15. CHAPTER 15 #2
“Ah, yeah…” I slide open the back of my phone case and take out the hundred dollar bill Tek gave me on my first day. “Can you hold them for me?”
“There’s no refunds, but I’m not a storage center either. If you’re not here by the end of the week I’ll put them back up for sale.”
I agree to her terms, and back out of the store where the day doesn't feel so cold anymore.
I’ll order a pair of boots.
I’ll grab a bunch of winter socks and a couple pairs of sweats from Watersons’.
I’ll buy a cooler and stock it with milk, cheese, and meat.
I’ll go out on my own more. I’ll take the bus to the surrounding towns and I’ll go to the bar after work because it’s not pathetic to do things on your own.
I will make a good home here, and that starts right now when I ask my boss if I can borrow his van to—
With my hand on the door of Teken Ink, I’m frozen as I look inside. Petite and brunette, a woman stands pressed up against Tek’s chest with her arms draped around his neck as she gazes up into his eyes.
My stomach sinks, but what right do I have to say anything about it? I gave him an in, I literally laid myself out on a platter, and he didn't take a single bite.
Pushing on through, the sound of the bell has both their heads turning towards me.
The woman’s short haircut and thick bangs swing around her face before it lights up with a beautiful smile.
Her hands fall away from Tek and she steps towards me like she knows exactly who I am.
But before she can say a word, another voice from off to the side says, “Fuck off. That’s Carey, isn’t it? ”
“You know it is.” The woman tells him, and the gentleness of her voice disarms me.
I look at Tek who's walking towards the break room. “They’re friends of your brothers,” he says, before stepping inside.
“As much as he’ll allow himself to have friends.” The man beside me speaks again, this time extending his hand to me. He’s tall like Eden, but much leaner. His skin is quite naturally tanned, and the shorter layers of his scruffy haircut sit against some impossible cheek bones. “Austin.”
“Carey,” I reply, confirming my identity.
“That’s—”
“I’m Anaise,” the woman cuts him off to introduce herself. “The four of us all went to high school together.”
I humbly scratch the back of my head. Not only is this woman possibly the most perfect example of ethereal feminine presence, but also, “I don’t think Eden's ever told me about you.”
She lets out a short laugh; “That sounds about right,” and moves even closer. Raising her hand, she reaches for my cheek. Her fingers are soft as she cups my face, and a sense of calm washes over me. “You look so much like him, but… completely different at the same time.”
“Is that meant to be a compliment?”
“The, being different, part is,” Austin adds.
“You’re getting snow everywhere.” Tek drops a towel at my feet, and I feel two inches tall. I quickly step onto it and shuffle back towards the door, doing my best to wipe up the footprints.
“Jesus Christ.” I can hear the roll of Anaise’s eyes in the tone of her voice. “He just nagged on us, too. It’s not our fault there’s no mat to wipe our feet on.”
“It is his fault, actually.”
My jaw slackens and I look straight at Tek. “Why? Because I wasn’t here this morning to set it up like I always do?”
Anaise turns towards Tek as if to say; and what do you have to say about that?
“You didn’t wash it yesterday.”
“Because it was being used… Plus, I left at five. You were here until at least nine, remember?"”
Tek pauses, I’m assuming because he’s caught off guard that I’m talking to him this way in front of his friends, and he’s all hell bent on me respecting my elders. But if he expected me to actually abide by that, then he employed the wrong twenty-one year old.
“It’s after lunch,” I say as I bend down to pick up the corner of the towel.
“You could have used the short cycle and had it dried hours ago.” Placing my package on the desk as I walk past, I toss the towel straight into the washer.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I call out.
“The dirty ones are just out here on the floor.”
I can hear Austin laughing as I pick up the wet towels and door mat and put them in the washer too.
“You’re a child,” I mutter when I reemerge. “The machine is on. That took me thirty seconds. Do you think you can put them in the dryer when the cycle is done?”
“I’ve been busy.”
“Yet you’re always here, like, an hour before your first client.”
“Are you not sleeping again?” Anaise puts her hand on Tek’s bicep, and I hate that I don't know what their relationship is.
He crosses his arms. “I’m fine.”
“Are the early mornings when you’ve been redecorating?” Austin’s smartass tone makes me smile. “It’s very gray in here.”
“Why are you here?” Tek asks me with a deadpan stare.
“I had a favor to ask, but now I’m thinking the universe dragged me here because I need to be working more than three days a week.”
“I’d kill you.”
“Not if I killed you first.”
“I love this,” Austin heckles from the sidelines.
