by Rica Grayson
The tips of my fingers just barely met the curve of the can.
I landed back on my heels, annoyed.
“I got it,” Luke said from behind me. His voice washed over me, like cool water to my veins. To my surprise, he was so close, my back brushed over his arm.
He reached over and grabbed one effortlessly and held it out to me. “How many do you want?”
Show-off.
“Two more. Thanks.”
I didn’t understand myself.
It was as if I couldn’t relax around him anymore.
He placed each one on a free shelf-space, and I took them, dropping each one in my basket.
“Need anything else?” he asked.
Look at him, now back and ever-so-helpful.
“I’m good. Thanks,” I said, smiling and hoping it didn’t look stiff. I was speed-walking all the way to the counter with my basket, putting things out at rapid clip.
It felt like everything between us was so new again, and I was trying to wrap my head around where we now stood.
“Sierra,” he called out. “You forgot one.”
He was smirking at me, even though he was trying his damnedest to conceal it.
Ass.
I packed away the things I bought from the grocery and prepared for my dentist appointment. In my haste, I wasn’t looking to see who was in my way.
“Whoa.”
I pulled the door closed in a hurry and crashed into something hard.
Ow. My shoulders hurt. Warm hands settled on the low of my back.
I groaned. Why was this happening now?
I tilted my head up, and I was met with deep brown, concerned eyes. Wow.
Why hadn’t I noticed them before? The way their shade reflected in the light, and their incredible depth.
His lips moved. But my gaze went back to his eyes, as if I were seeing them for the first time.
Suddenly, he shook my shoulders lightly.
“Sierra, you okay?” I finally heard him say.
I just nodded. We’d been pleasantly cordial which each other, but things had changed between us, and I didn’t want to ruffle the delicate balance.
“You need to start practicing some balance,” he said, a grin forming. “Somehow, you’re nearly always falling over when we meet.”
…And cordial was thrown out the window in ten seconds flat.
“Are you calling me a klutz?”
He smiled wider. “It was just an observation.”
“I don’t always fall over,” I argued.
“You look a little pale. Going to your death sentence?”
Oh crap. I had to go.
“May as well be. Kate’s going to kill me. I have an appointment with her in—” I looked at my phone “—ten minutes… ago.”
I gave him a wave and ran down.
The sooner I could get there, the sooner it was going to be over.
“It’s okay, Sierra,” Kate said soothingly, sensing my panic. “I knew this would happen. I had you penciled in twenty minutes after the time we told you.”
You tricked me, I wanted to tell her but it ended up as, “Ou theeugh ngeuh.”
“Quiet,” she said. “This will be over soon.”
Dentist appointments were a necessity, but they were the bane of my existence. They were really uncomfortable. They always had strange tools they were trying to drill into my teeth. What happened if one of them accidentally snapped?
“Ahh ee on eh?”
Are we done yet?
“No. Shh.”
I’d done this so many times, by now she could understand my teethalian perfectly well.
The weird machine was still working on my teeth.
Dear God, when will this torture be over?
“Ahh ee—”
“No. Shut up, Sierra. I’m doing my work.”
Her assistant held the suction faithfully underneath my tongue without a word. I heard her snicker.
Relief washed through me when the dental torture instrument stopped.
Yay machine brushing part. This was my favorite, because it probably wouldn’t snap my teeth. Probably.
I couldn’t jump out of the seat fast enough when it was done.
Kate rolled her eyes, smiling. “There, done. Fast and painless.”
“I don’t know about painless…”
“If you were in pain, I’d know.”
“Not very comforting,” I told her.
After I paid, I found her looking at me.
She hesitated before she asked, “Word has it you’re talking to Luke again?”
“Not really,” I replied, frowning. “Well, kind of. But not really.”
She dropped her clipboard back on the table. The sound made me jerk back a little. “Well, which is it?” she asked, perplexed.
“We’ve talked, but it’s different now. Things are a little strained. Maybe it’s just me. I can’t really explain why. It’s like… like we’re back at square one.”
I was drawing circles with a finger around a smiley sticker on her desk.
She looked thoughtful for a minute. “I think I understand. I guess he has to work for it all again, in a sense. Just… be careful okay? You’ve both had a rocky start.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her. “I won’t let him get to me anymore.”
“Just keep yourself on your toes, is all. Well, thanks for being a good patient.”
Good patient. Ha.
“You say that every time,” I called out in reply before I let the door shut.
And as I climbed up the stairs, I noticed that there was a small swirly lollipop stuck to my door in tape.
Like a kid that came back from the dentist. I unstuck it from my door, unable to help a smile from forming. And I thought maybe he was trying to make up for the falling over comment.
Maybe.
Chapter Thirteen
Charlie
This was it.
The last straw for today.
My laptop was on the last stages of its long and useful life.
