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Maybe I shouldn’t be such an ass to her. But it’s the only way to keep her away. For her to stop looking at me like she wants me. Like the longing in her eyes isn’t just for me.
I tell myself she’ll get used to it. That she’ll stop thinking we can be friends or more and those looks will turn to a professional mask and she’ll no longer think we can have anything. But is that what I want?
I don’t know and I can’t think about it.
“Dave, swing by Wok Away, will you?”
“You got it, boss.” He puts his blinker on to head to the popular Japanese restaurant so I can get takeout. I’m in no mood to cook—not that I do that much, anyway.
Him calling me boss reminds me of when Taryn had done that today. Perhaps she was getting the hint.
Though I’d love to hear her call me that in the privacy of my bedroom, while we’re both naked and I’m wearing her out.
Stop it, Carter!
***
After the game is over, I finish my stir fry and get up from the couch to put the stuff in the trash. When I get back to the living room, a game show has started. I pick up the remote to turn it, as I detest game shows, but pause when the host says, “This Midwest state is the home to the heroine, Dorothy, in the 1939 film,The Wizard of Oz.”
I roll my eyes. Kansas, duh.
My brain immediately takes me back to my time in Wichita. At 26, I was done with college and working in an IT firm, but I met a beautiful Kansas girl named Kelsey, who was homesick and wanted to move back. I had reluctantly agreed to go with her, telling myself I’d been in Colorado my whole life and should venture out. Plus, the job paid more so I had nothing to lose. My dad had died five years prior from an overdose and I hadn’t heard from my mom in over a year, which wasn’t unusual. With no siblings or anything tying me here, I’d left.
That relationship fizzled out quickly, though. She turned out to be not so sweet but rather bossy and overbearing. It lasted a little over a year before I quit that job, packed my shit, and determined to open my own tech firm here in Colorado. With a very hefty, scary loan from a bank, I’d started Lockwood Technologies, Inc.
It was the best decision I ever made. After busting my ass to create that super exclusive app—many sleepless nights trying to perfect its secrecy—my first year of profits from Jim’s sex club app had me paying off that loan and putting a down payment on this house. The second year saw me paying off the house and then cash for the Bugatti and a Harley I rarely rode.
I leaned back on the sofa and looked around at all I’d accumulated and acquired thanks to a bank who trusted me, the breakup with Kelsey, and a lot of hard work. Growing up with sometimes nothing to even eat, I was also grateful to God, karma, or whoever was looking out for me.
I just wish I had someone to share it with who isn’t a crazy stalking psycho. Then, Taryn’s face pops into my mind, but I know that can’t happen.
FIFTEEN
Taryn
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