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My friend takes my shoulders and smiles at me. It’s meant to be encouraging, but there’s a tightness around her mouth that I can’t dismiss. “Calista, you work harder than anyone I know. All I’m asking is that you enjoy life instead of merely survive it. Okay? Besides, you didn’t follow through with your end of our deal. Mr. I’ll-suck-your-dick-please Bennett came to see you again, and you didn’t flirt with him, so you owe me a night out.”
I drop my head, avoiding her gaze. “I don’t have anything to wear.”
“I have plenty. We’re about the same size so we’ll make it work. Say you’ll go.”
“Okay.” The simple acquiescence has my stress easing. “It would be nice to enjoy myself for once.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
I glance at the clock and note the time. “Time to unlock the doors.”
“Might as well get this day started. Then we can go out tonight.”
“Tonight?” I repeat, my voice high-pitched. “That fast?”
She winks at me. “Of course. If I don’t get you out now, you’ll think too much and come up with a million reasons not to go. We’re doing this.”
She marches over to the door and inserts her key. Once the lock clicks open, she pushes the glass door open and sticks her head outside.
“All right, you caffeine-dependent losers, get in here and get your fix.”
I position myself behind the register, rearranging the bills inside to hide my amusement. Sometimes I wonder why Alex hasn’t fired Harper. She’s like a loaded gun that could go off at any moment. It’s what makes her exciting and me cautious.
My shift begins and continues in the same manner as it always does. The customers are in a hurry, and I do my best to accommodate them but with a smile. The world is full of darkness, so why not try to be the light in someone’s day?
As usual, my thoughts drift to Hayden whenever I’m not ringing up a transaction or chatting with Harper. No matter how much I go over the event in his office, I can’t make sense of it all. The only thing I know for certain is that I saw a side of him that I didn’t know existed.
His reassurance might’ve been firm, but he was gentle. Tender in a way that I would’ve never imagined him capable of. Now that I’ve experienced it, I want more.
Why?
Am I so blinded by his looks that I can’t think beyond my attraction to him? Or did he tattoo himself on a piece of me that I shared unwillingly? Vulnerability is hard to deal with, let alone exposing it to another.
Hayden shared his with me as well.
In my gut, I know it’s not a normal occurrence for him to talk about his mother. Especially not when she has issues with drugs. And addiction. He didn’t say it specifically, but there was a lot he didn’t say out loud that I still picked up on.
Even so, he reverted to a boy caring for his mother at the onset of my panic attack. My heart expands in my chest, making it ache on his behalf. Hayden might be confident and strong-willed, but at the end of the day, he’s a human, with human experiences and emotions.
Like pain.
And need.
“Don’t stop,” he whispers. “I need more.”
I grip the edge of the counter to steady myself as Hayden’s command replays itself in my mind, the desperation behind his words warming me all over. Even in places it shouldn’t.
The door opens, and I jerk up my head, pasting a smile on my face to hide the inappropriate thoughts in my mind. A delivery guy strides up to me with a package in his hands. It’s a small white box, no more than twelve inches in length, without any logos to give me an idea of what’s inside.
“Calista Green?”
I frown. “That’s me, but I didn’t order anything.”
The guy shrugs his massive shoulders, no doubt acquired by his physically demanding job. “This has your name on it, so it’s yours. Please, sign here.”
Harper sidles up to me, her greedy fingers snatching up the package. “Discreet packaging… What could this be?” She shakes it and grins at me. “Please tell me it’s a dildo.”
Both the delivery guy and I swing our gazes to her. He grins at her and Harper waggles her brows at him. Meanwhile, I close my eyes and take a deep breath to get my blush under control.
