The Significant Other (The Relationship Quo Series Book 4)

by Nicole Strycharz

  I twisted my neck to see him even as a smirk played across my own lips, “You know exactly what you did back there.”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he denied as he took a smooth turn.

  “You instigated this.”

  He loosened his tie then took it off, “I don’t know Elijah Lane well enough to plan a meeting with him.”

  “You instigated taking me. I could afford a rental.”

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  I lifted my phone and tapped it, “Trix, was never going to let me drive this late, that long.”

  His eyebrow did that thing I hate.

  “What?” I asked.

  He shook his head, “Nothin’.”

  I tried telling myself… I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t- damn it! “What?” I folded and asked.

  He shrugged.

  I prickled with anger, “What were you going to say?”

  “Maybe you really are a straight guy; you sure do fold under female pressure like one.”

  I laughed in a condescending way. “And you know how to treat women, huh?”

  He stopped at a light and shrugged off his suit jacket. “Better than you I would think. I feel sorry for Trix. You treat her like a sister or worse an assistant.”

  That hit a sensitive spot in my armor. “She knows how I feel.”

  “Do you care how she feels?”

  I didn’t answer and I didn’t intend to. We made it a whole hour in silence and at the two-hour mark, I fell asleep. By five in the morning, I woke up to see it was still dark and we were off the highway. I sat up and checked my phone. I only have ten percent battery life.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “Half hour from Hill Ridge.”

  “How was it so quick?”

  “While you were sleeping I took backroads.”

  I saw he was looking more relaxed. His sleeves were rolled up, his collar open. His tattoos were adorning his skin where ever it showed. They were winding up his powerful forearms and marking his neck. I wanted to know where else his tats were. Across his chest? Down his stomach? Lower? Tattoos have always been a weakness of mine, it’s why I love Trixie’s.

  “No leering.” He said, startling me. “You said the leering had to stop. Now you do it all the time.”

  “I was just looking at your ink.”

  “Do you have any?”

  I nodded, “I keep them in coverable places…”

  His mind went there; I saw the spark in his eye. “So you conceal everything. Not just feelings?”

  “I just don’t see the point in showing everybody everything. If I love someone, the world doesn’t need to know. If I like tattoos, the world doesn’t have to see them.”

  “So where are they and what are they?” He dismissed my argument. “You’re a pretty vanilla soul so I’m guessing its stuff like ‘I heart mom’, right?”

  I pulled the neck of my shirt sideways so he could see my tree and the inked script across my other shoulder and collarbone.

  He frowned then looked away, “What’s it say?”

  I recited it by heart, “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” ~Plato.”

  He smiled, “Music is how you express yourself I think.” He was right. “What else?”

  “I have the notes to the first song I ever composed tattooed around my bicep in a circle. One other one…”

  He was all ears.

  I looked out the window, “An eye of Ra on my hip bone.”

  He turned left down a long road, “Ra?”

  “The Egyptian Sun God…” I frowned. He didn’t seem to know or care what I meant and it made me think. I pulled out my reading glasses to look through the email Elijah sent me about this meeting.

  “Nice glasses,” he teased.

  I smiled as I skimmed the email, “You sound like the guys. They tease me about them all the time.”

  “They look like something Clark Kent would wear,” he joked.

  “So dorky then?”

  “No, sexy.” He didn’t bother to look at me. He knows without looking that he’s getting to me.

  “What’s it like going straight for so long?” He asked out of the blue.

  “You act like I’m a science project for being with a woman.”

  “You are.”

  I gestured to the road, “You said you sleep with women too. You already know.”

  He lounged back and set his hand over his thigh to drive with one hand, “I sleep with more men than women. Ten years with Trix, means you’ve been…”

  “It’s fine.” I brushed off the question.

  “I don’t know how you do it…”

  “Why?”

  “Can you let go on a woman the way you can with a man? Without hurting her? Can she really know what you want or how you want it, the way someone who is the same as you can?”

