Chapter 9
DEVON
“Peas… peas… wait, no, I have peas.” The basket bumps against my hip, causing the rustling bag of peas to shift to the side. “I need chicken.”
The list in my hand crumples slightly as I weave down the grocery aisle toward the refrigerated section in search of enough chicken for tonight’s plans.
The last few days have been hectic since Kairo turned up at the bakery and revealed himself to be a snake in my grass, so to make it up to my parents, I’m cooking them dinner.
What are the chances that it happens twice?
My terrible taste in men is two for two, and the regret in my chest hasn’t shifted since I slammed the door on Kairo’s lying face and cried in the supply closet.
For a moment, just one moment, I thought he was different.
I thought I’d made a good choice and considered a good man. Instead, I brought the devil right to my door.
“Chicken,” I murmur to myself as I reach the chilled aisle and scan over the various meats looking for the exact pack I need.
“Devon?”
I glance up at my name and skim the couple of people nearby until I notice the smiling face of a tall, thin woman clad in pink leggings and a neon green tank top.
Her golden skin glows under the bright lights of the grocery store, and her platinum blonde hair is scraped back from her face and pinned high by several butterfly ribbons.
“Amanda?”
“I thought that was you!” She lurches toward me, and I’m unable to avoid the hug she forces on me with her arms around my shoulders.
“I haven’t seen you since that night Francine turned twenty-one and we got all those Jell-O shots! I thought you’d moved out to L.A.? Don’t tell me you’ve come all the way back to this dead end down?”
Amanda speaks with a lightness that often comes across as arrogant and thoughtless, but she has lived her life in her own world and rarely intends anything by her comments.
She lets her mouth run away with itself and it’s rather comforting to be hit by such old familiarity.
“Yeah, I moved back just over six months ago,” I reply as she releases me from the hug.
It takes all my strength to suppress the shiver that arises from her closeness. “I wanted to be closer to my family.”
“Oh, really?” Her perfectly lined eyes narrow at me. “I heard you married some hotshot and decided you were too good for us!”
Her tinkling laugh draws curious glances from other customers.
Despite the lightness of her words, my heart sinks.
Did Axel spread his lies out here, too?
I shouldn’t be surprised.
The reach that man has is only held at bay by a restraining order that only shackles him because he has no idea where I am.
“You heard wrong, I’m afraid,” I lie with a smile. “I just got busy with a new job and I swear time in L.A just passes differently. One blink and it was years, y’know?”
“How glamorous.” She giggles. “Well, it’s so good to see you again! I kept saying to the girls that we should all pile on a plane and come see you just as an excuse to visit L.A. And now you’re here!”
She grins at me and then quickly pulls out a small card from her pocket. “Here, take my new number!”
The pristine white card is embellished with gold ink around the edges and text in the middle stating Amanda’s name and her current occupation as a private health and fitness coach.
Her number rests just below her card.
“This is you?” I tap the card. “I saw posters around town but I didn’t realize it was you.”
“Yup! Heaven’s Soldiers. Elegant, right? I’m doing the Lord’s work by helping people get into shape!”
She grins and then her smile falls as she touches my arm. “I don’t mean you need to, you look as good as always! I always did envy how big your tits and ass were! I’m glad to see the L.A diet of air didn’t rob you of your curves!”
There it is.
The accidental insult from a place of honest thoughtlessness.
Never malicious, but enough to send me back to the scales once or ten as a teen, wondering why I could never shed the pounds my friends lost simply by breathing.
My weight increased under Axel when food became my only comfort, and now I’m battling to accept myself kindly just by looking in the mirror.
So I force the same smile I always gave Amanda. “Don’t worry. If this body were teachable, I’d be a millionaire.”
Amanda laughs heartily and quickly hugs me again. “I have to dash, but please call me! I’d love to catch up!”
And she’s gone, leaving a cloud of sweet candy perfume in her wake. As much as her comment stings, there’s a familiarity in it that’s comforting.
My five years in L.A. became my own personal hell. It’s oddly nice to be back here, even with Amanda’s runaway mouth.
I finish my shopping and head home to cook up a hearty chicken and pasta dish for my parents.
