“Ex?”
“Oh god, no.”
“Then ...?” he prompted her. She shrugged.
“He's just a guy I know, his brother owns the club I work for. The two of us sort of had a shitty holidays, so when Landon offered me this vacation, I took him up on it.”
“Homeboy offered you a vacation and he hasn't tried to date you?” Chris laughed. She nodded.
“It's ... complicated.”
“It must be.”
They switched the topic afterwards, with Chris telling her all about life as a junior varsity football player. She smiled and nodded and exclaimed at all the right parts, but she was only ever halfway paying attention.
The other half of her attention was always with Landon. It shouldn't have mattered if he was chatting up some girl, but it did. And it shouldn't have mattered that Tori was alone at a table with another man, but clearly, it did, too.
Of course, maybe she was reading too much into it. Landon had hit on a girl the night before, and Tori hadn't been with anybody then. It also hadn't come to anything – he'd gone back upstairs to be with Tori. So maybe this was just more of the same. She'd finish eating and go back to the room, then Landon would come up after her and turn her world inside out.
All solid assumptions to make – right up until the brunette stood up and Landon put his hand on the small of her back. While Tori watched, he propelled the other woman out of the restaurant and towards the elevators.
“So you gonna come rafting with us tomorrow?” Chris asked. She licked her lips and tried to straighten out her thoughts.
“What? Oh, I don't know. I'll try, I don't know what else I have planned. Could you excuse me?”
“You're leaving?”
“Yeah, I don't feel too well. But I'll be here for another couple days, we'll hang out again, okay? Tell your sisters I said so. Bye!”
She dropped some money on the table, enough to cover her meal, then she was taking off. She barely heard his goodbyes as she hurried out of the restaurant.
She didn't know why she was freaking out. She paced around inside the elevator as it made its slow climb up the inside of the building. She had no right to freak out. Landon could do whatever he wanted, with whomever he wanted. It was fine. Totally fine.
Except if he wanted to do stuff with anybody else, then he shouldn't have invited me. He shouldn't have talked to me on the balcony. He shouldn't have opened up to me at lunch.
When she got to their room, she could already hear giggling through the door. He'd brought the girl to their room. To their bed. The bed they'd spent all morning in together. As she slid her card into the lock, she was positive she was going to be sick, and she tried to mentally prepare herself to find him in bed with someone else.
He wasn't, though she didn't know whether to be thankful or not. He was sitting on the couch and looked up in surprise at her entrance. The brunette girl was leaning over a mirror and a line of coke, and while Tori stood in the doorway watching, she inhaled the line.
“What the fuck is going on?” Tori blurted out, a little stunned. She was a party girl, but hard core drugs weren't her thing. She was pretty sure she'd never even seen cocaine in real life. Landon was somewhat of a coke head, but he kept it very low-key. He never brought it to the hotel room, as far as she knew, and he'd never done it in front of her. Made it kind of easy to forget he had a problem.
“Oh my god!” other girl squealed, sitting up right and pinching her nostrils together. “What are you doing? Shut the door, shut the door!”
The door slammed shut behind her and Tori moved to stand in front of the coffee table. She didn't look at the other girl at all, didn't acknowledge her once, just stared at Landon.
“I don't give a shit what you do on your own time, but don't bring your trash into our room,” she snarled, gesturing to the coke and the woman.
“Excuse me?”
“I'd rather have trash in my room than sit down to dinner with it,” he replied.
“Oh, hell no,” brunette growled and climbed to her feet. “I'm no one's trash! Fuck both y'all.”
Landon and Tori continued glaring at each other while the front door was opened and slammed shut.
“I sat down to dinner with a nice family,” she finally countered. “You brought some whore up here so you could get stoned and fucked. Hardly the same thing.”
“Nice family, huh? All I saw was some no-neck giant sitting across from you. Did you warn him you weren't cheap? A trip to Bali is expensive, I'd like to see him top it.”
Tori gasped, then stomped her way into the bedroom area.
“Fuck this, and fuck you,” she yelled over her shoulder as she grabbed her bag and tossed it onto the bed. “I'm not one of your pieces of trash, and I am definitely not your whore.”
She was cramming and shoving her clothing back into the bag when Landon got to her side. He watched her for a second, then simply grabbed her suitcase and put it on the floor.
“You're being over dramatic, stop it,” he said. She snorted and snatched the small suitcase back, putting it on the bed again.
“This was a mistake,” she continued packing. “I don't know why I thought this would be a good idea. Good sex isn't enough to keep anyone with someone like you.”
She was aware she was babbling, but she couldn't stop herself. She was confused and upset. She knew Landon did drugs, it wasn't a secret. He'd just talked about it earlier in the day. And he wasn't her boyfriend, so it shouldn't matter that he brought another woman up to his room.
But it did matter. It all mattered, so much so that she was upset and she couldn't explain why, so she was reduced to a babbling mess.
Landon watched her for a couple seconds longer, then grabbed her suitcase again. This time, though, he didn't put it on the ground. He carried it into the bathroom and before she could stop him, he'd dumped the whole thing in the bath tub and turned on the shower.
