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I leaned in and kissed him on his cheek. “Go on,” I whispered. “Bernice is waiting.”
Bernice Holden got her fruitcake. She also got quite the surprise when she made it home and found the spare twenty-dollar bill I slipped into the tin. Thanks to her, I’d gotten to kiss Gray again. It was the least I could do.
***
After I clocked out that night, Gray was waiting for me at the front of the store. Keys jangled in his left hand, and he was holding something behind his back in the right. As I approached him, he smiled, big and bright.
“I brought you something. Thought you might get a kick out of it.”
I reached forward, trying to snatch it from behind his back. Gray took a step back and shook his head. “It comes with conditions.”
“It does?”
“Mhm.” He nodded his head, not even attempting to hold back his smirk. “Gotta let me give you a lift home.”
I peered out the window, looking for headlights. “Mom’s supposed to—”
He shook his head again. “Already called her. She wasn’t too happy to hear from me.” For a moment, his expression changed to one of regret. But he was Gray, and Gray was nothing if not resilient. “So, what do you say? You want to ride in the big truck?”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “It isn’t that big.”
His eyes dipped down to my crotch. “Bigger than yours.”
“I warned you,” I said, fumbling with the button on my jeans. “I told you if you kept insinuating it was small, I’d whip it out and measure it. You only have yourself to blame.” I got the zipper halfway down before I heard him gasp. With my neon-pink boxer briefs visible through the gap, I peeked up at him and winked, pulling the zipper back up and buttoning my pants. I wasn’t sure if the look on his face was one of relief or regret. As he steadied his breathing, I held out my hand. “I get to drive.”
The request snapped him out of his lusty, little stupor. “No,” he said, taking a step back. He pointed at the floor and drew an invisible barrier line in front of me with his finger. “No, Kent. I’m sorry, but this is the line and you’ve just crossed it.”
“Oh, I’m about to cross a line, alright. A goddamn police lineup after they find your bloated body floating in our lake.”
Completely unfazed by my threats of murder, but wincing when I took the Lord’s name in vain, he snickered. “See, you could do that.” Bringing his hand into view, he waved a CD in front of me. “But then you wouldn’t get to make fun of me on the ride home.”
“Oh my God!” I lunged, trying to grab the CD case out of his hand. He held it above his head, just out of my reach.
“You’re not driving.”
I shook my head.
“You’re not driving,” he repeated. “Say it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Fine.” I looked up at the CD, just out of reach. “But you’re signing that CD for me so I can put it in my Gray Collins shrine.”
He cocked his head to the side. “You’ve got a shrine dedicated to me?”
My blood ran cold. In fairness, it wasn’t so much a shrine, as it was simply a drawer filled with relics from our past. Still, he didn’t need to know that.
I snatched the CD case and marched past him, ignoring the sweet sound of his laughter as the sliding doors opened. Once we made it outside, Gray held the truck door open for me and offered me a hand for support. I used all of my strength to lift myself into his unnecessarily tall pickup. There was a bell chiming, indicating his keys were already in the ignition. He’d just left them inside without worrying someone might steal it. I was buckling my seatbelt as he slid behind the steering wheel, but Gray had other plans. He patted the empty seat beside him, beckoning me over. Once I was at his side, I held the CD case out in front of me.
“Just don’t be too harsh,” he said.
“I make no promises.” Without looking back at him, I studied the CD cover. My mouth hung open. “Sweet mother of God.”
“Like I said earlier; her name’s Mary, Kent, and I’m not gonna keep letting you degrade her.”
I knocked our shoulders together and laid my head on him. As I stared down at the CD booklet, I was greeted by a delightful sight. A picture of Gray standing in front of a red barn as he eye-fucked the camera was used as his album cover. The words, written in Times New Roman, were unnecessarily all capitalized and stretched across the top:UNTIL WE’RE OLD AND GRAY.I didn’t even try to hide the cheesy smile that was plastered across my face.
Without taking my eyes off the CD, I reached over, sliding my hand into his. “This is…” When I looked up, he was staring down at our woven fingers, his jaw slack. “Sorry,” I whispered, pulling away. Opening the case, I took out the booklet and snorted when I saw the first page. Gray let out a groan and reached over, taking it from me. “Hey! That’s mine. Give it back.”
He shook his head and hid the booklet behind his back. He was still grinning, though I wasn’t sure if it was down to nerves or just general assholery. “It’s terrible. Trust me, there’s nothing to be seen inside there.”
