Page 2 of Enemy Crush
I stomp my feet even though we’re sitting down. “But why does it have to be me?”
Her eyes nearly bug out of her skull. “Because this is what you do!! You’re a marketing manager! You know how to get the place back up and running again, turning a profit. Plus, this is a small town and everyone is so tight-knit. How do you think everyone will feel about you if they find out you refused to help a local business owner?”
“Gah,” I whine. “Fine, I’ll see what I can do.”
She beams a wide smile. “Thank you. The whole town thanks you.”
I scoff. “Yeah, they better,” I say bitterly, my mind already going back to the horrible memories I have of Paxton. Like I said, we live in a small town. Paxton was in my class almost every year. We lived in the same neighborhood and he was always riding his bike up and down our street. He’d run through mine and Lola’s block castle we spent hours on building, he’d constantly pick on me, and he gave me the wonderful nicknameSquirtbecause I was always so much smaller than him. It pissed me off as a child and only got worse with age. Being in the same room with him will take some convincing.
It’s for the town. It’s really for yourself. Even though you hate him, you do buy a lot of books from that bookstore. So really, you’re not helping him. You’re helping yourself.
I let out a sigh just from my thoughts and Lola looks up at me with a smile. “Seriously, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“Why am I the only one who hates him? He tortured you too,” I point out.
She snorts. “Yeah, as a kid. We’ve all grown up now, Stella. He’s nothing like the snot-nose little brat he used to be.”
I scoff. “And when was the last time you actually talked to him because if I remember correctly, you two weren’t the best of friends in high school either.”
She lets out a silent laugh and shakes her head. “I talk to him every time I go in there. How do you think I got the photographer job for the website?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I just figured he Googled local photographers and you popped up,” I laugh out.
She rolls her eyes. “Nope. I shop there. We talk. We’re friends…within reason. I mean, clearly we’re not friends like you and I are friends, but if we bump into one another, we always talk and catch up.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Fine. I’ll do it. I’ll offer my help, but I’m telling you there is no way in hell he will accept it. He hates me just as much as I hate him.”
“You’re so blind. The dude wants you. He always has. Even when we were kids. You know people say that when a boy is mean to you, it really means you like him, right?”
“That is the most toxic thing I’ve ever heard.” I take a bite of my burger.
“Well, whatever. He likes you. In high school, he couldn’t keep his eyes off you.”
“Ha! In school, he couldn’t keep his eyes off anything with boobs…even when he had a set on each arm he was still scoping out more.”
She picks up her beer and smirks. “Just talk to him. For all of us?”
“I will. I’m just going to cry and whine and complain about it the entire way and I’m sorry, but you’re my best friend and you have to listen.” I stick my tongue out at her and she laughs.
She holds up her palms. “Whatever it takes to keep my bookstore.”
I laugh and the two of us go back to eating our burgers and fries and enjoying our draft beer. We talk more about her recent photoshoots and she even shows me some of her favorite images she’s captured. We talk about my job too, but hers is much more of a free-spirited type of job. Nothing about my job is fun for others unless they’re interested in how I take a failing business and bring it back to life. Most people think it’s cool, but the details aren’t that interesting.
Thinking about what I could to do turn the bookstore around, I have a few ideas up my sleeve, but I refuse to let myself get excited about them. Paxton may not even accept my help for one. And for two, he may be failing the business just to get it off his back. He’s never stuck me as the intellectual type. He was always the cocky smart guy who could pull any chick. I feel like the store was just passed down to him and he’s stuck with it until he can find a way to get rid of it. I guess before I make any plans, I’ll make sure he actually wants to keep it open. But not today. I need to mentally prepare myself for being in the same room, let alone talking to him.
When we finish dinner, we pay our tab and leave the table, both of us walking out the door together. She’s parked in front of the bar and I’m across the street. I offer her a hug and watch as she climbs into the car and pulls off. I check both ways and cross the street, heading for my car. That’s when I look up and see the lights still on in the bookstore.
Something in my gut tells me to walk over there and demand to know if this rumor is true. A part of me wants to flip him off as I drive by. I pause at my car door, my eyes fixed on the glass window of the bookstore. What should I do? Go over there and deal with his attitude or drive home and put this off for another day. I want to think that this is a future Stella problem. If he does want the place to close, the sooner I know the better. That way I don’t waste time thinking about this.
Paxton’s such an asshole and if it wasn’t for this town, I wouldn’t have to deal with his shit anyway. Well…this town and my love of books. Just thinking about him pisses me off to the point that I don’t know what I’m doing until I pull the door open and enter.
Chapter Two
Paxton
“Feed me, asshole,” is what wakes me first thing in the morning.
“Chill, Bundy. I’ll feed you in a minute,” I say to my parrot whose cage is in the living room. The bedroom door is open so I know he heard me.
