“Don’t lie to me. That relationship started out fake but it looks like it even fooled you.” His eyes sparkled with laughter.
“Very funny, pops. Just kick me while I’m down why don’t ya?” I grumbled.
“I’m just calling it like I see it, son.” He stood from his chair and walked over to the kitchen opening the refrigerator and pulling out two beers. “I’ve never seen you torn up over a girl before.”
He handed me a beer and sat back in his chair. I popped the top and leaned back into the soft cushions of the couch. “It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t want anything to do with me, especially now.”
“I’m not saying it does matter. I’m saying she showed you something you didn’t think you were capable of. You wanted a relationship with her, so maybe you could end up wanting that with someone else.” He took a pull from his beer.
“I doubt it. I haven’t been able to think about anyone but her in three months,” I admitted softly.
“Well then, do what you can to change her mind,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Nothing worth having in life comes easy. You gotta fight for it. I thought you were a fighter.”
Shit, he was right but I promised I would finish this program and I can’t do that and try to get my girl back. She was already scared of losing her license for treating me. I couldn’t make things even harder on her than they already were. “I gotta go, Dad.”
“See you later, son.” I didn’t even think about the fact that I didn’t have my car when I raced from the room in my haste to get the gym. I stopped and got an Uber just in time to see Ma walk around the corner with wide eyes.
“Don’t worry ma. Your secrets safe with me.” I grinned she swatted at me.
“I know he knows, silly boy,” she giggled.
“Then why are you still hiding?”
“It’s just what I do.” She shrugged. I shook my head. I didn’t get married people. They were so strange. “I gotta go, Ma. I’ll see ya on Sunday for dinner.” I kissed her cheek as I watched the Uber pull into the driveway.
“See you, baby. And stay out of trouble.” She eyed me like only a mother can.
“No promises.” I winked at her before jogging to the waiting car.
Flopping into the back seat, I looked at my phone wondering if I should call Darren or just surprise him. I needed to know what the hell he was expecting to happen with this mess he’d created.
Chapter Four
Brandy
I couldn’t get home fast enough but I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Darren and Delia were sitting outside my apartment when I got home. Groaning, I looked between the two. “You planned that,” I growled glaring at the pair.
“Hear us out,” Delia started but my raised eyebrow stopped her in her tracks.
“What is there possibly for me to hear out?”
“He hasn’t been the same since Christmas,” Darren tried to tell me but my snarl shut him up.
“So? I’m sure you all remember how that turned out.”
“Babe, you haven’t been the same either.” Delia raised an eyebrow at me.
“I’m fine. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I grumbled moving toward the door to unlock it. I needed wine and I needed it now. Delia tried to block my way but I stared her down. “If you intend to have this conversation, I suggest you get out of my way so I can grab a drink.”
“No problem,” she whispered eyeing me like I was going to turn into the girl from the exorcist at any moment. But she did move out of my way, so I could trudge into my apartment. I had no question that they were following me.
“What is it that you want?”
“I just want to make sure you’re okay,” Delia hedged. That was the dumbest thing I’d heard all day.
“Really, Dee?” I asked skeptically.
“Look, I’m not going to apologize for what I think. You and Pete have something real. You two were amazing together and I didn’t have to sit there and coddle him during the whole two weeks you were together. If you are what I think you are together then I may never have to do damage control again. If you two would just get over yourselves and figure out a way to work things out then I wouldn’t have to babysit him.”
“Well, if that wasn’t the most selfish thing anyone has ever said to me.” I raised an eyebrow at him.
“I’m a selfish guy. I’m too busy to be constantly cleaning up his messes.” He shrugged unapologetically.
“Yeah, but I could lose my license if someone finds out I’m treating him.” I glared at him. “You did that on purpose with no thought to anyone else and how it may affect them.”
He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck looking sheepish. “I was trying to help two good friends get out of their own way.”
“Brandy… he really was just trying to help.” Delia chimed in looking sympathetic.
“How is this helping? You of all people know why we won’t work.” I glared at her. She didn’t know exactly why. She didn’t know about my mother and what she did to me, conditioning me to believe everything about sex was bad. Trying to make me believe all men were sick twisted freaks. She’d done a good job of it too. I’d never come close to sex until I met Pete. He was the one to make me believe that maybe my whole view on the entire subject was wrong.
“No, I really don’t. You haven’t seen him these last few months. It’s like he’s a different person and aside from the hooker mishap he hasn’t been in any trouble.”
“He was training, he couldn’t very well get into a ton of trouble.” I tried to make excuses, but they both looked at me like I was an idiot. We all knew that if he wanted to he could get into plenty of trouble while he was training. “What the hell do you want from me?” I looked between my two friends. Darren had become a good friend over the last months since Delia started dating Kyle, her very own MMA superstar.
“He’s on a downward spiral and I kind of think you are too. My wedding is in a few weeks. I would like for the best man and the maid of honor to at least tolerate each other.” She was right. Over the last few months anytime they went out as a group and invited me I declined because I didn’t want to be around him. No, that’s not right. I didn’t trust myself around him. I was just setting myself up for failure though. I think Dee knew that.