My dad sits at the table whittling away at some wood from the garden while my mother sits next to him sketching out designs for a commissioned wedding cake.
We’re almost fully booked for Thanksgiving Wedding requests and then it will be Christmas.
My favorite time of the year, although my dreams of a perfect family Christmas teeter under the shadow of my parents’ debt and losing the bakery.
But over the steam of my cooking, I see them sitting with their ankles intertwined while they work silently.
Despite everything, they remain happy. I envy it.
My phone buzzing drags me from my thoughts and I answer to Amanda, who was too excited to see me and hunted down my number instead.
My momentary alarm at her finding my number online is soothed when she explains her mother had it on file because of my parents, and relief floods through me as Amanda invites me out for drinks.
“Oh, I’m not sure—”
“Listen!” She quickly cuts me off. “I saw your arm and I’m sorry I didn’t ask about it and I know you must be on medication, so we can drink mocktails all night and you can tell me what happened while scolding me for being a terrible friend!
I get so busy and my brain just blahs, you know?
But please, please come out with me! I told the girls you were back and everyone misses you! ”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Pasta spills over my spoon as stir. “I have a lot going on and I don’t know if I can squeeze in some time for drinks—”
“Go!” Mom suddenly stands in front of me and takes the spoon from me. “Go and have a nice time! You deserve to go out with friends.”
Taking the phone from where I balanced it on my shoulder, I cover the speaker with my fingers. “But what about dinner?”
“Devon, sweetheart. We’ll always be here for dinner. After the week you’ve had, you should go and have some fun with your friends.”
She smiles earnestly at me. “You need to unwind.”
I want to debate with her, but she gently uses her body to push me away from the stove as she makes up her own mind, so I place the phone back to my ear.
“Sorry, Amanda. My night just freed up. Where do you want to meet?”
Two hours later, I perch on a pink satin bar stool with a strawberry mocktail in one hand while Amanda nearly falls off her own stool from laughing.
“And then!” She gasps for air. “And then Hannah comes running out of the bathroom with her underwear at her ankles yelling for a condom! I’ve never seen anyone so desperate for dick!”
Hannah, with her curled auburn hair scooped to one side and a dress so sparkly that I see stars every time I look at her, slaps Amanda on the shoulder and squeals. “You didn’t need to tell her that part!”
“It’s the best part.” Amanda laughs.
“I mean, true. When you know, you know, right?” Hannah giggles.
“Anyway, nine months later, Adrian was born and I locked that sexy linebacker into a marriage that lasted all of five minutes. He’s not a bad guy.
We’re just not life compatible, but we’re both still single so…
” She winks at me. “The bedroom is always busy!”
“And yet you’re out here trying to pick up anyone who even looks at you,” snorts Maria, the last of the group as she returns to us with more drinks in hand. “Honestly, you need to come with a warning sign.”
“What warning?” Hannah gapes. “That I’m old enough to know what I want and confident enough to ask for it? These days, you need to be obvious, otherwise you’ll end up going home to a trusty plastic dick that lacks the warmth of a real man.”
“You can keep your plastic dicks.” Marie snorts. “Once you’ve felt the touch of a real woman, nothing else compares.” She smirks at Hannah and dances her fingers up her bare arm. “Experimentation is the flavor of life, darling.”
“Oh, please.” Hannah knocks Marie’s touch away with a giggle. “I’ve seen the dildo you keep in your bedside drawer. You crave dick as much as the rest of us.”
“Just not the man attached!” Amanda manages to get out around her laughter.
They collapse into giggles and it’s infectious.
The hours pass much the same, old stories shared ranging from sexual conquests to budding family life.
It’s nice to see how they’ve all blossomed in their own ways in the five years I was absent, but there’s sadness too.
I missed a lot of their milestones such as marriage, children, and birthdays.
I learn through a sad toast that the fifth member of our childhood group was lost three years ago to a mugging gone wrong, but despite the sadness piercing through the air, we focus on the good times we had with her while sneaking out of class or dodging the cops down by the docks.
