Chapter 10 Larissa
LARISSA
Eleven miles,” lexi deadpanned.
“Yup,” I said, filling ketchup bottles.
“I’d be so damn pissed,” she said, shaking her head over her sugar packets. “Nobody forces me to exercise.”
“I don’t know, it was kind of fun, to be honest.”
She made a face. “Fun how? You just told me about grape blood water, snake entrails, and the restroom from a Saw movie. It sounds like a ritualistic sacrifice, not a fun day out.”
I laughed. “Chris is nice. I don’t mind hanging out with him.”
“Ha. I bet. So how’d you get out of the woods?”
“In one piece. I came out sunburned, wearing his shirt.”
She paused with her hand on a sugar jar. “He gave you his shirt?”
“Yup,” I said, starting on the salt and pepper shakers.
“What was he wearing?”
I shrugged. “Nothing. My backpack so I wouldn’t have to carry it.”
She shook her head. “I find that so attractive,” she said. “Acts of chivalry in survival situations. That and when a man can chop vegetables super fast. It just really does it for me.”
“Hmm. I like when a guy has big hands and he holds a small baby animal,” I said.
“When a guy can build a house. Or back up a semi.”
“Guys who can work on cars,” I said. “That moment when they slide out from under it on the thing with the wheels.”
“That’s a gooood one. Once I fucked a guy because he had marionettes. You know, the puppets with the strings?”
I stopped to gawk at her.
“What? It was hot,” she said. “And it’s better than fucking him for no reason at all. And the finger dexterity…” She made a chef’s kiss gesture.
I shook my head, laughing.
“I love it when a guy has an obscure hobby,” she said. “Speaking of jobs, I got a new side hustle for you.”
“Oh, what?”
“Signing up for class-action lawsuits.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Really?”
“Yeah, there’s a website and everything. You just look for what products you’ve used and sign up. A pickle lawsuit just paid my car payment.”
I laughed.
“I’m not kidding,” she said, shoving Splenda into a caddy.
“Okay, I’ll check it out. I need everything I can get.”
My phone rang and I set my box of salt down and answered. It was Mike.
“Hey,” I said.
“Where you at?”
“Work still,” I said, wiping the shakers down with a rag.
“So the cabin trip in a few weeks… Tony wants me to go up a couple days early.”
“Oh,” I said. “For what?”
“Repairs. He wants the water heater replaced and the doorbell isn’t working I guess.”
“I can’t take the extra days off work, and I don’t think my car—”
“No, no, Chris can take you. He has to work too.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I already asked him. Carpool up with him and then you come home with me.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Dinner tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
“All right. I’ll let you go. I love you.”
I froze. He’d never said that to me before. I didn’t know what to say back.
“Okay… thanks,” I said. And I hung up.
Lexi eyed me. “Did he just tell you he loves you?”
I turned stiffly. “Yeah.”
“And you said thanks…”
“Why would he just throw that at me over the phone?” I said. I put my hands on my cheeks. “Oh God. That was so awkward.”
“Do you?” she asked.
“Do I what?”
“Love him?”
“I don’t know! It’s only been four months.”
“Girl…”
I grimaced. “Ugh. What should I do?”
“Call him back?”
“And say what? I don’t want to tell him that—”
“Then tell him why you don’t want to tell him that.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
It’s not that I didn’t love him. I think I did? Or I was on my way to loving him, I just wasn’t all the way there yet. And I wasn’t going to say it if I didn’t mean it.
I felt instantly drained. Why on the phone while I was at work? I blew a breath out and went back to my shakers, cringing over it.
“A long car ride with Chris, huh?” Lexi said, adding Stevia to the caddies. “So what does he look like with his shirt off? Describe it to me like I’m blind.”
“Oh, stop,” I muttered.
“That man’s body looks better every time I see him. Has he been working out with Mike?”
“Yeah, they hang out a lot. No, I still don’t want to smash.”
A text came through. I had a small moment of panic thinking it was Mike. I pulled my phone out and practically slumped from relief.
Chris: Woofarine tried to drag a possum through the back door. It was playing dead.
I called him.
“Where did he find a possum?” I said instead of hello. “You have possums in your yard?”
“Apparently. It was bigger than he was and terrified.”
“Oh my God, I’m laughing by the dish pit.”
He chuckled.
“Hiiii, Chris,” Lexi called. Then she gave me a look I chose to ignore and carried her sugar caddy tray back out front.
I leaned on the counter. “Lexi says hi. So, Mike says you’re driving me to the cabin?”
“Yeah. I have to work until the last minute.”
I nodded like he could see me.
“Am I taking Woofarine today?” I asked.
“If you can. I’m going to the gym with Mike later. I won’t be home. Just go in.”
“Okay. I have to get you your shirt back. I need to wash it.”
“Whenever.”
There was a tiny moment where neither of us said anything.
I wondered if he knew what Mike had just told me. Did Mike hang up with me and call his best friend and tell him? Ask him for advice?
If he did, Chris didn’t let on.
“I’ll let you go,” Chris said.
“Okay. Right. Bye.”
We hung up and I stood there, chewing on the side of my thumb.
Lexi spoke from behind me and scared the crap out of me. “Admit it, you sniffed his shirt.”
I spun with a hand on my chest. “Lexi—STOP.”
“I will not stop.”
I drew in a long, steadying breath.
“Finish your side work so we can leave,” I said, giving her my back so I could be done with my salt and pepper shakers and go home.
Thankfully she dropped it.
That information could not be tortured out of me. Also, yes. I did smell the shirt—but only because I had to breathe when I took it off. It happened on accident.
But I did like the way it smelled.
And you couldn’t torture that out of me either.