Page 18 of Brighter than the Boss
Shrugging nonchalantly, I told them the truth. Half of it anyway. "I'm just having a tough week with my mom sick and me being all the way out here. She started losing her hair so she skyped me in while dad buzzed her head. I just feel helpless, you know?"
Tears clogged my throat and I couldn't say more. Brinley rubbed my back and I had to look down at the table to avoid everyone's sympathetic gazes. I was already about to lose it, I couldn't chance a glance at their faces. Tears were contagious.
"I think we can all agree there's not much anyone can say to make the situation better. But we're here if you need someone to listen to you get it off your chest or to hug it out or to get you so drunk you forget. Whatever the time calls for, you got it, girlie." Esa patted my hand and then addressed the table. "Whadya say we order that nacho platter and share it, huh?"
I was grateful for her distraction technique, needing a few more moments to sniffle and get myself together. Plus, nachos sounded good. I hadn't been eating as much this week. Part of the “dark cloud” diet I guess.
"Are you even capable of ordering something halfway healthy?" Brinley was chuckling and shaking her head at Esa. "What's wrong with a veggie?"
"There are vegetables on the nachos! Jalapeno peppers are mostly a veggie. Plus the salsa is tomato and onion. There's three servings of veggies right there!" Hessa was quick to jump in and defend the menu.
Autumn slapped the table, her jaw dropped. "Are you kidding me right now? Is that what you're teaching your students? Let me guess, you tell your high schoolers that pizza is a veggie too because of the tomato sauce. Am I right?"
"Hey—"
Bailey cut off Hessa. "I sure as shit hope she does! I mean come on, pizza has veggies, dairy, carbs, and sometimes protein in the form of meat. That is a complete meal right there. Many of us wouldn't be here today without the sustenance of pizza. And we turned out just fine!"
"Define 'fine.'" I challenged Bailey.
Shasta gasped and clutched her chest. "Oh no, you didn't. You're done for now. You tease one of these hellions and they'll turn on you. Don't even try to play the 'mom has cancer' card now. You're fair game."
My eyes widened and I joined Autumn in a contest for who could drop their jaw farthest. "I was joking!"
Bailey jumped up and waved at our server. "Excuse me, miss? This one here wants to buy another round of shots when you get a moment. Thanks!" She was pointing at me. The one who doesn't drink. The one who really doesn't like shots.
Then she sat down, crossed her arms and gave me a smug look I wanted to swipe off her face.
"But I don't drink much, guys..."
And that was the last coherent sentence I was able to mumble for a couple hours. The drinks kept coming and the nachos were followed by a platter of buffalo wings (Brinley and Autumn ate the celery and carrots), and a never-ending basket of sweet potato fries. Hessa was quick to point out the plethora of veggie choices we had at the table. Everyone shared about their week and gave each other crap as often as possible. I laughed so hard my cheeks started to hurt. We hadn't hugged it out yet, but I did talk things through and I drank till I forgot what troubled me.
My girls came through for me.
8
Cain
The bar was hopping on a Saturday night, a bachelorette party right by the front door giving me high hopes for finding an attractive and mind-numbing end to the evening. I made a beeline for the bar first, needing that tumbler of Macallan to soothe away the shit that ate away at me all week.
Not only was I worried about my repeated dalliance with Sunny getting back to Ivan or anyone else at the station, I was thoroughly spun out by our conversation last weekend. One minute I'm kissing the hell out of her and she's just as into it as I am, then she's rushing away from me like she's ashamed to be with me. Then she tells me she doesn't regret our kisses at all. And finally, if that weren't enough, she dismisses everything that makes me who I am and tells me to stop playing the victim. What...the...fuck...was that?
I'd spent all week in a weird combo of angry, the mad burning a hole in my stomach every time I thought about it, and really fucking turned on, needing to get my hands on Sunny in the worst way. The little taste I'd had in her apartment wasn't enough, not by a long shot. In fact, it was like tasting a tiny bit of appetizer when you've been starving. My hunger for Sunny was all I could think about by now.
The sexual longing won out over the anger and I'd tried to approach her mid-week, but that small package was hard to find. If I didn't really hate the idea, I'd suspect she was purposely avoiding me. Which just brought the anger back to the forefront and here I was back in the vicious anger-lust spiral.
The answer was clearly a glass of whiskey and a pretty woman. Hell, any woman other than a short blonde with rays of sunshine beaming out of her pores. I needed dark and dirty to match my mood.
I was just a few sips into bliss when the music cranked up in volume and the lights dimmed even further. The bar always turned half the space into a dance floor every weekend. I wasn't fond of dancing but they kept that rap shit out of here so I put up with it. The music brought the girls and that was just fine by me. I nursed the rest of my drink while the crowd got warmed up on the dance floor.
The liquor eventually cooled the anger that usually burned through my veins, leaving room for thoughts of Sunny to creep in without my immediate dismissal because of her personality. God help me, but I was attracted to her outlook on life. I wondered what it must be like to live in that head of hers where the world was a wonderful place and everything was happy and perfect just the way it was. I couldn't comprehend what that would be like, nor could I figure out how she kept that positive attitude when there were plenty of examples everywhere of shitty people and unfair treatment for no reason. She intrigued me. She turned me on just standing there with her lush curves and short hair. She made me want more out of life for the first time in a very long time.
She was dangerous.
A loud whooping noise interrupted my deep thoughts and penetrated the whiskey fog I was wallowing in while I sat at the bar, my back to the dance floor. I swiveled on the stool, my eyes searching the crowd, surprised to find the place packed with bodies. My gaze snagged on a tall woman, looking suspiciously like Brinley, Dean's girlfriend. At six feet tall, she was hard to miss. The music muted in my ears as I looked left and saw Esa, then right as I saw Hessa. They were in a circle, dancing and laughing together. Bailey moved into my line of sight and she let out another whoop, encouraging the girls with her craziness.
Before I knew what I was doing, I stood up from my stool, needing to get a better look at who all was in their group. And that's when the bodies parted, and I caught a glimpse of a short blonde in a body-hugging black dress, her breasts nearly falling out the top. Her skirt was hiking up higher on her familiar thighs with each passing second. My body knew it was Sunny before my brain did, going on full alert, ready to rip through the crowd and get to her.
She wasn't alone.
