NINE: Boyle Heights

by Elizabeth Reyes

  “Morning,” she said as a strange mixture of bliss and apprehension made waves in her belly.

  He hit the button on the coffee maker and walked over to her. Before she could say another word, he cradled her face in his hands, and his lips were on hers. Instantly, she felt her legs weaken and her insides turn to mush. Already, she knew she’d never get enough of his kisses but was mindful to not even think of getting too emotionally invested. Last night when she gave into this, it was more like what her mother had described with Paul.

  Impossible to resist.

  And why should she? This was her reasoning last night after hearing him confess about his fantasies. She was single now and free to enjoy as many pleasures of the flesh as her body could take. Nine had made no qualms about it from the very beginning. If he ever got the chance—if she was ever available and up for it—he’d be all for it too. Now here they were. Nothing wrong with this, right?

  Pulling away just so, Nine’s lips were finally and hopefully just momentarily off of hers as he stared into her eyes. “Sleep well?”

  She’d slept better than she had in ages, and her body was blissfully spent. But she’d keep that to herself. “Yes, I did,” she said, smiling. “Very well.”

  He smiled smugly. “So did I. I didn’t even feel you get out of bed. For a moment there, I was bummed, thinking maybe you left until I heard you on the phone. Everything okay?”

  Slipping his hand into hers, he leaned against the counter, pulling her against him. “Yes,” she said as her heart sped up, and she caressed his bare chest. “That was just Phoenix who called. They’re taking Chelsea to the county fair today. She asked if I could come too, so he was calling to see if I could.”

  “You going?”

  “I can’t. They’re not going until later in the afternoon, and I have that dinner with my dad this evening.”

  The sound of a door opening downstairs followed by a beeping sound had Nine pulling away from Drew. “Talia?” he called out as Drew’s stomach dropped.

  “I’m not here yet. You don’t hear me. I bought breakfast and I’m eating it in peace. So don’t ask me for anything until nine when I’m here.”

  Nine turned to Drew with a smirk. “She’s a feisty one.” He walked over to the door that led to the stairs and opened it. “I’ll be down a little late today. The guys know how to open up and get things going.”

  “If that’s the website gal you got up there,” Talia said, sounding like she had a mouthful, “remember you have the upholstery gal coming in today. Maybe you start spacing them out a little—”

  Nine closed the door, but Talia spoke loud enough that Drew heard the rest. She suggested Nine space the gals out a little to avoid any awkwardness—like the last time. Drew could only assume Talia was the older receptionist from yesterday.

  Feeling a flush of embarrassment that she’d have no choice but to do the walk of shame past Talia when she left, Drew didn’t miss how Nine took a moment before turning to face her. If the woman had been working for them since day one, then she’d know it was Drew’s first time coming in to work on the website with Nine. Unless Nine had told her otherwise, Talia likely assumed they’d just met yesterday and here she’d spent the night.

  But the feelings of embarrassment were drowned out by a different emotion. As disappointing as it was to have her bubble burst, Drew was strangely thankful for the reminder. Sleeping with Nine had been beyond what she’d imagined, but only because she’d imagined pure unadulterated wild and raw sex. She’d spent one night with Nine. One! And already Drew had begun to read more into his tender kisses and sweet gazes.

  “O’s dated Amanda—the upholstery girl—not me.” The nervous laugh was a first for Nine. At least Drew couldn’t remember hearing it before, but he shrugged. “She gets things mixed up.”

  “I’ll bet.” Drew did her best to smile genuinely as if she really found it amusing. “Must be hard to keep track of all the gals going up and down those stairs.”

  “Yeah—I mean no.”

  Nine walked toward her as Drew continued to smile and tried to appear to be unruffled by this as she should be. She would not be rushing to get dressed and stomp out of there the way her idiot ass suddenly felt like doing. She knew precisely what she’d been getting herself into last night when she decided to give into this. This coming as any surprise was ridiculous.

