by Colee Firman
“I didn’t even recognize her, Brant.” He shook his head as he spoke. “I’d nailed a couple of chicks that night. I couldn’t say whether she was one of them or not.”
“Yeah…” I appreciated his honesty but it was a lot to take.
He took a sip of his untouched drink before continuing. “So my parents hired a lawyer and got me out on bond. A few days later we found out the girl was pregnant.”
I took a deep breath before speaking. I didn’t want his response to my next question to have a visible affect on me. “And paternity test proved the baby was yours?”
“Not right then. She refused to let us do one while she was pregnant. By law the judge couldn’t make her, so we had to wait.”
I was pretty shocked at what I was hearing. He’d been through so much more than I’d imagined.
“My lawyer built a defense based on the fact she refused to prove the baby was even mine. He argued that she was just a scared little girl accusing the only guy she could remember from the party because she was afraid to own up to what she’d done.”
“That’s harsh…” I knew from having a defense attorney for an aunt that victims were painted as villains all the time to win cases. It was just hard to imagine doing that to a young girl. “Did it work?”
Myles shrugged. “I’m not sure if it would’ve worked or not. Before the trial was over the baby was born.”
“And…” I said, tugging on his hand.
“The paternity test showed he wasn’t mine. The girl admitted she was lying about everything because she had no idea who the father was.”
I tried to hold in the sigh of relief that was dying to escape. “Thank god she finally told the truth…” It looked like Jake had left out a few important details. If I ever saw him again, he was gonna need some first-aid supplies from his family’s drugstore when I was through with his ass.
“It’s taken a lot to get my shit together,” he said. “By the time the charges were dropped and I could go back to school, the deal with the Japanese company was all set. I decided to focus on that instead of going back to class. I owed my parents a shit ton of money for the lawyers and tuition they’d wasted on me.”
“So that’s it, huh?” I lowered my head until my chin was resting on top of our hands. “That’s what you thought was going to change everything?”
Myles shrugged, keeping his eyes on me.
“The deal with my dad should’ve given you a major clue that I’m not easily shocked by things like that.”
Myles looked up at the clock on the wall. “Fuck, it’s after one…” He pulled his hand away and scooted out of the booth. “I’ve gotta go. I have a ton of work to do.”
“Ok...” I hoped the disappointment in my voice wasn’t too obvious.
Myles leaned down close, his blue eyes locking onto mine. “Come see me when you get home?”
“I don’t know,” I said, grabbing a fistful of his shirt as he tried to back away. “If I impulsively kiss you again, are you gonna shove me against the counter like last time?”
“Yes.” The corners of his lips curled. “Plan on being shoved against something if you kiss me again.”
I let go of his shirt and watched as he turned and walked away.
For the first time in so long, I felt alive and excited about my life. Even with the loss of my job I still felt good about things. Although, finding out the guy you’re crazy about wants you too could probably make almost any situation seem a little brighter.
Hearing what Myles went through with the girl had actually given me hope. Maybe when I decided to tell him how I really ended up living with my Aunt Jen, he’d be alright with it since he’d been through something traumatic too. If things kept going like they were, I was going to have to do it soon.
Sixteen
Myles
I was pissed at myself for letting things get out of hand with Brantley. The more I told myself to stay away, the closer I got to her. I’d been trying to tell her I was leaving for Japan on Saturday. Instead I’d ended up just rehashing what made me swear off getting involved with girls to begin with. The way she simply accepted what happened without judging made me want her even more.
Meeting her changed everything I thought I wanted. For the last year, I’d been anxious to get my passport back so I could go work overseas. Now that I had it, the last thing I wanted was to leave. Getting on that plane meant leaving Brantley behind. I didn’t know how I was going to do it.
Pete’s face popped up on one of the screens in front of me. “Did you check out those files I sent over?”
I nodded. “It’s a coding error—I’m working on it now.”
“You look like shit,” Pete said.
“Piss off.”
Pete watched me for a few moments. “Did the neighbor girl turn up?”
“Yes,” I said, keeping my focus on the other computer screen.
“I figured once you knew she wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere you’d quit looking like you’re ready to put your fist through a wall.”
I looked over, regretting that I told Pete anything about Brantley. “I haven’t told her I’m leaving yet.”
“What happened to staying away from her?”
“I tried.” I went back to typing. “She’s hard to ignore.”
“This is new. You’ve never had a problem forgetting about a girl before,” he said, looking perplexed. “You’re actually into this chick.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m leaving in three days with no clue when I’ll be home.”
Pete crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “So tell her what’s going on and figure out how to make it work while you’re gone.”
I thought about it for a few seconds and shook my head. “I can’t start something with her…”
“It sounds like you already have.”
“And I’m gonna put a stop to it,” I said, looking back at Pete. “She’s coming by tonight. I’m gonna tell her I’m leaving and nothing can happen between us.”
Just speaking the words out loud to Pete cut through me. Saying them to Brantley was going to kill me. I didn’t care about my own feelings—I deserved the pain for being too weak to stay away from her. What wrecked me was knowing how much it was going to hurt her.
