12. Alisha “Kitty” Quinn
ALISHA “KITTY” QUINN
When I woke the next morning, I felt a little tired but tried hiding it all behind a bright smile. Straightening my spine, I allowed myself a cleansing breath, opened my mouth as wide as I could to stretch my facial muscles and lifted my chin.
I entered the dining area to find Mama Tan chasing Sam around the table with a wooden spoon hefted in the air while the others cheered.
Sam then ran up to hide behind me.
“Kitty, save me!” He laughed.
Mama Tan waved her wooden spoon at him.
“She’s not saving you.” Mama Tan informed him. “I don’t care how cute you are.”
I chuckled. “It depends on what you did.”
“You’re my friend, remember?” Sam called.
I laughed.
“Time for me to go.” Exodus picked up a travel mug with a skull on the side and waved it at Mama Tan. “Xiè xiè Māmā.”
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“The gym.” He replied as Yang took a final drink of coffee and eased off his seat as well. “With Yang.”
“Mind if I tag along?” I wanted to know. “Bambam got me out of classes for a bit, but I can’t sit still.”
“Sure.” Yang replied. “The more the merrier. But you have to change though.”
Glancing down at my dress, I quickly nodded and ran from the room.
Changing into a pair of track pants and a t-shirt, I hurried back and left with them in the back of Yang’s Jeep.
While they drove, I sat quietly trying to figure out how many pounds I needed to lose. Looking down, I clutched at one of my love handles and squished it.
Maybe twenty pounds.
I sighed and released it before turning my attention out the window.
Strange, I always taught my students not to change who they were for anyone else. Yet, when it came to putting my money where my mouth?—
I sighed and hung my head to pick at the corners of my thumbs.
We arrived at the gym—small, quaint, quintessentially small town.
And while the other two climbed from the vehicle, I sat there in my shame, so desperate for more than a kiss from Exodus, I was willing to change myself for him.
Leaning forward, I rested my forehead to the back of the driver’s seat wanting to cry but couldn’t/
“You good?” Exodus opened my door to ask.
“Fine.” I lied, unclipping my seatbelt and shoving by him.
To stop myself from crying, I lifted my chin and walked by both brothers and into the gym.
Because I didn’t have a membership, they signed me up for a day plan. When the brothers walked in, it was like celebrities entering the space.
The men cheered with their arms above their heads. The women grinned, fixing their hair and breasts while others greeted Yin and Yang with high-fives and hugs.
I dwindled in the background, taking their distraction to wander around to see what equipment they had that won’t break my back or fall on my feet.
Eventually, I settled on working on a treadmill as I wasn’t remotely sure how to work anything else. The bright, red numbers and letters on the machine held no interest to me.
Glancing around, all I saw were better women than me running on machines in skimpy outfits and faces full of makeup.
Another place where I felt less than.
I wish I’d brought music.
Instead, I looked down on how many steps I was making, the numbers flicking upward slowly, but surely.
“You’ve been quiet.” Yin spoke from beside me.
“We’re here to workout, right?” I asked without looking at him. “That’s what I’m doing.”
“By yourself.”
“Yes—that’s how it works.”
Yin drank from a water bottle before tossing his towel over his shoulder.
“What did I do now?” He asked. “Because it’s like you woke up on the wrong side of the bitch bed and is now running my ass over.”
I glared at him.
“What? Am I wrong?” Exodus questioned.
“You—”
“Forget it.” Exodus shook his head. “Fuck this. Let me know when you’re ready to go home. I don’t need any of this.”
Though I wanted to stop him, I didn’t know what to say or do about the spiralling situation around. Turning back to the machine, I added a bit of an incline, leaned forward and put my back into it. By the time this entire thing was over, I wanted to work up a sweat.
But my heart wasn’t really into it.
I wasn’t doing it because I was unhealthy, to get better, for myself.
I was doing it because the man I wanted didn’t want me.
I tell you. If your man can resist you, trust me. He’s not your man.
Those were the words one of my university friends had told me. She had long since faded into memory—the kind I only thought about in passing.
But her words stuck with me.
And Exodus could resist me.
Sighing dramatically, I was raising the incline again, hoping the climb would give me something else to focus on—my slow descent into exhaustion, when something large came at me.
I blinked as I came off my feet and sailed through the air, controlled with my side against something hard.
It was Yang.
He wrapped his arms around me, yanked me off the machine in time as a car took out the machine.