I had tried to prolong its life as much as I could. Still, I knew this day was coming. It was becoming slow and outdated.
The screen turned black.
I slapped it a couple of times for good measure.
Nope, not turning on.
It was already plugged in too. I pressed my forehead on the table.
I backed everything up regularly anticipating this day. It had been a gift from Eva several years ago, and the thought of not hearing that chime on start-up anymore made me sad.
It was my baby. I even named her Charlie and she got the rough treatment, because I didn’t really know any other way.
Still, my livelihood relied on a fast, functional machine, and of course this was what I got for being stupidly stubborn.
I resorted to my phone instead for quick admin tasks, but I needed to buy a new laptop tomorrow.
I felt like a zombie today, running on a little less than five hours of sleep last night.
Today, a client called, and I needed to redo a cover.
By midday, the router stopped working. Resetting it didn’t work, and I was on the phone for an hour before the issue was resolved.
I went to the gym after that, got home and went back to work, then my laptop screen froze on me.
That was when I smelled barbecue cooking next door. It was mouth-watering, and looking at the clock, I realized I’d skipped lunch.
I managed to make fried chicken, and with the first bite, I couldn’t help but feel that it paled in comparison to that barbecue.
Briefly, I wondered if he was cooking for someone.
I quickly brushed that thought aside. It was none of my business.
I decided I was going to the Denvers’ for dinner, because that delicious barbecue grilling next door was driving me crazy.
I was out the door in ten minutes. When I turned around, I saw Luke pocketing his wallet.
We both stopped in front of our doors, our eyes me
eting. It felt like a current had passed between us.
“Hi,” I said cautiously.
“Hey,” he said mildly. “Going out?”
“Dinner.”
He frowned, pausing. “You haven’t had dinner yet?”
“Tried. Failed. Moving on,” I said, waving a hand.
He paused for all of a second before he said, “You can come over for some barbecue, if you like.”
God, who says no to barbecue? Damn this man.
Still though, if he was cooking for someone else…
“I don’t want to intrude,” I said cautiously. Moment of truth. Maybe he was with someone.
“Not intruding on anything,” he said, but a smile on his face let me know he knew what I was thinking.
“Oh.”
“Was just going to buy a couple of things. Meet here in ten?”
“Is there some kind of party?” I asked, kind of shocked at the amount of food spread around his table. For someone who lived alone, it was a little too much.
There was salad, and there were some bread rolls too.
“No parties.”
He set down a plastic bag that contained a liter of juice and coke.
“Don’t tell me you were going to eat this all.”
“I don’t have time to cook all the time, so I made some in advance,” he said.
“Cool.”
He grabbed a plate and some cutlery and passed them to me.
“Thanks. I heard your aunt the other day, by the way. She seems charming.”
He groaned. “She hates this place. Thinks it’s a dump.”
I plated some chicken and looked around.
“It looks fine to me.”
It didn’t have a lot of clutter, and there was a decent amount of space. It wasn’t bad at all, as far as apartments were concerned.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I sat down in a chair I’d pulled out from the table. Finally, a break.
“Bad day?” he asked.
“Internet problems. Charlie died,” I lamented. “I could sleep for a week. I hate this day.”
“Charlie?”
“My trusty, kickass laptop.”
He grinned, sitting down beside me. “You named your laptop Charlie?”
“What’s wrong with Charlie?”
He didn’t say anything, he just shrugged a shoulder.
“Charlie is a perfectly respectable name,” I told him.
He chuckled. “I didn’t say anything.”
“She did everything I wanted her to do.”
“I’m sure she was a good girl,” he replied, trying not laugh.
Which reminded me… “I seem to remember someone telling me they’ll do anything I want when I won a certain bet.”
“I’m all yours, sweetheart.”
I felt my cheeks get hot.
“You don’t even know what I’m going to have you do! I could make you run naked around the street.”
“Yeah?” he said, leaning back on the chair.
“I could even make you sing ‘Single Ladies’ in a onesie. Your future is in my hands,” I told him, trying to keep my expression serious.
Laughter rumbled in his chest. It sounded rough, like he hadn’t done it in a while. Just what the hell happened to him?
“I needed that,” he said when he sobered, and his eyes were on me. “I needed you.”
I gaped at him, speechless. Who said things like that?
My heart was doing that thing again, like it was doing jumping jacks.
When in doubt, talk about something else.
“Your barbecue is really good,” I said, taking a bite.
“Bread-roll.”
Shit.
“It’s currently on sale for two fifty.”
“Shut up.”
And I decided then, maybe a little grudgingly, that I liked the sound of his laugh.
“Zip it.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Wes said, clearly amused.
I was walking back to get sunglasses that I’d forgotten from my apartment, when I found it sitting right on my doorstep. A white, medium-sized box.
