Chapter 16
16
MALCOLM
T he sound of my fists hitting the punching bag fills my ears as I work out some of the pent up energy and frustration that’s been accumulating inside of me.
After dropping Ophelia off at home after our ‘not a date’ lunch date, we spent another few hours together before I finally went home. I didn’t want to leave but she told me she had to be up early the next day and I knew I had to open at the bar so I reluctantly dragged my ass home. I would have loved to be able to stay at her place for one more night but after the way we left things on our date, I had a good feeling that I’d get another chance with her.
But that was two and a half weeks ago.
Two and a half weeks and not a single release of any kind—okay maybe there were a couple self-inflicted times—and my body is going crazy. Never in my adult life have I gone without an orgasm for more than a week. Okay, maybe there was a time or two but that was purely because I wasn’t in the mood and didn’t want to. But holy shit do I want to. Not want, need . And it’s a need I am only interested in being fulfilled by her.
By her round hips and soft, warm toned skin.
By her long, chocolate brown hair and vixen eyes.
My body is craving hers like it craves a meal or water.
I want neither. I just want her.
“Boy, if you hit that thing any harder it’s going to come right off that chain it’s tied to,” Marshall jeers as he steps up next to the hanging bag I’m sparring with. I drop my gloves and look at him, panting from over exertion, and I use the back of my glove to wipe my hair out of my face.
“Hey, I didn’t know you were going to be here.” I reach an arm towards him and he fist bumps my glove. The silver ring he always wears on his left hand touches my glove as he gives me a smile.
He lifts the straw fedora he likes to sport and adjusts it on his head. “I, uh, thought I would stop by and talk to Reese after a morning appointment.”
My eyes glance towards the training clock on the wall. It’s hardly ten in the morning, what kind of appointment do you go and come back from before ten in the morning? I look back towards my mentor and sponsor with narrowed eyes.
“ What kind of appointment?”
“The kind of appointment you don’t need to worry about or get to know about because you’re not my kid.” He laughs once, trying to be funny. “I’m gonna go talk to Reese, see you later at the bar.” He smacks my sweaty arm with the back of his hand and nods at me before heading off towards Reese’s office. As he goes, I notice a slight dip in his step that I hadn’t noticed before now.
Looking back at the clock, I know I need to get a move on if I want to get to work on time to open at eleven. Grabbing my bag, I toss it over my shoulder and shake the sweat out of my hair as I make my way towards the showers. Before stepping into the locker rooms, I turn and look towards Reese’s office which has a large window in it so you can see inside from the main part of the gym. As I look in, I see Reese stand from his chair, clap hands with Marshall, and pull him in for a hug. The somber expression in his eyes causes my stomach to nearly fall out of my ass.
* * *
My shift passes by without lagging or drama other than the fact that Marshall avoided me the entire two hours he was at the restaurant. It’s per his normal routine to come in for a few hours at a time a couple days a week and check in to make sure we aren’t in desperate need for anything. At this point, between me, Alice, and Benny, we run Butcher and Block almost entirely without him. When he is here, he will normally sit around, chat, and shoot the shit with customers as if he is one himself. Today, though, he spends his entire visit holed up in his office with the door closed and slips out over the lunch rush before I can corner him and ask him more about his morning appointment. I ask Alice if she thinks he is acting weird when she comes in to take over but she hasn’t noticed.
Maybe I’m just being paranoid.
While he is my sponsor and my boss, Marshall is so much more than that. He is my mentor, a solid ear to talk to, and more than anything, like a grandfather to me. When we met at my first N.A. meeting he took me under his wing no questions asked and got me back on my feet. He brought me to the bar and helped me get clean. When I wanted to fall down the rabbit hole, he would pull me out of it and bring me back to highgrounds. Just the thought of him being sick or something being wrong with him nearly brings me to my knees. Next time I see him I’ll make sure to check in on him.
I pull my truck into the driveway of my best friend’s house just like I always do on Wednesdays. I look into my rearview mirror when the sound of a motorcycle closing in on me catches my attention. Pulling my lips back into a smile, I step out of my truck and watch as Hank and his new bride jump off his bike and strip out of their gear. They live virtually around the corner from Kolbi but still ride his bike here every week. I watch as Hank helps Bailey out of her helmet, then jacket, and finish their routine by tucking everything away in its rightful place before walking up to me.