  My throat was dry at his words and the tightening in my groin was agitating. He’s, of course, feeding me total bullshit. If you have the right partner it doesn’t matter what sex they are. They’ll send you off a deep end either way. He’s testing me and I feel myself failing.

  “You have no shred of boundaries.”

  A pow sound made us come at full attention and as soon as we felt the light grinding of the wheel on his side, Chance steered us to the side of the road.

  “What the hell was that?” He muttered.

  “That, City Boy, was a flat tire.” I got out and he followed. We went to the back of his car and knelt to take a look. Daylight was trying to hit the tree tops but I pushed my glasses further up to see. “Do you have a spare?” I asked.

  He looked very unconcerned but then again it wasn’t his career on the line. “Yeah, a full spare in the trunk.”

  We went to look and I inspected the new tire. “Have you ever changed a tire?” I asked.

  He was lighting a cigarette behind me, “Nope,” he said with it between his lips.

  “You own a car but you’ve never changed a tire?”

  “I walk.”

  “Then why have a car?”

  He pocketed his lighter, “Zeus and Bianca use it more than I do.”

  “You were a carjacker, but you don’t know how to change a tire? We’re lucky I know how. Do you know anything about cars?”

  He blew smoke away and smiled, “I can hotwire a new one for you.”

  “That’s not funny.” I started to pull the new one out, “It wouldn’t even be funny if I was in the mood.” I saw the Jack and blew out a breath.

  “Do robots ever get in the mood?” He was on a real roll now.

  “Shut up.”

  “I figured your kind had like, switches, not moods.” He took another long drag.

  I stopped and tested the firmness of his spare, “For fuck sake! Chance… feel this… it should feel harder…”

  He leaned into the car, “I thought you had a girlfriend for that?”

  I gave him a look, “I need you to be serious.” He came over to stand beside me and felt the tire. “See what I mean?” I pressed at it, “It’s supposed to be firm.”

  He shrugged, “Try rubbing it harder.”

  I whirled my head around. “Why the fuck are you driving around with a flat spare?”

  “Bianca had to use it last month,” He shoved his hands in his pockets and balanced the smoke between those lips again, “She said she got a flat.”

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me?” I screamed. It’s the middle of nowhere and so I suppose my filter came off. The one that doesn’t allow me to show emotion in public. “How are we supposed to make it to Hill Ridge? What is with you people and cars? If there’s no air pressure we can’t use it!”

  He didn’t have an answer.

  I closed his trunk and tried calling Elijah but there’s no signal. Then, of course, my phone died. We sat in the car with the heat on and tried to think up a plan. />
  “Will you close the damn window?” I snapped.

  He tapped the end of his cigarette so the ashes fell beside the car. “It’s cold, so I don’t want to smoke outside, but if I don’t smoke, your temperament might put me back in jail.”

  I sat forward, “I have to get to Hill Ridge in two hours and we are an hour from the stupid little town. That means I have one hour to get this car working.”

  He remained un-phased.

  Another fifteen minutes and I was shit out of luck until we heard a car coming. It was a big four door truck. I got out.

  “Where are you going?” Chance asked before opening his door.

  I waved my arms over my head and flagged them down, “We need help.” I told him.

  “They’re strangers, Adam.”

  “Yeah, with transportation.”

  The truck slowed up when it saw us and pulled up alongside the car, “Hello!” A woman sang. When they rolled the window all the way down it revealed a pretty old but sweet looking lady.

  An even older looking man was driving.

  I looked over at Chance, “Should we run? They look dangerous.” I whispered.

  He drifted off as he continued to smoke.

  “Hi,” I said coming closer, “My name is Adam Ryder, and that’s my… boss, Chance Urban, we have a flat.”

  “Don’t you know how to change a tire?” The old man grumped.

  “Well, Sir we-.”

  “In my day, man didn’t grow himself a beard and not know how to change a damned tire!” He grumbled.

