I sipped my coffee to avoid answering. She’s ruining my good mood.
“I swear I didn’t know Jax was still sore about the pills.” She pleaded.
“The pills you took were more expensive than this apartment. Now you have an angry drug lord after you and no way to pay him back. He had your sister beaten because he thought she was you. What do you think I feel?” I sent her a death glare.
She curled herself up and pulled the blanket closer, “I’ll fix this okay? I promise. He said there were other ways to pay it off, maybe I should-?”
“No,” I sat back and crossed my ankle over my knee. “Don’t go anywhere near him. Jax is a dangerous prick and he won’t let this go. You can’t afford the pills and you aren’t doing any other kind of shit for him.”
She pressed her lips together and watched the news with me for a second before talking again, “I never said thank you…to you and Chance…for coming to get me that night.”
I sighed. “Stay clean. That’s my thank you.”
She nodded and shut up.
I ended up taking a walk later. I needed to clear my head. I deliberately went past Rebel Vision out of nosiness and lucky me; Chance was coming out. We saw one another and I braved going up to him. We ended up strolling in the same direction as he lit a cigarette.
“What are you up to?” I asked.
“Seeing someone.” He answered vaguely.
That caused me a fair amount of stress. Who was he seeing? Was it someone he was involved with?
“You’re seeing someone?” I asked.
He sided me a look, “Maybe I have a girlfriend.” He brought the cigarette to his full lips.
I laughed, “Yeah, sure. After last night, I have trouble picturing you with a woman.”
He cocked his brow, “I’m just as good with women. Ask one.”
I brought us back to the topic, “I’m not sure what happened last night. I don’t do shit like that. I don’t. I didn’t want you to think…”
“Think what?”
I struggled for something to say, “I still don’t want to…” What the hell am I trying to say?
“Relax Adam, I get it.”
I sighed. “Great.”
“But you still owe me.”
I stopped in my tracks and he slowed up. “Sorry; what?” I asked.
“I said, you owe me. I did you a favor. I got you off. I’ll need a favor back.” He pulled on his cigarette and I wished he would take off his sunglasses so I could see his eyes.
“Like getting you a new pack of cigs or…?”
He smiled, “Whatever I want. You’ll know when I tell you.”
I felt immediately turned on and annoyed with myself at the same time, “So until you decide to use said favor, you’ll just hang it over my head until God knows when?”
“Pretty much. Yeah.” He blew smoke away and waited.
I pocketed my hands, “Why do I feel like I just made a pact with the devil?”
“The devil is my bitch, Adam.” He started walking away again, “I’ll see you around.”
I swore and growled to myself. A special thank you to my dick for putting me in this predicament.
“Where do you even go two days out of the week? It’s weird.” I called down the street. “You just go totally M.I.A.”
He just waved without turning to face me.
TRIXIE
As June rolled around Adam and I became only roommates almost too smoothly. We fill the time with movies, band practice or just outright avoidance. Right now he’s reading on the couch with his nerd glasses on and nothing but sweat pants. How could he be so beautiful and belong to me and yet do nothing for me anymore? He’s a Calvin Klein Model waiting to happen on my sofa and I feel…nothing. Unless I imagine him leaving for good. Then I want to die inside.
I stopped writing a new song from the island in our kitchen and went over to where he sat. “Hi,” I actually looked him in the eyes.
He laid the open book over his chest and looked back, “Hi,” he stretched, “you okay?”
I wonder if I could be brave enough to just voice my fears; that we are broken up. I can’t. Not when I look in his eyes. Not when I reminisce about us. Not when I remember that he’s all I know of love.
“Yeah,” I lied. “But uh… I think I’m going to Coney Island with Knox and Diego. Wanna come?”
He touched my cheek, “I don’t want to talk about that other thing yet…that thing you were thinking about.”
I felt relieved to know he knew what was bothering me. I closed my eyes and took in his touch. “I don’t either.”
He tossed his book on the coffee table and motioned for me to come to him. I crawled between his legs and laid my head on his chest. His heart beat against my ear, calming my nerves.
“Are we ever going to be brave enough to talk about it?” I asked.
He ran his fingers through my hair, “Yeah… just not yet.”
I kissed his chest, “I do love you…”
“I love you too,” he pulled me in closer.
“I have to go pack. We’ll be back in the evening.”
He smiled, “There is this thing called a bathing suit. It’s supposed to actually cover the body…”
I laughed. “Right, and they come in different sizes. Mine is a string bikini.”
He groaned and held me tighter before wrapping his powerful thighs around my legs, “Ya know what? You aren’t going. Sorry.”
I struggled the get loose, “Yes I am. And it’s a knit bikini by the way. Nude colored.”
“Plan to put a ‘for sale’ sticker on your ass too?”
I snickered, “Jealous? Because I hear Chance Urban put a down payment on your ass so…”
His brows knit together and he pulled his glasses down the bridge of his nose, “Where the hell did you hear that?”
“Word spreads on the streets…” I winked and wriggled my brows.
“Are you pretending it doesn’t bother you or are you that okay?”
I examined my own feelings, “When I first heard I felt a little ping but we aren’t… I gave you the green light didn’t I?”
