Page 28 of Bad Men

We broke ties if one of us was no longer interested.

We broke ties if the girl picked one of us over the other but we both picked her.

We broke ties the moment we started feeling anything that wasn’t lust.

From where I sat, Mia hadn’t picked one of us. She had been very adamant she wanted both. And I knew we were both still interested. That only left the latter.

The rules had always been there to keep us focused. We never deterred from them, never altered them. They were set in stone. One of those rules was the break, a motion of solidarity that stated if one of us wanted out, the other respectfully detached himself from the woman in question because that was how fights happened. If we had both wanted Mia but she only picked one of us, we would both have walked away. If we were with her, but one of us wanted to move on, we both would move on.

It was all or nothing.

No middle.

No gray areas.

If Dav wanted out, I had to let her go, even if…

I didn’t let the ifs wiggle their way into my thoughts. There was no room for them. This was the way of things.

Dav was silent for a long moment, fingers drumming, eyes focused on the drama on the screen. I watched him, because he held my next breath in his hands. He could make or break everything with a single word. He could take something I didn’t have a word for, except that I needed it.

His gaze flicked to the slip of paper with Mia’s number and a muscle jumped in his jaw.

“No,” he mumbled at last. “I was tired,” he plowed on, oblivious to the air that left my lungs in a shaky plume. “I was sitting in the car for half the morning, and it was hot as fuck out. Then I spent three hours waiting for her at the diner, bored out of my mind. Then, back at her place … she wore me out. The girl’s relentless. I’m glad there’s two of us because I’m wrecked. Of course I wanted to stay, you know? I wanted to sleep. It had nothing to do with anything else.”

It was a bullshit excuse.

I knew it.

He knew it.

If I was any kind of friend, I would tell him to cut our losses and run. But I wasn’t ready to walk away, not from Mia, not yet. It was selfish and dangerous, and really stupid, but I needed this.

Needed her.

The city exhaled a collective sigh the following night when the heavens opened and rain plummeted to the ground. It was as if someone had finally thrown open a window in an airtight room, allowing a modicum of air to blow through. The blistering heat simmered down to an almost bearable degree, once you ignored the humidity.

I didn’t mind it. Rain had always been one of those things I could stand in and just breathe. It held a forgiveness to it, like it was washing away all the filth and darkness from the world. Sometimes, I wondered if it had that same effect on people. If they even had the capability to be cleansed. I’d done a lot of really shitty things in my life. I hurt a lot of people. It was my job. I hadn’t chosen it, but I was good at it. I didn’t regret much of it, but there were a few things I would have taken back if I could. Only, I knew the rain couldn’t help me with that.

It was creeping up on nearly ten when I finally reached Mia’s diner. The lights were on, but the sign was flipped to closed. Inside, through the wall of stubbornly scrubbed windows, I could see Mia standing behind the register, head bowed over a clipboard. She wore her yellow and black uniform, the material worn, but clean over the curves of her body. Compared to most diners, it wasn’t slutty. It had a modest U collar and short sleeves. The hem fell a few fingers above the knee, but it wasn’t any different than what most women wore now. A tiny, white square was pinned over her left breast, Mia written across it in loopy font with a sharpie. She wore no jewelry, except her gold hoops. Her feet were stuffed into practical, white sneakers. But it was her hair that fascinated me. The thick, heavy weight was pulled up into its usual knot at the top of her head. Dark chocolate curls fell in coils around her face, and I wondered why she bothered. Didn’t she know how beautiful she looked with her hair down in a rich cascade? I made a mental note to tell her when I wasn’t on the job.

I wasn’t even supposed to be there.

Eduardo had me watching for a guy, a low-life waste by the name of Ernie Russo who owed Eduardo a lot of money. Ernie ran an underground casino on Eduardo’s turf. The deal was, he could stay and keep his little business as long as Eduardo got his cut. Well, Eduardo hadn’t been getting his cut in a while and I was sent to see why. Only, Ernie’s lair was two blocks from Mia’s diner.

I told myself it would be quick. I wouldn’t even talk to her, just see how she was, then I’d get back to Ernie.

A quick peek. Nothing more.

But standing there, it became clear that she was alone. The chairs were turned over on the table. The kitchen through the takeout window was dark. Not another soul was there to make sure she closed up safely, or that she got home. She didn’t have a car, so she would have to walk six blocks in the dark, through streets even I wouldn’t cross without my Glock. The very idea enraged and terrified me.

I was knocking before I could stop myself.

“We’re closed,” she called back without looking up.

I knocked again, harder.

Mia sighed and set her pencil down before raising her face to the door. Whatever she was about to shout back died on her parted lips. Her eyes widened before the most heart stopping smile broke across her face.

---