I rolled my eyes. “You were going to.”
“Maybe.”
My name was on it, written neatly in a black Sharpie. That meant it wasn’t delivered to me by mail. I glanced at Luke’s door, and then met Wes’ eyes.
I cut the tape as soon as we went in and opened the box. Wes followed behind me.
A familiar logo stared back at me. I flipped the box around. I might’ve weeped a little inside.
A new laptop.
Okay… What the heck was going on?
Wes whistled behind me when he saw what I held.
I’d only told two people about Charlie, one who lived next door to me, and Eva, but I’d only mentioned it earlier today.
It was sweet. But it was still too much.
I knocked on his door and waited.
No response.
I did it once more just in case, but still nothing.
I put my shades on, and went downstairs, where Wes was waiting. I’d just have to catch Luke later.
We stopped by a cliffy area, the perfect spot for the shots I had in mind.
I snapped a few pictures of Wes’s silhouette in the sun for a good ten minutes.
I’d meant to do this the other day, but then Luke happened.
“Done?” he asked.
“There. Perfect. Thanks!” I said as I browsed through my shots.
I put my camera back in the car and we grabbed lunch quickly after.
“Are you and Luke together?” he asked curiously as he unwrapped his sandwich.
“Nope,” I replied, casually browsing through my email.
“He’s sending you presents.”
“Present. That was the first time.”
“Is he bothering you?” he said, his expression turning serious. “I can always give a warning or some shit.”
“Thanks, but I can handle him. Anyway, enough about me. How are you and Amy?” I nudged him with a shoulder.
His expression changed completely, nearly forming a scowl. “We’re fine.”
“Still not on good terms?”
“Why do women have to be so complicated?”
“Ouch.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, I know she’s hiding something. But she’s keeping it all to herself. I want to help her.”
I could hear the frustration in his voice.
“Just let her know you’re there,” I encouraged. “Consistency is everything.”
I stared at the number on my fridge when I got home. I dragged the devil-horn magnet so the number was eye-level from me. I put my hands on my hips and took a deep breath. I could do this.
I grabbed my phone from the counter, dialed his number and waited.
He answered on the third ring.
“Luke, it’s—”
“Sierra,” his voice washed over me. “You found my number.”
I rolled my eyes and leaned back on my counter. “Ha ha.”
“How are you?”
I found myself wanting to tell him everything about my day. When did that happen?
“Much better than yesterday, thanks. No router problems.” I waited a beat and added, “So, there was a box in front of my door today.”
“Okay,” he replied noncommittally.
“Luke, I can’t accept it.”
“Yes, you can. You say ‘thank you’.”
“Thank you, but it’s too much.”
“You’re welcome.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You—you can’t just give me things because you feel like it.”
“Why? It’s my money.”
Ugh. “You’re impossible.”
“Does that mean you’re accepting it?”
“No.”
I heard him mutter something that sounded like a curse. “We’ll talk about this when I get home,” he said.
“Fine by me,” I replied.
I heard it, the moment he parked his car.
I hugged the box to my chest and walked out, waiting for him.
He saw me and raised a brow, but he didn’t say a word.
When he opened his door, I followed him in.
I heard him sigh.
“I’m dropping this off,” I told him, bending down to place it on his couch.
Then his hand was on my arm, stopping me.
“Sierra, take it. It’s no big deal.” He sounded weary.
“I don’t like owing people,” I explained. “And I was going to buy one today anyway.”
“You don’t owe me anything. You’re off the hook,” he said simply. “I wanted to do it for you.”
“This is… I know it must’ve cost you a lot.” Suddenly, I was feeling oddly vulnerable.
He lifted my chin up gently with a finger. “Did it make you happy?”
Startled, my lips parted at hearing the question, his soft gaze focused on me. I couldn’t remember the last time a guy took my happiness into account before anything else. This person, who I barely knew, probably had little in common with, and had disagreements with too many times to count, cared enough about me to ask. And that touched me so deeply, I was too stunned to speak.
“Are you crying?” he asked, surprise touching his expression.
“No,” I finally said, horrified to find my face wet from tears. “This… dust.”
I sniffed.
I heard him chuckle, and he pressed my head so it was resting against his chest.
“I take it it made you happy,” he murmured, and I felt the sincerity of his words.
I closed my eyes, letting it go for the moment.
“It made me happy,” I said quietly. “Thank you.”
Chapter Fourteen
The Best Laid Plans
I was hanging the second dangling earring on my ear.
There. Done.
I wore a black and silver dress that hugged me perfectly, the black material going low and parting at my cleavage. The shimmery silver half ended just above my knees.
I twisted my hair up and pinned it, letting a few tendrils of hair down, some touching my neck.
I was already looking forward to letting loose and having fun. This was Sherry’s day.
