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“Bite me. It’s been a hell of a day. What’s up?” Deacon asked as he stretched his kinked neck side to side.
“Don’t suppose you’d want some company? I’m in the neighborhood…” Chloe trailed off.
With a frown he asked, “Isn’t it past your bedtime, kiddo? And wait, don’t you have a class?”
Just then, he heard his intercom buzz. Apparently no class tonight, he thought, getting up off the couch.
“Let me up. I’ve got dinner.”
Hanging up the phone and buzzing her in, he idly hoped it was takeout from that ramen bar down the street. He could totally use something spicy. Eyeing his now flat beer, he poured it out and grabbed another as Chloe walked in the door.
Score, he thought, eyeing the carryout bag in her hand. He went to grab forks and paused when he realized she was staring at him.
“What? I was asleep until like three minutes ago,” he grumbled at her.
“Nothing, bro. You’re just looking a little rough. Bad day?” Though there was a note of teasing in her voice, she scanned his face, waiting for him to spill his guts.
“Nah. Well yeah. Lamar Riggs got himself arrested. Again. I spent the whole day putting out fires. Some days, I feel like a fucking babysitter,” Deacon answered, refusing to even mention the strangest part of his day.
Grabbing one of the forks out of his hand, she waited patiently for him to continue.
He took the bag out of Chloe’s hand and grabbed a container of noodles. Opening it, his lip curled up as he passed her meal to her. Opening the second container, he stabbed a piece of chicken karaage with his fork.
Looking at him somewhat skeptically, she responded, “Um, when is Lamar Riggs not being arrested lately? Don’t see why this time is any different. Is something else going on?”
With a sigh, he put the fork down and said, “Inquisitive brat. I just had a run in with someone from college today that I hadn’t seen in while. It was kind of weird.”
“Weird, how? Wait. Was it a girl?”
Seeing the eager expression on her face, he regretted saying a word. She was gonna badger him until he told her everything. With another heartfelt sigh, he said, “Yes. This girl Sara that I knew in college. We dated briefly, and it ended poorly.”
Snorting, Chloe said, “Dated? That signifies some sort of romantic attachment at least for a brief period of time. Thought you didn’t do much of that in college. Oh. She touched your penis? That was code, right?”
Chloe smirked as he choked on the mouth full of noodles.
“Jesus, kid. Really? You wanna know who’s touched my penis?”
Chloe held up a hand in surrender and grimaced.
“‘Kay, you win. But seriously. If you’re talking about it, it must have bugged you. What’s the story?”
With a pained expression he said, “We hung out once. I was a really big douche bag. Now she’s doing a bunch of catering for JDC so I’m gonna have to see her pretty regularly.”
“Was she a bitch about it? It’s been like twenty years since you graduated college, right?” Chloe questioned innocently.
Mildly flipping her the bird, he said, “Nine, brat. And no, she wasn’t. She was actually pretty nice, considering.”
Blinking at Deacon with confused eyes, Chloe asked, “So what’s the issue then? If she’s cool, then there’s no problem, right? Unless…”
“Unless what?” he asked warily.
“There’s some sort of residual tension there?” Chloe questioned, dancing in her seat gleefully.
“Uh, nope. I have a working relationship with her now. Even if there was, it would be totally inappropriate.”
Eyeing him over the rims of her glasses, she smirked and said, “Yeah, right. You’re a terrible liar.”
“Give me a little bit of credit. I can show restraint when necessary.”