  Remembering Phoenix’s comment about Nine leaving the wedding with two girls, she continued to chastise herself, even as Nine nearly reached her.

  “I mean Talia’s older. She mixes a lot of things up. She’s also hard of hearing in one ear. It’s why she talks so fucking loud.” That last part was muttered nearly under his breath, but Drew still got it. It actually made her smirk. The moment he reached her, his arms wrapped around her waist, and he kissed her softly. “Do you know she was O’s high school principal?”

  “Was she?” Drew asked, gulping back the unreasonable feelings of regret.

  He explained about how they didn’t anticipate needing a receptionist until Talia brought her car in one day and things were kind of a mess. Nine leaned against the counter, pulling her to him again. “She busted his balls a little, saying, while she was glad he straightened out, he was as disorganized as she remembered. He offered her the job, joking around. But after talking for a little longer, she said she could probably use a part-time job to give her something to do, now that she was retired, and now she comes in three sometimes four times a week.”

  Nine told her more about Talia, all the while kissing Drew every few sentences. Drew listened, trying to concentrate on what she was supposed to be concentrating on: her excuse for needing to get out of there ASAP. Technically, she had nowhere else to be until that evening when she was meeting her dad. But she didn’t think it a good idea to hang out with him too much longer. It was dangerous. She could feel it already. Her heart wasn’t going to comply with her reasoning last night when she’d decided to just tell him she was done with Brad.

  This was supposed to be just a fun thing she’d allow herself to indulge in. She’d get it out of her system so she wouldn’t regret not giving in at least one time. By the third time they’d made love last night, she’d decided, okay, maybe they could do this again, but she wouldn’t allow herself to get caught up otherwise.

  Now with every sweet kiss he gave her, she questioned if he did this with all his gals. Was he really this sweet to them as well or was she different?

  “You like fried eggs?”

  It was only then that she realized he’d moved on from talking about Talia, and Drew had been too lost in her over-thinking this to notice.

  “Uh, yeah, but . . .” She glanced around, trying not to appear as anxious as she was beginning to feel. “But I think I better get going.”

  “What’s the rush? Chelsea’s with her dad, and you said you’re off today, right?”

  “I need to shower and—”

  “Shower here.” He took her hand, leading her into the small sitting area in the kitchen and turned to her with that legendary sinful smile. “We’ll shower together after we eat.”

  “But I don’t have any fresh clothes to wear,” she protested, tugging at her boxer briefs.

  “You can borrow more of mine. Besides,” he added with another smirk, “you’re not gonna need clothes while you’re here.”

  Drew sat down, and he pecked her before heading to the fridge. “I recently mastered the art of frying an egg without the yolk busting. Let me show off for you. My moms stopped by yesterday and brought me chilaquiles. Nothing goes better with fried eggs than chilaquiles.”

  He poured her a cup of coffee and placed it on the table in front of her. “I gotta go get a shirt on. Never fry anything shirtless. I learned the hard way.”

  Kissing her one last time, a little deeper than just a peck, he rushed out of the room. With him out of the room, she allowed herself to take a much-needed dreamy deep breath. God, she was so easy. Too easy. She had to be mindful to not act so l
ovesick around him.

  Her phone rang and it was Phoenix again. She considered not answering, but she had to. She couldn’t chance that it might be about Chelsea. “What’s up?”

  “You home now?”

  “No, why?”

  She heard him exhale loudly. “Dani, you totally left me hanging. I can’t believe you broke up with Brad and didn’t tell me. Who broke things off, you or him? Did this have anything to do with what happened at the wedding?”

  “I broke things off, but I can’t really talk right now.”

  “Just answer the last question.”

  “No, it didn’t,” she said as Nine walked back into the kitchen. “It was actually something I should’ve done a long time ago, but I’ll tell you more about it when I get home.”

  “One last question. Does this person you’re with today have anything to do with it?”

  “No.”

  “But you said you’d moved on. So is this serious?”

  “No, not serious at all.”