Looking up, Yin was flying through the air to land on the roof of the car whose wheels were still spinning.
“Get her out!” He yelled to Yang.
“We can’t—” I began as inertia caused the words to die in my throat.
With Yang’s large frame behind me, his arms on my hips, he tugged me toward a door while Yin moved like a superhero.
He tugged the man from the vehicle and was immediately attacked.
“Exodus!” I screamed, escaping Yang and tearing through screaming, scattering bodies.
Grabbing a barbell, I wasn’t prepared for the weight of it. It forced me down to my knees, smashing into the floor. Gritting my teeth, I pushed to my feet, held the piece of equipment with both hands and swung it at the man rushing up behind Exodus.
It connected with his skull making the loudest sound I’d ever heard. Blood splashed on my hands and face, warm and rich with iron as I dropped the weapon.
Arms grabbed me again and I glanced back to see it was Yang.
“Go!” I screamed. “Help your brother! Leave me alone. I’m fine”
“I’m trying, but you’re not making it easy!” He snarled.
When I struggled against him again, he sucked his teeth.
“Wáng bā dàn!” He mumbled. “Don’t make me knock you out!”
“I fucking dare?—”
Darkness…
* * *
The moment I woke and saw Yang, I lurched off the bed, my fingers poised to strangle him. He caught me by the spot just under my chin and shoved me back to the bed.
And he wasn’t gentle about it.
“Understand, I’m not my brother.” Yang growled in that same low, serious voice he’d taken to using with me. “I don’t have a crush on you so I will hurt you.”
Rage made me tremble, bone-deep.
I couldn’t even speak as I glared at him.
“Why are you always this dramatic?” He asked calmly, the kind of voice that told me he wasn’t rattled by my reaction in the least. “Yin and I may have the same face, but don’t you ever get it twisted. I don’t have the patience for most things, and I don’t take hysterics well.”
“Hysterics? You knocked me out, asshole!”
“Was that a surprise for you?” Yang demanded. “Was I not speaking English when I warned you?”
His calmness irritated me.
“You’re not fucking me, so I don’t have to worry about hurting your feelings,” Yang said. “And I don’t like you enough to risk my life for you. I warned you—you didn’t listen.”
I folded my arms across my chest.
“Yin!” He called.
“Yeah?”
“Tā xǐng le!”
He allowed me one more irritated look before walking out the door, passing Exodus on the way.
I flopped back to the bed, staring at the ceiling wanting to rage against everything but knew I couldn’t.
Yin was already not pleased with me, my coldness, my unexplained anger. Raging now would only make it worse.
“You didn’t break anything.” Exodus told me. “Mama is making you some soup. Once you drink some, we have to take a trip into the city.”
“For what?”
“Tha’lab has something for us.” He told me and turned for the door.
“Exodus?”
He paused but didn’t face me.
There was no denying he was still mad at me—he just wasn’t mad enough to let me die.
I guess that was a win.
“How many pounds do you think I need to lose before you’ll touch me?”
Of all the questions about this entire situation that was swirling like a twister in my head, that wasn’t the one I wanted to let out into the universe.
But it was out there.
In the air.
Swirling around like a fart in a locked, windowless room—I couldn’t take it back.
“I’m either confused or having memory lapses.” He spoke in that dark way that scared me. “Did I ask you to lose weight and don’t remember doing it?”
He turned.
“Did I ever say that to you?” He pushed.
“No—I’m sorry. That isn’t fair to you.”
“Let’s figure out what’s happening tomorrow.” Exodus turned again. “Hopefully, it’s ends all of this, and you can go home. You obviously have some demons that are stronger than I am and I’m man enough to admit that I can’t help you with them.”
“I—”
“No hard feelings, Alisha,” he said. “You can’t let go with me and that only means that I’m not the right man for you.”
“That’s not what it means!”
“Mama Tan will bring you some soup. If you want anything else, just ask her.”
I blinked.
He was gone.
I scrambled from the bed, and by the time I found him, he was in the backyard, chopping wood. I watched him from the porch until he removed his shirt, used it to wipe his face then tossed it to the side on a stump.
He was sexy and once again my body reacted in ways that both surprise and terrified me.
Clearing my throat, I wrapped my arms around myself and descended the steps to him when he paused to brush the back of his hand across his forehead.
“I thought you understood why I haven’t touched you.” He spoke, bringing the axe down, splitting a rounded piece of wood in two. “We’ve had that talk, more than once.”
