Page 17 of Unhinged

“You did. We don’t have to talk about her here.”

“Or anywhere. Or ever. Forget anything you think I told you while drunk and…defenseless.” I swallow my whining voice and shift my stance and gaze, looking at his ridiculous, cheap sweater. It probably pills or sheds everywhere.

When Amos says nothing, I wonder if he left, so I look up. Not so, damn it. Amos’s confused frown should embarrass himself more than it does me. Still, I look at the floor again. What the fuck did I tell him? “Rod—Greg,” Amos says, appearing at a loss for words. “You told me plenty.”

I mumble, “I lied.”

“Not in the slightest.”

Crossing my arms, I grit my teeth and look up at him, killing him twenty different ways from here to Richmond. I go for defense and laugh. “Like you know shit. Tell me one thing I told you.”

“You went to Hadley’s and confessed your love for her.”

I clear my squeezing throat. “Nope. Try again.”

“You really want me to? Sure. You kissed her. And when you unzipped your trousers, you didn’t stop there.”

“But you fucking should.” Shaking, I try to go around the counter to return to the bar. However, serving his troll purpose, Amos blocks me.

“Now that I have your attention let’s set some ground rules.”

“What the hell?”

“As long as you work here, you will give it your all. I don’t assume you want to work with me, and that’s fine, but I need you to stay. You need this job to keep you on the straight and narrow, ironically.”

“Motherfucker. Is this blackmail?”

Amos’s frown is instant. “No, no, no. I gather the pain of what you’re going through, having crossed a line and feeling guilty.”

“Something else you don’t know shit about.”

“But I want to. I’d like to think we’re more than boss and employee.”

“Are you fucking with me?”

“You’re not my type.” Amos grins, and I want to throw him into Milt’s stench. “I want to help you get your life back on track, Greg.”

“And you’re the conductor of the Crazy Train. No thanks.”

“I want you to consider me as a friend,” Amos says without a hint of humor I’m hoping for.

“You’re kidding? Like holding hands and skipping through a flowering meadow? Like giggling at a slumber party? Like trading fun recipes and dark secrets that will satisfy your sweet tooth and curdle your damn blood? Those kinds of friends?”

“The kind that you don’t have sex with—undercover or in the light of day.” He raises a self-righteous eyebrow. Before I respond, he then asks, “On a related note, when are you returning to Richmond?” He inhales loudly through his snout. “To your married best friend and…her daughter?”

“Fuck off, Amos. Never.” When Amos’s stare is firm, unlike the rest of him, I mumble, “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

I gasp, irritated and astounded he has the nuts to ask that. “You really want me to say it aloud for all of Durham to hear, don’t you?”

“Just me.”

“I can’t go back to Richmond or Hadley because that night, against a wall, I fucked…” I glance at the door and close my eyes as I mumble, “her friendship.” My eyes fill with tears, confirming I’m a crybaby. “Yeah, I unzipped and fucked it so hard. I knew it was wrong, but it felt so damn good until it…didn’t. You happy?”

When his lips pucker like an asshole, I shove past him. “I’m out of here.”

“Where are you going?” I hear Candi yelling for me, but I storm out of the bar, not bothering with my coat since my keys are in my jeans pocket. I don’t need Amos Vaughn here, telling me shit he knows.

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