“Fine, but he needs to tell him he doesn’t have to finish my program.” I pointed an accusing finger at Darren.
“No can do, cupcake. This is a punishment. I can’t go back on that now.” He looked incredulous. I glared at him. We stared each other down for a minute before he looked away. “Fine, I’ll do it but you have to come out with all of us next weekend.”
“Ugh, fine,” I grumbled pulling the cork from the bottle of red I’d just grabbed. I once again contemplated having good manners and just chugging straight from the bottle. But, as usual, my manners won out over my need to get completely shitfaced. “Are we done here?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna get going.” Darren smiled.
“Me too.” Dee looked uncomfortable leaving me like that. “I have to go pick up the baby from Grandma’s.”
“She loves that boy.” I grinned. So happy that my friend had found the man of her dreams and had started the happiest little family. It was perfect. “You go get your son. I’ll be okay.”
Chapter Five
Pete
Darren had been avoiding me. I’d gone to the gym every day for a week, and he had effectively dodged me at every turn. He wasn’t answering my phone calls either. I was starting to get pissed. Especially since I had another group therapy session that afternoon that I really didn’t want to go to and an early dinner thing with my buddy Kyle and his fiancé Delia. It was a full afternoon of shit that I didn’t particularly want to do.
Resigning myself to the fact that I have to go to counseling, I sit down in the hard plastic chair looking around at the other guys nodding my head at each in turn. A few minutes before two Brandy walked in the door smiling and wavin
g at each of the guys in turn before her beautiful sapphire eyes landed on me. A strangled noise left her throat as she looked at me with terrified eyes. “Wh-what are you doing here? Darren said you were off the hook; didn’t he tell you?” I cursed. The rat bastard most definitely hadn’t told me that. He’d avoided me and now I knew why. He was orchestrating meetings between me and Brandy, but I didn’t know why.
“No, he’s uh been avoiding me.” I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. She huffed a breath and rolled her eyes before she walked away. I could have sworn I heard her mumble “men” as she walked away to her spot in the circle. The whole thing made me itch.
“So, Pete, why are you here?” she asked as she stared at me. The small smirk on her lips told me she was just messing with me.
I couldn’t help but return the favor. “My coach forced me to come after a raunchy sex tape with a couple of hookers got released to the public. There were so many things on that video… Good times.” I sighed with a faraway look like I was remembering. I saw a couple of the guys shift in their seats uncomfortably and smirked. Brandy shook her head rolling her eyes at me.
“Pete, really. Why does your coach think you have a sex addiction? Making jokes to cover up the real problem is classic addict behavior.” She raised an eyebrow at me.
“I’m not an addict,” I grumbled.
“Also a classic addict response.” Her high and mighty attitude grated on my nerves.
“Just because I was seen with my girlfriend outside a sex club wearing a reindeer costume at Christmas and now with the damn hookers, who I never even touched, by the way, my coach is tired of cleaning up my messes so this is my sentence. I’m living in a proverbial state of hell.” I eyed her as she blushed probably thinking about the girlfriend comment. It took a second before the hell comment registered on her pretty face and I wasn’t sure but it looked like a look of hurt crossed her features briefly before she shut it down.
I didn’t know what she had to look hurt about. It wasn’t being around her. Well, I guess that’s not totally right. It was about being around her but not in the way that she thought. It was the very fact that I was so close and I couldn’t touch her. I was living in my own personal hell for an hour every week. I needed to get out of that asinine punishment as soon as humanly possible.
***
I sat in that room realizing that these were guys with true problems. I’d tried not to judge them but it was hard when I heard the things they’d done just to get laid. I wondered how they dealt with the fact that they were being treated by someone as gorgeous and caring as Brandy. Irrational jealousy roared in my ears. Had any of these guys ever hit on her? Did they know her limits? My hackles rose as everyone left the room. Brandy eyed me as I stomped my way over to her. “Have any of those guys ever hit on you?” Wait? What? That hadn’t been what I’d wanted to ask. I let my feelings get in the way of what I’d really wanted to know. How long had it been since she’d talked to Darren?
“What?” Her brow scrunched down in confusion at my words. “I don’t see how that’s any…” Her words trailed off as I moved into her personal space, and she audibly gulped.
“Answer the question, babe.” I brushed a hand over her cheek. She shuddered closing her eyes briefly before turning and shoving me away.
“Yes, okay. You saw them and heard them, but I have never and I mean never entertained the idea of dating a client, so back off.” She glared at me.
“Sorry, I really don’t know why I asked that. The thought popped in my head and spewed from my mouth before I knew what was happening.” I shrugged turning on my heels to leave.
“What were you going to ask?” Her voice was quiet, shy even. It made me wonder what she was thinking. Did she know I was jealous but chose not to call me out on it? She was the only girl I’d ever met that I couldn’t read. It infuriated me.
“When did you talk to Darren?” I looked away from her. I didn’t want to show her just how much it bothered me. I didn’t want anyone else touching her, ever.
