Page 38 of Tear Me Down
After my temperature came back normal and he let me continue with my workday, we coexisted in perfect silence. Even on the drive to the grocery store, which we’re at now. We stopped on the way home to get a few things, and of course, I'm not even allowed to do that alone. Zeke follows behind me, a solid ten feet, and I can tell people are starting to look at him funny as we walk through the grocery store aisles. They eye him like he’s a potential threat and not just a thorn in my side. I turn casually and look at him.
“You'll look less like a stalker if you walk with me,” I say in a smartass tone.
“Yeah, you definitely don’t need two of those.”
I hold up my middle finger to him.
“He’s not my stalker anymore, asshole.”
“Oh, fuck off with that. You don’t think he’s watching the store surveillance?”
“Oh, I’m sure he is, but I’m okay with it now,” I taunt. He rolls his eyes before glancing around to see everyone staring, and then walks up next to me—I’m assuming to prove to the witnesses around that he’s not going to hurt me. “Look, I'm sorry. I know you'd rather be working or with your girlfriend than watching me. I'm sure Damien can have someone else follow me around.”
“I don’t mind watching over you. What I mind is disobeying a direct order to satisfy you.”
“I told you, I'm going to tell him myself tonight. Whatever he’s doing doesn’t need to be interrupted just because I throw up. That’s ridiculous.”
“Regardless, he still said to call,” he says so matter-of-factly.
“Look, I get it. You don’t work for me. Hell, you probably don’t even like me, but evenyouagreed with how stressed Damien is. I'm fine. If I think I'm not, I'll bring it to your attention, but for somethingthatminor, there’s no need to bother him. I'm not in pain, I don’t have a fever, and I haven’t eaten or drank anything that wasn’t checked. He’s going to drive himself mad with all of this worry. So fine, do you want to call? Then call. I don’t want to put a wedge between you two, I just want to try and spare him more anxiety.” I concede. Zeke huffs and looks up at the ceiling as he rolls his shoulders back.
“I understand that, and I agree with you, which is why I haven’t called. I’ve just never lied to him before. He’s big on honesty, you know.” He reaches back and kneads his shoulder, as if this actually stresses him out.
“I know, but I promise I'll explain it to him when I talk to him tonight. Hey, if he gets too angry, we can just point out that he said I have authority, and technically you were just obeying an order.”
He looks at me dumbfounded as we dead stop in the middle of the isle.
“You think that’d go over well?” he sarcastically says.
“No, no I don’t.” We walk in silence as I get a couple more things. But when I grab a case of water bottles, Zeke takes them from my hands and puts them in the cart himself. Probably only doing it because he’s right, and Damien’s watching the cameras. “How’d you meet Damien anyway?”
“I met him the same night I met Tay.”
“Your girlfriend?”
“Yeah, at the time I had planned on joining the police academy. So, I was working out a lot and training. One night, I was walking home from the gym when I saw her in trouble in an alley. A guy was touching her and grabbing her roughly, and she was yelling for help, so I ran over to stop him.” He laughs wholeheartedly and shakes his head. “I got the shit beat out of me, but he left her alone.”
“Oh my God, that’s so sweet.”
“Would’ve been sweeter if I had won.” We chuckle as we continue forward, although his is more awkward than mine. “He knocked me out and ran, and she had to call the police and an ambulance. I woke up in the hospital to find D there waiting for me. He told me that if I really wanted to help people, to give him a call, then he programed his number in my phone and left. Cocky son of a bitch.” That makes me giggle with just as much warmth as Zeke shows, because yes, Damien is very cocky. “Tay came by later to thank me, and we hit it off from there. She actually gave me the courage to call him.”
“That’s amazing.” I look over to him and notice the soft smile on his face, clearly thinking about Tay and that night he met her. “I can tell she means a lot to you.”
“Yeah, she does.” He nods his head casually. “Now, obviously I'm way better at fighting than I was that first night.”
“Oh, totally. Why else would you be here?”
“Exactly.” We continue to chuckle, and when my phone vibrates in my pocket, I pull it out to see a text from Damien.
Damien
You two look awfully chatty.
I playfully roll my eyes, because of course he’s watching us, and show Zeke the text before replying. He shakes his head again and takes a step towards the middle of the aisle to make a point.
Me
Don’t worry, baby. We’re talking about you and Tay.
