19. Edu
19
EDU
“Not many men get laid and then look like they want to kill someone,” Brock said as he walked into the training center.
I ignored him and continued to run on the treadmill. I didn’t feel like running outside today, mostly because then I’d be tempted to run to the grocery store and yell at Harper some more. Or kiss her.
Or pull her into the bathroom and fuck her against the wall.
“Leave him alone,” Lock ordered, continuing his own workout.
“Seriously, how do you fuck up sex?”
“I didn’t,” I snapped. “It was later,” I admitted.
He snorted, getting on the treadmill beside me. “What did you do, kick her out of your bed five seconds after you finished?”
I punched the button to crank up the speed, needing to burn off the anger still flowing through my veins. It shouldn’t fucking piss me off that I was taking the brunt of her rage. I was in the right. She was fucking wrong.
“It was nothing like that. She was happy. I was happy.”
As if Brock could read my mind, he started laughing. “You did it, didn’t you?”
I glared at him.
“Fuck, you really are stupid. ”
Lock stopped his workout and looked at me curiously. “I don’t get it. What did he do?”
“He reminded her that it was a one-time thing.”
Lock stared at me. “Are you fucking serious? Right after sex?”
Anger coursed through me and I stopped the treadmill, snatching my towel off the bar. As I swiped it over my face, I recalled the way she stared at me with that glow in her eyes. “You don’t get it. She was looking at me like I was a fucking king. I saw it in her eyes. She was expecting more.”
“So, you decided to clarify things,” Brock chuckled.
“I needed to be sure she understood. The woman fantasizes about me. There was no way this was going to end well.”
“Then why the fuck did you sleep with her?” Lock practically shouted at me. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“She’s hot! You saw her!”
“That doesn’t mean you stick your dick in her. When you see crazy, you run in the other direction.”
“I couldn’t help it. It was Fox’s fault!”
Lock raised his eyebrow in question. “Don’t tell me he was there for it.”
“He might as well have been. The woman was spying on me in my own house. She was taking pictures of me working out from the basement steps!”
Brock laughed a little harder. “And you stuck your dick in her.”
“She licked my fucking hand after I wiped sweat from my face!”
They both flinched at that. “Like…licked the whole thing or only a taste?” Lock asked.
“Does it really fucking matter?”
“I think it does,” Brock nodded, shutting down his own machine. “A little taste could be construed as a kiss that went too far. But licking your whole hand? That’s fucking disgusting. Is that when you reminded her that it was nothing more?”
I looked at him sheepishly, clearing my throat. “Uh…no, that’s when I pushed her to the ground and…had her suck my cock.”
They both stared at me like I was an idiot. I knew it. They knew it. I was just waiting for them to say it .
“So…what you’re telling us,” Lock said, getting to his feet, “is that you first encouraged her behavior, then slept with her, then you reiterated that you weren’t going to date her.” He nodded as he thought about it. “I think it’s possible you’re the stupidest fuck I’ve ever met.”
“No, no,” Brock shook his head. “He was the stupidest fuck when he encouraged her. Now, he’s taken it one step further because what kind of douchebag encourages a woman like that and then punches her in the vagina on the way out? You, my friend, are what we call a tool.”
I swiped my towel over my face again, drying the sweat. “Maybe I was a little…harsh.”
But that wasn’t the worst of it. And now that I could admit that to myself, I had another harsh truth to face. “I um…that’s not all.”
“Fuck,” Lock sighed. “There’s always something else.”
I scratched my jawline, feeling like I was suddenly covered in spiders or something. Maybe it was hives. “I may have…questioned her life choices.”
Lock nodded, then turned away from me and went back to his workout. Brock started up the treadmill again, laughing to himself.
“What? That’s it? No one’s got any sage advice?”
“I don’t think there’s any advice any of us could give you that would save the sinking ship,” Brock said.
“There’s gotta be something.”
Lock put down his weights and turned to me. “Do you like this woman?”
“This isn’t about whether?—”
“Now’s not the time for you to play this whole single-man game. Do you like her or not?”
I rolled my eyes, begrudgingly admitting that I did. “Yes.”
“Then you have to make a choice. Either you stop being a fucking asshole and apologize to her, or you walk away and admit that you’re fucking wrong.”
“She works at a fucking grocery store!”
“In the middle of a small town,” Lock pointed out. “Not everyone under the sun becomes a lawyer or a teacher. Some people do menial work. Some people enjoy the simple life. ”
“She doesn’t like it!” I practically yelled. “She’s got no fucking ambition. She’s been to school twice and didn’t graduate either time!”
Lock got up and in my face. “And who are you to judge her? You don’t even want to fucking date her. All she is to you is someone to take home and fuck.”
The reality of his words struck hard. Why did I care? And if I didn’t really care about her, why was I judging her so harshly over her life choices?
I stumbled back a step, feeling like I’d been hit by lightning. Slumping down on the bench, I ran my hand over my head, feeling like absolute shit. “I really fucked this up.”
“No shit,” he snapped. “Listen, I don’t give you shit over your choices in the dating department. If you want to go around and fuck every woman in your path, you do it. But don’t come to me for advice about screwing over women and how to come up smelling like roses when you’re shitting all over the place.”
He stormed out of the room, leaving me only with Brock. Sighing, I looked up at him. “Do you want to yell at me too?”
He chuckled at me. “Nope, I think he covered it. Though, I am intrigued now why Lock is so fucking determined to put you in your place. What does he know that I don’t?”
A whole hell of a lot that I didn’t want to get into right now. I shoved to my feet and clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks for the ass-kicking.”
“I didn’t really have anything to do with it.”
