Chapter 19
REID RATHE
It’s well past midnight, and I’m still unpacking. I didn’t think I had this much stuff, but I guess I was wrong.
I hang a shirt in the closet and turn to the pile laid out on my unmade bed. I’m bone tired, but with the weekend starting tomorrow, I promise myself a nap at some point.
Instead of grabbing the next shirt, I sit next to the pile and rake a hand down my tired face.
My mind wanders to the conversation that Avery and I had earlier today.
She was upset, and though it was cute, she had valid concerns.
For me, however, it’s black and white. I want her, she wants me, so we should make it happen.
She sees everything in color. It’s not simple for her.
At least, she doesn’t want us to see other people.
Not that I would. She’s all I want, and I have tunnel vision when it comes to her.
But it’s comforting to know that I’m the only guy in her life.
We may not be dating, but we’re as close as we’re going to get…
for now. I have every intention of changing that because, clearly, what I’m doing is working.
My phone beeps, and I dig it out of my pocket, wondering who the hell would be texting me so late.
I open the phone and click on the text app.
Ivy sent a picture, and I bring the phone close to my face to make it all out. It’s a picture of Avery. She’s laughing with a drink in her hand as they sit on the stool of some bar they’re at.
A follow-up text comes next.
Ivy
We may need a ride. Our last Uber driver was creepy.
I curse under my breath.
How drunk is she?
Ivy
Plastered. She’s going to feel it tomorrow.
Me
And you?
Ivy
Not as bad as her.
Me
Do you want me to bring Dustin?
Ivy
No! She’s going on and on about you. Dustin can’t hear it.
I roll my neck.
Which bar are you at?
She rattles off an address, and I stand up and pocket my phone. Is she really so stressed that she needed to get drunk? The last time I saw her drunk was at Dustin’s party, and she looked like she was trying to escape then.
My guts twist inside me as I pluck up my car keys and quietly sneak out of the apartment.
As I pull up to the bar, I take in the surroundings. The bar is a hole in the wall, a real fixer-upper, and there’s a whole host of people smoking outside. I can smell the cigarette smoke from here.
I note that none of them are our age, which isn’t surprising, considering the bar is downtown.
How did they find this place? Did they play Eenie Meenie Miney Mo in a Google search?
However they found it, it probably had everything to do with the acceptance of fake IDs.
All my friends have them, including myself, so it’s not surprising that Avery and Ivy have some.
I climb out of my car and hold my breath as I weed through the puffs of cigarette smoke. As soon as I’m inside, I scan my surroundings. For a weeknight, there are a lot of people here. The place smells like grease and beer, and there’s a slight stench of body odor.
On my scan of the room, my eyes land on Ivy, who is emerging from the bathroom. I head to her immediately, and she smiles once she spots me.
“You made it!”
“You’re drunk,” I state as she sways. Heels probably weren’t the best idea if she had planned on getting drunk tonight. I catch her by the arm before she has a chance to fall over.
“A little drunker than when I texted you, yes. What are you? My dad?”
I chuckle under my breath. “No, but Dustin would kill me if you got hurt and I did nothing to prevent it. Like, ask you to take off the damn heels.”
“Ew, I’m not putting my feet on this floor.” Her nose wrinkles in disgust. She leans in closer to me and whispers, “Does Dustin know you’re here?”
I shake my head. “His room was dark when I left. He’s asleep.”
She straightens. “Good. He doesn’t need to see his sister like this.”
“Speaking of, where is she?”
She turns me around and points to the bar. It takes me a moment, but I see the back of her head among the sea of people. She’s definitely drunk, and she’s talking to the people on her right. They laugh at something she says, and a smile crosses my face.
Ivy chuckles under her breath. “She’s been making friends.”
“I see that.”
“You should have heard her talk about you.”
I look over at her. “What do you mean?”
“Dude, she has it bad,” Ivy says, waving her hand around. Because she’s intoxicated, the movement is practically in slow motion.
“For?”
She pokes me in the arm. “You! She won’t stop talking about you.”
A smile spreads across my face. “Bad or good things?”
“A mix of both. Is your favorite flower really a dandelion?”
I laugh under my breath as my response.
“You know that’s a weed, right?”
I shrug and start to make my way over to her, but Ivy grabs my arm. I frown down at her.
“Sorry, but, uh…don’t be mad at her. I encouraged her to get drunk so she’d spill everything that’s on her mind.”
Shaking my head, I say, “I’m not mad at her. She’s an adult, and if getting drunk helps her solve her problems, then so be it.”
She lets go of my arm, grinning from ear to ear. “You really are a good guy, Reid.”
“Thanks,” I murmur before heading to Avery. I want to get to my girl. I need to get to her.
When I reach her, I press my stomach into her back. She stops whatever she was saying to her stool neighbor and looks up at me, her head bumping into my chest. “Oh shit,” she says.
I chuckle, bend down, and kiss her on the lips upside down. “Is that how we’re greeting me now?”
“You must be the boyfriend,” the lady next to her says. I look over at her and take in her red hair pinned back by a bandana and the fringe of her biker outfit.
Avery frowns and looks at the woman. “I told you, Brenda. He’s not my boyfriend.”
Brenda points at her. “You need to make it official.”
