“So, is this how you guys spend most of your weekends?”
“Pretty much, I guess. I love fighting. The partying and women just comes with it. I used to think it was a pretty good life,” he confessed.
“Used to?” I questioned.
“Yeah. Until you. Most of the girls I know will fuck you for a Bacardi and Coke. Taking what they were offering never seemed wrong before, but when I offered to walk you home, you looked at me like shit. Made me see how my life looks to you.”
I didn’t know what to say. Sure, I hated the way that women threw themselves at him and the partying definitely wasn’t me, but who was I to judge? My own life was too fucked up to allow me to judge anyone else’s.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be judgemental. I’m not used to it, that’s all. It was a shock. But given that half the stuff I saw tonight was a complete eye opener, I think I’d be better off sticking to what’s safe from now on.”
“You know safe is boring, sunshine.” O’Connell smiled with his trademark, sex appeal grin and not the genuine one that made me tingle.
“Perhaps,” I replied sadly, “but boring is still safe.”
When we made it to my apartment block, I opened the main entrance door and without even thinking about it allowed him to walk me to my door. Letting myself in, I leant against the doorframe to say goodbye.
“Thanks for walking me home,” I told him.
“You’re welcome,” he replied, tucking one of my curls behind my ear. It was so beautifully intimate, that I had to steel myself not to close my eyes as his touch grazed my cheek.
“I’m sorry I fucked up tonight. I would have liked hanging out with you,” he told me, sadly.
“I would have liked that, too,” I replied. “It’s probably for the best, though,” I admitted painfully. “The drinking and partying isn’t me. I couldn’t give you what those girls do, not even close. I’d go from a novelty to a bore in the space of one evening.”
“You really have no idea, do you?” He chuckled. I said nothing, having no clue what he was talking about.
“You know I’ll make it up to you. Turns out that I’m as shit at this whole friends thing as you are, but I’d like to have another crack at it.” His swagger was back now with renewed enthusiasm and his optimism that we could ever be friends was infectious.
“You think its possible then?” I asked.
“What…that we can be friends? Hell yeah, baby. Course that doesn’t mean I won’t try my best to make you fall in love with me, too,” he joked.
“Don’t worry, I’m fairly immune to your charm,” I quipped.
I could see that he was itching to volley with a sleazy comeback, but he really was reining it in. Maybe he was serious about being friends. I worried that I would spend half my time with O’Connell wanting more, but wouldn’t I be doing that anyway, even if he weren’t with me? Despite his cocky charm, there was no way I was letting myself falling in love with this man. I really didn’t think that my heart could take the beating.
“You working at the cafe tomorrow?” he asked.
“Uh, huh. The early shift,” I replied. “Why?”
“No reason. I might develop a sudden urge for a fried breakfast, though.” I grinned at the thought of seeing him tomorrow and cursed myself for being so obvious. I literally had no game face.
“Goodnight,” he murmured, and in the sweetest move ever, leant forward and gently kissed my cheek.
“Goodnight,” I whispered back. I closed my door as he strode down the hall and banged my head back against it. So much for not falling for him. I was absolutely fucked.
Work the next morning was a double-edged sword. I’d been used to enough late mornings and warm nights hunched over the computer in my office, that I’d become spoilt. Having to get up at the crack of dawn and drag myself through the icy streets in my thin shoes was brutal. The double edge to the sword was the delicious anticipation of seeing O’Connell again. I was so busy cleaning my station, I didn’t even realise he was there until he was right behind me.
“Good morning, sunshine.” I felt his breath, warm against my neck, as he whispered his greeting into my ear. He was so close behind me that a fraction closer and his lips would have been touching my skin. The slightest scent of his aftershave lingered, and my stomach clenched with excitement. I turned around to face him.
“Good morning, yourself.”
“You’re getting better, you know,” he pointed out.
“Better?” I asked.
“Yeah. Not too long ago, you’d have jumped a mile if I’d crept up on you like that, but today you didn’t flinch.”
“Well, I’m kind of getting used to having you man giants around,” I replied with a grin as O’Connell slid into a booth.
“Boo,” a second voice behind me said over my shoulder.
This time I did jump a mile and turned around just in time to smack Kieran on the arm.
“Arsehole,” I muttered as I hit him.
“Ow,” he moaned, rubbing his arm as he sat across from O’Connell.
“How come he gets the smile, and I’m the arsehole,” he moaned.
“Because he warned me that he was coming,” I replied.
