3. Chapter 3
It was after nine when I got home, completely exhausted.
Between working early mornings and taking college courses in the afternoons and at night, it was a lot to handle.
While tired, I couldn’t stop thinking about my sexy hero.
I loved how Easton didn’t give two cares about what anyone thought.
He took charge of a difficult situation with that horrible man and brushed it off as if it were nothing. God, he was so cute.
Easton was exactly my type—strong, silent, broody. He was so mysterious. I struggled to focus on classes today, my mind completely preoccupied by a blond man with beautifully haunting pale brown eyes.
I walked into the old home my dad rented on A Street, near Capitol Hill.
It wasn’t exactly the nicest or safest, but it was affordable.
The only reason I stayed instead of getting a place of my own was for my younger sister, not that I could really afford to live on my own in DC. The city was just too expensive.
Dad was sitting in the living room, watching one of his cop dramas he loved so much, drinking a beer.
“Hey,” I said, carefully. Dad could be moody, so whenever I came home, I had no idea what he’d be like.
Ever since Mom died three years ago from lymphoma, he’d used gambling apps to cope, and his addiction had slowly grown to horse races, car races, and slots at the casino in Maryland.
If he won, he’d be in a great mood. If he lost a lot of money, he would be pissy.
He looked up and gave me a big smile. While I had his light brown curls, I looked more like my mother had, with her softer features. Dad drank a lot, so he had a swollen gut, while the rest of him was thin.
“Hey, there, Champ.”
Ugh, I hated it when he called me that. I wasn’t the champ of anything. Heck, I never even played sports back in high school unless I was forced to in P.E. class.
He set his beer can down on the scratched coffee table and stood. “I’ve got something for you,” he said, digging into his pocket. Dad pulled out a large wad of cash and thrust it at me as I walked into the room.
I took it and swallowed hard. He’d won that money gambling, and whenever I took the money on his good days, it felt like I was catering to his addiction, or stealing it somehow. Whatever it was, it felt all wrong, but we also needed the money .
Dad worked, but he blew most of his earnings, which was why I had to work at the coffee shop so much. It helped, but I didn’t make nearly enough to cover all the bills.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
“Use that to pay your tuition next time. I had a really great day. My horse won, and I got over two thousand for it!”
“T-that’s great, Dad.”
I’d tried to get him to stop, but he never listened, or he promised he would after one more bet.
He just wanted to win the big one, and he’d be done.
But he was never done. And he lost more money than he won.
Even worse, he’d sold Mom’s car for cash to bet on, so Annie and I had to take the bus or metro wherever we went.
He pointed at the cash in my hand. “That’s five hundred dollars there. Don’t lose it.”
“I won’t,” I said softly.
“I’ve got dinner waiting for you in the microwave. Got us some burgers from that joint we love.”
Reluctantly, I shoved the cash into my pocket and headed to the kitchen to eat. I was hungry, not having eaten since this morning. Sometimes the coffee shop let us eat pastries that wouldn’t sell because they’d been in the counter display too long.
“Where is it?” screeched Annie from upstairs. “Where the fuck did it go?”
I rushed out of the kitchen to find my younger sister running down the stairs, full of fire in her veins and tears in her eyes. She rarely cried these days unless it was out of anger.
“Annie… what’s happened?”
“He took it! Dad took her ring! ”
She blew by me and stormed into the living room, where Dad was watching TV again, but he had shrunk into himself. Dammit. Did he pawn something else?
“Where is it?” she snapped at him.
“Where’s what, honey?” He couldn’t even look at her.
“Don’t ‘ honey ’ me! Where is Mom’s engagement ring?”
He still didn’t look at us as he shook his head. “I have no idea. The last time I saw it, you kept it in your room.”
“She gave it to me before she died… how could you?”
He turned to scowl at her. “That’s enough, missy! You do not talk to me like that. I’m your father!”
Tears spilled out of her blue eyes as she fisted her hands. “You had no right!”
God, did he pawn Mom’s ring? It wouldn’t be the first time. At this rate, we’d have nothing left, and I didn’t know what to do. My great mood from this morning vanished in a poof. Now I was overwhelmed, with a sense of helplessness.
Annie ran off crying, and I turned to him. “You shouldn’t have sold it, Dad. That was so wrong. When is it going to end? When will it be enough? How long are you going to hurt us for your addiction?”