“You think?” she asks, leaning back into me. I hold up her weight by keeping my feet planted on the ground so that I can be her support.
“Yeah,” Brenda says before taking a swig of her beer. “When you talked about him, I didn’t think he’d be such a hunk, but now that he’s here, you need to snatch him before someone else does.”
Avery curses under her breath. “I didn’t think of that.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I interject, but they don’t listen to me.
“That’s right,” Brenda says, clinking her beer bottle against Avery’s shot glass of what smells like tequila. “Screw the brother, and take your man.”
“Oh, oh!” Ivy says beside me. “Tell him about what you’d do to Avery’s ex!”
“Easy,” Brenda huffs. She takes several more gulps of her beer before waving the bartender down and asking for another. “You fly to his place, knock on his door, and then shoot him in the balls when he answers.”
I cringe at the thought, but Avery claps and looks up at me. “Do your parents have a plane?”
“No,” I say, clearing my throat and trying like hell not to cup my own balls. “But even if they did, there’d be no family jewels assaults.”
“But he so deserves it,” Ivy hisses.
Brenda toasts Avery to it, and Avery downs her shot. Avery then holds out her shot glass to the bartender. “It doesn’t burn like it used to.”
I take the shot glass from her and stare the bartender down. He holds up his hands and walks down the way to fill someone else’s demands. “I think that’s enough for tonight,” I whisper in her ear.
Her bottom lip sticks out. “But Brenda, Ivy, and I are having so much fun.”
I turn her on the stool and settle between her legs. I then tip her head up to mine and kiss her tequila-tasting lips. “You can have fun.”
“Oh yeah?” There’s hope in her eyes.
“Yes. In bed.”
A smirk crosses her face. “With you?”
I laugh under my breath. “Not tonight. I won’t take advantage of your state.”
She twirls her finger in front of my face. “It wouldn’t be taking advantage if I asked for it.”
I press another kiss to her lips and help her off the stool. She wobbles a little bit, but I have ahold of her arm. She giggles as I say, “Not happening, baby girl.” I glance back at Ivy to make sure she’s following us out the door.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she says, her shoes in one hand and her cell phone in the other.
I guide the girls through the smoke and back to my car. Opening the passenger side, I help Avery inside and shut the door. Ivy climbs into the back seat, and I head to the driver’s side, climb in, make sure everyone has their seatbelts on, and start the car.
They spend the entire time back giggling about their night and the friends they made, but me?
My mind slips into what that Brenda lady said.
Avery told her what happened with her ex.
I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting that she hadn’t told me yet.
I want to know everything about Avery. The things that make her laugh.
The tragedies that make her cry. And everything in between.
By the time we get home, Avery is passed out in the driver’s seat, and Ivy is nearly there as well.
I park the car and sit there for a minute, gazing at Avery and her soft sleeping sounds.
I reach out and brush my knuckles down the side of her face, savoring the moment where, just for a minute, I pretend like she can tell me anything.
Like there are no obstacles we have to hurdle and we can just be… normal. Us.
“Are we home?” Ivy asks sleepily in the back.
I nod. “Do you need help in?”
She shakes her head and starts to get out of the car. I exit as well and head to Avery’s side. Once the door is open, Ivy asks, “Want me to wake her?”
I shake my head and scoop her up into my arms. Ivy shuts the door, and we head inside where she also opens every door for me.
Avery remains completely unaware that she’s being carried.
She’d probably take issue with it if she did.
I know she has issues with her weight, but it doesn’t bother me one bit.
Once we’re inside the apartment, I head to her room and lay her on the bed, head on the pillow. Next, I remove her shoes, set them aside, and kiss her on the forehead.
When I’m done, I head back out into the living room. Ivy is gulping down water in the kitchen, and I’m just about to leave, but I pause. She looks at me over her glass before she sets it down. “What?”
“Avery won’t give me her number.”
Her nose scrunches. “I know. She’s enjoying it too much without that added bonus.”
I purse my lips, trying to think of how to ask this. When no sly way comes to me, I ask, “You wouldn’t be willing to give it to me, would you?”
I expect an immediate protest, but instead, her face brightens. She snatches her phone off the counter, and her fingers fly quickly across the screen. A few seconds later, my phone dings with an incoming text. I open it up to the shared contact and quickly save it to my phone before pocketing it.
“Thanks.”
She waves me off. “She doesn’t know what’s good for her sometimes.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“You’re changing her, you know.”
I give her a small smile as my heart warms. “I know.”
She crosses the kitchen and pats my arm. Before passing me and heading down the hall, she says, “Keep it up, Romeo.”
“I’ll try.”
She whips around with surprise on her face. I don’t have time to ask her what’s wrong. Instead, she holds up a finger, telling me to wait. She dashes to her bedroom, and I don’t have to wait long for her to reemerge. Heading to me, she holds out a calendar with a woman in a bikini.
I take it from her questioningly. “What do you want me to do with this?”
A mischievous grin takes over her face. “So you can keep track of the dates.”
I look at the calendar’s year. “This is from two years ago.”
She nods like a bobblehead. “Good night, Reid.”
Frowning, I watch her retreating back, wondering what the hell just happened. Instead of leaving the calendar behind, because I don’t want to hurt her feelings, I take it with me back to my apartment.