  “Let him speak, Abner!” The woman scolded. “Go ahead, sweetie.”

  I smiled, “I tried to change it, but we found out our spare was flat too.”

  The man made a humph sound.

  “Where you headed, hon?” asked the woman.

  “Hill Ridge…”

  She lit up, “Oh! Then lucky you, honey! We’re heading that way ourselves.”

  I breathed deeply. “I don’t want to inconvenience you both, but I have a meeting there in less than two hours, I have to get there-.”

  “Say no more, sweetie, hop on in. We can send someone back for your car.” She said.

  I sighed and whistled at Chance. He introduced himself rather awkwardly.

  “I’m Connie, and this is my husband Abner.” She explained. “We run the bed and breakfast in town,” she said proudly. “Our son is the mechanic.”

  I flooded with relief, “Thank you so much.”

  We got our things out of Chance’s car and piled into the pick-up. “Is there a hotel in this town?” asked Chance.

  “There is our bed and breakfast,” Connie told him with a smile.

  He lit another cigarette, “There is a hotel too, though?” He pressed.

  “We have one room left,” she hinted, still wearing that smile. “It would accommodate both of you, I think.”

  Chance scowled at me.

  I leaned forward, “Ma’am, we really appreciate this but, we’ll probably stay at a hotel.”

  “We won best bed and breakfast in the town for five years running,” she told us. Still smiling. Still hinting.

  Chance blew smoke, “Cause you’re the only one?”

  I elbowed him but she just laughed.

  “Oh, you’re a funny one. You don’t mind putting out that little pest now, do you?” She fanned her nose like the smoke was in her face.

  Chance reluctantly flicked it out the cracked window and sat back.

  “Why you got all them tattoos?” Abner fussed, glancing back at us in the rearview mirror. “Got your skin all marked up, looking like a hoodlum!”

  I snickered.

  Chance just looked out the window.

  I tried to reason with them, “No offense, Connie but we probably would be better suited at a hotel.”

  Abner sat up, “We are the only one in town, got a mechanic. All them fancy ones, they don’t have that.”

  I didn’t see help for it. We were in debt to them for the ride and like Little Water back home, they probably do what they can to seem full.

  We made it to town in perfect time and pulled up in front of an old Victorian style home.

  “Here we are!” Connie sang. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

  We didn’t answer but we went straight to the mechanic to give him the location of Chance’s car. Chance paid him for towing it and then we went inside to the desk that was off to the right of the parlor.

  Connie checked us in as we stood shouldering our duffle bags.

  “Let me get your keys and see if our girl has the room ready,” she left to get them from a back room and we stood there waiting.

  “I’m here,” a girl said as she came skipping down the steps. “Yeah, it was a long-ass flight, but I’m here.” The woman appeared from the hall, still talking on her cell. She was gorgeous with copper skin and golden hair. Her large green eyes were piercing and her body was long and slight. “I have to run, okay?” She told the person on the other line.

  As she went by, Chance and I leaned to the side to watch her. She was in really short shorts with tights underneath and a fitted black sweater.

  “Okay… okay…yeah,” she paused at the door behind us and we turned to watch her. “I’ll call you after. Maybe. Maybe. No. When I get home. Moses…” she blushed. “I’ll definitely need some poga when I get home. Uh huh,” she laughed, “Love you. Bye.” She hung up and put her hand on the door but then turned to us and tilted her head, “Do you guys know where the Workforce center is in town here?” She grabbed her coat off a hook.

  We both shook our heads but then I found my tongue, “Uh, no, we’re here for a meeting so we don’t know the place.”

  “Me too,” she set her back to the door, “It was super last minute too. I had to take a red-eye flight from California.”

  I nodded to the door, “You’re here for the Arts & Hopes Charity meeting?”

  She beamed, “Yes! Are you going?”

  “Yeah, I’m one of the success stories they want to hear from.”