I needed a fucking shower and a handbook on the proper way to grovel. But I wasn’t sure anyone would be able to tell me how to get back in the good graces of a woman like Harper.
I stood outside the grocery store, staring at it for the second time in a matter of days. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say or how I was going to fix the clusterfuck I’d gotten myself into. The only thing I knew was that I had to do it sooner rather than later.
I knew from my own experience with my parents that the longer you let a problem fester, the harder it was to forgive. I wasn’t even sure why I wanted forgiveness from Harper. It wasn’t like I could ever have a relationship with her, but I hated thinking she was mad at me.
Sighing, I made my way inside and waded through the sea of customers until I saw her standing by her register. Despite the smile on her face, I instantly knew she wasn’t happy. The smile didn’t reach her eyes and her stiff posture let on that she was faking all of it, holding in the anger she no doubt still felt for the horrible things I said to her earlier.
“Fuck, you’re such an asshole,” I muttered, making my way over to her.
When I approached, she caught me out of the corner of her eye, shooting me an irritated look.
“Can I talk to you?”
“I’m working,” she said, scanning the next item on the belt. “How are you today?”
“Fine,” the woman responded.
“Me too. Absolutely fabulous. It’s a wonderful day, isn’t it?”
“Um…it’s okay,” the woman nodded.
“I just need a minute, Harper.”
“Don’t you just hate it when you’re having a great day and someone ruins it?” Harper asked the woman.
The woman looked to me, then back to Harper.
“I came to apologize,” I tried again.
A sharp laugh came out of Harper’s lips before she turned to me. “I know you think because I have this meaningless job that you can come here and order me around, but I do actually have to perform my job. Otherwise, they would fire me, and then I’d be even more useless than I am now.”
The woman sucked in a harsh breath at Harper’s words.
“Harper—”
“If you aren’t buying anything, you need to leave before you get me fired.”
I gritted my teeth and stormed away. I definitely didn’t want to get her fired, no matter how useless I thought her job was. So, I grabbed a basket and filled it with whatever was within reach. By the time I was finished, her line was three people deep and I was forced to wait even longer to talk to her.
By the time I made it to her, she flicked off her light and gave me a sweet smile. “I’m sorry. My register is closed while I go on break.”
Then she stepped out and walked quickly through the store to the back. I followed, not letting her get away from me so easily. I ignored the employee-only sign and followed her into the break room, closing the door behind us.
“How dare you!” she said, spinning and facing me. “This is where I work, and even though I have no ambition and will never get anywhere in my life, I still need the paycheck it provides! Are you trying to get me fired?”
I reached out for her, but she jerked away from me. “Harper, I know I fucked up?—”
She barked out a laugh. “Fucked up? No, that would require you and me to be something, which you have made perfectly clear countless times that would never happen. Oh, and I took the pill, in case you were worried.”
I actually hadn’t thought about it. In my anger and stupidity, I was only worried about proving that I was right and she was wrong, but she took my concerns seriously and followed through.
“Thank you,” I said sincerely.
She sighed, looking away. “Well, it’s not like I want to get pregnant by a man-whore who would leave me to raise a kid on my own.” Then she looked up at me sharply. “And just so you know, I take birth control. It’s not like I go around sleeping with men without worrying about that kind of thing.”
Wow, as if I couldn’t feel like more of an asshole, she found a way to point it out. “Harper, there’s a lot that I did and said that I wish I could take back.”
“You think?”
Man, this whole apologizing thing was harder than I thought. I’d never actually tried before with any woman. Friends were a different story. I always seemed to know what to say to make things right, but with her…it was like the fate of everything rested on what I said and how I said it. And I wasn’t even sure why I cared that much .
“I acted like a dick. I know that now. And I’m not sure why I said those things to you. I don’t even know if I even believe any of it.”
“There’s truth in everything we say,” she said, her eyes dropping to the ground as she kicked her toe at the floor.
With just that one simple gesture, I knew I had hurt her way more than she wanted to admit. I stepped forward and grabbed her hand. It occurred to me in that moment that it didn’t really matter what I apologized for. It just needed to be sincere.
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I can’t say that I won’t ever do it again. I am a man, after all.”
She bit her lip to hide her smile.
“But I do hope you can accept my apology.”
She looked up at me, her eyebrow quirked at me. “You just want to get in my pants again.”
Heat flared in my eyes at the thought. “I wouldn’t say no.” My voice was low and gravelly, almost unrecognizable to my own ears. “I didn’t really get a chance to explore certain aspects of that stud.”
Her cheeks flushed bright red as I wrapped my hand around her waist and pulled her closer. “And I don’t think I properly returned the favor of what you did for me in the basement.”
“I would think you have a lot of making up to do,” she hinted.
“What time do you get off?”
“You tell me.”
I coughed out a laugh, surprised as hell at her response. “I’ll pick you up at your house at eight.”
“So, no dinner tonight,” she pouted.
“I’ll have dinner waiting.”
“You’d better. I get hungry after sex. And there’d better be a lot of it.”
Fuck, now I was hard and I had to walk through the store to get out of there. “Any chance you want to take care of a problem I have so I can walk out of here without looking like a log is swinging between my legs?”
“I’m afraid my break is just about over. But I’m sure you’ll find a way to hide that log. ”
I choked as I felt her grip my dick through my jeans, giving it a firm squeeze before stepping back. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“Pack a bag. I’m not taking you home until morning,” I growled, stalking toward her. I pulled her into my arms and kissed the hell out of her, taking every fucking ounce of her breath away until she stepped back, gasping for air. Her fingers went to her lips and she grinned. I could still feel the tingles too, but I’d think about that later. Right now, I had a fucking dinner to plan. And it had better be fucking good to get her back on my side for good.
As long as good lasted.