Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dahlia
The cycling studio smells like rubber and serious regret, which is appropriate because I’m deeply questioning why I let Fallon talk me into this.
I push through the exit doors behind her on overcooked spaghetti legs, squinting against the afternoon sun.
My hair is a disaster, sweat-soaked and pasted to my forehead, and my vagina feels like it’s been kicked into oblivion.
The only thing motivating me to move right now is the promise of a pedicure and the knowledge that I’ll get sixty magical minutes with that mother-fucking massage chair.
Fallon is walking ahead of me, pulling her hair loose as she scrolls through her phone looking absolutely flawless and completely unbothered by the fact that we just spent forty-five minutes getting our asses handed to us by a woman named Lexi who has probably never experienced a negative emotion in her life.
I’m about to ask Fallon if she’ll just leave me here and pull the car around for me when I spot a familiar face a few feet ahead of us.
Echo is sitting at a table just outside the entrance with two smoothies in front of him. He’s dressed in all black, as always, with a fitted t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of boots.
It’s annoying that he’s even more pretty in the sunlight.
As soon as he spots us approaching, he stands up and holds a smoothie in my direction. “Mango Mayhem.” He says. “With coconut cream.”
I glare at him as I slowly reach for it.
“How did you—” I start, then think better of it and take a sip of the smoothie instead.
Asking him how he knew we’d be here is just begging for trouble. And who knows what the hell he’ll say in front of Fallon. Echo has no problem dropping truth bombs around me, which would be kind of admirable if it weren’t for the fact that his truth is absolutely psychotic.
He hands Fallon the other smoothie, and she eagerly plucks it from his hand and takes a long sip. “Ooh. And you got me a Strawberry Oasis?” She says, pointing at him. “You. I like.”
Echo laughs, and the deep timbre of his voice reverberates through me, as if it’s on a fucking mission to turn me on.
“You two hungry for real food?” He asks, looking between the two of us.
“Starving.” Fallon says immediately.
“There’s a great sushi place around the corner.” He says, nodding towards it. “My treat.”
Fallon takes another sip of her smoothie and gives Echo an emphatic nod.
Shit. This is bad. The last time I saw him, he told me the next time he got me alone he wasn’t leaving until I admitted what this is. No way in hell am I going to agree to go anywhere with him, even if Fallon is there as the buffer.
“Fal,” I say, grabbing her elbow and stopping her mid-stride.
“Hmm?” She hums, her lips still wrapped around her straw.
“Pedicures,” I say, holding her gaze. “You promised, remember?”
Fallon scrunches up her nose and waves a hand at me. “Oh, we can do that after. Let’s eat first—”
“Or… we can eat after.” I insist, tightening my grip.
Fallon’s eyes flick from my face to the hand on her elbow, and a slow knowing smile spreads across her face.
“Right.” She says slowly, flashing him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, dude. We’ll have to raincheck. Pedicures are calling our name.”
I release her elbow and nod my head at Echo as I take another sip of my smoothie.
Phew. Crisis averted. No alone time, no uncomfortable conversations, no having to look him in the eye while my body remembers things my brain is actively trying to forget.
“Unless, of course,” Fallon adds, flashing a smile at me, “you want to come with us?”
I suck in a breath and break into a fit of coughing as I nearly choke on a chunk of mango.
Fucking Fallon.
I glare at her and I swear to God, I’ve never wanted to strangle my best friend more.
“Sure,” Echo says, fighting a smile. “Why not?”
“You can’t—” I sputter, looking between Fallon and Echo, who both seem to be enjoying this way too fucking much. “We were supposed to—” I say, shaking my head. “Fine. That’s fine.”
The nail salon is three blocks down from our cycling class and small enough that the three of us take up most of the pedicure chairs along the back wall. Fallon picks the seat to my left and immediately dives into conversation with her technician about a show they’ve both been watching.
Echo sits to my right and looks around the salon with the same sharp, assessing attention he gives every room he enters. Which is kind of funny, considering the shop is drenched in pastel pink and is probably the least dangerous place he’s ever stepped foot in.
The technician helping him pulls out the color samples and hands them to him. He looks at them for a second, then turns to me.
“What’s your favorite color, Bambi?”
I furrow my brow. “Why does that matter?”
“Because I need to pick one.” He says, his gaze dragging over my face. “And I don’t make decisions without factoring you in.”
I roll my eyes and try to ignore the way his words make my stomach flutter.
“You can just get clear.”
He tilts his head. “Is clear your favorite color?”
“Of course not.”
“Then that would be pointless.”
I audibly sigh and point to the pastel yellow color that’s been my favorite color ever since I was little. “That one.”
“Buttercream.” He says softly, staring at it like he’s committing it to memory. “Buttercream is it.”