  “Me too,” she came up and shook my hand, “I’m Chloe, I’m a professional pole dancer in the program.”

  Chance made a sound of approval that annoyed me.

  “I’m the lead in a band. Riders of Beat.” I supplied.

  She bugged her beautiful big eyes, “Get out! I love your music. Yeah, my boyfriend tried to hide my albums because I kept playing them. I even created a dance for one of them.” She glanced at Chance and bit her lip, “What do you do? Are you coming to the meeting?”

  “No.” He said simply.

  “Okay, good,” she laughed, “You guys are kinda too good-looking. I don’t think I could focus with you guys there.”

  We laughed. “Anyway,” she said tilting her head, “See you there.”

  When she left, Connie reappeared with the keys. She told us where our room was on the second floor and we ventured that way. Upon opening the door Chance halted just inside and muttered, “The fuck?”

  “It’s not that bad,” I lied.

  He frowned at me, “It looks like the inside of a fucking doll house.” He argued, flicking lace dangling from a lamp.

  My concern was the ‘one’ bed situation. He followed my eyes and smirked. “Guess we’ll be bunking.”

  “No,” I dropped my bag down, “We won’t.”

  He laughed low in his throat.

  Chapter Eleven

  TRIXIE

  I was coming in to get my paycheck the next morning with a mind full of questions. Why am I glad Adam had to leave? Why do I feel guilty about how I left things with Liam and why do I feel like everything I was so sure about is suddenly falling apart?

  Zeus met me at the bar and winked, “Hey, little girl.”

  I smiled, “Hi, there.”

  “I can get your check out of the safe in just a bit,” He told me as he unloaded a crate of liquors.

  “No rush,” I sat on a bar stool and watched an old game.

  “Zeus!” A guy called
from across the room. I was too distracted to look.

  “Hey, man,” Zeus shook hands with the guy over the bar. “How you been doin’?”

  The guy sighed, “I don’t know… is he here?”

  “Nope, left after closing and won’t be back until tomorrow. His car broke down on the way to Pennsylvania.”

  They were silent a minute.

  “Is he ignoring my calls again,” the guy asked. This piqued my interest. I looked to find an attractive man at my side. He was tall and muscular with dark hair, a very handsome Asian man. Were they talking about Chance?

  Zeus pursed his lips, “You know how that man is. He’ll come and go.”

  The guy crossed his arms, “I get that, but a call, is that such a big deal?”

  “I’ll tell him you stopped by, okay?” Zeus assured, “Want a drink? On the house?”

  “It’s nine in the morning.”

  “You slept with the Urban Legend… day drinking is advised.”

  I feel like a bullet just shot through my stomach. Chance’s jaded lover shrugged and left but I was stuck there feeling very stupid. “Chance is gay?” I asked Zeus.

  Zeus raised a brow, “He goes wherever the wind blows, but yeah; predominantly. If I wasn’t such a fan of titties I’d do him.”

  My lips parted on a word. I tried to swallow but couldn’t. My bi boyfriend is stuck in a middle of nowhere bed and breakfast with a drop dead sexy gay man.

  I don’t imagine Adam to be unfaithful but sweet Jesus, I’m not sure if even I could be trusted if I was stuck in an isolated spot with the man.

  Then there’s Adam. I can’t resist him on a bad day, how would Chance?

  ADAM

  I was standing in the middle of the street. The same street Chance’s car broke down on. I could see down the road for miles and at one end of the road was a dark and menacing storm.

  The lighting would strike the ground for longer than normal followed by a thunder that rolled into my bones.

  On the other end of the street an enormous semi- tractor trailer was barreling at this crazy speed.

  I was too freaked out to move but I started walking toward the storm. The closer I came to the storm the slower the truck would go but the fiercer the storm would become. Now I’m not sure which way makes more sense; the lightning or the truck. It didn’t even occur to me that I could step off the road to avoid the truck, or get in the car to avoid the storm.