“Hey, Malcolm, lookin’ good dude.” Hank offers me a hand which I take before we both instinctually lean in for a hug that resembles that of Reese and Marshall’s that I observed earlier this morning.
“Thanks, same to you. Still working out at the ass crack of dawn?”
“You know it. I just try to keep up with my wife here. She kicks my ass more than the military ever did.” Hank nods his head towards Bailey and I give her a cocky smirk.
“I’d let her kick my ass any day,” I hum.
“You can only wish to be so lucky,” she snips with a sharp head nod before taking Hank’s hand and pulling him inside behind her.
“When are you going to learn that hitting on my wife is only going to make me wanna hit you?” he says over his shoulder and I can’t help but laugh. At one point, my advances may have been sincere, but now they’re just empty words. The only person I want to hit on just so happens to be Bailey’s best friend. Who also lives just around the corner from Kolbi…
When the three of us step inside the historic home, the smell of fresh cookies fills the air. We kick off our shoes and walk down the front hallway. Once in the kitchen, we find Kolbi, Magnolia, and Conrad standing at the bar, each one of them with a cookie in their hand.
“Oohh, what are those?” Bailey’s eyes go wide as she moves towards Magnolia. She pulls the petite brunette into a hug and turns towards the plate with ready fingers.
“A new cookie recipe I’m trying,” Magnolia explains with a soft smile. Her eyes look up towards Kolbi who’s watching her with contentment and she shrugs. “It makes me feel better. It’s something my therapist suggested.”
“You started going? I’m so proud of you, Mags.” Bailey must have known this was something the newest member of our weird little family was considering and pulls her in for another hug.
“Thanks, I only just started. Kolbi is a great listener but I need someone with an outside perspective to talk to about what’s going on with my family. Things are going well so far.” Magnolia leans into the hand Kolbi placed on the small of her back and loops an arm around him.
“I’m so proud of you, flower,” he praises before planting a kiss on the top of her head. When she looks up at him you can see the love in her eyes. Without meaning to, my brain wonders if there will ever be a chance of Ophelia looking at me in the same way.
“Since we’re all here, can we get started?” Conrad asks gently, for once not trying to be an ass.
“Yes, Tolith, we can get started,” Kolbi sighs, calling Conrad by his character name. As the leader of our weekly Dungeons and Dragons sessions, it’s up to him to tell the story the three of us will play through. He’s held the job of Dungeon Master since we picked our campaign back up last summer once Hank came home, and honestly, he is the best one for the job. Conrad, Hank, and I play as different types of characters in the made up world we have built. I, of course, modeled my character after myself and I’m a silver tongued college of swords bard and halfling. More often than not, I can smooth talk our way out of a situation even if I’m the one who has gotten us into it in the first place. There were more than a few times I’d put my foot in my mouth and gotten us into trouble.
My friends and I make our way to the dining table as Bailey and Magnolia head towards the living room to hang out together like they always do. An hour or so in, the boys and I are standing at the bottom of a tower trying to figure out how to free the princess trapped inside. We need to figure out how to get to her before the local bandits do or else she will be killed and our chances of retrieving the mythic scroll we need from her will be lost. As if on cue, Kolbi conjures up a dragon that is encircling the tower, making our chances of getting her that much more difficult. I grab the die in my hand and toss it across the table.
“With that roll, you advance forward past the guards and make it up the back stairwell to the second landing of the castle tower. Nice job, Denis de Brey,” Kolbi remarks from his seat.
“Shocking. For once you’re not the reason we’re so totally fucked,” Conrad chides and I flip him off from my seat. With my turn over, I look around the table at my friends who are entranced in the game. We have a ‘no phones at the table’ rule but with them distracted by the story, I pull out my phone quickly and send off a text.
Just so you know, if you were a damsel in distress, I would come and save you from the dragon
After a moment, my phone buzzes in my pocket and I reach to read it.
Little Fox:
Just so you know, I’d rather let the dragon eat me
Why don’t you let me do that instead princess? I know how much you like it when I do.
“No phones at the table Denis ,” Conrad hisses out the ‘S’ as he calls me out from the other side of the table. When I look at him, he pulls his eyes from the top of the table and shoots them at me like daggers from his seat. “We have a rule.”
