Mouth agape, I watched him squeeze past the numerous couples who were busy greeting in their own new year. It was like a scene out of a horrible rom-com, only I wasn’t laughing. As if in slow motion, I watched Jesse’s retreating figure disappear behind a couple who looked as if they were digging for gold in each other’s mouths. The music began to fade, only becoming a low buzzing in my ears. Everyone’s movements slowed as if trapped in an eternal strobe light.
“Hey, are you okay?”
All at once the music picked right back up, snapping me out of my daze.
“Are you okay?” Stephanie repeated, reaching out to squeeze my arm. “I…um…saw what happened.”
The numbness quickly left my body. As if I was frozen and immediately defrosted, the humiliation hit me tenfold.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” I brought my fingertips up to my cheeks and began to shake. “Oh my God! Did I really just do that? Did I really just kiss Jesse?” My voice squeaked, sounding like a little mouse.
“Um, maybe you can blame the alcohol?” Stephanie suggested.
“How could I when I basically spilled half my drink on my shirt!” I wailed.
Stephanie lifted her eyebrow. “Um, yeah, I see the stain on my shirt.”
I couldn’t even dignify her comment with a response. I was too caught up in my own personal soap opera. “What did I do? Why did I do that? Why?”
“New year, new you?” she offered weakly.
Eyes still wide and shook my head as quickly as a jack rabbit.
My friend’s mouth scrunched up towards the side. “It’s something you wanted to do for a long time, right?”
My mouth wide open in shock, I nodded.
“Well, I guess you just couldn’t take it anymore and finally did it.”
“But…but…”
“And by the way, he was practically sexing you on the dancefloor; I’d say you had a pretty good excuse as to why you’d think it was okay.”
I shut my mouth. My pulse began to slow and my breaths evened out. “So it wasn’t just me? I mean, I wasn’t imagining his…um…dancing?”
“Nope. I was right here and I saw everything.” Stephanie sighed and grabbed my hand. “C’mon, let’s go home. I’ve had enough of this scene and by the looks of it, you have too.”
“What about your guy?”
“What guy?”
I pointed to the exotic man who was watching us curiously. “Him.”
Stephanie glanced over her shoulder and threw him a quick wave. “Oh, him. Eh, he was a good first kiss of the year, but I have someone waiting at home.”
“Who?”
Just then Stephanie’s phone buzzed, illuminating the fabric by her breast. Like a child on Christmas morning, her eyes lit up as she plucked her smartphone from the band of her bra. She giggled and typed a response back before flipping the phone around to show me. “Him.”
“Daniel? You’re still on that kick? That was so high school!”
Stephanie placed the phone back into its hiding place and looked at me with solemn eyes. “I know someone else who is.”
Chapter 10
I thanked the heavens that Dad decided to close the store for New Year’s Day. I didn’t know what I’d do if I had to face Jesse so soon after the kiss. Opting to lock myself in Stephanie’s apartment all day, I threw the covers over my head and tried my best to ignore the clatter in the kitchen.
“Would you just get over yourself and get down here for breakfast?” she called.
“How do you expect me to eat when I just made the most mortifying mistake of my life?”
Stephanie walked into the guest bedroom and shoved a piece of toast under my nose. “Eat.”
I pushed myself up and grabbed the piece of bread, taking a huge chunk out of it. “There. Happy?” I asked with a full mouth, purposely spitting out crumbs.
“Ecstatic.” She took a seat beside me and brought her eyebrows together.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” she asked innocently.
I freed myself from the covers and flung my legs over the side of the bed. “Like you feel sorry for me. Like I’m a stray dog stuck in the rain.”
“Aw, that’s so sad. It reminds me of those commercials I hate.” Stephanie shook her head. “But I’m not looking at you like anything. I just feel bad for you.”
“Same thing!” I snapped.
“It’s really not so bad. I mean, you and Jesse had really weird times before,” she offered.
I snorted. “Like what?”
“Like the time he accidentally walked in on you while you were taking a shit.”
The blood drained from my face. “I had forgotten about that.”
“Or the time you walked in on him and Eloise humping like rabbits.”
“Okay, let’s stop with this walk down memory lane, okay?” I smacked my lips, completely losing my appetite, and placed the toast on the bedside table.
“My point is that you guys got past those weirder than weird moments. Why won’t you get past this one? Hell, remember the time we all went camping and I got lost and started to freak out and run, only to collide with Jesse, who happened to be taking a leak nearby?”
“No, you never told me that!” I gasped.
“Oh.” She blushed. “I guess it traumatized me more than I let on. I didn’t really want to talk about it.” Getting a mischievous look in her eye she added, “And I didn’t want to make you jealous.”
“Of what?” I asked blankly.
“Of the fact I saw his little willy before you did. And let me tell you, it is not little.” She burst into laughter at my red face. Calming down, she took a deep breath and shrugged. “Things will be fine. Don’t worry so much about it.”
The side table rattled, knocking my toast to the ground.
Stephanie jumped off the bed and frantically looked around. “What’s that? An earthquake?”
