She pauses, hesitant to open up.
“So… there’s this guy,” she gives in.
She goes on to tell me she met him a year back. Some eye candy she was instantly attracted to. The feeling was mutual, but not only was he a taken man, he also had a kid with his partner. He kept coming in and out of her life, playing with her heart every time he felt like it, and while she knew he was wrong for her, she couldn’t stay away. I nod my head along to her story. She explains her family immediately disapproved of her dating him. Viewed her as a homewrecker. He’d constantly dangle promises of telling his girlfriend about them in front of her eyes but never did.
Until a while ago, when the guy’s girlfriend found out on her own. Jenny tells me she feels this relationship has been destructive and wonders if she made the right decision by staying with him.
She doesn’t elaborate after that, and I spend the first two hours of my shift comforting her. I end up making her smile again, which awakes an unexpected sense of pride in me. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Jenny and I can grow to develop a real complicity after all.
Will
“What the hell is up with you today, man? You still hungover or something?” Alex observes as he steps back into the ring, chugging the rest of his water bottle.
“I don’t know. Just a little out of it, I guess.” I wipe the blood dripping off my mouth with the back of my hand, and Alex grins. I have to admit he got me good.
“I don’t mind. I can beat your ass all day,” he mocks, but we both know he can’t pull off cocky. Alex doesn’t have a single bad bone in his body.
“Yeah. Try that again. See what happens.”
Alex is a good fighter, but I’ve been fighting longer than he has. I usually go easy on him, but today, my head’s not in it. It’s pounding like a little bitch, courtesy of yesterday’s party.
“Can’t really blame you. You looked gone last night.”
“You have no idea,” I mutter under my breath.
“Get any sleep at all? Or did Callie keep you up all night?”
Blurred, distorted memories wash over me. All I could see were shapes as Callie dragged my ass into a cab less than five minutes after Kass left me stranded with a boner.
“You saw us leave, huh?”
“The whole party saw you leave. Piece of advice, if you’re going to keep banging Callie Cooper, wrap it before you tap it. The girl’s been known to give dudes baby scares.”
I scoff. “Noted.”
I could tell him he’s got it all wrong. That even though Callie brought me back to her place, palming me through my jeans the second I stepped foot through the door, nothing happened.
But I won’t.
And I especially won’t tell him that it didn’t do shit for me. That she didn’t do shit for me. That I jerked her hands away before she could get my pants down and bolted. Frankly, I don’t think she’ll ever speak to me again. Not that I care. I’ve got more important things to worry about.
Like why didn’t she do it for me?
Is my dick broken?
Nah, it can’t be broken, dumbfuck. Not when it twitched in your pants when you saw Kass without a bra.
Fuck, I’m thinking about it now.
Yeah, definitely not broken.
“Where’s Kendrick?” I change the topic, glancing around the old, abandoned gym we use to train whenever we can’t work out in Alex’s attic.
“On his way over. He’s going to try, but no promises.”
I’m not the least bit surprised. Kendrick took such a savage beating that he had to slow down. We’ve been trying to get him back into the game unsuccessfully. We can’t push him too far for now, but we need our leader back. The timing was terrible, to top it all off. The fight Haze Adams challenged him to is coming up quickly. He better have his shit together by then. His cousin Winter’s future depends on it.
“Hey, you haven’t heard the news.” Alex captures my attention. “Blake’s getting back together with Kass.”
What the fuck?
“Sorry, he wants to. Told me he missed that ass last night.”
Again, what the fuck?
“Woah. Everything okay, man?” Alex flinches.
“Yeah, why?”
“You looked like you wanted to murder someone for a second there.”
I did?
I must still be wasted.
“Sorry.” I rub my eyes. “Just running on three hours of sleep.”
“Anyway, he’s going to be disappointed because I’m not covering for them anymore,” Alex resumes. “They barely got away with it the first time. Kendrick would rip his balls off if he found out Blake deflowered his baby sister.”
Guilt crushes me, because yes, he would kill him. Just like he would kill me for kissing her in the fucking bathroom last night. What the hell was I thinking? But most of all, why did I want to do so much more to her right there on that counter?
Granted, Kendrick ripping Blake’s balls off would not be the worst thing in the world. It’d save me the trouble of doing it myself. I remember how cocky he was when he bragged about taking Kass’s virginity. I didn’t give a flying fuck at the time, but now? I feel like he disrespected my friend. Like I have to defend her honor or some shit.
Sleep. You need sleep.
The texts, the night in her bed, the kiss… It’s all Blake’s fault. Blake and his blabbermouth. Sure, I’ve always known she was my type. Perky tits, gorgeous, tan. Don’t even get me started on those big blue eyes. Checked her out whenever I came over—especially in summer. Thank God for bikini season—but that’s as far as it went.
Then Blake had to go and pique my interest. Everything he told me about her sounded like a challenge.
