“Oh, yeah?” he asked, opening the fridge and snagging two beers from it.
“Yeah,” she said, leaning her elbows on the counter and watching him put a beer in front of her. “It’s more interesting.”
The floors were a mix of hardwood and cement, with the hardwood extending out across the living room before they became cement in the combined kitchen and dining room area. The first floor was an open floor concept and Jordyn could see a large leather couch, a coffee table and a couple of recliners placed across from a large flat screen tv that was mounted on the wall. Beige drapes covered the large bay windows to the side of the living room, and there was a door off to the left. Through the door, she could see a bedroom. There were stairs directly across from the front door headed upstairs, and she craned her neck wondering what was up there.
“My room is up there, doll,” Steve said, coming to sit beside her on the other stool beside her.
“Doll?” she asked, taking a sip of her beer.
Steve shrugged. “If you’re going to call me Stevie, it’s only fair that I get to call you something no one else does too.”
“True. And I like it. The name I mean.”
He reached out taking her hand and rubbed it gently. “You wanna tell me what happened, back at your apartment?” he asked.
Jordyn let out a deep sigh and leaned her head back with a groan. “Sure, but I’m going to need a drink first.” She sat up straight and took a deep swig of her beer, before she put her beer down with a resolute nod to Steve who was chuckling at her. “Okay, I’m ready.” He inclined his head for her to go on while he drank his own beer and Jordyn started in on the catastrophe of an evening he had found her in. “Tonight was supposed to be good and easy and just...well, it was supposed to be normal. I had steaks and even rolls in the oven for our dinner.”
Steve hummed in disappointment. “They got in the way of steaks? That’s messed up.”
She nodded. “And it wasn’t even the steaks that were most messed up part of it. They were there to hold an intervention. An intervention for me.”
Steve threw his head back laughing, but she nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “I’m serious! They were talking to me like I had been body snatched by aliens,” she waved a hand while taking another drink of her beer before continuing. “And I don’t know, they were planning to, like, jump you.”
“What?” Steve leaned an arm against the counter and narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean jump me?” He didn’t like the fact that Jordyn had been practically run out of her home by her shitty ex and his asshole friends, and he liked it even less if the bunch of shit heads were trying to bring violence into it
Jordyn put her beer down and turned on her stool to face him. “Okay, this is what happened,” she began, eyes moving to the door as she spoke, “I was making dinner for us and someone knocks, and--and it’s these people from church with Alex. I swear, I wouldn't have opened the door but they had a girl that I used to think was nice! I use the term,used tobecause guess what? She's just as bad as the rest of them! And they basically tell me that they are there to talk me into taking him back, but when I said no, they said if I don’t let them in to talk, then they’ll stick around to talk to you.” Her eyes moved back to meet Steve’s with a frown. “I knew what they meant when they said they wanted to talk to you. They weren’t there to talk to you, they were there to hurt you.”
“Don’t you worry about me,” Steve said grimly, his jaw clenching at the thought of what the scene at Jordyn’s apartment had looked like before his arrival.
“Too late for that Stevie,” she muttered, turning her beer around between her hands.
“I’m serious, Jordyn. Don’t hesitate to do what you need to, you understand?” Steve said, tilting her chin up to look at him. “You take care of yourself first. I’ll be alright.”
“No, Steve,” she said, her voice firm. “I’m not going to do that.”
He frowned but took a deep drink of his beer rather than pursue the matter, because he could see she meant what she was saying. “So what did you do?” he asked her after a beat of silence.
“I let the idiots in, grabbed my things, and left.” Jordyn closed her eyes in frustration. “I had dinner going and everything and had to stop it because of them. You don't even know the torture I went through chopping those damn onions.” Steve grinned watching her wave her hands and rant about the onions. “I was crying over those onions, and then I almost wasted the steaks! I can’t believe them! I'm so mad!”
Steve laughed at Jordyn's indignant tone, and reached out a hand putting it on her thigh. “So you’re more upset that they made you stop making dinner than you are that they showed up?” he asked with a barely concealed grin.
“I’m upset because I had this whole thing planned, and then they show up acting like they know what’s what and trying to boss me around.” She tapped her beer bottle with her fingers and narrowed her eyes at his continued laughter. “What’s so funny?”
“What’s what?” He gave her thigh a squeeze. “You sound like a mobster from the 40’s,” he joked. She couldn’t help but giggle when Steve added, “You’re talkin’ to me all wrong, see?”
“Wise guy,” she chirped, letting him pull her off the stool and towards the couch.
“Well, I am from Brooklyn,” he retorted, rubbing her shoulder.
“I thought that was more of a New Jersey thing or something,” she said flippantly and smiled at the indignant sound that came out of him.
Steve’s face went grave and he shook his head sinking down onto the couch. “We don’t talk about New Jersey in this house,” he told her with a shake of his beer, and this time, it was her turn to laugh. She was still giggling when he pulled her down beside him and then took out his phone to scan through the nearby takeout places. “You hungry then? I’m starving.”
“So very hungry,” she admitted, taking another drink of her beer. “If I don’t get any food in me soon I’m going to get tipsy off this beer.”
“Pizza okay? There’s a great place near here that’s fast,” Steve asked her while his free hand stroked her hair. Jordyn nodded and smiled. She was fine with anything so long as he just kept touching her hair like he was. The tension from Alex’s impromptu visit to her apartment was already dissolving under the gentle stroking of his fingers through her hair.
“Pizza is perfect.” Jordyn sighed, leaning her cheek against his shoulder. She finished the rest of her beer and got up to toss the empty bottle in the trash while he called the pizza place and ordered. Stretching her arms over her head, she crawled back onto the couch and flipped onto her back with her head on his lap. Once she was settled, Steve's hand found its way into her hair again, and she smiled, closing her eyes while he ran his fingers through it. Steve felt her relax into his touch, and he smiled, watching her eyes drift closed. It only took a few minutes of playing with her hair for Jordyn to drift off to sleep. Steve settled into the couch and drank his beer while he waited for the pizza, and if there had been anyone to see, they would have witnessed the contentment he’d seen on Jordyn’s face painted all over Steve.
