Chapter 5 - Rhea
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Rhea
That night, my dreams were wild and full of fantasies of Calder. By the time I woke up to my alarm, I was somewhat out of breath and in need of a cold shower. With my mind still reeling, I hurried to get ready for work.
It was hard to go back to the normal world after such an incredible date, and especially after that kiss. It felt like leaving magic behind after just discovering it. Still, I had a brand-new mortgage to pay and groceries to buy, and that meant another day on the grind.
I left the house in a rush after realizing that traffic might make me a few minutes late, which wasn’t a great look for a manager.
But as soon as I opened the door, I was met by a vision. Calder, Beck, and Ash were on my porch, working on the floorboard that I’d given up on. Each was wearing a pair of jeans, and none of them had a shirt on. I immediately gasped as my breath caught in my throat at the sight.
There was a very slight sheen of sweat on their skin as they worked, and I was sure I had never seen that much lean muscle in my life.
“Uhm, hello?” I finally said, my voice coming out as more of a squeak than I intended. “What’re you guys doing here?”
They all looked up at the same time, Calder and Beck crouching and Ash standing up. Calder wiped at his brow with the back of his arm, while Beck smiled brightly at me. I could feel my ears heating up under their gaze.
“We have the day off,” Beck answered, running a hand through his glorious hair. “Thought we could help with this thing. It seems…”
He glanced at Calder. “That it might be a bit of a tripping hazard for some people.”
Calder grumbled something under his breath, and I held back a giggle.
“You really want to spend your day off… Working?” I finally asked, though I didn’t actually want to complain. It would have been nice to take a seat on the porch chair to simply watch them go at it.
“Ah, it won’t take long,” Calder pointed out. “We’re almost done, actually. Thought we might look around and see if there’s anything else we can help with after.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say no to that,” I laughed, thinking of the various little repair jobs that the house still needed.
I’d pretended that they didn’t exist, hoping that they wouldn’t cause any serious problems in the future.
Frankly, having three absolute beasts of men fixing it all for me hadn’t been a solution I would have thought of, but it was one I was all for.
“Great,” Beck grinned, getting up from where he was crouched and taking a step closer to me. I felt my heart flutter and my pulse race, and I was instantly transfixed. I had to swallow the sheer heat that threatened to overwhelm me.
Beck seemed aware of the effect he had on me. He crossed his arms, which flexed his muscles, and he stood with his shoulders wide and a sly look on his face.
“Are you going to stay for the entertainment?” He asked as he studied my outfit, something which made me somewhat self-conscious. I was suddenly very aware of the fact that my store uniform, nametag and all, wasn’t exactly the sexiest outfit on the planet.
It also reminded me, however, that I was already going to be late, and standing here drinking in the situation wasn’t going to make that any better. I checked my phone and my heart dropped at the realization that people were likely going to be waiting for me to open far before I arrived.
“No, uh, I…” I started, getting caught up in Beck’s eyes for a moment before I collected my thoughts. “I have to get to work, actually.”
“Well that sucks,” Beck admitted with a deep, melodramatic sigh. “But I’m still seeing you for our date tonight, right?”
I glanced over his shoulder, and noticed the jealousy coming from both Calder and Ash’s glares immediately. They looked away when they realized I was watching them, but I’d already seen it.
“Bowling alley, wasn’t it?” I asked, which caused Calder to scoff. Ash rolled his eyes. Beck, however, was still smiling.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Trust me, it’ll be better than any date you’ve ever been on; and you might just decide to cancel the next one.”
“Please,” Ash interrupted. “Bowling alley? She’s not a middle school child.”
“You’re welcome to try and beat that dinner,” Calder added, winking at me. “But I doubt that you could.”
“Guys,” I insisted, maneuvering my way past them toward the porch steps. “I really have to go. We’ll see who does it best after tonight, though, I’m sure.”
“It’ll be me,” all three of them said simultaneously, and I looked over my shoulder for a second to laugh.
“Maybe,” I said slyly. “It could be none of you.”
With that line, I hurried down the steps and to my car, which was waiting for me on the driveway. I could still hear them bantering about who would win my heart, and I was pretty surprised at how competitive they were about it.
When I got into the car, I had to sit for a moment to take a deep breath. The idea of having to choose between them, as well as knowing I had the opportunity to even do so; well, it was pretty daunting. At the same time, it was probably the most exciting thing that had happened in my entire life.
For now, though, it was time to head to the mall and spend my day doing mind-numbing work. I caught another glimpse of the three guys as I pulled out of the driveway, and a pleasant shiver ran down my spine.
Get it together, I warned myself as I headed down the street.
For a second, I found myself kind of wishing there would be another emergency at the mall that the firemen were needed for.
That was a bit dark, sure, but maybe a little fire would happen somewhere that hurt nobody, and I’d have the chance to see them work again.
At the same time, maybe it was a good thing to be away from them for a few hours, focusing on something else. I could clear my head before my date with Beck.
But the kiss, I thought as I turned onto a main road and stopped at a traffic light. Was that not enough to choose Calder?
I remembered how electric it had been, how my whole body had responded to him. It was the kind of feeling I could chase every day and never get bored of. I craved more of it even now, and it was difficult to think about anything else.
As I kept driving, my mind kept drifting off to the men and the predicament that I was in. By the time I’d parked in my usual spot at the mall, I had to take a pause again to get my head in the game.
I checked my phone; I was about five minutes late. Not as bad as I had initially thought, but still an issue. Usually, I got to work early, and I was sure that people would have questions. I didn’t exactly want to tell them the truth, but I had no idea what story I could tell.