“You can blink yellow or flash red whenever you want.” He reminded.
I shook my head, “I think you need to see where green takes you.”
He grabbed me by my dark blue locks and forced my head up so my lips were close to his, “Stay close to Knox and Diego. Don’t put yourself in another bad situation. I’ll fucking kill someone, Trix. I mean it.”
There it goes. My heart is in a fit of spasms for my man. My Adam. The one I know and love that’s territorial, over protective and in charge. I kissed him on the cheek.
“Is Liam going?” he asked.
“I want to lie and say no,” I trailed my fingers down his beard. “But yeah, he’s coming.”
“Good.” He surprised me with that. “Stay close to him too.” I looked at him in disbelief and he answered my unspoken musings, “He stopped someone from putting you in a hospital. He has my trust now. I still don’t like him but… I trust him. His reasons are probably iffy too, but at the end of the day, you’re safe. That’s all I care about.”
I kissed his lips in a chase way just as the door burst open and Blaze stood in our apartment with head to toe beach stuff, “Let’s go! Get off your man and pack your shit, woman!”
I laughed even as Adam shifted me off him.
“You look like a kid,” Adam told him.
“Excuse me, it’s Coney Island. Rides, beaches, women, sand, food…” Blaze made an Mmm sound. “And I brought my speedo.”
I grimaced, “Ugh, Blaze, really? Come on, wear swim trunks like a normal person.”
“Women love my ass, why on earth would I cover up my best asset?” He stopped and grinned, “Ass-et. Get it?”
I shook my head as I went up to pack. Jolee was meeting us at the club because apparently, Knox invited Bitchy Bianca too.
“I’ll hop a ride with you guys to the club,” Adam said gett
ing up. “I’m going to toy around with the new song.”
A few minutes later we were riding to the club. I got out to go find Liam. He was helping Chance inventory again. They worked okay together. “Ready?” I asked him.
Liam looked to Chance. Chance jerked his head at me, “Go ahead. I got the rest.”
Liam wasn’t even supposed to work today but he wanted to earn his keep and so he came in on off days to help out.
“Chance,” I stood on my toes, “there’s room if you want to come with us.”
“Why, you miss me?” He flirted.
“Well, you on a beach, shirtless would be a welcome view,” I admitted.
He winked at me, “Sorry, Sweetheart, I got things to do.”
“You own the club so technically you could call in sick to yourself.”
He set his clipboard under the bar, “It’s not work related.”
“Going to your mysterious location, huh? Where do you go?”
He only smiled at me.
“Okay,” I came up and kissed his cheek. I don’t know why but he and I have gotten close since Jax’s little buddy beat me senseless.
He watched me go but when Adam showed up, his attention was locked on my boyfriend. I ignored the nagging in my gut that told me they felt something and met the guys outside.
There is something brewing between my guy and my boss but it feels like a force to be reckoned with… if Adam even lets it happen.
My sister came around a corner looking skittish, “Hey!” I called to her, “Come on, we’re going!”
She hurried to preen herself but kept looking over her shoulder as she came my way. The way she acted was like a red flag. She’s hiding something lately.
“I thought you were working until we came to get you,” I asked. “What were you doing?”
“Nothing Sis, let’s go…” she got in and ignored me.
ADAM
“So, what’s so important you can’t join the guys?” I asked Chance. I went to stand just inside the bar where I could flip through the sports channels on the widescreen.
He washed a few glasses behind the bar and I took my eyes from his wired forearms.
“I go to my old stomping grounds on Mondays.” He explained. “Brooklyn.”
“What’s in Brooklyn?” I pressed.
“You can come if you want.”
“Do I need to leave my phone and my wallet behind again?” I laughed at my own joke.
“Yeah, actually… I recommend it.” He said in all seriousness.
I sighed, “You really are from the hood.”
He shrugged, “We all start somewhere.”
Zeus came up and took over, “I got this boss man,” he put all the dried glasses up as Chance gave him last minute instructions. I handed Zeus my phone and wallet after texting Trix that I would have it off for a while.
Chance went to get his keys and I tested my luck with Zeus, “Does he go to his old streets for drive-by shooting contests or should I have brought my ski mask for car thieving?” I joked.
Zeus laughed but then shook his head as he rolled up his sleeves. “There is more to Chance Urban than what he’s been through. Can’t explain a man like that.”
“So what does he do out there?”
“You’ll see… he don’t usually let anybody go. Just me or Bianca. Nobody even knows aside from us what he’s doing.”
Chance came back and signaled for me to follow. We got in his car and drove in surprisingly comfortable silence. He’s dressed down today; just jeans and a t-shirt.
It’s a twenty-minute drive from the club to the Bronx and I watched as we slowly transferred from clean and busy to shady and dark. Thankfully it was daytime this go around and I’d learned from before that nobody in the ghetto fucked with Chance.
We cruised to a grocery store where most the employees stood outside smoking. Chance got out and I hurried to do the same, “Shopping?” I tested, “you drive all this way every Monday to shop at a dingy marketplace?”
