Page 35 of Love Bank
I looked around my quiet living room and then up at the wood ceiling that had always made the room warm and inviting. It invoked images of sitting by the fire with a hot cup of cocoa while the Christmas tree lights blinked in the corner. Except these visions never included anyone in the room with me. And until today, that hadn’t really bothered me. Because being alone was preferable to being with some ass of a man who’d knock you up and leave you with a broken heart.
Until today I had no idea a man could set your very soul on fire.
And who needed a roaring fireplace when you were warm from the inside out?
* * *
My eyelids were so heavy, Keva could make a case that I was actually snoozing while sitting up in my desk chair. I couldn’t get to sleep last night due to the Warden of Wanktown. All those sleepless hours had convinced me the kiss meant nothing, he was still a complete jerkhole, and I must have mistaken the connection I felt when his lips devoured me whole.
The thing I just couldn’t get out of my head this morning was the verifiable evidence that had pressed against my stomach during the kiss. Why had he come in here to give a sample that first day I saw him? We hadn’t paid him any money for his sample, so he wasn’t making a deposit for cash. Naturally, I assumed he was getting testing done for an erectile dysfunction, but based on my two experiences with his impressive erections, he didn’t have any kind of problem that I could tell.
“You doing okay there, Lucille?” Keva poked her head in my office door.
I jerked my head up. I must have started to doze off for real. The fog of sleep lifted enough for me to realize she’d finally called me by my first name. A warm glow expanding in my chest perked me up and had me standing up and walking around my antique wood desk.
“Just a little tired today. How about we make some coffee and chat in the courtyard a bit?” I hadn’t stopped at Coffee this morning like I normally did during the week in fear I’d run into Bain ordering his stupid onion bagel. Who ordered onion bagels anyway? Gross.
Keva smiled and nodded, rushing off to make our coffees with the Keurig machine in our tiny break room/back office. I grabbed my phone and the box of cookies we normally had out for clients and headed to the courtyard to scope out the bird situation. I cracked open the back door and looked left, then right. No seagull in sight.
I let out a relieved sigh and crossed to the two chairs and tiny table. After thorough inspection, neither one had bird droppings, thank God. Keva used her backside to push her way through the door and delivered our coffee to the table and had a seat with me. I opened the box of snickerdoodle cookies and offered it to her.
“So, what’s got you so tired?” Keva blew on her coffee and snagged a snickerdoodle.
I took a sip from my cup to give myself some time to come up with an answer. Unfortunately, the brew was piping hot and burned its way down my throat while I sputtered. I grabbed a cookie instead and nibbled on it, brain swirling.
“Oh, you know, just a long to-do list running through my head. That and I agreed to sponsor the Testicular Cancer 5k, which means I need to get working on my stamina. Are you a runner?”
Phew, there. That sounded plausible and I successfully shifted the attention to Keva.
She snorted. “Um, yeah, no. The most I’ve ever run is a mile when our PE teacher made us do it for fitness testing. And even then it was mostly a walk.”
My phone pinged loudly on the table, but I ignored it. Keva was talking and it would be rude to look at my phone.
She glanced at the phone and then up at me. “It’s okay to grab that. I don’t mind.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to be rude. I hate how attached we’ve become to our phones.”
Keva looked at me like a disobedient little pet charming her with its antics. “Honestly, it’s fine.”
I cleared my throat and picked up the phone. Maybe my manners were funny to an eighteen-year-old, who knows? The Hell Raisers were back to chatting.
Amelia:Bonfire on the beach tonight at 7. You gotta come, Lucille!
“See? Whatever’s got you smiling is a good thing.”
I looked up and Keva was watching me, her smile matching the one on my own face. It felt good to be included. Sure, the thing with Bain was a dumpster fire, but everything else in my life was pretty great.
“Just some friends of mine inviting me to a bonfire.”
Keva’s face lit up. “Oh! The one on the beach?”
I tilted my head. “You know about it too?”
She bounced in her chair. “Yes! I’ve been wanting to go to that ever since I heard about it when I was a freshman in high school. I know my friends Lukas and Dante went last week.”
I guess the beach bonfires were the place to be seen. Didn’t sound like something I’d usually go to. Too many people, a little too wild.
My thumbs flew over the screen, texting Amelia back.
