Chapter 9
I checked my messenger bag to make sure I’d grabbed the vital stuff. Cell phone? Check. Earbuds? Check. Wallet? Check. Anything else could wait until I returned to work the next day. Turning off my office light, I stepped into the hallway and immediately collided with someone.
Gasping and clutching my chest, I stepped back to offer an apology, but seeing the unbridled fury in Bobby’s eyes caused the words to die on my lips.
Suddenly, our run-in didn’t feel like an accident.
Had Bobby been waiting for me in the hallway?
And if so, I suspected I knew the reason. Fuck me. Couldn’t I get just one break?
“How do you know Archer?” Bobby’s voice was as hostile as his expression. “Or should I ask, how well do you know him?”
I sighed. “Well, my answer to both is the same.”
Not expanding on my response was a form of antagonism best kept in my arsenal for another day, especially with the borderline manic gaze boring holes in my skull.
A muscle in Bobby’s cheek spasmed, pulling his mouth up on one side to reveal tightly clenched teeth.
I blew out a breath and took pity on him before something erupted or he choked the life out of me.
“I don’t know Archer at all. I just met him this morning.” I raised both hands up with my palms out in front of me. “I’m no threat to your relationship with him, whatever that is.”
“We fucked for hours last night. Barely slept. That’s what Archer is to me.”
“Okay,” I said, slowly backing down the hallway. “It’s none of my business, but more power to you. The guy does absolutely nothing for me.”
An image of Ray’s blissful expression while eating fried chicken sprang to mind.
What I wouldn’t give to put that look on his face and evoke those moans from his lips.
Now, Ray did it for me, and I’d damn near sell my soul for him to do whatever the hell he wanted to me.
Distracted by the acknowledgment, I tripped over my own two feet in my typical clumsy fashion.
I nearly fell to the ground, which would’ve given Bobby too much of an advantage.
I righted myself physically and emotionally.
We weren’t starring in a horror film, and Bobby wasn’t going to kill me.
“Besides, I’m already seeing someone,” I blurted.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Bobby stalked forward as I continued my backward retreat. “Who? I’ve never heard you mention a boyfriend.”
Alarm pulsed through my body, urging me to pivot and run, but I remained calm.
Mostly because I needed my job, but I also didn’t trust the universe to show me an ounce of kindness, and I didn’t want to end up in the ER.
“It’s t-too new to t-t-talk about,” I stammered.
Clearing my throat, I searched for something else to say that would ease Bobby’s mind.
“I don’t want to jinx anything or make a bigger fool of myself than I already have. ”
The last part made Bobby smile, which softened his expression from a potential threat to the snarky massage therapist I’d met on my first day.
“You do have an uncanny way about you,” Bobby said.
“Your kind of chaos would be sweet and endearing to the right person. I thought that person might be me when you first got hired, but it didn’t take me long to realize we wouldn’t be a good fit. ”
His words shouldn’t have hurt my feelings, considering I’d cast him as the villain in a horror film just moments prior. But they did. Everyone, even this weirdo, found me lacking. When would I ever be enough?
Bobby tipped his head as if reconsidering something, and I worried he’d veered back into jealous territory. Then he smiled brightly and said, “Archer isn’t a good match for you either. He’d want someone with a bit more…prowess.”
“Definitely,” I agreed, clutching that olive branch as if my life depended on it. My phone chimed with an incoming text, and I bit back a sigh of relief. “That’s probably my ride.” Fishing the phone out of my messenger bag, I checked the screen.
Emma: Here
“Yep. My best friend is here. Gotta go.”
I’d loved Emma Cortez from the moment we met in third grade, when her family moved to Georgia from Puerto Rico. We’d been inseparable ever since, so this wasn’t the first time Emma had ridden to my rescue, nor would it likely be the last.
Bobby held my gaze for a few seconds before he nodded. “Don’t want to keep them waiting.”
“See you tomorrow.”
“Bye, Kit.”
I pivoted and walked down the corridor as calmly as I could, feeling Bobby’s intense stare on my back the entire time.
Once I turned the corner, I bolted for the front door and to the safety I’d always found in Emma.
She’d parked her sleek, red Mazda 3 Turbo parallel with the curb and had left the engine running, which any smart Georgian would do on a hot day in May.
I cast one last glance over my shoulder and sighed in relief when Bobby was nowhere in sight.
Reaching the car, I yanked on the door handle, but it was locked.
