Chapter Two
CHAPTER TWO
MARK
"What do you think, should we go with sky blue or more of a powder blue?"
I fight the urge to sigh into the phone. Shane sent me a text with a picture of a tie in each color. They look the fucking same to me, but apparently my best friend is now preoccupied with picking between colors that are almost impossible to distinguish between for wedding decor.
"Do you know how there were articles coming out a few years ago saying mantis shrimp could see a broader spectrum of colors than humans? That’s what this feels like right now. You’re a shrimp, clearly seeing something that I’m not. They’re both light blue to me, dude."
Shane chuckles. "Fair enough. Sorry, I know this isn’t anything you care about. Also, I’m fairly certain that thing about the shrimp seeing more colors was debunked." Of course he would know that .
"Don’t be sorry. This is your wedding, and you deserve to feel excited about it."
But even as I say the words, discomfort settles in my chest. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited as hell that he’s marrying Dani, but wedding details seem to be the only thing he can talk about lately, even when Dani is more than happy to take the reins on planning. His phone calls and texts have been more sparse, and when they do come in, they all seem to be about him and Dani. It feels like our friendship is getting left on the back burner, and I can’t help but worry that it’ll stay there even after the wedding is over.
Life changes, priorities shift, and people leave. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that I’ve learned the hard way, but I’ve always had Shane. He’s the only person who’s stuck around despite everything, but now life is changing for him in a significant way.
Unable to shake the worry, I find an excuse to hang up the phone before collapsing on the couch. I’m not going to lose Shane , I tell myself. We’ve been friends since we were kids, and that’s not a bond that’s easily broken. Things are just… different now. All I need to do is get through the holidays and his wedding with my sanity intact and hope things go back to normal.
I try to distract myself with some TV, but it doesn’t do much to fill the quiet emptiness of the apartment. I usually don’t mind it, but tonight, I need to get out and do something to work off this agitation buzzing through my body.
Before I can think too hard about it, I’m in my car and headed toward Club Caliber. I’ll surely find a way to work out some frustration there. Even if none of my play partners are there, I can, at the very least, watch some sort of kinky scene play out .
Traffic is lighter than usual for a Friday night, but I can’t blame anyone for wanting to stay inside. It’s cold as fuck, and according to the news, there’s a massive snowstorm on the way tomorrow. I’m sure everyone has stocked up on groceries and hunkered down for the weekend.
I’m only a few blocks from the club and sitting at a red light when I see a girl about halfway down the block rushing out of her crappy van with a pizza bag hanging from her arm. All I can really make out from here is her small stature and her long blonde hair whipping in the wind as she pauses on the sidewalk to examine the buildings.
The light turns green, and I inch forward as I watch the girl almost trip over her too-large pants that are dragging on the ground. Movement catches my eye about twenty feet behind her. A man follows her, matching her pace and slowing whenever she does.
Alarm bells go off in my head, and before I can think about what I’m doing, I pull into the space behind the girl’s van. She disappears into an apartment building, and the man slows before casually leaning against the wall directly next to the door she just walked through.
I don’t like this one bit.
Normally, I’m one to mind my own business and not interfere with strangers’ lives, but every instinct in my body is screaming at me that something is wrong here.
It takes a couple of minutes for the girl to come back out, and as soon as she steps through the doors, the man’s mouth moves with words I can’t hear and her head jerks up in surprise. I watch as she shakes her head and cautiously steps away, but he doesn’t give up. For every step she takes backward, he closes the space between them.
I can’t hear what they’re saying, but when his hand closes around her arm, his grip tight enough to indent the puffy coat she’s shrouded in, I refuse to stand by any longer. I jump out of my car, and both of their gazes snap to me as the sound of my car door slamming cuts through the night air.
"Is there a problem here?" I ask, putting on a menacing expression as I stare the man down.
He lets go of her arm but doesn’t back off, even though there’s hesitation in his eyes. "Who are you?"
"Does it matter?" I cross my arms over my chest, keeping my back straight and my expression cold. I can already see his resolve breaking. I’m not normally a violent guy, but I sure as hell give off the vibe of someone not to fuck with.
The man mutters something under his breath before storming off in the direction he came.
As soon as I’m sure he’s not going to pull a gun on me or otherwise cause more trouble, I look down at the woman.
"Are you okay?"
Her eyes are wide with fear as she simply nods.
"Are you sure? I’m not going to hurt you," I promise her, knowing how intimidating I seem to strangers. My massive stature automatically makes me seem like a threat, so pairing that with my general rough-around-the-edges look, most people tend to keep their distance.
I soften my expression as much as I can, leaving a significant amount of space between us. "I saw him following you before you went into the building there. I just wanted to make sure he didn’t… well, you know."
"Thank you," she says in a soft voice. She still doesn’t quite make eye contact.
"I’m parked right behind you, so I’ll walk you back to your car if that’s okay."
She nods and walks that way without another word, wrapping her arms around her midsection as if to shield herself from the cold.
"Thank you again," she says as she opens her door.
"No problem." I’m about to get back into my own car and consider my good deed done for the night when I notice the items covering her back seats. "Wait," I blurt.
Damn it, Mark, what are you doing? Just get in the car and leave the poor girl alone.
She pauses and furrows her brow at me. Her massive coat covers her neck and chin, and her hat is pulled down over her forehead, but even though I’m unable to see half of her face, I can tell she’s beautiful. And young. Much too young for me—not that I was looking to pick up a woman by saving her from a predatory asshole anyway.
"I don’t mean to pry, but are you living out of your van?"
Her gaze drops to the ground. "Yes. I’m just trying to save up enough for a place right now. No big deal."
"Are you from around here?" I ask. The out-of-state license plate answers my question before she confirms the answer.
"No."
I don’t know why I think about it or why I even care, but I say, "Well, I’m not sure if you know this, but there’s a massive snowstorm coming tomorrow. It’s probably not safe for you to be staying in your car."
For the first time tonight, she looks directly at me. "I don’t have anywhere else to go."
Her admission alongside the lost but determined look in her eyes shoots straight through my heart. I don’t know why I feel this sudden urge to help her, to take care of her. She’s a random woman without a home, which isn’t exactly a rarity in a big city like this. But something tells me that this isn’t something she’s used to, and she probably needs all the help she can get right now. I could be entirely wrong, but she just seems so… lost.
"You could stay with me." The words are out of my mouth before I even realize what I’m saying. Seriously, what the fuck am I doing ?
"Oh, um, that’s alright. Thank you, though," she says politely. I can’t blame her for not wanting to stay with a random man, let alone one who’s the size of an average NFL player and has the default expression of "don’t fuck with me." Shane’s fiancée Dani calls it my "resting bitch face."
"I understand why you wouldn’t want to accept my offer, but just in case—" I pull a pen from my coat pocket along with a receipt I forgot to throw away from the grocery store yesterday and scribble down my phone number and address. "—here’s my number and address. I have a spare bedroom that I don’t use. If you change your mind, let me know."
I hold the receipt out to her and she plucks it from my fingers.
"Thank you."
"No problem. I’m Mark, by the way."
"I’m Claire," she responds. "It was nice to meet you. Thanks again."
And with that, she’s back in her vehicle and driving away as I slide into my car and wonder what the hell just came over me.