4. Jack
4
JACK
A blue metallic flash against the ground catches my eye.
“Jesus H.,” I groan, staring at the phone lying along the edge of the driveway. “Dumb bunny.”
I pick the phone up and inspect it, shaking my head. For a kid always worried about money, Bunny sure doesn’t do a great job keeping tabs on things that are expensive to replace. By some minor miracle, the phone doesn’t look any worse for wear except for a couple of scuffs on the case.
I think back. He said something about worrying that he lost my key and being relieved when he found it again. “I only gave you that key, what — a day or so ago?” I asked him. “How could you have lost it already?”
He looked embarrassed and a little nervous. “Uh, I’m not the best at keeping track of stuff,” he mumbled. I just looked at him, keeping my face expressionless. Even though I know he’s flighty, I was sure he was just screwing with me to see if he could get a rise out of me.
Apparently he wasn’t. I planned to leave early this morning so I could treat myself to a breakfast burrito at the food truck along my route to work. So much for that.
My harsh sigh is loud enough to spook the doe picking her way along the treeline at the edge of the property. Her head jerks up, ears alert and body tense. “It’s fine, pretty girl,” I tell her. “I’m not pissed-off at you .” She doesn’t believe me, flipping the white flag of her tail high and leaping off into the woods.
Wonder if he has one of those locator apps installed — he damn well should, given how often he apparently leaves his shit behind. I tap the screen to turn it on. It prompts me to enter a password. I key in the same useless one I used on his tablet that first night: One-two-three-four.
His home screen pops up and I sigh. OK, so he needs a biometric lock on his phone. I take a few minutes to look through his apps and settings. As I suspected, he doesn’t have a device locator on it. I’ll have to add one of those for him, too. I also realize that, even though we’ve been texting, he doesn’t have me in his contacts yet. Huh.
With a shake of my head, I hop into my truck, dropping his phone into the cupholder before rumbling down the long driveway. As I drive, my mind drifts back to what Bunny asked me last night in the kitchen. What are we ?
“Fuck if I know,” I mutter out loud. He keeps saying stuff like he doesn’t think I like him. Probably projecting. I mean, he laid it out pretty clearly. He told his friend or coworker or whoever that we were “together,” whatever the fuck that means, and followed that up with the declaration that we’re not boyfriends.
That doesn’t leave a lot of possibilities. Friends with benefits, I guess? I’m a little fuzzy on how he feels about the friends part of that, but it’s clear he’s as into the benefits as I am.
I still can’t puzzle out why he’s into me, specifically. Or, hell — maybe he isn’t. I frown at the thought, but it’s a clear possibility. With his youth and inexperience, he’s only just discovering what he’s into. And I just happened to be at the bottom when he tumbled down this particular kinky rabbit hole.
I sigh. I can handle being friends with benefits, but I have to admit that having him under my roof is risky. I just hope I haven’t fallen for him by the time he looks around, realizes there are other guys besides me who can give him what he needs, and vanishes from my life.
I ’m a little taken aback at how busy the parking lot is when I get to Bean-Go. I luck out when I see taillights and quickly turn into a spot right in front of the entrance. A guy in a black sports car on the other side of the car that just pulled out lays on his horn, and I notice he has his blinker on. He fumes as he drives past, flipping me the bird.
I promptly return the gesture. “Tough shit, jerkoff,” I mutter.
The coffee shop has windows that stretch nearly its entire length. I can easily see Bunny behind the counter, alongside a girl with long pink hair. It’s just the two of them back there. I take a quick count: Fourteen customers waiting in line, plus a couple more people off to the side adding sugar or whatever to their cups.
Sheesh. I sure as shit couldn’t do that job. People get under my skin at the best of times. I watch him bouncing back and forth between the front counter with the register and a back wall with carafes and a big espresso machine. I’m sure he and pink hair are going to collide at least half a dozen times, but they’ve got a kind of choreography between them.
It’s weirdly mesmerizing to watch Bunny work. He’s got a smile on his face and is chatting with customers while moving a mile a minute. I wish I could hear what he’s saying, especially when he makes a gray-haired guy in a plaid shirt crack up. At his laughter, Bunny’s grin widens, and he trades fist-bumps with the guy before handing him a cup.
Something like respect but… brighter rises in my chest. Pride? That doesn’t make any sense.
I dismiss the thought, startled when I realize how long I’ve been sitting here. I need to hurry up and get his phone to him so I can get going. The coffee shop is a good ten-minute detour off my regular route. I bust balls about tardiness with enough regularity that it wouldn’t be a good look for me to be sailing into work at a quarter-past.
M ost people don’t pay attention when I walk in. I groan inwardly, though, when I realize that the dick who flipped me off is at the front of the line. Just my fucking luck.
When he sees me, Bunny’s eyebrows draw together, coming to a point of surprise and concern in the middle of his forehead. When I hold his phone up without a word, his eyes fly wide. He makes a grab for his back pocket, like he needs to confirm what his eyes are already telling him.
He cringes. “I’m sorry. What —where did I leave it?” he calls, voice loud enough to carry over the noise of the place.
I smirk as I cut around the side to bypass the line so I can give it back to him. “Do you really want to know?”
When I speak, the pink-haired girl turns, noticing me for the first time. She cocks her head, blatantly appraising me as I approach the counter and hand the phone over Bunny. He pockets it immediately, shamefaced. “Thank you. I’m so sorry —I don’t know how I lost it,” he says in a low voice.
“Hey, you fucking neanderthal —there’s a line . You already cut me off once in the parking lot —you’re not gonna do it again.” I turn and I roll my eyes at the guy from the parking lot.
“Settle down, dipshit,” I say derisively. His face screws up into a sort of pissy squint as he flushes red with anger. “I’m not in line.I’m returning his phone. You’ll be back in your midlife-crisis-mobile in a minute.”
Somebody else in line snickers, and the loudmouth’s nostrils flare. He’s got the nerve to square his shoulders and clench his fists. “Fucking cretin,” he snaps. “You want to take this outside?”
Too bad for him, this neanderthal has already done his good deed for the day. I’m about to tear him a new one. I can’t wait .
Bunny beats me to it.
“Dude, settle down!” he snaps. I struggle to keep my surprise from showing on my face. He’s addressing the jerkoff in a tone I’ve never heard before. “He’s not taking your spot in line. He just came here to bring me my phone.”
By now, everybody else in the place is quiet as this little drama plays out. “You can stop being a hothead and give me your order, or else get out of here,” he says in the same unfamiliarly authoritative tone. “It’s your call. What’ll it be?” That same strange feeling as when I was in my truck earlier rises in my chest. It’s definitely pride. Huh.
The guy takes a half-step in Bunny’s direction and says with a sneer, “You know what? I will leave. I’m not taking attitude from a skinny loser like you.”
“Watch your mouth,” I snarl. I think he forgot about me for a second, because he jumps a little.
“What the fuck do you care, caveman? This is between me and this little twerp now.”
Bunny scowls hard and folds his arms. “Get. Out. I don’t know who pissed in your cereal this morning and I don’t care. You’re being disruptive and disrespectful to all the other customers here.”
The jerkoff grumbles under his breath, but I can see defeat on his face. Good — maybe I’ll get to work on time after all.