I glare at him. “You’re really going to put that on your toes?”
He smirks. “Of course.”
“Why?”
His eyes lock on mine, and my stomach does that stupid little flutter thing that I hate. “Because I want you, Bambi.” He pauses, licking his lips. “On me. All the time.”
I swallow hard. “That’s not intense at all.”
Echo smiles. “Intense would be carving your name into my fucking chest. This is me showing restraint.”
On my left, Fallon chokes on her smoothie, then tries and fails to disguise it as a cough.
I don’t look at her. I already know what her face is doing, and that so will not help the situation right now. I open my mouth, then immediately slam it shut.
How do I even respond to that?
An hour later, the three of us are walking down the street with our toes freshly polished, and Fallon is checking her phone with that focused frown she gets when something is going on at work.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Yeah, it’s just—” She looks up. “I’m on call today and it looks like they need me there ASAP.”
Fallon is pretty chill about most things, but when it comes to her work as an ER nurse, she takes what she does very seriously. After watching her work her ass off for the last four years, I don’t think it’s just a job for her anymore. It’s a calling.
“I totally get it,” I say, nodding my head. “Do you have time to drop me off first?”
Fallon winces. “Shit, I forgot we rode together.” She says, running a hand through her long blonde hair. “The hospital’s the opposite way, so it’ll add like an hour to my drive. Do you mind hanging out in the waiting room for a bit?”
“How long is a bit?”
“I don’t know, an hour. Maybe two?”
“I can take her.” Echo offers.
Both of our heads swivel in his direction. I got so wrapped up in the conversation with Fallon that I completely forgot he was still standing there with us. I turn back towards Fallon and wave a hand. “Fal, you go ahead. I’ll just grab an Uber or something.”
Echo crosses his muscular arms across his chest, and I try not to notice how biteable his shoulders look in that slutty ass t-shirt he’s wearing. “I said I’ll take you home, Bambi.”
“I’m okay.” I say automatically, flashing him a tight smile. “Really, Uber is fine.”
Echo smirks. “You’d rather pay a stranger than take a free ride from me?”
“Yup.” I retort, emphasizing the ‘p’ with a pop.
“That makes no sense.”
“It doesn’t need to.”
Fallon’s eyes light up as they ping-pong between me and Echo, like she’s watching the most enthralling tennis match she’s ever seen. “You know,” she says, pursing her lips. “I’m not one to blindly agree with a man, but he has a point, D.”
I cut my eyes at the traitor who was formerly known as my best friend. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
Fallon laughs. “I do.” She says, pulling me in for a quick hug. “Love you. Text me when you get home.”
And with that, Fallon trots off, leaving me alone with the one person in the world I shouldn’t be alone with.
“Come on.” Echo says, nodding his head in the direction of his car.
“I told you, I’m Ubering.”
“Bambi.” He says, his voice taking on that faintly amused tone it always does when he thinks I’m being unreasonable.
“Echo.” I reply, mocking him right back.
He stares at me. I stare back. A woman pushing a stroller squeezes past us on the sidewalk, and we both instinctively step aside, then go right back to staring at each other.
“I’m not going to do anything.” He says.
“I didn’t say you were.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
The problem is that the last time I saw you, you pressed your mouth to my ear and told me you weren't leaving until I admitted what this is. The problem is that I’ve been thinking about that every single day since, and I still don’t have an answer, not one I can accept, anyway.
The problem is that you might not plan on doing anything, but I might, and I can’t seem to control myself around you.
“There is no problem.” I reply cooly. “I just prefer Uber.”
“You prefer Uber,” he repeats.
“Yes.”
“To a free ride in a nicer car.”
“Yes.”
“From someone you know.”
“That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?”
His mouth does that thing where it almost becomes a smile but doesn’t quite get there, then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his keys.
“Open the app.” He says, nodding at my phone. “Let’s check the wait time. If it’s over five minutes, you’re coming with me.”
“Why five minutes?”
“Because I think you can keep yourself alive for five minutes, but any longer is asking for trouble.”
I glare at him.
“Five minutes, Bambi. Check.”
I look down at my phone and pull up the app.
Eleven minutes.
Fuck.
“Well?” He asks.
I roll my eyes and slip the phone back into my pocket.
“Fine,” I sigh, “but I’m not making conversation with you.”
The corner of his mouth ticks up. “Okay.”
“And you’re taking me straight home.”
“Of course.”
“And—”
“Bambi.” He says, cutting me off gently. “It’s just a ride.”
I look at him for one more second, searching for the angle and not finding one.
“Fine.” I mutter, falling into step beside him. “But if we get into an accident and you fucking kill me, I’m coming back to haunt your ass.”