“Dramatic enough for you?” he asked when she shrieked and tried to shove him out of the way.
“What the fuck do you think you're doing!?” she demanded, trying to get him to move so she could save her clothing.
“Whatever I fucking want,” he laughed, staring down at the mess he'd created.
That was it. He wanted to play hardball? Oh, then she would fucking play.
Tori rushed out of the bathroom and made a bee line for the living room. She grabbed the mirror with his stash of coke on it, then hurried towards the balcony. He came out of the bathroom and let out a shout when he saw what was in her hands, but she was too far ahead of him. By the time he caught up to her, she was holding the mirror over the edge of the railing.
“You're an asshole!” she shouted at him. He held up his hands, his eye never once leaving the mirror.
“We established that a long time ago,” he said in a low voice. “Tori, just put it down and we can talk calmly. I'm sorry about your clothes.”
“Fuck you!” she snapped. “You're not sorry about anything.”
“Please, just put it down, okay? I'm more afraid that you'll drop it and cut yourself.”
“Yeah, right,” she laughed. “Like you'd care. Like you care about anything. Why did you bring me here?”
“I told you, you were having a shitty week and the sex was good,” he said simply. She glared and tilted the mirror a little, causing a smattering of white powder to trickle into the air.
“You were just about to bang some random chick you met in a bar, you don't need me for sex. Why won't you let me leave?” she demanded.
“I'm not stopping you, you can go if you -”
She tilted the mirror some more and he shut up.
“I can't exactly leave with a suitcase full of water, can I?” she shouted. “What the fuck is your problem? I try to be neutral to you, you're an asshole. I try to be nice to you, you're an asshole. I try to ignore you, you're an asshole! What do you want from me!?”
All of a sudden, Landon looked very, very tired. His rubbed his hand
s over his face, then dropped them to his sides.
“Nothing, Tori,” he sighed. “I don't want anything at all from you. You can leave.”
Inexplicably, she felt her eyes well up with tears. It had been a shitty week.
“I tried to understand you,” she sniffled. “I tried to like you.”
“Why? I never asked you to. I know what I am – why would you want to be a part of that?”
She took a deep breath. She hadn't really thought about it, so when she opened her mouth, she said the first things that came to mind.
“Because,” she breathed. “You're the only person left who understands me. If I leave ... then I'll be all alone.”
The tears couldn't be stopped then and she fell into a lounge chair. She held the coke mirror in one hand and used the other to cover her face. God, she felt like an idiot, crying in front of someone like Landon. She certainly hadn't wanted to, hadn't planned on it.
But what she'd said ... what an awful thought. She'd rather be with this horrible human being than be alone? How sad was that? How awful was she? Did she really have no identity beyond her friends and Liam?
She hadn't cried much since she'd tried to quit her job, and all of it poured out of her now. The stress and the depression and the self-loathing. She hunched over and she sobbed into her palm, wishing she was anywhere else. Wishing she was someone else.
She was surprised when she felt him grabbing her arm and yanking her to her feet, then downright shocked when he knocked the mirror out of her hand. She looked just in time to see his precious habit hit the ground and scatter, the mirror breaking into tiny pieces. He didn't seem to care, though. Didn't even notice. Instead he hauled her up against him and let her cry into his chest.
“My brother's an idiot,” he sighed, and she cried even harder.
“He's not, I am,” she replied.
“You both are,” he said in his blunt manner, and she actually laughed a little. “He missed out on a great girl, and you set your heart on a guy who's an idiot.”
“I know,” she whispered, taking deep shuddering breaths and trying to calm down. “I know all that, I really do. It just ... it hurts, you know? To not feel good enough.”
He chuckled, and she was surprised to feel his hand on the back of her head, his fingers gently massaging her scalp.
“You wanna know what's worse?”
“What?”
“Not being good enough,” he told her. “He may be an idiot, but I'm human garbage. Don't even think about setting your heart on me.”
“Jesus,” she groaned. “Don't worry, I won't.”
“You're not as bad as I thought you'd be,” he whispered in her ear. Ridiculously, she felt like crying again. Instead, though, she wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.
“Neither are you,” she whispered back. “I'm sorry I wasted all your coke.”
“Don't be, it belonged to that girl.”
She started laughing again and she didn't stop until he'd tucked them both into bed.
8
Landon realized he spent a lot of time staring at Tori. Before, it had been purely for aesthetic reasons. The chick was hot. If someone ever asked him to make a sculpture of sex, he'd use Tori's body as the mold. She was incredible, he didn't think he'd ever get tired of looking at her.
As time passed, though, it had less and less to do with her looks, and more to do with the person. She smiled a lot when she was with other people, and he was growing to like her smiles. The sound of her laughter. He also liked that he was now able to read beyond the smiles and know which ones were fake, and which ones were real. That he could now see how sometimes she was smiling when really she was hurting.
She reminded him a lot of Liam, actually. His twin put on a smiling, happy front all the time. No matter what was going on in Liam's life, he tried to make everyone around him feel comfortable and happy. Often at his own expense and to his own detriment. Tori was much the same way. She helped her friends and her coworkers and her boss, often relegating herself to a back burner.
