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“Oh, the new Fed Ex guy at work is super hot, so I invited him over to my house on my lunch break.”
I hear the sound of a kiss, and then a door shutting.
“He’s gone now, what’s up?”
“I’ve got so many questions,” I say, getting hung up on the mailman thing. “Does he have a big package?”
“He sure does,” she says.
“Does he come in snow, rain, or any weather?”
“He sure does,” she says again, “I could marry him based on his skills with that package alone. Okay, back to you.”
I fill her in on everything that’s happened since I saw her, which I now realize is a lot. I end with, “So then we had sex again, and he freaked out on me!”
“What did you do to that boy? You gave him the goods and blew his mind?” Sloan asks.
“No, this wasn’t a good freak out.”
“Oh, that’s disappointing.”
“Sloan! This is a real problem.”
“So is you not having a blindfold and cuffs in that nightstand.” She sighs. “What did he freak out about?”
“He said I can’t use him… like I was using him for sex or something.”
“That’s the best thing to be used for.” She snorts, and giggles then gives me another question. “Why the heck would he think you were using him? I mean, a blind man could see you like-like him.”
I think for a minute and can’t come up with anything. It seemed like he turned on a dime when the sweat wasn’t even dry. “It seemed to be coming from somewhere deep. I thought I knew him better than this. Sloan, now I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s time for the worst part of a blossoming relationship, darling. This is the part where you have to learn...” She pauses, then asks, “Ready?”
“What?” How am I friends with this woman?
“Brace yourself. This is where you learn to, gasp... communicate! Dun dun dun.” She pauses again. “And not just with your lady parts.”
“Thanks for that, Sloan.” I sigh, but she’s right. I need to talk to him and figure out what his damage is before things get too far gone. If I don’t address it and let it go, we could end up in the same place we were years ago when he broke my heart.
I’ve been protective of it, but maybe I just need to take a leap of faith and hope he catches me.
TRAVIS
Without anywhere to go, I just sit in my car. Part of me wants to go back in and just say, I’m an idiot, and here is why. Apologize, beg and plead, and then spend the rest of the day between her thighs. I mean, maybe if I tell her what I heard that night, she’ll understand me now. Perhaps she’ll explain to me what happened. I remember everything she told me when we were in that little apartment together.
She said she wanted to stay there for always and promised me the world. I need to ask her what changed between that point and the night of the party.
I slam my hand against the steering wheel in frustration. The stubborn part of me says, nope. I’m not going to beg her to be with me. But the other part of me says if I don’t at least try and talk to her, we will be back at square one. Finally, I decide I need a beer and some bar peanuts to clear my head. The bar is always there, which may or may not be a good thing. Driving down the road, I pull into Wonderly’s bar. I suck in a harsh breath as I enter the bar, the smell of smoke, sweat, and beer permeate the air.
The place is mostly empty. I walk up to the bar and take a seat before ordering the house draft. The first beer takes some time to get down, but the second flows better. It’s early, so only the true drunks are in the bar with me. One older man in red flannel is asleep; his soft snores fill my ears. I raise my brows at the bartender.
“He just needed a nap,” she says as she cleans a glass. “Willis is in here every day, and his wife comes to get him when she gets off her shift at the mill. It’s sad, really, but I’m not heartless. The man’s got nowhere to go, so I just let him sleep here.”
“That’s good,” I tell her and put money down for the beer. I start thinking about the old man and how, despite being asleep in a bar by himself, he still has a loving wife to come and fetch him. Even as fucked up as he is, he’s still miles ahead of me. At least he landed the girl. I can’t even manage that.
My phone starts to ring, and I pull it out, seeing my father’s name flash across the screen. Tomorrow is a big day for the greenhouse, we’re finishing up all the structure. Hitting the answer key, I mumble a hello into the speaker.
“Hey, Son. What are you doing?”