He still couldn’t look at me as he squirmed on the beat-up sofa. “I didn’t do shit.”
I’d researched gambling addiction. I understood they lied to their families, friends, and themselves. It was hard for them to stop, given the amount of dopamine rushes they received. Eventually, they became more desensitized, so they gambled more and more to get that rush.
I’d also read that there was little I could do. Only they could stop themselves. All I could do was mention how harmful it was to us. “You hurt her. She’s angry and upset because you can’t control yourself.”
Dad said nothing, pretending to watch TV and drinking his beer.
I left him to his thoughts and headed upstairs to my sister’s room. She had her door closed, so I knocked on it. “Annie?”
“Go away!”
“Please let me in, Annie Boo.”
After a moment, she finally opened it and rushed to her bed, grabbing a pillow to hug.
My fifteen-year-old sister was my favorite person in the world.
We were really close, especially after Mom died, so I hated it when she was upset.
I took care of her as Dad grieved. She was adorable, too, with dirty-blonde hair that was cut into a pixie cut, but the bangs were long and fell to the side of her face.
She also wore glasses like me. But her glasses sat on her bed as the tears fell.
I sat next to her, pulling her into a side hug. “I’m sorry he did that.”
She sniffed and nodded. “It was all I had of her, besides pictures and some clothes I can’t fit into yet. But that ring was so special. I wanted to wear it when I got married one day.”
I brushed away her fallen bangs and wiped some tears from her face. “It’s not the same, but we’ll make sure you have a ring one day.”
“Why is he like this, Tommy? ”
“It started as a coping thing when Mom died. Now it’s an addiction, like any drug. We can’t get him to stop. We can only tell him how it makes us feel. Play into his guilt.”
“I guess.”
To change the subject, I asked, “How was school today?”
Annie shrugged. “It was fine.” Then she grinned at me, her blue eyes still red and wet. “But I aced my algebra test. I got a hundred on it.”
I hugged her tighter. “God, I’m so proud of you. Your grades are always good, better than mine ever were. You’re going to do great things, Annie Boo.”
She sniffed again and rested her head on my shoulder. “So are you. You’re going to be a nurse one day, get a home of your own, and you won’t have to live here anymore.”
“And as soon as I do, you’re coming with me.”
“Okay. Good.”
Her sigh was heavy. “I… miss Dad. You know… how he used to be.”
“Me, too.”
Dad used to be fun and full of life. My parents hadn’t been wealthy, but they’d been happy and loved us. It was clear Mom had been the glue that held us together. Without her, we’d been permanently fractured.
I kissed her head and told her goodnight, as I headed to our shared bathroom to shower before bed, since I had to be up early in the morning.
I was still hungry, but I’d lost my appetite after everything that went down tonight .
Before my shower, I quickly stashed the cash underneath the old wood flooring behind my bed. It was a space I created to keep Dad away from my stuff. I planned to deposit the cash into my bank account for safekeeping after work tomorrow.
The next morning, the coffee shop was busy as usual, dealing with the rush before everyone headed to work, needing their caffeine fix. I tried my best to keep up, but with an extra person working, it wasn’t as bad as it was yesterday morning.
My stomach twisted a bit as I anxiously waited for Easton to come by and get his chai tea and his cinnamon roll.
When seven in the morning rolled around, there he was.
God, he took my breath away with his perfectly cropped hair on the sides, but long on the top, swooped back.
It looked like pure silk. His nose was aristocratic, and he exuded elegance in his navy-blue suit and pale blue tie.
He looked like one of those models you saw on the cover of GQ . Easton oozed elegance and class.
There was no way he’d like me back. He was way out of my league. I was probably nothing to him, but he sure was nice to look at.
I got his chai tea ready and ordered, sent ahead so he wouldn’t have to wait, and his roll was being warmed up. It was the least I could do.
“Hi, Easton!” I said, much too excitedly, when he stepped up to the counter, making my face flush. He looked at me with those intelligent, pale brown eyes, which seemed to penetrate my soul. Jeez, they were pretty .
“Hello, Thomas,” he said, without looking at my name tag, in a perfectly smooth voice, which wasn’t too deep or too high. He was only about an inch taller than me, making him about five-foot-ten. While he wasn’t too broad, he exuded the strength of a much bigger man.
