Page 41 of Close Quarters

“Ah, he can be taught.”

“Fuck—”

“The thing is,” I interrupted before he could get his oh-so-witty retort out. “I don’t think you’re as bad as I used to think you were or as bad as everyone else thinks. And there’s no fucking way you’re as bad as you think you are. Being that way makes it easier because that’s all you know how to be.”

“Wow,” he said, eyes going wide. “How very insightful. Anything else? Or can I go back to being in peace? Or as much peace as possible with a bunkmate like you?”

Huh, now that I’d peeked behind the curtain a little, I wasn’t as bothered by his sharp tongue. It felt like he was doing it to keep people from getting too close. Too close to him, too close to the truth, too close to much of anything he held close to the chest. It was one hell of a gamble to take, but I had spent my whole life taking repeated gambles and shit, some of them had turned out alright, some even turned out great.

“You want me to treat you that way? Well, tough titties, it’s not fucking happening. You’re an asshole, I’m not going to pretend otherwise, and I’m sure as shit not going to treat you with kid gloves, but I’m not going to make you into the villain.” I told him, giving a shrug and crossing my arms over my chest. “So you can either prove you right or me right. That’s up to you.”

His brow shot up so far that if his hair was any longer, it would have disappeared. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

“As serious as cancer,” I told him, turning away and walking over to the nearby closet and yanking out a towel. “I’m going to take a shower, and you can brood on that shit all you want. Because my sore body and I are going to bed after I get out.”

“Is this you trying to have the last word?” he demanded angrily, still not having moved from the floor.

“No,” I told him, turning in the bathroom doorway and staring at him. “And for the record, I’m all for sleeping together again. No pressure, demands, or daydreams about settling down on a farm and raising two and a half kids. You’re hot, I’m pretty hot, the sex was fantastic, and I’m down to do it again. So if you’re down, you can fuck the shit out of me again when my ass doesn’t feel like a tenderized burger, or if you’re not strict, I can screw your brains out in the next couple of days. The ball’s in your court.”

Reno stared at me, his eyes wide as he held the brush loosely. There was no anger, no frustration, just pure shock on his face as he stared at me without saying anything.

“Now that was me having the last word,” I told him, closing the door behind me.

At least there was one way to shut him up.

RENO

I didn’t know whether to be irritated or not at the constant chattering of Riley and Elliot simply not shutting the fuck up. Ever since they’d decided to ease the ‘leash’ attached to Riley, I’d been seeing a lot more of him. On the one hand, that meant I wasn’t the sole focus of Elliot’s constant need to talk, but on the other, it meant I often had to deal with the two of them constantly talking in the background.

They were talking about some kid’s cartoon I had only the vaguest memories of. It was pointless chatter, but there was no denying that Elliot really did light up when he was given a chance to talk to someone who could keep up with him. To my unending annoyance, I found that sometimes I actually felt bad because I was a shitty conversationalist.

It went right along with a bunch of other irritating moments when I found myself feeling bad for him or realizing I was an asshole to him. The man was a moron half the time, but I begrudgingly had to admit there was nothing…morally offensive about him. He wasn’t a bad person, but in all fairness to him, he didn’t try to act like a good person either, which made him a lot harder to ignore compared to someone like Riley, who seemed to exude goodness out of every hole in his body.

“Hey!” Max’s rough voice barked from the nearby barn. “You two going to stand around and gossip, or are you going to do your work?”

“We’re taking a break from the heat,” Riley called back with a smile. It was a nice smile, I’d give him that. And I’m sure for anyone but me, it was probably a comforting smile. I wondered how the hell someone like him ended up in a place like this. Just what the hell had he done to end up behind bars in the first place? “You always said you appreciated that I didn’t overdo it like a stubborn mule.”

“Not the words I used, but sure,” Max grunted, shaking his head as he fiddled with the saddles. I hadn’t paid much attention and didn't care since the guy clearly knew what he was doing. He was a former program member who had graduated but stuck around in an actual job, and Mona wouldn’t bring someone onto the workforce for purely sentimental reasons.

“Need something?” Max asked, and I stiffened in surprise. I’d been watching him long enough to realize he’d been fixing and maintaining the saddles and for him to notice.

“Just watching what you’re doing,” I told him with a shrug, returning to cleaning the dirty hay off the ground. “Just ignore me.”

“I don’t give a shit if you watch,” he said, his eyes drifting over to the chattering duo. “If those two can pretend like they’re just taking a break, you can dick around too.”

It was the first time I’d ever spoken directly to Max one-on-one, and I was already finding that perhaps he and I had more in common than I thought. Certainly, more than either of us had in common with the happy duo still laughing over cartoon hijinks. It wasn’t just that he was grumpy, though he wasn’t nearly as hostile as I usually was. There was something…I don’t know, somber about him that I recognized as I watched him carefully work through the stitching of one saddle. I had no reason to think it, considering he had barely said three sentences to me, but the thought occurred to me, and refused to go away.

“So…why’d they stick him with you?” I asked abruptly.

“What?” he asked, his brow furrowing further.

“Riley,” I said, nodding toward him. “Or if you want, why’d they stick you with him? Whatever way works, I guess. It’s not like you were a mentor before.”

He snorted harshly. “Because I haven’t been, never wanted to be one. But good fucking luck trying to tell Mona no when she’s hellbent on getting her way.”

That much I could understand. “Still, kinda weird to put you two together.”

He finished whatever he was doing and looked up at me. “I could say the same about you and Elliot. All I’ve ever seen is you pissed off and him annoying everyone, including you.”

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