The dick is real. The smile is fake.
-Dax’s secret thoughts
Dax
We were a couple of hours into our drive when I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to know more about this Theo character.
I looked over and glanced at the woman at my side, watching her fingers tap against her exposed thigh as she bobbed her head to “Old Town Road.”
Personally, I hated the song.
But seeing her dance and wiggle and sing to it? Yeah, it was beginning to grow on me.
She was cute.
That was for sure.
I wasn’t really sure what I was doing with her, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
She was just so full of life, and she was so positive about everything despite her hardships.
“So tell me about this Theo guy that I keep hearing about,” I ordered.
She instantly lost the smile on her face.
And I almost regretted asking the question.
Almost.
“Theo is…” she hesitated. “To tell you anything about Theo, I have to start from the beginning.”
“Okay,” I said, not upset by that in the least.
Anything she wanted to give me was okay with me.
I would literally take tiny scraps of information over nothing at all.
And what did that say about me?
“Theo originally dated my sister,” she started. “But Katy had been in a bad relationship before Theo, and Theo was just a rebound guy of sorts. But, while they were ‘dating,’ I began to spend a lot of time with them… and I thought I fell for him.”
“Thought?” I asked.
She waved that off, her cheeks heating slightly, making me curious.
“Fast forward to when Logan, my sister’s husband, came around and Theo is devastated. He, I guess, had held out hope that Katy would come back to him. But it was never like that for Katy. And meanwhile, I’m still having these feelings for Theo. Anyway, it turns out that Theo was transferred to San Antonio. He’s a game warden. And that happened to be where my internship was. So I thought… this is perfect! Only, Theo really wanted nothing to do with me. He made it painfully obvious that he didn’t feel anything for me, leaving me feeling stupid for having feelings for a man that would rather date Shondra than talk to me.”
“Shondra?” I asked.
She touched her head.
“Shondra is a co-worker from my office,” she explained. “We’ve been competing for the same position at the office. And one day after work, I went to meet some girls from the office for a quick drink and found Theo sitting there. Theo who for some reason started to pay attention to me. Only, Shondra arrives and I find out that he’s been ignoring my calls and invites to hang out and do shit all because he’s been with Shondra. My mortal office enemy.”
She continued to explain what happened that night, and how she thought that Shondra had been the one to switch her hair stuff.
“You don’t have proof?” I asked curiously.
She shook her head. “Nope.”
“It’s pretty damning,” I admitted. “Oh, I’ll go get them for you, and then hands them off and all of a sudden your hair is falling out? Yeah, no. I call bullshit.”
She was already nodding her head.
“I agree.” She leaned backward and pulled her feet up into the seat, wrapping her arms around her knees. “It’s suspicious as hell. My mom said that I should sue her.”
“No proof,” I admitted. “Just guessing really. I’m not sure that you’d get anything out of it in the long run.”
She sighed. “I hate her.”
The next couple of hours I was regaled with stories of what Shondra had done to her over the last year. By the time we’d pulled into her old job, I was ready to walk inside and rip Shondra’s hair out myself.
“Let me just run in and get the box,” she said. “I had them pack up my office.”
I nodded once, intent on letting her do it alone.
In fact, I even pulled my phone out after that long drive, got out of my truck, and locked it.
I intended to stay right where I was.
But then I decided that she’d gone through a lot already.
She didn’t have to do this alone.
So… I went inside.
And was damn glad I did when I hit the foyer and saw Rowen, blank-faced, staring at an older man giving her a tongue lashing.
“…you can’t just walk out like that,” he said. “Not only will you get a very bad review if any potential employer ever calls me but…”
I hit the front lobby and narrowed my eyes, my hands fisting.
“…Shondra was given the position,” the man continued to lecture Rowen. “Even though I’d intended to give it to you.”
The man’s final words had Rowen inhaling deeply.
I knew for a fact that she already had a job with my friend. He’d called to tell me thank you and had even offered to buy me a beer for my thoughtfulness.
So the fact that this man’s words were making her this upset was pissing me off.
“Yo, babe,” I said, getting Rowen’s, and the man’s, attention. “Do you need me to grab your box?”
She took a deep, steadying breath, then looked at her boss.
“Where is my stuff?” she asked politely.
The old man seemed to get even more pissed.
“In your old office,” he said. “I haven’t had time to pack it all up. Shondra started this morning after your call last night to tell us that you would be here this afternoon.”
Rowen stiffened, then turned her back on the old man and started marching in the direction of her office.
I followed at a much slower pace.
“Look at her face right here,” I heard a catty woman say. “She looks like she’s constipated.”
Rowen sped up.
“And this one,” the woman continued to snicker. Her voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. “That man she’s with looks like he’d rather be anywhere but. I bet he had to paper bag her.”
“He didn’t paper bag me,” Rowen snapped. “First of all, that’s my brother and me in that picture and that would be disgusting. Secondly, get the fuck out of my office.”