“Shut up,” Tek says without looking at him, his eyes still on me. “As if I haven’t already done enough. What else could you possibly need.”
“The keys to your van?” I ask with a cute inflection at the end.
Tek’s lips form a tight-lipped smirk out of—what I can only assume—is his utter disbelief at the boldness of my inquiry.
“Sooo?” I ask with a sweet smile as I slide closer.
“Sooo…” he mimics my tone. “You can fuck right off.”
My top lip curls. “Not even for half an hour?”
“Not even if my legs fell off and I needed you to drive me to the hospital.”
I huff out my nose.
I can’t even with this man. Why does he have to be such a stubborn piece of shit?
I didn’t ask to drive it across the country.
I didn’t ask him to spot me ten grand.
But he’s acting like one of his kidneys is attached to the damn keys.
Anaise snickers. It’s bright and musical, and her hand drops from Tek’s arm to her hip as she leans into the air between us. “He doesn’t let anyone drive it. He, well… He doesn’t like the thought of other people driving, period.”
I look over her head to him. “You drive every day.”
“That doesn’t mean other people should.”
“I’ve driven in Indonesia. And I have an American license. I’m not gonna crash it.”
Anaise straightens out; a tiny but nervous, “Oop,” slipping out her mouth. She glances at Tek with an expression I can’t place, but he doesn’t look at her. He’s still laser focused on me.
“You wanna try that again?”
“Try what? I don’t know what I’ve done wrong.
” I pick up my package and head for the door.
“I bought some furniture at the junk shop around the corner. You know there’s nothing in that apartment.
I was only hoping for a little help, but it’s fine.
I’ll carry it home. I’ll make three trips if I have to. ”
“Tek,” Anaise scolds him. “It won’t even take thirty minutes to drive him yourself.”
Tek uncrosses his arms, goes behind the reception desk, then leans forward on it.
“Incase all of you have forgotten, I’m trying to run a fucking business on my own.
I don’t have time for breaks, or side quests, or furniture delivery.
The only reason this conversation is still going is because my next client is already ten minutes late. ”
Anaise marches up to the desk and reaches over it to poke Tek right in the middle of his forehead.
“That’s enough, Jeon Wootek. You don’t speak to people like that.
He might look like him, but that's not Eden. He didn’t cause any of this crap.
So mind your manners, and the next time I'm here, he better tell me that you’ve apologized. ”
Like she’s his mother, Tek just stands there in silence. Then, one by one, he looks at me, then Austin, and back at Anaise before slumping down in the stool behind the desk.
“You can all fuck off now,” he says, taking a book out of the top drawer and slamming it down on the glass.
Anaise slowly rotates her hand until her middle finger is right in front of Tek’s face.
“I know where you live,” she says, and starts backing away from him towards the door.
Austin opens it and gestures for me to step out first.
“He’s not doing well,” I hear Anaise say to Austin as I walk away.
“You think? —Hey Carey.” I turn back around. “Harry’s Hut’s this way.”
Yeah, I know it is. “But Eden’s apartment is this way.”
With a quick step, Anaise is in front of me taking the package from my arms and handing it off to Austin. “It was nice meeting you, Carey. I’ll see you again soon, okay? And make sure he apologizes.”
“Ah, yeah. You, too,” I say, and watch her give Austin a hug then walk off down Main Street.
I reach for my wetsuit. “I’m cold. I need to get back.”
“I got you man,” Austin says with a smile and unlocks the passenger door to a pick-up parked a few feet away.
He puts the box inside and locks it again.
“I’ve got nowhere I need to be. But we'll have to carry whatever it is you bought from Harry’s back here, cause finding a parking space around here is a bitch. ”
I’m not sure what to say.
I don’t know this man.
He’s friends with Tek and my brother, but other than that, I didn’t know he existed until ten minutes ago.
He drapes his arm across my shoulders and we both start walking, because, fuck it, I need the help.
Besides, it feels good that this guy is being so nice.
He’s cute, but in a different kind of way.
He’s not covered with tattoos, and there isn’t an intense hatred of the world vibrating off of him like the other men in my life that I’m close to.
“So, um. What do you do?” I ask, making small talk.
We turn the corner and he takes back his arm. “My family owns Albertsons’ Liquor out near the I-5 exit. I work there and help my dad run the place. Which means I’m stuck in the office more and more. But the place will be mine one day so I guess I better get used to it.”
“Does it close on Wednesdays?”
“Is that your way of asking me why I’m not at work?” he chuckles.
“No... Yes.”