“This girl,” Pete said, “Brantley—she’s the only girl I’ve ever seen you give a shit about. You sure about walking away from her?”
“Yes.”
“That seems like a stupid move, Franco.”
“Well, if I don’t quit this shit with her right now, I won’t get on that plane Saturday,” I said. “Is that what you want?”
Pete sighed. “I’m sorry, man. If I could stay longer to give you time to figure shit out with her I would. Ashlee’s just on my ass and—”
“It’s cool—honestly,” I said, trying to convince him—and myself that it didn’t matter. “You’ve put enough time in over there for me.”
“Listen,” he said, clearly not buying my claim, “you won’t be gone forever. If you really want this girl, tell her you wanna see her when you get back.”
“I can’t—” I ran my hands over my face, trying to relax. “I’m not gonna ask her to wait around for me.”
“Why?” Pete cocked his head to the side. “The worst thing she can say is no.”
I couldn’t even think about that. “Enough of this bullshit,” I said, hovering the mouse pointer over the button to close the video conference. “Give me a few and I’ll upload these files.” Without saying anything else, I broke the connection.
Until recently, I hadn’t understood Pete’s incessant need to be with Ashlee. Now that I was just days away from leaving Brantley, I completely got it. Unfortunately, the commitments I’d made before we met meant I couldn’t stay with her no matter how I felt.
When we signed the deal with the game company, the agreement was that I’d work in Japan and Pete would stay in the states. My passport had been revoked when I was arrested though, and getting it back aft
er the charges were dropped had turned into a huge mess.
Pete agreed to cover for a few weeks in Japan while my lawyer worked on the issue. A couple of months turned into a year. Pete was a cool guy—my oldest friend, but his patience was wearing thin. His girlfriend was waiting in California and he wanted to get back to her. With my passport reinstated, I had no choice but to head overseas so he could come home.
Pete grew up in Baylor Grove. We’d been best friends our entire lives. We both came from overachieving parents who made our lives hell if we were anything but exceptional—we were destined to be friends. When my parents pressured me to apply to Ivy League schools, his did too. We were both accepted to Princeton thanks to the years of relentless helicopter parenting by our folks.
The distance from Baylor Grove and our parents worked out better for him than it had me. He met his girl freshman year and never looked at another chick. Once I was out from under my parent’s control, I went in the opposite direction.
I’d always had a hell of a temper. Playing sports in high school helped me blow off steam. Once I got to college my outlet evolved into fighting—usually for no real reason. If there was a brawl anywhere close, there was a pretty good chance I had something to do with it. Pete ended up bailing my ass out of jail more than a few times.
While I was out drinking, fighting, and being a manwhore, he was back at the dorm with Ashlee getting domesticated. She was from California. The plan was that once Pete came home from Japan, she would pack up and move to Baylor Grove with him. I figured he’d have her married to him and pregnant within a year’s time.
Headlights flashing across the window caught my attention. Brantley was probably home. I stood up and went over to the window, pulling the blind back to look out. Two teenage boys I recognized from Puck’s were with her. One had driven her car and the other followed them in a truck.
I let go of the blind and went to meet her at the door. She wasn’t good at getting into the house in the dark to begin with. Add a little booze to the mix and she’d probably end up out there all night. I pulled the front door open and watched Brantley wave to the boys and start toward the house.
The sway in her step made it obvious she was a little drunker then when I’d left her at the bar. There was no way I was going to be able to tell her I was leaving when she was like that. Even if she wasn’t drinking, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway. The smile that spread across her face as she looked up at me made it feel impossible to do anything that could take it away.
Brantley
My stomach was in knots as I sat next to Myles on his couch telling him how my night played out after he’d left. Being alone with him now that we were on the same page about our feelings should’ve been the most exciting moment of my life. I was far too nervous and scared to enjoy it though.
With a little booze in my system, I knew I’d have a tough time stopping if things started leading toward a trip to the bedroom. Until I was able to tell him everything about my past, I had to take things slow. That meant keeping any urges I had to throw myself at him at bay.
That felt like a monumental task considering he’d been waiting for me at the door in just a pair of basketball shorts—no shirt. The first thing I wanted to do was wrap my body around his.
Myles pulled my arm until I was laying on my back with my head resting on his thigh. “You look tired.”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling up at him. “I already feel like I have a hangover and I haven’t even been to bed yet.”
Myles dragged his fingers through my hair. “You don’t have to get up early.”
“Right, I’m unemployed now,” I said, letting out a deep breath. “Awesome, thanks for the reminder.”
“Welcome…” Myles stretched his arm out and let his hand rest on my stomach. “Seriously, you shouldn’t worry. You won’t have a problem finding something else. You’re a fantastic employee. Wherever you go, they’ll be lucky to have you.”
My fingers traced the lines of the tattoos on his forearm. They were mostly skulls and bones and monstrous looking faces, all kind of melding together with a smoky looking haze around them. “What made you want all these?”
