Rhodes

Chapter Six Twisted

Rhodes

“I swear it’s impossible to get anywhere with this chick,” I complain to Xander, pacing around my house as Shawn and I wait for life changing advice. He sighs over the phone like this isn’t what he signed up for, but hell, he didn’t let me be there for him when he was sitting at home pining over his nanny even though I would have been. This is what friends are for, and after talking to Adrian about it all yesterday, I kind of need Xander to talk me off the ledge. He’s always been the most level-headed one in our group and his little brother is the opposite. “That’s all you’re going to give me? A sigh?”

“Listen,” he starts. “I don’t want to he an asshole here, but you keep fucking up. Leland and I took it slow before we ever got physical and it was the best thing we could have done. Stop sleeping with her.”

I already don’t like it. “Okay, but it went very different for Adrian, a—”

“Adrian? You’re taking dating advice from him?”

We share a chuckle before I push past his condescending tone. “Not just him. Jay too. Both of them had sex before love, and both of them are just as happy as you are.”

“Fuck, I’m glad I’m single.”

I roll my eyes at Shawn as Xander responds. “No, you’re not. That’s why you’re listening to every word.”

“I’m just nosey, that’s all. I’m not ready to be twisted over some girl who doesn’t even know if she wants me.” He pops some Whoppers into his mouth and lounges back in his seat. I swear, this man lives on Whoppers and weed.

“That’s the thing. Sometimes they do want you, they just know they shouldn’t, and women have always been stronger than us. They call us dogs for a reason; it’s like we catch a scent we like and let it consume us while they go to work and push us from their minds like nothing.”

Xander huffs at my comparison, but doesn’t argue. “They’re strong as hell and compartmentalize better than us. They look like nothing”s bothering them on the outside while falling apart on the inside, and we’re over here putting holes in the walls because of some minor inconvenience.”

He’s not wrong. “So how do I know if that’s what she’s doing or if she really is just fucking me because I’m easy?”

“Go off how you feel. What does your gut tell you when you’re next to each other?”

“That she wants me,” I say without any trace of doubt. It’s there, but every encounter we have only makes me feel closer to her.

“Then don’t give up.”

“That’s what Adrian said too.”

Xander laughs softly. “Yeah, but he’ll also tell you to stalk her.”

He already did, but Xander doesn’t need to know that right now, so I change the subject to give him an out. “How’s Sofia?”

“She’s good. Getting into all our shit already, but it’s a fun time. Lee’s tired though, so I’m going to go rub her back and put her to sleep. I hope it works out for you.”

We get off the phone after a quick goodbye, and then it’s just Shawn and me staring at our paused game of Mortal Kombat.

Shawn breaks the silence first. “Let me see the messages.”

Nosey ass. As much as I don’t have any shame for how interested I am in her, I know that message thread is only going to make me look desperate. “Why?”

“Because you said she doesn’t really respond much, right?”

More like never. “Yeah. I even messaged right after we left the bar and got nothing back from her.”

Shawn moves next to me on the couch so he can see my screen, looking way too damn excited for me to embarrass myself. “Damn, bro. That’s pretty one-sided.”

“No shit.”

We stare at the thread together for a moment, him laughing every so often at how whipped I am and me watching the top of the screen like she might pop up online. When she doesn’t, I get an idea. “Watch how quick she opens it, though.”

Me: They don’t smell like you anymore

“What does that mean?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I say with a smirk, her panties burning a hole in my sweatpants pocket as she opens the message in less than a minute. “See? Why rush to open it if she doesn’t feel anything?”

He looks as confused as I am as he stares at the screen like he thinks she might respond. I know she won’t though. “Run me back over the weekend again. Not before the hookup though, after.”

“I already said, she didn’t really say much to me. Remi kept asking her if she was okay because she was spacing out. Maybe she was lost in her head or something, I don’t know.”

“You think she regretted it?”

I don’t want to consider that, so I shake my head. “More like she felt like she needed to pull away. I was trying to get to know her more when she changed the whole tone to sex. Maybe getting close to me scares her or something?”

Shawn takes a long drag from his vape pen and holds it in, pondering my words a moment before releasing the smoke and responding. “Yeah, I think so. You just can’t let her. What’s she do at that salon again? Nails or some shit?”

“No, she’s an esthetician.”

He stares at me like I just spoke another language, and honestly I really did. “And what do they do?”

“Fuck if I know,” I say with a laugh. “Maybe I should learn. You know how our website has ads at the bottom of the home page? I added her business there, but she doesn’t know yet. I didn’t do it for brownie points or anything, I just wanted to help spread the word since I was the reason she lost a customer.”

His puzzled look has me telling him about the elderly lady who heard us fucking, and I have to fight the urge not to slap him when he laughs hard enough to make himself cough. “Might have to do more than that. Share something about her business on your social media or something. You have a lot of girl followers and girls who workout at Bad Habits.”

“Yeah, maybe. I’m sure men go there too, it’s not just for women, but I should figure out what the fuck it is before I do anything like that. I need to be able to comment back to keep it popping up for people.” But his comment has me thinking of something else. “I wonder if she looks at my socials at all.”

“You know damn well she does. You have that video of you shirtless on your bike in the rain, you know she’s watched that on a loop.”

Grinning, I imagine her watching it in her bed and getting mad at herself for how turned on she gets. “Maybe.”

“So let’s Google her aesthetic shit — wait, aesthetic, isn’t that like the vibes you get from how things look?”

“I think you smoke too much, Shawn, and I say that with all the love I got for you. Estheticians are something different.”

With a deadpan look, he takes another drag of his pen. “Educate me then. What do they do?” I pick my phone back up so I can look it up, and he slaps it out of my hand. “Tell me without looking it up, smart guy.”

“First, I already told you I didn’t know exactly what they did, and second, if you knock my phone out of my hand again I’m going to punch you in the dick. Some of us have to work for our shit and these phones are expensive as fuck.”

“You knocked mine out of my hand the other day,” he argues, but seems to give what I said a second thought before he moves on. “Whatever, just look up what she does. I want to see her website.”

Grabbing my phone again, I look up her job to start and see it isn’t about nails or vibes at all, it’s about skincare, and her website confirms it. “Looks like there are at least two people who do hair, but it’s more facials, makeup, waxing, shit like that.”

“Email the business and ask if you can give her a facial instead.”

I almost laugh at how dumb he is, but just the image alone has me squirming. “You’re a child.”

“I know.” He doesn’t even attempt to argue. “Do you have to go in to make an appointment? You should make one.”

“Looks like I can make an appointment here,” I respond excitedly, taking in the creepy but cool aesthetic she has going on.

Her website looks every bit as unique as her catacomb shop does, and when I click on the “make an appointment” button, the whole screen goes black like I’m entering a cave then pops up again with different options.

“Set me up one too, I’ll go with you.” Shawn reaches over to click on the hair removal option before I can choose something else, and I leave it because I don’t have any plans on actually letting her wax my eyebrows or some shit. I just need to get her to give me some time out of her day. To make sure that happens, I type out that I want an appointment with the owner in the notes box and hit submit, then set Shawn up to get a facial.

“If they put cucumbers on your eyes, I want a picture.”

We share a laugh as I get an email confirmation for the appointments, and then I finally set my phone aside and pick up the Xbox controller to kick Shawn’s ass some more. Whether she wants to talk to me or not, Mila doesn’t have a choice come Tuesday afternoon.

I will get this woman to admit she feels whatever the hell is brewing between us.

Sooner or later, she’s going to have to stop hiding.