“I was just about to call you.” Jenny, one of the cashiers, stood in front of the locked doors at the shoe store, looking pretty concerned. She was the only one there; which was a relief. The others would probably arrive in the next fifteen minutes, but by then, I would be finished opening up.
“Guess I still need to get used to traffic from my new place,” I answered as I began unlocking the doors. “Sorry for making you wait.”
Inside, I clocked in before starting my morning duties.
It was a set rhythm; a series of practiced habits that I could do with my eyes closed at this point.
In fact, that was the case for the rest of my job, too.
The best description of it was a word that I’d read once in an old British novel; humdrum.
I did everything I was supposed to, but the whole time, I couldn’t get Calder, Beck, and Ash out of my head.
I kept getting flashes of them in my mind; the way the muscles in their shoulders moved, the way Beck’s smile and Ash’s smolder melted my knees, and that kiss.
That kiss that had rocked my world and lived on in my dreams.
“Hey, Rhea,” Jenny appeared in my peripheral vision, and I turned toward her, pretending that I wasn’t just completely zoned out. “You going for lunch?”
She glanced up at the breakroom clock that still hung on only one unstable screw since the incident. It was ten minutes past the time that I usually took my break. I had barely even noticed time passing all morning, and I barely remembered half of what I had done until now.
“Oh, uh, yeah,” I said awkwardly, adding a quick shrug. “Just had a few things to check. You?”
“Mm,” Jenny sighed, and I waited for her to launch into a venting session. Luckily for me, she didn’t. “I’m supposed to go see Aaron’s mom, but I don’t want to. I’m pretty sure she’s going to complain about the wedding flowers again.”
“Better you than me,” I teased, before clocking out and leaving for lunch. I hadn’t thought about what I wanted, but I settled for a quick sandwich in the food court. My usual spot was taken, but I managed to squeeze into a table close to the railings looking down over the first floor.
Halfway through my sandwich, I heard a familiar voice from beside me. “Oh, I thought it was you! You work around here?”
I looked up to see Jackie, who quickly invited herself to sit down across the table from me, with a huge bag of dog food right next to her. She glanced at my nametag and the brand right above it.
“Oh, shoes!” she said, as if she’d just solved a puzzle. “I could never afford that place myself, but I’ve seen some nice pairs through the window.”
“Yeah, even with the employee discount, they’re too much for me,” I joked in return, and we both laughed. It was a sincere sound, something that immediately made me comfortable. “That’s a lot of food. You have twelve dogs or something?”
“Four,” Jackie replied with an exasperated smile.
“But they do eat a lot for their size, I’ll be honest. Makes sense, of course, they’re all rescues.
This is the only food they like. Organic, healthy, easy to chew for the ones that don’t have teeth.
But you probably aren’t very interested in a whole presentation about it. Tell me. How are you settling in?”
I fiddled with the second half of my sandwich, wondering how much I could tell her. She hasn’t done anything to make me think I couldn’t trust her this far, and her advice had been… Fairly helpful. There was no one else I could really talk to about the guys, anyway.
“Well, I went on that date with Calder, and it went great,” I started, and I noticed Jackie’s eyes widen. “The next one is with Beck. I feel a little bad, because… I mean, Calder’s amazing.”
“Oh, to be in that predicament,” Jackie lamented, leaning back in her seat. “Honestly, it makes me think of my younger days, before I had the ball and chain and the kids and the house… You know, when I was wild and free.”
I could hear a bittersweet tone in her voice, even though I was sure she was joking.
“Yeah?” I prompted anyway, curious to know more about this sweet lady’s past. Maybe she actually did do some crazy things.
“Absolutely,” Jackie insisted with a firm nod.
“Just after high school, there was a summer filled with boys. Well, there were only two, but let me tell you, it was definitely the time of my life. Three months of having fun and partying, and after, I just went off to college like nothing happened. Of course, I did eventually have to drop out, but life likes to take us on a ride, doesn’t it? ”
I raised an eyebrow. It was tough to imagine Jackie as she was now going out and partying with multiple men without a care in the world. “So, you think I should go for it?”
“Why not?” she shrugged, before offering me a wink. “What’s the worst that could happen? You have a crazy story to tell twenty years from now? I think that’s a price worth paying, isn’t it?”
I had to admit that she had a point there. Maybe I was overthinking all of this. It’s possible that nothing would come from any of the dates. It was also possible that I’d fall head over heels for all three and everything would end in flames. But I wouldn’t know unless I let things happen.
“Anyone ever tell you you’re really wise?” I teased Jackie, and she laughed again, this time holding her hand over her stomach.
“You’d be the first,” she answered. “But I do appreciate it. Anyway, I’m glad life is interesting for you, at least. I’ll let you get back to your lunch.”
She tapped her hand on the table and got up to leave. I waved and nodded, and ended up staring at my sandwich with a head full of thoughts and a heart full of desire.
That evening after work, I had another near-panic attack trying to find something to wear.
I couldn’t do the kind of formal that I had for the dinner with Calder.
I had to look effortlessly casual, but not too casual.
Eventually, I settled on a relatively new pair of jeans, and a floaty peach top that sat just right.
This time, I was a little late, but I figured that Beck would be the forgiving type. I bounced down the stairs and to the door, where I stopped to fix my hair one last time before I opened it.
To my surprise, it wasn’t Beck that stood on the porch, but Ash. He was wearing jeans and a black leather jacket, and he had a motorcycle helmet in his hand.
“Hey, Rhea,” he said, one corner of his mouth lifted. “You look beautiful.”