“I got this one because of something Pete and I came up with for our game,” he said, pointing to a skull with a dagger jammed through the top on his upper arm, “and then as we got further into it, each time we nailed down something cool I had it done in ink.”
“So all of these are things from your game?”
“Most of them…” He put his fingers on my shoulder and slowly let them trail down my arm. “A few didn’t make the cut.”
I sighed as each of my muscles began relaxing. “I like it when you talk to me like this…”
“Like what?”
“When the sarcastic edge is gone from your voice,” I whispered, scooting closer so my cheek rested against his stomach. “When you’re nice to me...”
“I’m always nice,” he said, tracing my collarbone with his index finger. “An hour ago I even opened the front door for you.”
“Most of the time you’re slamming it in my face. Actually, yelling at me and then slamming it in my face…”
He cupped my cheek with his hand. “Look at me.”
My gaze was met by his beautiful blue eyes staring back at me.
“Never again,” he said, dragging his thumb along my cheek. “From now on, unless you’re in here with me, my door will be open.”
I smiled at the seriousness in his voice. “You could end up regretting that…”
“I won’t,” he whispered. “I’m sorry for being so shitty to you before. I’ve spent the last two years shutting down every girl who talked to me. It’s hard to turn it off.”
“You should definitely keep shutting down every girl who talks to you,” I said. “Anyone who’s not me, I mean…”
Myles laughed as he slipped his arms around my body and lifted me up so I was sitting on his lap. One of his arms stayed around my back with his fingers resting on my hip while the other slipped behind my neck and pulled me toward him.
I hooked my arms around his neck. “Are you gonna kiss me?”
“That was the plan,” he whispered, pulling me closer. “Unless you don’t want me to…”
I answered by leaning in and touching my lips to his. I felt him smile as he tipped his head slightly and began kissing me softly, each contact lasting a little longer than the one before it. He pulled me in with the hand on the back of my neck and his lips parted slightly. The hold I had around him tightened as I opened my mouth, letting his tongue find mine.
I suddenly hated every other girl he’d ever kissed. He continuously brought me to my breaking point and then slowed down until I was practically begging him not to stop. If that’s what his kiss was like, I was dying to know what else he could do.
The entire time Myles kept his hands exactly where they were—one on my hip and the other on the back of my neck. That was pretty impressive considering I could feel him getting harder by the second underneath me.
With my inhibitions gone and heat building between my thighs, he could’ve easily had me. At that point, I trusted him not to do it more than I trusted myself to stop him if he tried.
Myles brought his hands up to my cheeks and gradually broke our kiss. He tipped his forehead against mine and sighed. “You’re making this so hard…”
I licked my lips and smiled. “I can tell.” I loved knowing how much he wanted me and how tough it was for him to take things slow.
“Funny…” Myles suddenly stood up with me in his arms and carried me across his apartment and into his bedroom. The smile fell off my face as soon as he pulled the blankets back and laid me down on his bed.
Panic swelled as I tried to speak. “Myles, I’m not going to—”
“Neither am I,” he said, pulling my shoes off. “You’re just sleeping here.” His fingers slipped under the top of my knee socks and ran down my calves as he slipped them off. “I didn’t forget
what Lou said earlier.”
“It’s not a big deal…” My already warm cheeks felt on fire. “Sleeping on the floor isn’t gonna kill me.”
“Well, it kills me,” he said, pulling a t-shirt free from a hanger in his closet and tossing it to me. “It’s not happening again.”
“Myles…”
“Don’t argue,” he said, pointing at me.
I watched as he turned toward the door and walked out, pulling it closed behind him. Apparently he wasn’t staying with me. A mixture of disappointment and relief washed over me as I sat up. I pulled the Puckett’s Pub tank top I’d been wearing over my head and then undid the clasp on my bra, tossing them both on the floor.
The t-shirt Myles gave me was soft and slightly worn out, as if he’d spent a lot of time in it. I held it up and saw it had the Baylor Grove High School football team’s logo on it. I couldn’t help smiling as I pulled it down over my body. I slipped out of my shorts and tossed them on top the rest of my clothes.
Just as I laid back and pulled the blankets up, the door opened and Myles came in. He walked to the side of the bed and reached down, pulling the covers back.
“Scoot,” he said, climbing in before I had a chance to comply.
“What—ouch…” He ended up laying on my hair momentarily as he moved in without giving me a chance to make room. “What are you doing?”
“Going to bed.”
I dropped my head onto the other pillow. “Duh, but…”
“This is my bed,” he said, turning on his side to face me. “You’re not sleeping in it without me.”
“Okay…” I closed my eyes, wondering how I was going to get any sleep with him four inches away.
“That was way too easy,” he said, reaching for my hand. “I expected a little arguing that ended with me on the couch.”
I smiled as he tugged my hand until I scooted closer. “Should I go back to pretending you’ve got cooties?”
“Whatever helps you sleep…” he said, tipping onto his back pulling me against his side.