It was somewhat true, but I didn’t think I was brave enough to confess that I’d been watching and waiting for O’Connell all morning. Even now, the sight of him in worn jeans and a crisp, clean white t-shirt, that hugged his biceps like a second skin, made me hungry with a craving I wouldn’t satisfy. Every woman in the cafe, young or old, looked his way. I saw them surreptitiously stealing glances at him as he watched me, and why wouldn’t they? At six-foot-five of solid muscle, he was easily the biggest man in here, but it was more than that. He was the embodiment of everything that women wanted but didn’t know they were looking for. He was big enough to protect, but dangerous enough that it was a turn on. His raw masculinity triggered the release of an unfettered string of pheromones wherever he went. Even just taking his order, I was barely holding it together, and I was betting that there was more than one girl around here whose knickers were wet just from watching him. That didn’t mean Kieran wasn’t gorgeous as well. That boy had a killer body, and a great personality to go with it, but it was the danger that drew women to O’Connell. Those beautiful, scarred and calloused hands could break a man, and the thought that he could do that to protect me made something inside me melt. It felt like everyone’s eyes were on us both, and I began to panic. I didn’t want to be invisible anymore, but I couldn’t be in O’Connell’s limelight, either, and there seemed to be no happy medium. If I couldn’t stay a ghost, or at least hidden in the shadows, how long would it be before Frank found me? It was a sobering thought, but just because I couldn’t act on my feelings for O’Connell didn’t stop me from having them.
I looked up to see both the boys staring at me, and I had the feeling that I’d just missed something.
“What can I get you both for breakfast?” I asked.
“Whatever takes care of this hangover and stops me from feeling like shite,” Kieran groaned as he laid his head down across his arms that were resting on the table.
“One coffee coming up.” I chuckled.
“I’ll have a full fried breakfast with everything, please, sunshine,” beamed O’Connell.
“Ah, I think I’m gonna puke,” moaned the muffled voice from the table. I smiled as I walked off to put in their order, and when I returned with their food and coffee, Kieran was still looking green.
“Seriously, mate,” he complained to O’Connell.
“I’m about two minutes from puking my guts up, and you’re gonna eat that shite in front of me?”
“First off, you followed me here. You could’ve kept your sorry arse in bed. Second, what the fuck did you think I was gonna be eating when I told you we were coming to Daisy’s, and third, it’s not shite. Daisy’s makes the best breakfast in the world. It’s not my fault you can’t handle your drink.”
“Fuck off.” Kiera
n grinned. “You practically dragged me here, and if you’d come back last night instead of leaving me hanging, then you’d be feeling like shite, too,” he complained.
“You didn’t go back to the party?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“I’m turning over a new leaf, sunshine. No more getting wasted, and no more fucking random strangers.”
My jaw dropped as Kieran raised his head with a, “What. The. Fuck.”
“I’m serious, Kier. It makes a nice change to be eating breakfast and training without a raging hangover. I could get used to it.”
Kieran looked up at me with a mixture of wonder and disbelief.
“Well, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the reason for this one-eighty, but how far are we talking here? No parties and t-total?”
“Parties are okay, just not so many of ‘em, and I’m not a fucking monk, so a drink now and then is alright. I just don’t want to get wasted anymore. Anyway, what are you so pissed for? It’s me who’ll be doing it.”
“What’s the point in partying, if you’re not gonna do it with me?”
O’Connell just grinned at him as he carried on attacking his breakfast with gusto. Kieran laid his head back down on the table, honestly looking like he was about to be sick at any minute.
“Drink your coffee, Kieran,” I urged. “It will make you feel better.”
I didn’t know if I was smiling because he was endearing or because of O’Connell’s resolution, but I was feeling better than I had since before the party.
“Promise?” Kieran asked in his little boy voice.
O’Connell stopped stock still with his knife and fork suspended in mid-air and muttered a quiet, “Fuck,” as he stared behind me. The slut from last night was strolling bold as brass down the aisle toward my section, like some kind of catwalk model strutting down a runway, wearing exactly the same outfit that she’d had on last night. As she brushed past me, I was the invisible I’d always wanted to be. All the sick feelings from last night came rushing back as sadness and inadequacy pressed down on me. She slid into the booth next to O’Connell and ran her manicured hand up and down the inside of his thigh.
“Hey, baby,” she purred. “I was hoping I’d run into you.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
It was Kieran, spluttering with rage, who challenged her. O’Connell looked as sick as a pig and was staring at me like he was waiting for my reaction. The slut completely ignored Kieran as she spoke, still stroking his thigh.
“So... you left last night, and I realised that I’d completely forgotten to give you my phone number and email.”
As she artfully pulled a slip of paper from shorts that looked vacuum-sealed to her arse, O’Connell seemed to snap out of his trance.
“I told you last night I wasn’t interested.”
She smiled sexily at him, completely unfazed.
“After the way we connected, there’s no way that you aren’t coming back to finish what we started.”
“I’m not gonna say this again, so let me make myself perfectly clear. I don’t care if you can suck the brass off a doorknob. I’m not interested. If you want more than I was offering, there are plenty of boys out there who’d be happy to help.”
Although O’Connell was brushing her off, I still empathised with how sick Kieran was feeling. The slut’s expression morphed into one of rage, making her attractive face instantly ugly, and I could sense from the tension that she was spoiling for a fight. Finally noticing me, she snapped.
“What the fuck are you looking at? The service around here is shit, and I have a good mind to complain to your manager that you were eavesdropping on my conversation. Now get your shit together and pour me some coffee.”
O’Connell’s jaw was grinding in temper, and I could tell from Kieran’s body language that he wasn’t fairing much better. O’Connell placed his huge hand gently over mine as I poured the coffee shakily.
