Chapter 9 #2
I shot her a disparaged look while handing her the coffee I’d prepared for her just before she arrived. I knew exactly how she liked it: two shots of espresso, frothy milk, and one spoonful of sugar.
“I don’t think I’ll be seeing him again.”
She frowned. “That’s too bad. I had high hopes for Rufus. Well, at least you’ve gotten the first one out of the way. Now you can move onto the next potential love of your life.”
She waggled her eyebrows, no clue that her words caused a tiny twist of sadness to stab at my belly.
I’d already met the love of my life, and look how that had turned out.
Now I’d be happy to meet someone who was reliable, trustworthy, and kind.
I didn’t need excitement, crazy butterflies, or a wildly intense sexual connection.
I just needed stable companionship where love might follow.
“Come now, don’t look so dejected. Give me your phone.”
Picking it up, I handed it over. “Why?”
Margie glanced at the screen. “Unlock it.”
I pressed my thumb to the biometric reader, and she immediately pulled up my dating app. “What are you doing?”
“Finding your next date.”
Nerves seized me. “Margie, I’m not too sure I’m ready to go straight back to it. I need a week maybe before I—”
The doorbell rang, and I sighed because Margie was already speedily tapping away. Instead of trying to wrestle the phone back from her, I went to let Jace in. I knew it was him because he always arrived at the same time.
When I opened the door, he was standing there in ripped black jeans and a pale blue denim jacket with a white T-shirt underneath.
There was something very, very appealing about the combination, and I was momentarily distracted.
When I finally managed to extract myself from a fog of unhelpful lust, I heard a door slamming to my right.
It wasn’t just any slam; it was a pointed slam.
An “I’m super pissed, so I’m going to shut my door aggressively” slam.
I stared at Jace accusingly as he stepped inside. “What did you do?”
“Let me first say this, the two of them were standing outside when I arrived. They obviously planned on ambushing me, so I was well within my rights to stand my ground.”
I shut the door behind him and folded my arms. “Jace,” I repeated. “What did you do?”
He scratched at the stubble on his jaw, then tilted his head with a charming, soft smile that begged me not to get mad.
“Well, the woman, Viola, started saying I needed to move my car and park farther down the street. I tried reasoning with the husband, thinking maybe he would be a little more laid back, but they’re clearly two cheeks on the same arse because he just repeated the same shit his wife said, telling me my car was blocking their sun. ”
“Okay, and then what?”
“Then I might’ve threatened to buy Zara a drum kit for Christmas if they bothered me about parking again.”
“All right, well, that’s not the worst thing you could’ve said,” I allowed.
His flattened lips, and a vaguely guilty expression told me there was more.
“Jace,” I grumbled. “What else?”
“Listen, you were the one who planted the idea in my head, so technically, I’m not entirely at fault.”
“Oh my God, this is going to be bad, isn’t it?” When I saw his lips twitching, it infuriated me because he was clearly finding some part of this humorous. “Out with it, and you’d better not be about to laugh right now.”
He made a concerted effort to flatten his mouth again. “So, I remembered what you said about the complaining being some kind of a sex thing.”
My eyes bugged. “Jace!”
“I started telling them about our old biology teacher, Mr McIntyre, and how he used to wear trousers a size too large with no belt. He’d hitch them up at the start of class, then slowly over the hour, they’d start to slip down until eventually we could all see his crack.”
“Yes, I remember Mr McIntyre. How he never got fired was beyond me.”
“So, in the beginning, we all thought he was just oblivious or too cheap to buy a belt and the right-sized trousers. Then, over time, we realised he did it on purpose and was getting some kind of sick thrill out of a classroom full of teenagers having to look at his backside.”
“Why on earth did my neighbours need to know this story, Jace?” I asked, growing impatient.
“Correlation,” he replied, clasping his hands together.
“I inferred that their complaining might be similar to Mr McIntyre’s loose trousers schtick.
I kindly suggested that if pestering their neighbours was what turned them on, there were role playing groups they could join where they could act out whatever fantasy they liked.