And he remembered my name. Swoon!
Ugh, he was so broodily delicious.
“I have your drink coming right up already, and here’s your cinnamon roll, all warmed up. Just as you like it.”
He took the small paper bag with the treat. “You remembered.”
“Yep, I try to remember the orders from all my favorite customers.”
“Do you have a lot of favorites?”
“Just one,” I said, winking. “It’s not every day a customer becomes my hero.”
“I’m no hero.”
I lifted my shoulders, shrugging. “You are to me.”
When his drink was done, right on time, I handed him the cup with another pink heart on it next to his name. “That will be eight dollars and twelve cents, including tax.”
Easton paid with his credit card and left me a whopping five-dollar tip. “Wow, thanks!”
“You’re welcome.”
He walked off before stopping and turning to face me. “You can talk to me at my table later if you want.”
It took all my power not to drop my jaw to the floor as my heart raced. Ohmygod. Ohmygod . He actually wanted to talk to me. Little ol’ me. The uninteresting barista. Well, I was more of a cashier, but I occasionally helped make drinks.
When the line finally settled down, my co-worker took over for me, allowing me to take a break. I headed over to Easton’s table and sat down. “Hi.”
“Hello.”
For the first time since I could remember, my mind went blank. Usually, I never ran out of words to say.
“You’re attractive,” Easton finally said. God, I loved his bluntness. Being surrounded by lies all the time, thanks to my father, it was nice to talk to someone who was clear and straightforward.
“Really?”
“Yes. You have nice dimples.”
My face flamed as I ate up his words. “You’re so attractive, too.”
“When do you have time off from work?” he asked.
“Uhm, I’ve recently been scheduled for the mornings, but I also take some classes late afternoon and evenings, three days a week, at the community college. I also like to go to bed early when I have to work in the mornings. Oh, but I have tomorrow and Thursday off from school. Why?”
“I like looking at you. I want to take you on a date and then have sex.”
My eyes bulged out of their sockets as the fire continued to spread to my throat and ears.
“God… so forward. I like it. You leave all the guesswork out of it because I was hoping… Instant crush and all since you helped me, and you’re so hot.
Are you sure? I mean, not that I have in security issues, but…
I’m not like… I mean, I don’t have… Ugh.
I’m just trying to say I feel a little out of your league. ”
“I wouldn’t have asked you if I wasn’t interested.”
“Well, thank you then.”
“I haven’t had sex before, but I’ve watched a lot of porn,” he said, taking a sip of his tea as if he was talking about the weather. Jeez, he oozed so much confidence and strength.
“I find that really hard to believe, but yeah, I can help with that, too. I have some experience when I had a boyfriend for six months, but I haven’t dated since then.
“Good. You bottom.”
I wanted to giggle because it was a little embarrassing for me that he was so blunt, but I thought it was amazing, too.
I instantly knew what he liked without having to figure it out or dance around with words.
There were no games at all. I had a feeling I would always know where I stood with Easton… If we had more than one date…
“My favorite part!” I said, and it was.
“We’re agreed then. Where do I pick you up?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Well, I still live with my dad and younger sister near the Capitol Hill area, not too far from here, so maybe it’s not the best idea to do that at my house.”
“I have a new condo, so we can do it there. What time?”
“Is five fine?”
“Be here at five on Thursday, and I’ll pick you up and take you to dinner first. What food do you like?”
I chewed on my bottom lip, feeling uncertain. I was pretty basic when it came to food. He probably liked the fancy food. “What do you like? I’ll eat pretty much anything. ”
“We’ll have sushi.”
Ugh, and he was decisive. Easton was absolutely perfect.
I stood to get ready to go back to work. “Uhm, you’re not like going to kill me or anything?” I asked, only half joking. “Don’t get me wrong! I mean, I like a forward guy, but… yeah, we just met and all.”
“I don’t kill good people.”
I blinked a couple of times before I burst out into laughter. “That’s funny. I love dry humor. Yeah, I’ll be here then.”
“Good then. See you Thursday at five, Thomas. Don’t be late.”
“I won’t.”
When I headed back to the employee lounge, I quietly danced around and held in my excited scream. Yes! I snagged a hottie!