  Despite Nine looking like he was totally into his cooking, she knew he could hear her, and she almost hoped he was paying attention. She was so damn obvious she was afraid he might pick up on just how weak she was already beginning to feel about this—about him. She needed to save a little face in advance, before he noticed any clinginess or the very real possibility of future hurt feelings.

  “Who is it?”

  “You don’t know him.”

  He exhaled again, and Drew wasn’t even surprised. She knew he’d be disappointed, annoyed even. But she was an adult, and she called the shots in her life.

  “So we’re back to this? What happened to wanting to find something serious?”

  “I’m not doing serious anymore, at least not for a while. It’s me time—time to just enjoy myself without having to answer to anyone—but we’ll talk more about it later.”

  With one finale exhale from Phoenix and her promising she’d call as soon as she was home, she was off the phone. Without turning around to face her, Nine asked her who she was talking to. She told him, and he continued to cook silently for a few moments without comment. She was just enjoying her first sip of coffee when he finally did. “Me time, huh?”

  Chapter 19

  Nine

  Jesus H. Christ, he was an idiot! Nine swallowed hard as it all came together in his head. He refrained from commenting further, but it was too late. He’d already been stupid enough to question her conversation when it was likely exactly what she’d expected him to do. From what he gathered, Phoenix had called her back just to ask about who she was with, and Dee’s response had been you don’t know him.

  Technically speaking, they didn’t know each other. Aside from Phoenix smiling politely a few times at the wedding when he was filming them, they hadn’t exchanged so much as a word. But she could’ve said she was with Nine, and Phoenix would’ve known who he was. Phoenix had been within hearing range plenty of times at the wedding when someone addressed Nine. Even if she’d just said the guy I was partnered up with at the wedding, it would’ve sufficed.

  A few things were glaringly obvious to Nine now. Dee couldn’t be making it any clearer if she brought out her reject stamp. Just as she’d mentioned to him on more than one occasion, she was all for doing something like what they were doing now.

  As long as she kept it on the down low.

  It’s why she’d gone along with it without the least bit of resistance. Nine wouldn’t put it past her having texted Phoenix to call her just so she could say what she had and make sure Nine heard her.

  “Yes,” she responded to Nine’s inquiry, sounding a little weird. “Phoenix worries too much, and I know he’s disappointed about my breakup with Brad. He really liked him. So he was asking what happened to me wanting to settle down? But after all these months with Brad, I’m not looking to jump right into another relationship like that, you know?” She laughed softly. “I mean who does that, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Nine said, pulling out the container with the chilaquiles from the beeping microwave. “I’m just saying, me time.” He turned to her as he plated the steaming chilaquiles. “I like that.” He winked at her and immediately regretted it, turning back to the plate. Don’t overdo it, you moron. “Highly recommend it, actually.”

  Flipping the fried egg one last time in the pan, he gave it a moment then plated it next to the chilaquiles on Dee’s plate. He successfully managed to change the subject entirely and talked about the food instead. He wasn’t even sure how he did it, but he was able to concentrate on talk of Dulce’s food and Tay’s killer paifala.

  Dee shared with him about her Nana’s cooking. “My mom’s not much of a cook, but my late Nana used to say Martha Stewart could kiss her ass every time she pulled out a perfectly baked turkey from the oven on Thanksgiving and any other time she made something that came out just right.”

  They continued to laugh as they ate and compared stories of Nine’s moms’ home cooking and Dee’s Nana’s. While Nine was able to back the fuck up when it came to kissing her every few minutes, he still wasn’t able to refrain completely. Since she’d made it clear she’d only be into a physical thing with him now, maybe she’d just think him a horn dog for not being able to keep his lips and limbs off her for too long. She’d certainly seemed to enjoy it as much as he did.

  Dee took another spoonful of chilaquiles with dripping fried egg and moaned again. “This is really one of the best combos,” she said after wiping her mouth.

  Nine nodded. “I know my mom made the chilaquiles but”—he pointed at himself with both hands—“how ’bout them fried eggs?”