I ducked my head and looked at Emma through the lightly tinted window.
“Open up. Hurry.” I pulled on the door handle again to stress the urgency, but Emma just lowered her sunglasses to stare at me as if I had lost my mind.
Glancing over my shoulder, I caught Bobby watching us from the doorway.
Turning frantic eyes back on my best friend, I smacked my hand against the window and mouthed, “Let me in! Please!”
Emma rolled her dark eyes and hit the switch to unlock the door.
I dove into the passenger seat and shouted for Emma to drive before I’d even shut the door.
“What the—”
“Go! Go! Go!”
Emma hit the gas pedal hard enough to launch her car forward like a rocket. Since my ass wasn’t squarely in the seat yet, the momentum threw me backward and sideways, crashing me into the hard console between us and cracking my head on her closed moonroof. “Oh my god. Are you—”
“Keep driving!” I shouted when she eased up on the gas. I righted myself in the seat and yanked the seat belt strap across my chest and buckled myself in. “That was too close.”
“What was too close?” Emma asked as she sped toward the guard shack with the dropped arm barrier preventing our escape.
“Slow down,” I urged, fearful she intended to plow right through it.
“Which is it? Speed up or slow down?” Emma slammed on the brakes and fishtailed to a stop with the nose of the car just inches from the yellow arm.
The slack-mouthed guard stared at her in disbelief and gestured for her to roll down the window. When Emma complied, he glowered at her and sternly asked, “What seems to be the problem here, ma’am?”
“He is,” Emma said, pointing at me. “He came running from the building like Satan himself was on his heels and yelled for me to floor it.”
I sank lower in the seat, worrying this guard would report the incident to Archer, Ray, or both.
I’d made an absolute fool of myself and had sucked Emma into the vortex of fuckery with me.
I had to think fast to come up with an excuse as to why we needed to leave in a hurry.
The guard’s brow went up, indicating he was waiting for me to answer.
“I have a case of explosive diarrhea!” I blurted.
What the fuck? I couldn’t take it back, so I might as well sell it.
Groaning, I covered my stomach and leaned forward as if seized by a vicious stomach cramp.
“Must’ve been something I ate at lunch.” I sucked in a sharp breath and moaned pitifully. “Here it comes again.”
“Oh man,” the guard said. “Been there before, and it sucks.” He hit the button inside the shack and raised the barrier. “Hope you feel better.” To Emma, he said, “Try to maintain a reasonable speed, okay?”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not stuck with Butt Vesuvius. Hold on, mi amor.” Emma gunned the car forward as soon as the barrier was high enough. “Okay, what’s really going on?”
“It’s a long story,” I said.
Emma reached over and patted my leg. “I’ve got nothing but time for you, baby doll.”
“Well, you know how my day started…”
“You backed into a car illegally parked across from your driveway, and then dickface showed up at your work and beat sweet Sadie to death with a ball bat,” Emma said.
“Close. It was a crowbar.”
“Okay, a crowbar,” Emma said. “But then some sexy stud muffin tackled him into the pool after dickbreath took a swing at him with said crowbar.”
“Yes, and—” I stopped when my brain caught on to what she said.
“I never mentioned a sexy stud muffin.” I also hadn’t told Emma that Ray, today’s hero, was also Ray, last month’s hookup zero, because I wasn’t sure how she would’ve responded.
Emma probably would’ve come to Silver Maple during her lunch break and given Ray a piece of her mind for hurting my feelings.
Emma tilted her head back and laughed gleefully. “I could tell by the tone of your voice when you called and asked for a ride. You sounded mesmerized and horny.”
“Did not.”
“Did too,” Emma said.
“Maybe a little.”
Emma smiled wickedly. “What’s his name? Tell me all about him.”
So I did, and was careful not to leave out a single detail because my goddess would know it.
For her part, Emma stayed quiet until I said, “And that was that. Ray walked away without a backward glance. He said that he’d see me around, but I have a feeling he’s going to do everything in his power to avoid me. ”
“I’m upset that he wasn’t honest with you about why he canceled your hookup plans, but at least he didn’t ghost you,” Emma said. “And he’d wanted to come clean and apologize. That shows good character.” She sighed as she covered her heart. “He sounds like a poor, lost lamb.”
“No one on Earth would describe Ray in those terms. He’s so big, strong, and muscular. Capable and brave.” He was all the things I’d never be, that was for sure.