Page 51 of True Honey
“I don’t need any of that shit and neither do you,” he shrugged like none of it mattered and maybe it didn’t but it felt too big and too important. “So tell me what you do need,” he said, softer than before. “And if it’s the redhead then we make a game plan and you stop being a pussy.”
“Fuck, Arlo, you’re mean today,” I grumbled. “You’re asking me to make a choice between what I know I should do and what my dick wants… the answer seems kind of obvious.”
“Your dick, or your heart?” He poked me in the check with two fingers. “You have one of those, I know you do… it even works sometimes.” Arlo offered me a sympathetic smile.
“Either way, I have to be responsible.”
“You can have both,” he said after a beat. “You really can.”
“It feels selfish,” I confessed.
“That’s because you’re the most selfless person I know, brushing your teeth before saving the world probably feels selfish…” Arlo laughed. “You also don’t know when to ask for help…”
“I’m slightly over this garage therapy session, I’m not going to lie,” I said.
“Why not? You’re lying about everything else…” Arlo said. “Do you like her, Si?” He asked me, the conversation somehow getting even more serious.
Did I?
Her smile flashed across my mind and her laughter filled my chest thinking about that night we had, drenched in whiskey and how easy it had been to talk to her. I could talk to her… I looked up from my greasy covered hand and met Arlo’s glare.
I didn’t have to answer him out loud, he already knew.
“So ask her out,” he said.
“You want me to ask out my fake fiancé on a date…” I scoffed, I never realized just how stupid it all sounded until it rolled off my own lips.
“Take time to get to know her properly, not because of some business arrangement.” Arlo pushed off the ground back to his feet and held out his hand to me.
“Wow, sage advice.” I took his hand and brushed myself off.
“Try; I’m sorry I’m a stuck up ass, please rip up that idiotic paper contract and…” Arlo smiled. “I think you’re reallyfuckingpretty.”
“I mean if it worked on Ella,” I laughed.
“It didn’t, I never said that to her because I have tact and know how to flirt.” Arlo walked away from me before I could argue and left me alone with my thoughts.
“You gave her a fancy book and lurked around for a month.”
“Yeah,” he scowled at me like I was fucking clueless, “flirting.”
Ask her out.
Easier said than done.
COURTNEY
“Morning, thank you for calling the Harbor Stadium, you’re speaking to Drew. How can I help you?” The hours blurred as people called nonstop, all of them angry about the rising cost of season tickets.
Susanna had warned me that it was one of the busiest times of the year, we didn’t deal with the customers, but transferring nine out of every ten calls upstairs felt tedious and it made the day drag on. I had a shift at Hilly’s later that night and my feet were already killing me but now that I was putting an extra paycheck into my account at the end of the month kept me standing.
That and the hollow, devastated look on Silas’ face when he’d sent me home.
He hadn’t spoken to me since.
No doubt trying to figure out how to get rid of me without causing a mess but as soon as I had enough for first and last month's rent I would get August and I out of his hair.
I pushed myself out of bed that morning on the pretense that I had to take August to school and nothing else. If my brain had its way I would have never left. My bones felt like lead and I was so cold that I moved a little slower, like there was ice coating all my muscles. I just needed one more week of work.