He only smiled and opened the door for me. The place was falling apart. The tiles were missing in most spots, the fluorescent lights kept blinking and the carts all squeaked. The food was fresh, though. In fact, the produce wasn’t half bad.
Chance filled the cart with pretty much everything. “Grab eggs.” He told me.
“How many?”
“A dozen…”
“Okay-.”
“No,” he made a turn, “a dozen, dozen…”
“What’s this for? An urban street god?” I stopped to grab the eggs two crates at a time. He kept grabbing things in bulk. The cart was starting to look like a mountain.
“Tomatoes…” he pointed across the produce department while he bagged several cucumbers and broccoli heads.
I reached for a vine but he shook his head, “Not the ones from Mexico. The homegrown.”
I rolled my eyes but grabbed the right kind. Next was lettuce. “That’s iceberg,” he corrected.
“So?”
“So, I want Romaine. Iceberg isn’t real.”
I murmured to myself, “I didn’t take you for a health nut.”
“Does my body say processed foods and Cheetos?”
Nope. Not one bit. Talking about his body didn’t help my active sex brain.
“My body is in equal shape but I believe in moderation.” I retorted as I bagged the lettuce.
I turned around to get carrots when I felt something cold hit the back of my head. A radish rolled down my body and bounced across the floor. “Did you throw that at me?” I questioned.
He pretended to read the sale sign for mushrooms, “No. wasn’t me.” He lied.
I’m suddenly so glad that he’s a guy; that we’re both guys. There is no need to discuss every part of what goes on between us. He doesn’t need to talk about what happened in the cellar months back or what happened at the bed and breakfast. We don’t need to hash over every tiny exchange.
We can exist in the same space and forge forward not backward.
At the checkout, my head did a double take at the price he racked up. What the fuck? He paid it with no expression at all. In CASH! I shouldn’t be surprised. His club is elite and I recently found out he has investments in others, including family restaurants.
Still.
We got back in his car and managed to pack it with all the bags. It was tough and I had to sit with like a million cold bags. We pulled down a really active street where kids were riding bikes, playing jump rope and I think one teen just rolled a blunt. Yep.
Most of them are in baggy or ill-fitting clothes and the adults have a kind of hopelessness in their eyes. A few older men sat on stoops and I would say there are mostly two races. Black and an occasional Hispanic. As soon as they spotted his car all the kids on the block ran after us.
I frowned and looked back. Chance was slowing down to a crawl and we were ambushed by so many sticky fingers and faces pressed into the glass. He got out and seventy percent of them were hugging his body while the teens gave high fives and side hugs.
I got out and watched them interact.
“Hey! Urban!” A tall skinny black kid about sixteen came up and gave him a lazy handshake. “Man, I got a job.” He told him.
Chance smiled in that slick way, “See, told you.”
“Nah man, I know you done something.”
Chance shrugged before getting attacked with hugs from a shorter girl with large gold hoops for earrings, “You ain’t gonna believe what happened at school!” she told him excitedly.
“Try me,” he asked as he popped his trunk.
“I got an A on that paper. One on Science.”
“I’m not that surprised, Sweet girl.”
I stood in a little shock. Who knew Chance had a personal side?
As soon as the trunk lid was up we had a line clear down the street of kids and a couple parents. “Here,” he handed me three packaged chickens, “Pass those to the men up there, they can’t walk well.” He pointed behind m
e to where three senior men sat by their apartment buildings.
“Sure,” I said still a little stunned. “So, this is all… it’s…”
“Just do it,” he smiled to take bite out of the words.
I walked the birds up and ended up in conversation with the men there.
I watched Chance hand out food to pretty much everyone; single moms, single dads, kids, teens. He was listening to all of them.
The kids told him about school trouble and home trouble. “I wanna fucking quit.” One Latino boy shook his head in frustration. “I get treated like shit.”
“Don’t quit,” Chance debated, “I quit, big mistake.”
“You doin’ fine.”
“It’s not about that. My life would be a lot better if I finished.”
That’s the kind of advice he dealt.
“Dad’s hitting mom again,” one girl told him.
“I’ll talk to him.” That was his answer.
He helped one group of girls around first grade age, to make a hopscotch layout with chalk. He was shooting hoops with the older boys.
I was along for the ride, I observed mostly or listened. I ended up in conversation with a few people but most of them just wanted to be near Chance. I didn’t know this side of him was real, then again, how would I?
The gangs that look like murderers on crack, the scary kids people run from, they respected him. They sought his wisdom and came to him with concerns. Some weren’t half as bad as what their appearance inclined. Many of the kids here are incredibly bright, borderline genius. Some are overlooked by teachers and others have teachers breaking their necks to get them the education they deserve.
Chance hugged this one mom that was terrified of losing her job. He promised to take care of it and wiped her tears. She had five kids and no guy to share the load.
He never forgot his roots by the looks of it. He shoulders all their worries and pitches in to make them smaller. All these hours we are spending here and I know deep down I might be falling for him. Hard. The kind of fall that leaves bruises.
“How you know our boy, Chance?” one woman asked. She was a plump black woman with big glasses. Her eyes shined with a lot of love.
The Significant Other (The Relationship Quo Series Book 4) Page 18