Shondra stiffened and turned, her eyes going wide at the appearance of both me and Rowen in the office she’d thought she was alone while putting on a show for her fellow co-workers.
“Get. The fuck. Out,” Rowen repeated.
That’s when I saw the moment that Shondra wasn’t going to be nice about it.
She narrowed her eyes, her head tilting, and stared at Rowen with a laughing smirk on her face.
In any other moment, I would’ve found Shondra beautiful.
She was tall with long blonde hair, slate-gray eyes, and a pair of lips that were full and kissable.
But that gleam in her eyes as she looked at Rowen? I could see the petty jealousy there. Could tell that she fucking hated everything about Rowen Roberts.
Shondra shoved two boxes onto the floor from where she’d filled them—or had started to anyway. The only thing she’d accomplished in getting in the boxes was a sweater and a couple of photos. I wondered how long she’d been ‘working’ in here on getting Rowen packed.
I stepped farther into the room and dropped a kiss onto Rowen’s head, causing her to still.
She took a deep breath and then blew it back out.
“All of you please leave so I can get this done as fast as possible,” Rowen said, a lot more friendly this time.
She was looking at the other ladies in the room. The ones that hadn’t spoken up at all when Shondra had been speaking her filth.
They all stood as one, then hurried out of the room.
Shondra was a lot slower at it, shooting me a wary look before she aimed a scathing one at Rowen.
“Who is this?” Shondra asked. “Your other brother?”
I laughed at tha
t, unable to help myself.
“Oh, I’m most certainly not her brother,” I cooed. “Otherwise the things we do with each other would be sick.”
Shondra stiffened.
“Out,” Rowen snapped.
Shondra still hesitated.
Rowen and I decided to ignore her as I helped her pack her things.
“Do you need anything off the walls?” I asked.
I could feel Shondra getting more and more pissed.
“No,” Rowen answered. “Those aren’t mine. They’re the company’s. I just need the decorations and stuff. The things off the top of my desk. The computer is mine, too.”
I looked at the computer that was on. The screen was on the welcome screen where you had to type in your username and password.
“The boss would like to have that wiped,” Shondra snapped.
Rowen snorted.
“He could try to make me,” Rowen taunted her. “But this is my personal computer, and I don’t have to allow him into it.”
Shondra opened her mouth to refute that but quickly shut it when she realized that Rowen was right.
Sucks for her.
Shondra crossed her arms over her chest and practically glared holes into the backs of our heads while we quickly moved to pack up her shit.
“It was nice of you to provide us a box and all…” Rowen trailed off. Hoping to get Shondra to take the hint.
She didn’t.
“That hat looks awful on you.” She commented snidely. “I don’t know what Theo ever saw in you. But he’s obviously seen the light.”
Rowen stopped at those words, her head turning slowly.
I watched as she straightened her spine, turned only her head, and stared coldly at Shondra as if she could rip her apart with just her gaze alone.
“Let me tell you something,” Rowen said in a deceptively calm tone. “Do you honestly believe that I don’t know it was you?”
Shondra’s lips tilted up at the side.
“What was me?”
I felt my belly churn at the venom in those words.
She knew what she’d done.
She also knew that by admitting it, she’d be admitting to assault.
So she kept her mouth shut tight.
“I know what you’ve done,” Rowen said to the shit for brains that was still in Rowen’s office, not realizing her own danger. “I know that you think you got away with it, too. But let me tell you something, honey. You haven’t.”
Shondra grinned, her eyes flicking up to the hat and back.
“I’ll bet you look like a pubescent male now when you’re naked…”
And that’s when Rowen officially lost her cool.
She walked over to Shondra, reared back, and punched her straight in the nose.
Before she could get another punch in, I caught her around the waist and hauled her back.
“My nose!” Shondra cried, doubling over.
Rowen didn’t fight as I pulled her away.
She just turned her back on the wailing woman calmly, straightened her hat that she’d slipped on before we’d gotten out of the truck, and continued packing her things.
When people started rushing into the hallway outside of Rowen’s old office, Shondra immediately started pointing fingers about Rowen assaulting her.
“What is the meaning of this?” the old man that Rowen had been talking to in the lobby boomed.
“She punched me in the face! For no reason!” Shondra cried.
Rowen loaded the last thing into her box and closed the flaps.
“I did no such thing and you damn well know it,” Rowen countered. “You turned around and ran into the door. Both Dax and I saw you do it. I’m sorry if you’re upset about your new boyfriend not liking you as much as me, but it is what it is. Please, allow me to pass so I can leave.”
Every last one of them moved until there was enough space for us both to squeeze through.
She paused at a slight woman with a worried look on her face.
“You might want to have a talk with Shondra,” she admitted. “Because I used your hair shampoo and conditioner and all of my hair fell out.” She managed to tip her hat up to allow the girl to see her bald head while still holding onto the box. “I’m going with Shondra adding Nair to the bottle while she was out in the parking lot. But if you can’t get her to admit to it, I’ll be suing the company. So you might want to inform the company that you work for of that before I take this to court.”
