“Nah, you’re my therapy.”
“Aiden…”
“I’m being serious. As long as you’re in my life, I’m fucking good.”
“Baby, I’m not a cure-all. I’m barely hanging myself together as it is.”
“You’re wrong. All I need is you. That’s it. I’ll take a depressed Jaxon, a manic Jaxon, a sweet and tender Jaxon, or a Jaxon who’s so good at punishing me. I don’t care which one I have because I love all of them.”
“Well, I won’t push. If you change your mind, tell me. And I love all my Aiden’s, too. My feisty Aiden, my unusually sweet Aiden, my pissy Aiden, and even Blaze, if he’s still in there somewhere.”
His grin turned crooked as he tugged me toward my bike. “Come on, Precious. Let’s get to work.”
He hopped onto my bike, and I climbed on behind him. We put our helmets on before he took off toward Alpha’s since we had to work soon.
It was Friday night, and it was busy as hell at Alpha’s. There was a pretty well-known local rock band called Bastard Sedition. They’d played here several times before, and they were always a hit, filling up the bar with fans.
I kept my eyes on the crowd, making sure everyone behaved, that no fights broke out, and there were no dipshits trying to drug girls.
My eyes caught the movement of my black-haired spark plug waiting tables. Stix, Nacho, and Pippin took off from work tonight, so Aiden filled in for Nacho, and Alpha filled in for Pippin. It was odd to have three of us off on a Friday, our busiest night of the week, but I guess Alpha knew what he was doing.
He really needed more staff to run this place, which was why he worked such long hours. At least Aiden helped out now. He’d been terrible at waiting tables at first, breaking glasses frequently, but eventually, he got the hang of it.And because he worked six days a week, he made pretty good money, including tips.
I looked toward the front door, where Stone was checking IDs when Harley walked in. Stone scowled at him but let him in anyway because Alpha hadn’t said otherwise.
When Harley looked at me, I gave him the bird, making him laugh as he meandered toward the bar.
As soon as Alpha saw him, he started aggressively wiping down the counters with a rag, looking pissed at the world.
I had no idea what Harley had done to him, but it must have been bad. But why hadn’t Alpha just barred Harley from coming into the bar?
I mentally shrugged. It was Alpha’s business, not mine.
Other than Harley’s visit, the night was uneventful, and I was ready to go home with my guy.
I let Aiden drive again because he liked it so much, and I enjoyed holding onto him.
When we got to my apartment building, we parked, and he took my hand, yanking me up the stairs quickly.
“What’s the rush, baby?”
“What? Oh… Ah, gotta take a piss.”
Weird. Why did it sound like he was lying?
Aiden unlocked the door, and we walked inside, closing the door behind us. He rushed to the bathroom, so I guess he reallydidhave to piss.
He stopped in the doorway and waved me to him. “Come here. What’s up with that?” He was pointing at something.
God, please don’t tell me my wall finally collapsed. I was so fucking screwed.
I stepped inside the bathroom with Aiden, blinking several times at the tub, trying to register what I was looking at.
“Wha-? Huh? Uhm… how?”
I walked over to the tub, stepped inside it, and pressed my hands to the cold white tile.
“Careful, the grout’s still probably wet.”