“Do you think you could bring us some more toast, please, sunshine,” he asked gently.
I nodded grimly in response, feeling like crap after the way she’d spoken to me. As soon as I was halfway to the kitchen, I heard O’Connell’s voice low and menacing.
“Listen, bitch. You don’t even get to fucking talk to her. She’s worth a thousand of bitches like you, and if you get up in her face like that again, you’ll wish we’d never fucking met. Now get fuck off out of my booth so I can finish my breakfast.”
“Fine,” she spluttered, “but you won’t settle for some frumpy little waitress for long. You need someone like me, O’Connell. You’ll be back, and you’d just better hope I’m still waiting.”
I couldn’t hear O’Connell’s response as I got to the kitchen and went through the motions of making another round of toast, but his defence touched me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had anybody in my corner like that, and in the space of one conversation, I’d gone from feeling terrible to being on top of the world. O’Connell had become my emotional rollercoaster, and I wasn’t ready to get off the ride. I walked back to their table with the toast, apprehensive of the fallout, but whatever the boys said had worked. She was gone. I placed the toast down on the table as Kieran gave me a tight smile.
“I’m sorry about that,” O’Connell apologised.
“No problem. She seemed nice,” I replied.
Both boys burst out laughing, probably relieved that I wasn’t crying in the corner somewhere, but I was stronger than that. Her insults hurt and damaged my fragile ego, but I’d been abused far worse than that for a long time.
“She’s a bitch, and I’m sorry for bringing my shit to your work.”
I nodded to let them both know that I was okay, but deep down I knew she was right. O’Connell might be my friend, but I couldn’t hold his interest forever. Eventually, he’d go back. Maybe not to her, but to someone like her. That was just the way the world worked.
I WAS WALKING ACROSS CAMPUS, with an armful of textbooks, when I heard a crazy voice scream, “Emmmm... wait up!”
Running toward me, like a penguin on speed, was Nikki.
“Jesus. You can certainly tank it when you want to. I’ve been chasing you forever.”
“Sorry, I was in a world of my own.” That was a scary thought in itself. Spatial awareness was usually my speciality.
“Here.” She thrust a coffee at me. “It’s a peace offering for dumping you the other night.”
“You didn’t need to do that. I didn’t need a babysitter you know,” I replied.
“I know, but I talked you into going. I should have been your wingman.”
“You’re right.” I grinned. “You’re fired as my chaperone, but lucky for you, there’s a job open as my personal stylist.”
“I’ll take it,” she said, shoulder bumping me.
“So, now we’ve established that I’m forgiven, it’s time to spill the beans on Hottie McTottie.”
I laughed at her nickname for O’Connell.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I teased.
“Girl, you know exactly who I’m talking about. If that boy was any hotter, you could fry eggs on his six pack,” she retorted.
“It’s more like an eight pack really,” I sighed, and this did make her stare.
“And you’ve seen him without his top off how?”
“It’s not what you’re thinking. He’s a boxer at the gym I work at.”
“I thought you were a waitress?” she asked, clearly confused.
“I am. The gym is my second job,” I replied.
“Well, I’d say you were working too hard, but I can see where you get the motivation.”
I grinned and shook my head as we carried on walking, not keen to pursue the subject, but not denying what she said either.
“So, what’s his name, and how have you not jumped him yet?” she persisted.
“His name is Cormac O’Connell, and even if I wasn’t looking to avoid any kind of relationship right now, he’s out of
my league,” I answered reluctantly.
“Em, just because his packaging is pretty doesn’t mean that his chocolate tastes any sweeter than yours.”
I burst out laughing at her analogy. O’Connell was totally like chocolate. One bite and you were totally addicted, but any more than a little occasionally was bad for you.
“So, what happened after he walked you home,” she enquired.
“Nothing,” I protested.
“He just made sure I got home safely, that’s all. He really isn’t interested in me like that.”
“Oh, my dear Em,” she sighed dramatically. “You really are clueless, aren’t you? No boy leaves a party where he has hot girls on tap and an unlimited supply of free beer, to walk a co-worker home based on a sense of duty and platonic friendship. I’m telling you, that boy wants a slice of your pie.”
I was glad that I’d swallowed my sip of coffee, or I’d have spat it all over Nikki by now.
“Thanks, Nikki, but I’m pretty sure you’re wrong. He almost had sex with another girl at the party.”
“Almost?”
“Well.... he said that he couldn’t go through with it and blew her off.”
“I see, and where were you when all this was happening?”
“I was talking to Albie and some of his friends.”
“Did he see you with Albie?” she enquired.
“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“Then I’m betting that he was trying to make you jealous but couldn’t go through with it.”
“That’s pretty much what he said,” I revealed reluctantly.
“And you still don’t think that he’s into you?”
“Even if by some miracle he was, you should have seen the girl he was with. There’s no competition.”
She wrapped her arm around my shoulders and smiled.
“Come, my young padawan friend. You have a lot to learn, but in time I will show you the ways of the force.”
“Nikki?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re a little bit geeky, aren’t you?”
The Hurricane Page 7