With that, Rowen started walking again.
The young woman looked deathly pale.
“She’s not joking, by the way,” I added as I walked past. “Have a good one.”
Nobody dared stop us. And when we got to the truck, Rowen was looking a little wild-eyed.
Once we stowed her shit into the back seat and got into the truck ourselves, I burst out laughing.
She looked over at me with wide eyes.
“I can’t believe I just did that,” she whispered.
“I can’t either.”
We both burst out laughing.
“You should’ve seen how badly her head rocked back at the force behind that punch!”
Once our laughing had subsided, I pulled out of the firm’s lot and headed in the direction that she informed me.
My mood went from great to shit in half a second.
I knew the instant that we pulled up into the driveway of her apartment complex that I was about to get into yet another altercation.
This time with the man that Rowen had—hopefully past tense—a thing for.
Chapter 8
I’m going to say this as politely as possible. I will fuck you up.
-Rowen’s secret thoughts
Rowen
The excitement didn’t end with Shondra.
Twenty minutes after leaving the building, we made a stop at my apartment before we went to whatever appointment that Dax had made.
The moment we pulled in, I was surprised to see Theo on the steps that would lead to my apartment.
I blinked, then blinked again.
“What the hell?” I asked, surprised to not only see Theo there but that he looked quite frankly pissed.
Dax got out of the truck while I was still sitting there flabbergasted.
When I finally pulled my head out of my ass at the sight of him sitting there at an apartment that he’d never, not even once, visited, Dax was at my door and opening it for me.
I smiled at him, feeling my heart melt.
He looked off. Not mad, per se, but annoyed. As if something was bugging him, but he was trying not to let it.
“You okay?” I asked.
Today had been a long day for him, and he’d gone above and beyond what I’d ever expected of him.
Then again, I hadn’t expected the shit that had happened in my old office earlier to happen.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Theo’s being here after Shondra’s bullshit is pissing me off.”
I agreed wholeheartedly.
“Shondra rubbing the fact that she’s now with him officially is such a dick move,” Dax continued. “She knows that you once had a thing for him. And I imagine that she learned that from Theo and not on her own. She doesn’t seem like the brightest bulb in the box.”
I snorted.
“I imagine that Theo has no fucking clue,” I told him.
I heard a shuffle of a boot and looked over Dax’s shoulder to see Theo standing up from his seat on the steps.
I squeezed Dax’s hand, then slid down to the ground from his truck seat.
The movement put me incredibly close to Dax’s body. Dax who hadn’t stepped back when I’d come down.
We stayed there like that for about five breaths, both of us frozen. Him not moving back, and me not stepping around him.
I looked up into his eyes and saw something there. A spark. A look of need.
Then it was all gone becaus
e Theo spoke.
“Rowen, can we talk for a second?” Theo asked.
Dax’s eyes closed for a few heartbeats as if he was having to tell himself to regain control.
I placed my hand on Dax’s arm, and he opened his eyes and stepped back, dislodging my touch.
I tried to tell myself I wasn’t upset by his obvious discomfort.
Then turned to Theo.
“What’s up?” I asked, not stepping away from Dax.
He didn’t step away from me, either.
Instead stayed exactly where he was as he waited for Theo to say what he had to say, making it more than obvious he wasn’t willing to leave.
Was it because he was my friend? Or because he was feeling something more like I was toward him?
Because Jesus, I hadn’t thought of Theo in days. Dax had been the star of my thoughts. My dreams. My fantasies.
“Alone?” Theo pushed.
I was already shaking my head.
“To be honest, Theo…” I scrubbed my hands over my eyes. “I’ve had a long ass day. I’ve just had to deal with your new girlfriend, and I’m not really willing to play this game. Either say what you have to say or don’t. I don’t care. Dax and I have somewhere to be in about fifteen minutes, and I was only stopping by here to grab my boxes of stuff and pee. I’m done here in this town. So get on with it.”
Theo frowned as if he was surprised that I’d said what I did.
Dax, on the other hand, had a grin on the corner of his mouth as if he was proud of me.
When Theo still didn’t say anything, I’d decided that enough was enough.
Scooting passed Theo, I headed up the stairs to my apartment.
Dax followed, and a third set of steps did, too.
I rolled my eyes as I opened the door to my place with confident hands.
Much more confident than I would’ve been had Dax not been there.
Tossing my keys onto the nearest flat surface, I headed to my bathroom and ignored the two men and the tension that I’d left behind me.
When I got done and washed my hands, I made my way back into the living room to find the two men in a stare-off.
“You ready, Dax?” I asked, hoping to break whatever fucked up man thing they had going on.
Honestly, I was quite pissed at Theo for acting like this.
He had no right.
“I’m ready,” he confirmed, still not looking away.
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