Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ATHENA
“That’ll be ten dollars and forty-nine cents. Cash or card?” the barista at Mug Shot Café said.
“Card,” I said, yanking open my tote bag and searching inside for my wallet. After last night, I had decided to sleep over at Sun’s place because I really couldn’t go back home and face Charlie. I had way too many emotions over us. “One sec …”
Damn it! Where is my—
Before I could find my wallet, someone tapped the screen with their card from behind me, the scent of woods drifting through my nostrils.
“Don’t worry, babe. I got it.”
My eyes widened, and I looked up at Derek, who was now leaning against the counter with a small smirk across his face, ordering a drink from the barista, who giggled at how charming he was.
After straightening myself out, I found my wallet and pulled out twenty dollars. “Here.”
Derek stepped away from the counter and walked toward the pickup area with me, slipping his wallet back into his suit pants pocket and shaking his head. “Put that away,” he said with a small smile. “It’s my treat.”
“Come on. I can’t owe my roommate’s brother any money,” I said. “Take it.”
By the way Charlie had acted the other night at mini-golf when he asked about his brother, I’d thought for sure that he liked me more than friends or fuck buddies. Even last night, while he was recording, I thought he was talking to me. Hell, he had used my panties.
But … I wasn’t sure anymore.
Thankfully, Derek grabbed the twenty from me and folded it, but didn’t put it away. Instead, he leaned back against the wall and played with the money, folding it and unfolding it, his smoldering hazel gaze on me.
“You coming to the party?” he asked.
I arched a brow. “What party?”
Derek drew his tongue across his teeth, his gaze darkening. “Charlie didn’t tell you?”
My entire body tensed, and I thought back to seeing her name on Charlie’s stream last night. Whatever party Derek was talking about, Charlie had definitely not invited me, which meant that … maybe he’d invited her.
“No,” I said, pushing my shoulders back, as if it didn’t bother me.
We were friends after all. Nothing more.
“Of course he didn’t.” Derek shook his head and clicked his tongue. “Our parents are having a party later this month. Asked us to bring dates. I thought he was for sure going to bring you, but last time I saw him, he said he wasn’t interested in you like that.”
Ouch. I bit my tongue. That hurt.
“But …” Derek started with a smile, his cologne becoming stronger as he leaned closer to me. “I’d love to take you out, buy you a nice dress, and bring you to the party as my date.” He brushed his fingers against mine. “Can’t have a pretty girl like you sitting at home, all alone.”
My cheeks warmed at the compliment, and I looked down at the empty space between us. “Oh, no, no, no. I’ll probably be busy that night anyway. Work has really picked up lately, and I’m sure if Charlie doesn’t tell me about it, then he doesn’t want me there anyway …”
“Who cares what he wants?” Derek hummed. “And you can take a day off, can’t you?”
“No, not really.”
Derek leaned back against the wall. “How much do you cost a night?”
“What?!” I exclaimed, my face growing hotter. “I don’t work as a—”
A low chuckle escaped his mouth. “I’m asking how much your job pays you for a day. I’ll give you a week’s worth of pay for you to consider it.”
Eyes widening, I shook my head. “Oh, no. Really, I’m fine. They don’t pay me anyway.”
“They don’t pay you?”
“No, it’s volunteer work.”
“For what?”
“Physical therapy.”
“Why do you volunteer there?”
Charlie had told me to tell him the next time that I spoke to Derek, but I was having way, way, way too many conflicting feelings inside me right now. I didn’t know whether to shut my mouth or agree to go with him just out of spite.
“Hmm?” Derek asked, his fingers brushing against mine again, giving me tingles.
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. “When I was younger, I was hanging from the monkey bars at school, and I, um … had an accident, a brain aneurysm. I fell and hit my head on a metal slide. And I …” Fuck, I’m info-dumping again.
“And I was in physical therapy for years, learning to walk again, so this is my way of … paying them back.”
While I expected a typical player response from Derek—he seemed like the uninterested in women’s stories and only wanted to fuck kind of guy—his eyes softened, and his mouth fell ajar slightly.
“Wow,” he whispered. “That must’ve been so hard for you.”
After shrugging, I glanced back at the pickup area, where my drink and breakfast still hadn’t come out yet. It was only a few bucks, but I felt like I had to stay and talk to Derek as a thank-you for paying for my meal, even after I paid him back.
“Is that why you have a limp?” Derek asked.
My eyes widened, and I snapped my gaze back to him, my cheeks red and flaming and so, so hot. He … he had noticed my limp? I had worked for years to be able to walk, never mind without a limp.
“I’m only asking because Charlie said you had one,” he said, holding his hands up as my chest seemed to tighten in on me, squeezing me so hard that I thought I couldn’t breathe. “I haven’t noticed it though, so I wasn’t sure.”
Maybe that was one of the reasons that Charlie didn’t want to pursue things with me further.
I thought my walk was seamless now. I barely even thought about my accident anymore.
But—I glanced down at my legs—if someone watched me closely, I knew I still didn’t walk as straight as I had before the accident. Now, thanks to this little conversation, I would be hyperaware of it for the rest of my life.
“Oh,” I whispered. “Um, yeah.”
“Who gives a fuck about what he thinks?” Derek said, waving it off like it was nothing.
What does he mean by that? Charlie has confided in him about me, about my accident? He has an opinion on it, on the way I walk maybe? Maybe I was fuck-buddy material, but not girlfriend material. Would he feel embarrassed to be with me like that?
He had never been scared to be seen with me before, but all we had been was friends. When I stood on my toes and tried to kiss him at mini-golf, he didn’t kiss me back. Instead, we just went back to golfing after that stupid kid ruined it.
But maybe that stupid kid had saved me from heartbreak.
“Besides, he’s too busy with all the other girls in his life.”
“What do you mean by all the other girls?” I asked, brows drawn together.
“Nadia.”
“Nadia?” I repeated.
“Hot coffee. Black!” the barista said from behind the counter.
At the sound of his order being called, Derek kicked himself off the wall and stepped toward me.
“Think about the party,” he said, lifting the twenty-dollar bill I had given him and stuffing it between my lips.
He leaned close to me, so his mouth brushed against my ear.
“That’s not the only thing I’ll shove in your pretty little mouth if you come with me. ”