stop my ex-husband bombarding me with texts and calls, hundreds of them day and night. That was way too much information and far too personal to be telling Micah. I had no intention of ever discussing Andrew Dempsey with anyone up here, ever. Fresh start and all that.
“You haven’t got a new one? I wouldn’t last a day without my phone.”
Again, I shrugged. “I just moved here, renting the flat – the bond, month’s rent in advance and that wiped my savings and I haven’t had a wage packet yet. A phone just…isn’t a priority.”
He considered that, obviously still gobsmacked and then nodded. “Okay…where do you live?”
“I’m not telling you that!” I blurted out, before I could stop myself. He looked offended at that, and who could blame him?
“Why not?”
I sigh, exasperated. This whole conversation had me exhausted now, and I just wanted to get back to work and try and pretend none of this had happened. “Why do you even want to know?”
“Because when you finish at ten tonight, I would like to walk you home. If you don’t tell me…I’ll just follow you anyway.”
Something about that statement sent a shiver down my spine. I think I actually physically shuddered, and I think he saw it, but he didn’t say anything. I wasn’t comfortable with the way this was going, it was far too familiar. I had to mentally check myself. I hadn’t known Micah long, but I was already fairly sure that he was not like Andrew. But then Andrew had been like this when I met him too. All smooth words and bright smiles and look how that had ended up – seven years of controlling and fear, culminating in my literally running out of the house in the middle of the night and never looking back. Forced to hide in a wardrobe at my mother’s house when he came looking for me to take me home.
He was waiting expectantly for a response from me, so I simply smiled. “You do what you gotta do, Micah…”
He grinned at that, and offered me his hand. I took it without hesitation, and it was as warm and welcoming as ever. We walked back together like that, but instead of him going straight back to the waltzer, he came with me over to Alex. He released my hand, causing me to instantly miss its warmth and took his wallet from his back pocket. I noticed it was full of money, packed full of twenty pound notes and I fleetingly wondered how he had so much money. The wages here were good, but not that good. And then I remembered his second job. In any case, it was none of my business. He fished out two of the notes and handed them to Alex, who frowned.
“What’s this?”
“Bet’s off. Jewls rumbled us. And it was a stupid bet anyway. You scuppered any chance I had when you asked her out first. Totally fucked up my plan.” Micah said, and I felt myself blush crimson. How humiliating!
“Micah!” I protested. Alex didn’t seemed bothered in the slightest by the news that he had been rumbled, in fact he was looking from me to Micah and back at me like he found the whole thing deeply amusing. And just like that I was pissed off again.
Micah flung his hands up in the air, smiling. “What?”
I noticed the girl on the next stand – Laura – smirking a little. Could he not see how crass he was being?
“You think you could quit talking about me like I’m not here? And like I’m some sort of…of pawn in your little game? Honestly, a little tact, huh?”
“What’ve they been up to now, Jewls?”
“Nothing…” I muttered at Laura, feeling my face flush again.
Micah turned to her. “Alex here reckoned I wouldn’t stand a chance with a girl like Jewls. I told him he was wrong. We had a little bet, but Jewls figured it out, and-”
Laura laughed. “Course she did! Us girls can see right through you boys, you know.”
Micah rolled his eyes. “I noticed.”
Laura had come round to the front, standing beside Micah. She nudged him playfully and he nudged her back. They shared a look, and I saw it in her eyes. She liked him too. Somehow she was totally at ease with him though, and I wished I could feel that relaxed, that comfortable with him. It was obvious they were good friends, but there was a hint of something more there, or the feeling that once upon a time there had been something more. I felt a twinge of almost unbearable jealously.
And suddenly, I was mortified too. If I was right and they had once been a couple, I highly doubted she had been the victim of some stupid bet. He would have asked her, she in total confidence would have said yes and that would have been that. A normal interaction between two normal, attractive confident people. Me? It takes a bet to ask me out.
“The bet is not off, Micah…” Alex said, grinning. “What you mean is, you lost. Jewls knocked you back, I win.”
“I’m right here!” I said, a little louder than I had intended to. Damn it, now I was giving them a reaction, and I had sworn I wouldn’t do that. They could not have made me feel any smaller if they had stood around me in a circle pointing and laughing. “Enough now, let’s just…drop it, please. You’ve humiliated me enough, don’t you think?”
And then, because I couldn’t stand to be there in the middle of that conversation anymore, and because frankly I was afraid I was going to cry with shame, I walked off, heading to get myself a drink from the nearest burger bar, leaving the three of them to no doubt have a right old laugh at my expense.
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Micah
Laura looked at me and then Alex and sucked in a breath. I raised my eyebrows. “What?”
She shook her head slowly. “Not cool, boys. She’s not a piece of meat, she has feelings. Actually I kinda get the impression she’s very sensitive. This is a new place, a new job and you’ve both made her feel like the butt of a really crap joke, in front of me, talking about her like she was invisible.”
“I was trying to do the right thing, fix a shitty mistake!” I protested, but already I could see it from the other perspective. If I had ever stood a chance – which I still wasn’t sure I had – I could see that I had probably blown it, at the very least I had some major fixing to do, to show her that actually I was a good guy. An idiot, but a good guy.
“You had a bet to see if you could get a date with her. She’s right, you treated her like a pawn in a game, why couldn’t you just be normal and ask her out?”
I grinned cheekily. Laura was a great girl, a gorgeous girl but I stood a better chance of getting a date with Jewls than I ever would with Laura. Because I wasn’t and never would be her type. In fact, Jewls was more her type than me, because Laura, like me, liked the ladies.
“Do you wanna ask her out?”
Laura let out a long, exasperated sigh. “Yes, because us lesbians, we go for anything in a skirt. I’m not blind, I can see Jewls is very pretty but as you know, I have a girlfriend, and fidelity means something to me. Yo
u boys would have to google it. But I wouldn’t mind being her friend, because I don’t know about you, but she gives off the vibe of someone who could do with a decent friend, don’t you think? Frankly, you’re both lucky she’s even talking to you. I repeat…not cool. I would have slapped you for that.”
I smirked a little, but I actually felt awful, like a prized twat. “She did slap me.”
At that, Alex burst out laughing. “Oh, Mic…you have so burnt your bridges there!”
I glanced at Laura, who wasn’t smiling, least of all laughing. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel like laughing either.
“None of this is funny, guys. Have either of you even apologised?”
“I did,” I said, and then frowned, “I think I did.”
Laura shook her head. “You both need to grow up a bit.” She glanced to her left and straightened her shoulders, starting to walk away. “Here she comes. Suck it up and fix it, you hear?”
Alex rolled his eyes playfully at her, but I nodded discretely and Laura smiled. She got it. I was, by and large a good person, I just hadn’t been thinking. Because Miss Jewls Dempsey had my otherwise very sharp mind well and truly fuzzed.
Chapter Four
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Jewls
The rest of the shift with Alex had been a little awkward to say the least. He didn’t say much, but he was being far too nice, getting me drinks, helping me as much as possible and checking I was okay all the time.
I wondered just what Laura had said to them after I stomped off like some sort of petulant teenager.
The evening was much busier and I didn’t really have time to dwell on the early events. But then as I made for the gates to leave, there was Micah standing waiting for me, grinning from ear to ear. Despite myself, I grinned back.
“And what are you doing?” I asked.
He shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m walking you home. Are you gonna let me, or am I gonna have to resort to stalking you?” I flinched at that before I could stop myself, and he frowned. “That was a joke. I make stupid, inappropriate jokes all the time. It’s all part of my terrible affliction.”
Gypsy Kiss: Book 1: Micah (The Gypsy Kiss Series) Page 5