That way, they wouldn’t need to involve the poor, unsuspecting young mother next door in their kink. ”
I stepped back and lowered onto the third step of the stairs, filled with a mixture of mortification, horror, and okay, just a tiny smidge of amusement. Maybe more than a smidge. My hands covered my face as I let what he’d just said sink in, then I stood back up and pointed a finger at him.
“You are the absolute worst!”
When he saw that I was clearly holding in a laugh, his lips began doing their twitching smile again.
“Ah, come on, those two had it coming.”
“I can’t believe …” I trailed off, struggling to hold in a giggle, “That you actually said that. How did they react?”
“The husband started shouting the odds, and the wife looked so embarrassed I thought she might keel over. Then the husband told me I was disgusting and vile to even suggest such a thing before they both stormed back into their house.”
Wow. Just wow. I wasn’t sure if Jace’s actions were going to make Viola and Gary back off for good or if they would become much, much worse. It could go either way.
“Admit it, it’s funny,” Jace cajoled as he stepped closer and poked me in the stomach.
I batted his hand away. “I will not.”
“Go on, let it out, baby. I love your laugh.”
Battling down my amusement, I managed to plaster on a blank expression. “You’re not as hilarious as you think you are.”
“It was pretty funny,” came another voice, and I realised Margie was standing in the kitchen doorway watching us. She raised her hands. “Sorry for eavesdropping, but Jace is right. Your neighbours had it coming.”
I scowled at her before moving away from Jace and going to make him his morning coffee. I always made it for him now, and he always drank it. I didn’t explore too deeply why that pleased me.
Quietly handing him the reusable mug, which might as well belong to him at this point, I picked up my phone and saw that Margie had been busy sending messages to five different men while I’d been dealing with Jace.
Not only that, three of the five had already responded.
I looked to her, wide-eyed, and she shot me a little grin and a wink that said, Don’t thank me.
I did not have the headspace to chat with five different potential suitors. Seriously, between her and Jace, everyone was pissing me off this morning.
Setting my phone down, I exhaled heavily for what felt like the millionth time in the last ten minutes before I finally was calm enough to address Jace. “If my neighbours ever approach you again, can you please just not insinuate that they’re sexual deviants?”
He smiled widely, and I forgot how much he loved to challenge me. It was like the more uptight I became, the more he wanted to push my buttons.
“I can’t make any promises.”
“Don’t stress about it,” Margie put in. “Those two needed putting in their place, and you’re far too polite to do it.”
“Thank you, Margie,” Jace said, and they grinned at one another while tapping their coffee mugs together in a cheers.
“Judas,” I complained, narrowing my gaze at my friend, but Margie only chuckled, unbothered. “I’m going to check on Zara,” I said and left the room. There was only so much I could take of my ex-husband and my best friend getting along so well.
***
Later that morning, things got worse when I ran into Dean at the office.
Normally, our paths didn’t cross as I was a developer, and he worked with the client relations team.
It was true that I hadn’t had a boyfriend since my divorce, nor had I dated, but I did have one ill-advised encounter with a colleague after the annual Christmas party.
The annoying thing about it was that I didn’t even like Dean.
I mean, he was conventionally attractive, but he was also arrogant and bossy.
I’d just signed my divorce papers that week and was feeling all over the place emotionally.
So, when I’d had a little too much to drink at the party, and Dean had offered to share a taxi back to our respective houses since they were on the same route, I’d made the terrible mistake of kissing him.
And yes, I’d been the one to make the first move.
I’d just been so distraught about my marriage ending, and I’d needed Jace not to be the last man I’d kissed.
Thankfully, a kiss was as far as it went, but ever since then, Dean acted like I had some secret crush on him.
I suspected he liked to tell our other coworkers that I was obsessed with him just to boost his own ego.
What he didn’t tell them was that a few weeks after the party, he’d asked me out, and I’d declined.
He’d responded by saying it was probably for the best since he didn’t need to be saddling himself with a single mother.
So, yeah, bullet dodged. The only downside was I sometimes ran into him at the office. Also, no one at work knew who my ex-husband was. I’d always managed to keep that information private to avoid people trying to befriend me just to get close to Jace and his band members.
I was heading out to grab some lunch when Dean entered the lobby.
“Shannon, long time, no see. How has everything been going with the site for our new German clients?”
“The build is running smoothly so far,” I replied.