I rolled my eyes. “Really, Steph? We’re on the east coast. We never get earthquakes around here.”
“Hey, you never know.”
Snorting, I picked up my vibrating phone.
“It’s just Ethan,” I practically groaned.
Happy New Year, Beautiful! Can’t wait to see you!
I took a deep breath and typed back:
Happy New Year!
“Oooh,” Stephanie winced.
“What?” I asked, throwing my phone against the bed. I grabbed a pillow and hugged it to my chest as if to block me from the pain of the world.
“Happy New Year?” She leaned towards me and shook her head. “Wow. Kiss of death.”
“What? I reciprocated his greeting.”
She snorted and crossed her arms tightly across her purple robe. “He also said he couldn’t wait to see you!”
I shrugged and fiddled at a piece of lint on my polka dotted pajamas. “I mean, it’s not like I won’t be seeing him in two days.”
“Rocky!”
“What?”
“If you don’t like the guy, why don’t you stop leading him on? Have some respect! For him and you.”
“I’m not leading him on.”
Stephanie looked at me with disbelief. “Mmhmm.”
“Do you have something to say?” I snapped.
“Come on, Rocky. Carrying on with this isn’t good for him, it isn’t good for you, and—”
“It isn’t good for my mom?” I joked.
She shot me another look, prompting me to immediately zip my lips together. “Rocky, if you don’t see this going anywhere, why don’t you just end it?”
“Because.”
“That is not an answer.”
I shut my eyes and catapulted myself onto my back and shut my eyes. “I don’t think it isn’t going somewhere…”
“But?”
“But I don’t know.” I bit my lip and frowned. “Ethan’s an awesome guy.”
“He is,” she agreed.
“He’s handsome, sweet, successful—”
&
nbsp; “Has a great body!”
I rolled my eyes. “He’s everything a normal girl is looking for.”
“But?” she repeated.
“But I don’t know. He just seems kinda two-dimensional and a bit too sweet. It sounds odd, but showing up to bring me lunch at work and sending me sugary sweet texts is just a bit…much.”
“The nerve of him!” she exclaimed, placing a hand over her chest.
I reached out and chucked a pillow at Stephanie’s face. “I mean, it’s so by the book, you know? And…ugh.” I rubbed my head and shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t even know. I do like him, I really do. I guess that’s why I can’t stop seeing him. It’s just…”
“Ah, I get it.”
“Get what?”
“You never fully got over your bad boy stage.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “I never had a bad boy stage.”
“Uh, Jesse?”
“He was never a bad boy. Just a misunderstood rebel.”
Stephanie snickered. “So poetic. You know, if it weren’t for the fact you were underwhelmed by Ethan from the beginning, I would have said your lack of attraction to him has something to do with Mr. B.F.F.”
“Well, since I was always a bit unsure of golden boy, you know it has nothing to do with Jesse.”
“Oh yeah, right. He just made things so much worse.”
Chapter 11
Rossi’s Novelties used to hold a certain serenity for me. Sure, it could get somewhat chaotic with the rush of customers and the strange inventory we carried, but it was home. A place I’d worked at since I was a child. Unfortunately, this morning Rossi’s Novelties was nothing short of medieval torture.
My steps were hesitant, every movement calculated. As the key holder that morning I unlocked the store sneaking glances over my shoulder. I had a full two hours before we opened and another hour before the rest of the employees were scheduled to come in.
“Please let someone else come in before Jesse does. Please don’t let him come in at all!” I prayed he was off his early bird kick, but part of me knew that was impossible. I desperately wanted a buffer and was even tempted to call one of the morning employees with some dumb excuse about coming in early, but I knew my parents wouldn’t want to pay overtime.
I quickly entered the glass doors and locked them right behind me. It was another reason why I hoped somebody would show up before he did. It was store policy to keep the doors locked when only one person was present, meaning that the next associate would have to knock to be let in.
I was praying it wasn’t Jesse.
I kept myself occupied all morning, restocking shelves, taking inventory and counting petty cash. By the time nine o’clock hit I was tired, sweaty, and psychologically a mess.
Knock. Knock.
“Please be Maurice. Please be Sheila. Please be anyone but—” Jesse stood on the other side of the glass window and waved a gloved hand at me. “Shit.”
I unlocked the door, focusing on the condensation on the door, which rolled down the glass in tiny droplets. I must have been moving extra slowly because by the time I opened the door, Jesse jumped in and shivered.
“Damn, girl! It’s freezing outside! What are you trying to do? Freeze my balls off or something?”
Totally not how I imagined our first interaction. This was…this was…way too normal.
He frowned. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Better to just address the elephant in the room.
“I sort of thought things would be awkward between us.”
“Why? Because you finally kissed me after almost ten years?”
I blinked quickly, my jaw almost scraping the ground. “Excuse me?”
Jesse smirked. “C’mon, I always knew you sorta liked me. Surprised you waited so long.”
“I…I…uh…wait…what?” I lost all sense of coherence.
