Chapter 12
12
SHILOH
How in the hell did I not see the coffee shop guy in my rush to get to Toby? And why does it seem like he’s just as worried as I am?
“Matt is trying to talk the guy out of pressing charges, so we’ll see how much trouble your friend is in and take things from there.”
The hesitation before he said the word friend has me curious about how much this guy actually knows about us and Kink Manor. If I had to wager a guess, I would have clocked this guy as straight and vanilla as all hell. He doesn’t seem to like pain, neither seeing it nor experiencing it based on what I’ve seen of him. He’s too standoff-ish to be a Daddy.
His holding the door is a pleasant surprise, even if it is only manners. Chivalry isn’t something I’m accustomed to at all. I don’t know if people just don’t see me or if they think that as a black man I will take offense, I’m not sure. The Daddies in the house will hold a door for all of us, but this guy is focusing solely on me as we enter the building. It’s a bit unnerving, yet also exhilarating to be the focus of someone as hot as him.
“Don’t worry, Shiloh. They won’t call the cops unless the other guy wants to press charges. I think we stopped it quickly enough to avoid that.”
“How do you know my name?” I ask as we step onto the elevator to go down to the security office in the basement. Why this school decided that a literal dungeon would be a good place to put the security office is beyond me.
“Oh, shit,” he startles at my question. “We were never really introduced, were we?”
I shake my head at him and feel the corners of my mouth tilt up in a smirk. Holding out my hand to him, I say, “ Officially , I’m Shiloh Abrams. I live in a house with eight other guys, including my best friend, Toby. Wait no, it’s seven guys now. Eric moved in with his Mattie.”
The guy throws back his head in laughter as the elevator doors open and we step out into the dark hallway. The sound echoes off the walls and makes it a little less slasher movie vibes. I’m always jumpy coming down here by myself. After all, the black guy is almost always the first to die in a horror movie.
“My name is Don,” he says as we wait at the desk for the security guards to come out of wherever they are hiding. They’re never at the desk. “Don Hastings. I know Eric through some unfortunate circumstances, but Lew… I mean Matt and I became friends shortly after he started working here. He was one of my first regulars af ter I took over the shop from Walt. Too many people had me guilty by association or labeled me as not trustworthy because of what I did.”
Aside from Spencer, there’s only one other guy that Eric calls his friend outside of those of us who live on Manor Drive. This must be the guy who turned on his teammates for the sake of a stranger because it was the right thing to do. Hero worship or something like it must show on my face because he looks a bit uncomfortable and eager to avoid my gaze as the judgey guard comes out of a room behind the desk.
“Hastings,” the guy nods with a sneer. “For the last time, we can’t do anything about the vandalism since your shop isn’t officially campus property. Unless you can prove the vandal is a student attending here, the administration won’t do a damn thing but waste all of our time.”