It was how she'd ended up in her current predicament, after all. Taking care of her friend Katya and respecting her relationship with Liam. Then respecting Liam as a boss and a man involved with other females. Hell, even being with Landon was more of the same – she put up with his bullshit and his moodiness, for no other reason than that she thought he deserved some niceness in his life.
Yeah, okay, but who was nice to Tori? Sure, her friends all adored her and were nice to her, but none of them were there. They were too busy with their own lives. Katya was getting married, she had a wedding to plan, and Liam was at the beginning of a brand new relationship – his first ever real relationship. He couldn't deal with a sad, lonely girl right now.
Landon had learned all those things from staring at her. Observing her. Watching her as she made phone calls and checked in with everyone. Noticing how she always steered the conversations back to her friends' lives, helping them through their issues while not burdening them with her own.
“You should tell her you're here,” he commented the next morning, after she'd gotten off the phone with Katya.
“Jesus, I didn't even know you were awake,” Tori gasped, pressing her hand to her chest.
“How could I not be? You're on the phone two fucking feet away from me.”
They were still in bed. It had been early when they'd crawled between the sheets, but she'd been worn out from the day and from her emotions. She'd fallen asleep quickly.
Landon, on the other hand, had spent most of the night staring at her.
“Sorry,” she winced. “She hasn't caught onto the time difference yet, it's like ten at night there.”
“You should tell her you're here,” he said it again, rolling onto his side so he could face her. “Tell her what's going on, explain how upset you are.”
She frowned and kept looking straight up.
“No, she has a million things on her mind. She just started her new business, and now she has a wedding to plan. This isn't the time to be her pathetic, sad, jilted friend.”
“I'm sorry, is there ever a good time to be that?” he asked. “If she's your fucking friend, she won't care about the other stuff. You listen to all her bullshit – let her return the favor.”
She finally turned her head and looked at him.
“You're just trying to unload me on someone else,” she joked.
“Obviously. Crying chicks aren't as hot as you'd think,” he said, and he was glad when she laughed.
“No, probably not,” she snickered as she wiped at her under eyes.
It was a little after seven in the morning, the sun had just risen. He was exhausted, and by the looks of it, so was she. Normally, he'd get up and go for a run. Score some more blow. Start his day off. But their night was weighing heavy on him. Some how, some way, this girl had become more than a tool he could use for sex and personal gain. She'd become a person. Someone he actually related to a little. He took a deep breath.
“I don't want you sleeping with anyone else,” he said, his voice more stern than he'd intended. She seemed a little startled as she looked back at him.
“Excuse me?”
“That guy last night,” he continued on. “I didn't like it.”
“You were with that girl the -”
“I didn't like it,” he stressed. “I think ... this is our time together. As fucked up and awful and weird as it is, that's how it is. Just the two of us.”
She was silent for a long time, then she turned onto her side, as well.
“I didn't like it when you talked to the blonde,” she informed him. A grin spread across his face.
“I knew you were fucking jealous.”
“What's that saying about a pot and a kettle and wearing black?”
“Shut up,” he said. “So we have a deal. While we're here, I'll stop picking up random chicks, and you don't get to fuck random football players.”
“I wasn't ever going to fuck – wa
it a minute, how many chicks have you picked up!?”
He cleared his throat.
“Do we have a deal?” he asked, then laughed when she stuck out her hand so he could shake it.
“Deal. I won't do what I already wasn't doing, and you'll stop being an asshole,” she agreed. He snorted and grabbed her wrist, yanking her across the mattress and into him.
“You know what's the most annoying thing about you?” he started as he reached around her and deftly unhooked her bra. “You're actually pretty likable.”
“I know. Want to know what's the most annoying thing about you?” she returned his question, then obediently lifted her arms so he could pull off her top.
“No.”
“You snore,” she continued, helping him as he shoved and prodded at her shorts, forcing them down her legs.
“Can't snore if I don't sleep,” he pointed out, pulling her on top of him so she was straddling his hips.
“You sleep, Dr. Edenhoff. Tiny little cat naps, when you think no one's watching,” she informed him, helping him to sit up and take off his own shirt.
“I love it when you call me doctor,” he sighed. “Make sure to yell it loud enough for the people in the next room to hear.”
“You got it, doc.”
TORI CHEWED AT THE edge of her nail and stared at Landon's back. They were walking down a crowded street, surrounded by tourists from all over the world. She was getting bumped and shoved from every direction. Without looking behind him, he reached back with his hand, and she gratefully took it in her own, letting him guide her.
Aaaaand now we're holding hands, technically. What the fuck is going on!?
It was a question she'd been asking herself over and over for the past twenty-four hours.
After her bizarre meltdown on the balcony, Landon had been surprisingly nice to her and had put her to bed. Then in the morning he'd been downright charming. It had almost been unnerving. He'd admitted to being jealous, then had said he didn't want her sleeping with anyone else while she was with him. Promised he wouldn't sleep with anyone else, either. Then they'd had sex, and it hadn't had any of the characteristic roughness of their other trysts. It had almost been ... sweet.
Neighborhood Watch Page 9
