Page 9 of Unfriend Me
“Jesus. You say that like it’s something to be celebrated. Are you a car or a human? What are you saving your precious skin for anyway? Thinking of taking up modeling?”
He squeezed my hand tighter. “Maybe. It’s not so farfetched. I mean, how many six-foot-five guys do you see with muscles and mullets? I should make a calendar.” He spread his other arm out wide like he was a prize.
Jimmy made a noise that sounded like a cough covering a fart.
“Not many, thank God,” I answered him. And I meant it. Not for the reasons I let on. I’m glad there weren’t many like him out there. He was one of a kind and I quite liked that about my best friend.
“We’ve been best friends since puberty, you’d think it’s time to etch my name on your skin for all eternity. You’re putting a fuckin’ bird on your back because of a damn peacock encounter, but not my name?”
I laughed at that, Jimmy tsk-tsking at me for moving. “I’m not getting the bird because of the peacock. It’s a phoenix, T. It’s a rebirth symbol. I’m changing course. I’m making better decisions about my life. I’m done with assholes like Douchebag. My life is going to be what I make it from now on. That’s what this tattoo is about.”
Titus gave me a smile I felt all the way to the tips of my toes. He held my hand until it went numb and he had to switch to his left. Hours passed and he didn’t complain, just kept me company in silence and across conversations about anything and everything. When other clients and artists started coming into the shop, Jimmy cleaned up and pronounced step one done. I’d have to come back in for the shading and detailed color work.
I stood up and Titus nearly choked helping me get my shirt pulled down in front. Jimmy walked away to clean up his tools while Titus backed me up to the full-length mirror so I could check out my phoenix. It was beautiful. Absolutely perfect. She looked fierce and determined, just like me, and when Jimmy added the color to the tail feathers at my next appointment, she’d evoke images of that damn peacock. The thing had woken me up that night of Jayden and Lenora’s wedding, so I’d immortalize it by way of tattoo.
I looked over at Titus, who couldn’t seem to take his eyes off my image in the mirror. An overwhelming sense of wanting to set things right with us took hold of me.
“Are we back to being friends again, T?” I whispered.
He looked over at me then, his face just inches from mine where I could see how the sun had left little spokes of white skin fanning out from the corners of his eyes. “We always were. You just walked away for a bit.”
Arrow to the fucking heart. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”
Titus grinned. “It’s all good.”
Just like that. A year of ignoring him and he forgave me that easily. My heart lurched hard and that damn burning came back to my eyes. “But I’m just not sure I can be friends with you while you have that fucking hideous mullet. It’s embarrassing.”
Titus grinned wider, knowing all my tricks. Sarcastic humor was my love language.
“I’ll be sure to grow it out even longer. Just for you, sweet tits.”
My eyes went wide. “Excuse me? What the fuck did you just call me?”
He moved back like a smart man. “Hey, I wouldn’t know since you haven’t shown me yet, but that’s how I imagine them.”
Titus spun and walked to the door, waiting there while I stared after him and then made my next appointment with Jimmy in a shocked haze. I wasn’t sure what to make of Titus. He’d always teased me and gave me back as good as he got, but he’d never been outrageously flirtatious either. What had gotten into him this morning? And why did I kind of like it?
I huffed at myself. I knew exactly why I liked it. I ran toward danger like a gnat to a flame. Flirting with my best friend seemed like the next dive off a cliff an adrenaline junkie like me was looking for. Problem was, I couldn’t mess up my friendship with Titus. He was literally the only thing I’d done right my whole life. Every other relationship I’d damaged at some point with my smart mouth and brusque behavior. I mean, I had my Hell Raisers, but we hadn’t been friends since middle school. There was still time for me to mess things up.
“Ready to go?” Titus interrupted my train of thought, which was just as well. “The guys said we’re all doing a bonfire tonight. Want me to drop you off at the hotel so I can get to my job and then I’ll pick you back up tonight?”
I looked up at him, seeing him through new eyes. “I have a car, you know.”
He shrugged and opened the passenger side door of his truck for me. “I know. But I figured if you wanted to drink with your girls, it’d be safer for me to drive you home.”
Damn these new eyes. Had Titus always been this good looking? Or this kindhearted? Did he treat all women like this or was I somehow special? His huge body got into the truck and sucked all the oxygen out.
“Don’t you want to drink with your guy friends?”
He shrugged again and turned the truck toward home. “Nah. I’d rather one of us be the designated driver. So, I’ll pick you up at eight.”
I guess it was decided.
People, men especially, making decisions for me wasn’t something I normally appreciated, yet Titus doing it just made me feel cared for. And if that wasn’t a red fucking flag if I’d ever seen one. What was wrong with me? I’d just gotten out of a bad relationship that had crushed my self-esteem. I shouldn’t even be thinking about my best friend like that. I’d done enough stupid things in my life. Titus couldn’t be one of them.
Decided. Done. End of story. Time to get new eyes.
5