“Yeah, that these two fuckwads have broken more times than I can count.” I jut my thumbs out towards Hank and Kolbi who are on either side of me.
“Yeah but only when I was texting my girlfriend. And now she’s my wife,” Hank says, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms across his chest.
“Same with me. I only ever pull my phone out when it’s Flower.”
My three friends all stare expectantly at me from their seats.
“What?” I shrug and bring my hands in front of me, palm sides up.
“Who’s the girl, Malcolm?” Kolbi says knowingly. Fuck him for being like our den mother and knowing us all way too fucking well.
“Who says it’s a girl?” I try to act like he isn’t right.
“No one, but the way you were looking at your phone like you wanted to make out with it did,” Hank says and my two friends laugh at his callout. Fuck these guys.
“I don’t do girls like you guys do. It’s nothing.” I tuck my lips around my teeth and intentionally bite down hard. I deserve a worse punishment for calling her ‘nothing.’
“It?” Conrad asks, raising a skeptical brow at me.
“She,” I correct. “She…she’s just a friend.” I swallow hard and clear my throat before trying to look my friends in the eye as if I’m not lying to them. Truth be told, I’m not sure what Ophelia and I are. We haven’t really discussed anything official and I’m pretty sure if I try she’ll tell me to drink bleach.
“You have a girl who’s just a friend?” Conrad’s voice ticks up at the end. “I didn’t think your dick let you do that.”
Kolbi and Hank bark out a laugh that’s so loud it gets the attention of the girls who come in to see what all the commotion is about.
Super.
“What’s so funny?” Magnolia asks as she makes her way to stand behind Kolbi’s chair. He doesn’t waste a second and pulls her hand into his.
“Malcolm here has shared with us that he has a girl friend,” Kolbi explains with raised brows.
“A girlfriend?” Bailey’s eyes go wide and snaps her head to me. “Since when do you have a girlfriend?”
“No, no, hermosa? * . A girl friend . Like a friend who is a girl ,” Hank explains, looking up at her.
“Ohhhh,” she oos at me for a second. Then, almost as if a missing key finally finds its lock, her eyes hone in on me and she studies me hard. There’s no room between her eyebrows and her eyes are nearly slits as she stares at me. “A friend…who is a girl. Interesting .”
Hank, seated in the chair in front of her, looks at his wife over his shoulder, then slowly at me, then back to her. I can tell he’s trying to work out whatever is happening between us. While Ophelia and I haven’t talked about it, I assume she told Bailey about us. Or least, part of me hopes I’m important enough to her for her to want to tell Bailey about us. I do nothing, show no emotion, and I don’t even dare to flinch for fear that even the slightest indication that something is going on will set her off.
“Well, I’m happy for you. I think a little bit of good, clean, female friendship might be good for you.” She pumps her brows at me once and gives me a smirk. She totally knows I fucked her best friend.
“But who is the girl?” Conrad pushes. He’s always the one who needs all the facts and figures.
“Leave him alone, boys. If he doesn’t wanna share, he doesn’t need to. If I remember correctly, there was once a time when a few people at this table had some things they wanted to keep to themselves.” Like a mother looking at her children who just misbehaved, Bailey looks at both Kolbi and Hank. She isn’t wrong, at one point in time they did both have their own secrets to hide when it came to their relationships.
“I’ve never had a secret relationship before, I feel like I should get to know,” Conrad grumbles like a child from his seat.
“You wanna go finish our movie?” Bailey looks to Magnolia who nods and follows her back to the living room couch.
With the interrogation over, my friends and I resume our game. A little after 11:30 p.m., the girls come back in, both tired and ready to call it a night. Since our game nights now revolve around when they want to be done, Kolbi wraps up the battle we are in and we all say goodbye. Once safely inside my truck and alone, I pull out my phone and notice an unread text message that I missed from hours earlier.
Little Fox:
I have an open lunch hour on Friday. There’s no dragon to be slain, but I could be convinced to be saved in other ways. Meet me at my office, pretty boy.
As I read the name and address of where she works, a smirk spread across my face.
Not because of what she is insinuating we will be doing, but because of the fact that she wants to see me again at all.
* ? beautiful