  Hearing Dee giggle would never get old. “They were perfectly cooked.” She leaned over, and he was quick to lean in and accept her sweet kiss.

  It was almost as if she too caught herself being too cutesy because they were both struck for a moment, staring in each other’s eyes, until she cleared her throat and sipped her coffee. “You mentioned almost being homeless.”

  It was so out of left field it caught Nine by surprise. “Huh?”

  “The day of the baby shower. You said you were close to being homeless. Tell me about that.”

  He told her all about what a high-school-drop-out thug he became at one point in his life. The hell he put his moms through getting thrown in and out of jail. Until Tay finally put her foot down and told him he either straightened his ways or he was no longer welcome in their home. How he nearly broke up their marriage because Dulce just wasn’t willing to turn her back on him, but he’d chosen the homeless life for a few years there, refusing to come between them.

  “Biggest thing I had going for me that most of those homeless friends I’d made didn’t, was that I wasn’t hooked on anything.” He stopped to ponder that then remembered. “Except smoking cigarettes, which, by the way, I gave it up.”

  Dee’s eyes widened, and she smiled, but there was something different about it than the way she normally smiled. Nine wondered if maybe this too had scared her the way he knew now his overzealousness had. He could practically hear O’s high-pitched teasing if he’d been there to hear Nine last night and today. “Why don’t you just stay? What’s the rush? I gave up something I never thought I would for you.”

  “That’s great,” she said with a nod. “Phoenix says his dad has tried for years to kick the habit but just hasn’t been able to.”

  “Yeah.” Nine dug into the last of his chilaquiles, not wanting to look her in the eyes for fear she might catch the insincerity. “My moms had been on me for years to stop, so I finally decided it was the least I could do after all I put them through.”

  He chewed his food and took a drink of his coffee, still avoiding looking her right in the eyes. Sure, his mothers had never approved of his smoking, but considering he finally got off the streets and was doing something with his life—something he suspected they never thought would happen—he figured his smoking was the least of their worries. But they weren’t the reason he’d quit. And Dee
was right. It hadn’t been easy. Even now a smoke felt like just the thing he needed to calm his antsy-ass heart.

  “It’s been a few weeks.” He stood up, taking his plate to the sink. “We’ll see how it goes. You want more?’

  “No, I’m good. But thank you. That was delicious.”

  She also stood and walked her plate to the sink. The moment she was close enough, Nine’s resolve just wasn’t strong enough. He pulled her to him and kissed her. At least she didn’t seem to mind. She was all in every time, and this time the kiss went even deeper than earlier.

  Finally forcing himself to pull away, he was determined to say something that wasn’t too over-the-top syrupy. Despite the fact that he knew he was gazing at her, looking as sprung as he was feeling, he had to at least make an effort. “How’s that shower sound right about now?”

  Her lips stretched into that smile he loved so much now. Best of all, there was no strangeness behind it. “Sounds perfect actually.”

  They hadn’t labeled what they were doing, but since that first night over two weeks ago, they’d since gotten together every chance they got. Because she said she didn’t want to parade every guy she hung out with in and out of her daughter’s life, their time together was limited to the days or evenings she didn’t have her.

  Nine’s anxiety had gone through the roof at the mention of every guy she hung out with. But his saving grace was he remembered that conversation that seemed a lifetime ago when he first asked her about her relationship with Brad. It had taken her three months to decide on exclusivity even with Mr. Perfect. When he’d questioned her not being exclusive with Brad for those first three months, her response had been, “I never date more than one guy at a time.”

  He wouldn’t exactly call what they were doing dating, but he got the feeling Dee’s rule would apply for this as well. At least, he sure as hell hoped it did. Nine had since started making a greater effort not to do or say anything that might come across as demanding or too over-the-top whipped. But if he found out there was any other dude or dudes she might be enjoying her new single status with, there was no way—no fucking way—he’d be able to hide how he felt about that.