“I gotta say.” Marie loops her arm around my neck and thankfully, everyone is too drunk to notice my recoil. “I never thought I’d see you back, Devon. I thought L.A. was it for you. Fancy state, fancy job, fancy man…?” She wiggles her brows.
“No man,” Amanda corrects for me. “It’s just a coincidence that Frank vanished the same day!”
It turns out a guy she knew moved to L.A. at the same time I did and everyone thought my silence was because we were together.
Her story brought more relief than I could express because if Axel knew anything about my hometown, this safe bubble would burst.
“A shame. What about the guy who helped you with this?” Marie taps my cast. “Is he a catch?”
“No,” I reply after draining my glass of water. “He’s just another rat.”
The conversation dives into old exes and terrible lovers after that, and we talk for so long that I don’t notice the time until the bartender’s calling for last drinks.
As much fun as this has been, I quickly excuse myself from their last order and head outside.
A brisk, sharp wind forces me to huddle inside my thin coat, a choice that didn’t seem important on the Uber over here.
Now that I’m outside getting some fresh air, it definitely wasn’t the right choice for this kind of weather.
Tapping quickly through my phone, my heart sinks as the battery flashes its last warning while I try to access the Uber app, but just as it alerts me to a driver in my area, my phone stutters and dies.
“Fuck.” Stamping my foot against the cold, I hold down the power button repeatedly, but there’s really no juice left in my device.
I should have charged it before I left.
With a groan, I turn to head back inside only for the bouncer to block me with his meaty hand.
“We’re closed.”
“I know it’s last call,” I say, stepping back from him. “But my friends are still inside.”
“Nice try.”
“No, really! I literally came out here because it’s quiet and I have better reception to book an Uber.”
“Then book your Uber.”
“But my phone died!” I brandish the dead device in his face. “So I need my friends’ help.”
“No one is allowed in after last call.”
“I’m not trying to get in, I’m trying to get back in because I was already in!” It’s difficult to manage my frustration in the cold but the second he raises his hand again, I step further back. “Please.”
“No. We’re closed. Wait for your friends here if they’re even real.”
As he talks, a sharp rumble booms overhead and a split second later, the skies open and rain pours down in sheets, drenching me within seconds.
I make eye contact with the bouncer as he steps backward under the overhanging to protect himself from the rain and crosses his large arms over his chest.
“Are you seriously not going to let me in?” I call over the rising sound of the rain bouncing off the tarmac and the metal shutters.
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Wait.” He shrugs. “Or find a cab.”
“What cab will take me without payment?” I snap, waving my dead phone. “I’m contactless on here!”
The bouncer shrugs once more and looks away, ending our conversation.
My frustration builds but it’s quickly replaced by despair and fear.
Waiting here will be the death of me in this storm, but finding a cab that will take me all the way back home on such a large charge based on faith that I’ll pay them when we get there?
That’s impossible in this city.
Not with how far away my parents’ home is.
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” I yell at the bouncer before stomping away through the puddle-filled streets.
The rain pours without mercy and with the sharp, freezing wind whipping it in all directions, it’s not long before I’m soaked to the bone and frozen to boot.
The dark, unfamiliar streets get longer and longer as I wander aimlessly searching for an open fast-food place that will allow me to charge my phone.
Unfortunately, most of the city is closed and I’m walking from shadow to shadow with no hope.
My heart pounds faster and faster.
My hands and feet tremble with each step and I’m so drenched that my shoes feel like sludge.
The only thing remaining somewhat dry is my cast as I huddle around my arm.
Suddenly, as I stand at a crosswalk staring into a yawning dark street that threatens to swallow me whole, the rain stops.
No… it doesn’t stop completely.
Just over me.
The loud patter of raindrops hitting something above me becomes the only noise.
Glancing up, a dark shape hovers over my head.
As fear makes my heart jump painfully, I spin on the spot and lock onto a painfully familiar set of eyes belonging to a man standing in the rain while holding the large umbrella over my head.
He’s aglow in the headlights of a car parked just behind him where another man stands by the driver’s door, watching us.
“Kairo?”
“Devon, what are you doing out here all by yourself? You’ll catch your death! Let me take you home.”