Chapter Six
Brandy
He wouldn’t look at me as he spoke, and I was fine with that. If he kept looking at me with those angry eyes, I might jump him right there. I knew it wasn’t me he was angry with, but I couldn’t have him chasing away my patients either. “You don’t have to come to these meetings anymore. Darren promised me that he wouldn’t make you come anymore, so why are you here and I know it’s not because you’re jealous.” I cocked an eyebrow at him in question.
That damn shrug again and the way his eyes surveyed me had my nerves on edge. “It’s not like I’m here by choice. Darren has been avoiding me, probably so he didn’t have to tell me that I don’t have to do this anymore.”
My hackles rose and I huffed out an aggravated breath. I have no idea why I thought he would understand what I did from just a couple of group sessions. He was never going to respect me or what I did for a living. “Well, now you know that you don’t have to waste your time, you should be happy,” I growled at him angrily.
“Whoa, why all the hostility?” he asked genuinely surprised and I could have punched him right in his gorgeous face.
“Don’t worry about it. I know you have no respect for what I do. Just go.” I turned to leave. It was literally a second before I felt strong arms spin me around and crush me to his firm chest.
“That isn’t what I meant. I respect the hell out of you for dealing with guys like this every day.” He turned me around and looked in my eyes. “Maybe I did get a little jealous.” I didn’t think it was possible to make Pete Collins blush but his cheeks turned pink with embarrassment.
“Did you just admit that you’re jealous?” I grinned. I shouldn’t have been flirting with him at all let alone where I worked but I couldn’t stop myself. I thought about when he got stuck in that damn reindeer costume. He never blushed once even when I commented that he had a nice ass as I sewed him into it.
“Maybe…” he trailed off shrugging his shoulders again. It was infuriating.
“I don’t have time for this.” I threw my hands up in the air. “I have to go have dinner with Delia.” I shook my head which caused Pete to curse.
“What did you just say?” he asked all embarrassment gone.
“I have dinner plans with Delia and Kyle, why?” I already knew the answer, but I was hoping against hope that he wouldn’t tell me what I already knew.
“Motherfucker, they are setting us up.” He looked angry before storming from the room. I didn’t quite know what to do with him. He wasn’t making any sense. I had a feeling our friends were trying to push us together, but I hadn’t had any proof. I started to get angry myself when I thought about it. I didn’t get in the middle of their relationships. I kept my nose out of it. So, why did they think it was okay for them to butt into my life that way?
Unnecessarily angry now, I threw all my things into my bag and stomped from the room. I got what they were trying to do, but they didn’t understand. Digging around in my purse for my keys, I heard my phone start to ring and huffed out an aggravated breath. “Hi, Daddy.” I chirped.
“Hey princess, how are things going?” His voice sounded funny and I instantly knew this wasn’t a social call.
“What’s wrong?” A million different scenarios ran through my head as I waited with bated breath for him to answer. His sigh was almost tortured.
“It may be nothing…” he trailed off.
“It’s never nothing when you sound like this tell me what’s going on.” I was still standing in the hallway and quickly decided to make my way to my private office where no one would hear me.
“I’m sorry, princess. Your mother skipped town.” I nearly dropped the phone in shock. This couldn’t be happening. She was supposed to stay far on the other side of the country from me. As long as she was taking her meds and reporting to her parole officer, I didn’t have to worry about anything.
“That’s impossible. Where would she go?” I asked in a near panic.
My feet moved back and forth across the carpet and before I even realized what I was doing, I was biting the nail on my thumb. I’d quit biting my fingers in college. I hadn’t done it in years but even the mention of that woman had old coping mechanisms coming back out in a wave.
“I’m sorry, princess, I wish I knew.” I could hear the fear in his voice. The woman had been unstable at the best of times, but it was my fault she’d gone to prison. It was my fault she was on parole and I knew how truly vindictive she could be.
Chapter Seven
Pete
When I got to the gym Darren looked like he’d been waiting for me. “How was it?”
“You told her I didn’t have to go and you’ve been avoiding me for the last week,” I growled at him.
“You think I do anything without a purpose?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told her. You two need to get out of your own heads and talk to each other. This whole thing has gone on long enough.”
“What are you talking about Darren?” I was suddenly tired and emotionally drained.
“This game the two of you play where you pretend the other doesn’t exist. It ends now. I got her to agree to come out with all of us this weekend. You’re going too.” He had his demanding coach voice in full effect and I found myself nodding my head. “And, you don’t have to go to group therapy anymore, but I still recommend it. Even if it doesn’t help you with your problem it might help with Brandy.”
“I don’t know why you’re trying this little meddling thing you’re doing, but it’s not going to work. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.”
“We’ll see about that on Friday night. Don’t forget to dress to impress.” That was Darren for you. He was always about being dressed appropriately for each occasion. I didn’t know if it was because he was gay or it was just drilled into his head when he was fighting. I didn’t even get a chance to respond before he walked into his office and shut the door behind him effectively ending our conversation. “Yes, sir.”
Addicted (Sin City Gym Book 2) Page 2