“I’m a woman, Exodus!” I snapped. “I know you don’t see that, but I am. I promise you, I am. And you’re a man who looks like?—”
I motioned up and down his body with a hand.
“Like—like—fuck!” I stomped my foot. “Of course there’s nothing wrong with you!”
He chopped another circle of wood, picked up the pieces and tossed them on his growing pile. After he leaned the axe against the pile of wood rounds, he faced me.
“You don’t think my body is mutinying?” I wanted to know. “You don’t think it’s hard for me having you kiss me then nothing? And to top it all off, you’re so nice and kind and—what am I supposed to think? For all I know, you’re just letting me down easy.”
“I could be gay.” He told me.
I scoffed.
“You’re not gay.”
“That’s not the point, Alisha!” He stressed.
“Then what—” I tossed my arms up. “Shit, I don’t know what the fuck is going on!”
He walked toward me, covered in sweat and some grime.
All that dark, dark chocolate?—
His pecs twitched.
My knees buckled slightly but I was able to catch myself.
But it took all my strength to stay standing, to lock my knees as best I could to keep from falling face first into the ground.
My eyes dipped downward to focus on them. Each time they jerked, I felt it in my core as if he still had his finger there—going in and out?—
When I looked up again, it was to see him looking down to where my eyes had been before he lifted his head again.
I backed up slowly.
“Do you like what you see, Kitty?” He asked in that soft growl that always left me wet and craving all the dirty things I saw in his eyes sometimes. “Come on, don’t be shy. You can touch.”
He stepped forward again.
He made his pecs dance.
I stumbled backward.
“What’s the matter, Kitty? I thought you were ready?”
“I—I am.”
“Then?”
I looked around then back at him.
“We’re outside—anyone can see. At least, let’s go to a bedroom.”
“Are you ashamed of me, Kitty?” He teased. “While being your dirty little secret would turn me on?—”
“Exodus. Can you be serious for a second?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
“I just?—”
Exodus smiled before stepping around me to grab the axe. He set another round of wood and chopped it.
“Tell me why you’re so nervous.” Exodus spoke up. “I know you’re worried about your body, but why? Were you with someone who had an issue with it? Did friends make fun of you? What brought?—”
“I was dating someone. I was about a size smaller but still not small enough.”
“I’ve seen you naked, remember?” He asked, eyeing me. “Did I complain?”
I shook my head.
“If I didn’t like your body, I would have said so. But if we made love, I want us to do it for the right reasons. I don’t want that to happen because you think you have to because I’m saving your life.”
“Don’t be a moron.” I snapped. “Isn’t because I want you enough?”
He put the axe on the wood pile then faced me, hands on his hips.
“Okay.” Exodus nodded. “You want to do it here?”
“At this point, I don’t care where.”
“Dirty girl.” He cooed.
My cheeks heated.
“I’m going inside.” I tapped my cheeks while trying to run away.
Exodus caught me around my hips and drew me backward into his sweaty chest. I couldn’t help the laughter that rippled through me before my feet floated off the ground.
“If you’re worried about your size, Kitty, that just gives me more of a reason to hit the gym.” He whispered in my ear as he climbed the front porch to set me on the seating.
He knelt in front of me.
“But you already go to the gym. You’re not being chivalrous.”
“I’m totally being chivalrous. Trust me, Kitty. I really don’t need the gym for this. But if it will make you feel any better?—”
Framing his cheeks, I kissed him and was planning on deepening it when his phone rang.
“Ugh—someone has shit timing.” He muttered while answering. “Bambam—you have the worse timing.”
Pause.
“For your information, I was about to get lucky.”
My cheeks heated.
“Who was going to make you lucky?” I folded my arms and pouted. “The ego.”
Exodus laughed while dragging his mouth along my neck.
“Keep an eye on him.” He was saying. “We’ll be in the city tomorrow, anyways. No, it’s too late for that drive now.”
Another pause.
“A friend name what?” He looked at me, kissed my chin then went back to his call. “Okay. Thanks, Bam.”
Exodus hung up.
“Wanna get a hotel room tonight?” He braced his palms astride me to push up and nibbled on my neck. “Preferably one with a very strong bed.”
I whimpered.
“That’s something only a bad girl would do.”
“I thought you were.” He countered. “Did I think wrong?”
I flushed.
Still, I took his hand and led him inside.
“Go shower.” I told him. “I’ll pack an overnight bag.”