“I’m not as dense as you always thought I was. I’m actually smarter than I look.” His tone was light, but his expression was something else.
“I never thought you were dense,” I managed to ground out.
“Sure.” He shrugged off his bubble jacket and took of his damp beanie. His hair was matted down and looked a bit greasy. I couldn’t help but wonder if he even went home after NYE.
“Why are you acting so nonchalant about this?” I asked.
He looked at me curiously. “I’m not acting like anything. I’m being normal. Why are you acting so weird?”
I followed him to the counter, ducking behind the register. I felt a need to have something blocking the two of us. “I’m mortified.”
“Why?” His smile spoke of amusement.
“I kissed you!” My eyes darkened. “Then you walked away.”
He bit his lip. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I guess I was just caught a bit off guard. It was wrong of me to walk away from you.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” I muttered.
“What was that?” His eyebrows knitted together.
“Nothing,” I said quickly. Taking a deep breath I added, “You have to admit if things weren’t already weird between us before, I certainly expect them to be weirder this time around.”
“Things weren’t weird between us.”
I shot him a look. “Really? Not weird? You wouldn’t talk to me for the first two days you were here.”
He bowed his head in defeat. “Okay, fine. I guess that’s a fair assumption.”
“I guess I’m not as dense as you thought,” I echoed his sentiment in a flat tone. I placed my hand on my hip, trying to muster a mask of authority. “So care to tell me why the icy patch between us? Honestly, I was wondering why we didn’t cover the topic when we had burgers, but I guess I was just happy we were hanging out and didn’t want to press it.”
Jesse gripped the jacket in his hands, wringing the sleeves with agitation. After a moment’s hesitation he finally spoke. “I guess I was a little scared to see you again.”
“Why?”
“Not comfortable telling you that.”
“Oh my gosh! Are we back to that again?” I hissed. Absently, I punched in my employee number a bit more forcefully than usual before realizing what I was doing. “Wait, what the hell am I doing? I already clocked in. Shit.”
“Guess I still can get your panties in a twist.” He caught my eye and began to laugh. “Honestly, I’m proud that you kissed me. I always wondered if you had the guts.”
I paused and turned my head slowly. “Wait, what are you talking about?”
“I could always tell you liked me a bit. I just thought those feelings were misplaced.”
“Misplaced?” I repeated questioningly.
“You were bored! I was the high school bad boy. What naïve school girl wouldn’t fall for that?” The comment would have come off cocky from any other person. The fact that it was not even the slightest bit arrogant coming from him irritated me.
I slammed my hand against the counter, further surprising him. “I’ll have you know that I was never naïve.”
“Never, huh?”
“Give me one example,” I tested him.
“You were bored, Rocky. You were too nice and too good to be doing half the stuff you did with me. Skip class, sneak out and party—it wasn’t in your nature.”
“If that’s the case, what do you think is in my nature? You’re basically calling me a wet blanket.”
“I didn’t say that it was a bad thing.”
I tapped my tongue against the bottom of my front teeth and lifted an eyebrow. “Now that you’re on the subject about being bad, why don’t we talk about what a horrible friend you’ve been? First cutting me out from your life with no reason and now insulting me.”
“Horrible, huh?” For a moment I was worried I had offended him, but the entertained look on his face proved me otherwise. He leaned in close and smirked. “What else do you think is bad, Rocky?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know. War, famine?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
My eyes darkened. “If you’re talking about the kiss, I obviously think it’s bad now!” I crossed my arms and groaned. “I never should have done it.”
“Like I said, I’m glad you did.”
“Oh?” Narrowing my eyes, I reached out and poked him in the chest. “Why?”
“I’m not comfortable divulging that info.” Before I could reply, he quickly said, “And I’m not talking about the kiss.”
“Then what are you talking about?”
He took a deep breath. “I admit that it’s been off between us. Maybe that kiss was a way to put us back on the right track. You know, get back where we used to be.”
“I thought you said this wasn’t about the kiss,” I said flatly.
“Well, maybe a bit of it is.”
I sighed. “Fine, whatever. So where did we used to be, Jesse? And how can such a mortifying mistake make everything better?”
“It’ll allow us to be Rocky and Jesse again! To be the two musketeers…er…plus Stephanie.”
I shook my head. “I’m not following. How is that stolen kiss supposed to make us friends?”
“It helped you realize that you never liked me to begin with, right?”
Um, no?
He nodded his head as if coaxing me along his warped theory. “You just liked the idea of being with the bad boy. You know, because you were always a bad girl trying to come out. Now that we finally did the ‘forbidden’ you realize your fantasy was better than reality. Of course you always did care about me as a friend as well, and that’s what I want to get back to.”
I remained silent, in utter disbelief at what I was hearing. He thought I only liked him as part of a teenage rebellious stage and not for the person he was? I almost felt sorry for him.
His brown eyes crinkled at the corners, his smile never leaving his face. “We’ve finally gotten past your old feelings, and because you realize that you regret it, we can just move forward…er…move back…um, you know what I mean.”
Two Outta Three (Two Outta Three #1) Page 7
