Chasing Leah (Journey Series) (6 page)

“Sure thing jelly bean. Here’s
some pretzels and juice. Remember only color on the paper, nowhere else,
right?” “Right,” he answers back as he starts to scribble over all of the pages
and stuffing his little mouth with his snack.

“Hey are these machines free or
were you going to use ‘
em
?” I turn around at the
slightly familiar voice and see tattoo guy who has two bags of laundry trailing
behind him. “Yeah I’m just using those two,” I reply as I point to the machines
that I have filled. “But I’m pretty sure this laundry room is really only for
the tenants to use so….”  I guess he must think since he’s here so often
with all
of his one nighters
he’s welcome to all of
the facilities too. I really need to talk to the landlord about the security
around this place. He gives me a strange look and says, “Well I do
kinda
live here so I guess I’m welcome to the machines
right?” I nod my head at him and shrug my shoulders. “Uh, I guess.” Woops way
to shove your foot in your mouth Leah.

He smirks back at me, “Did Ally
not mention meeting me before the party the other night? I helped her carry in
a few boxes the day you guys moved in.” Well that explains me not being
introduced to him before. Ally and Mr. James had driven the U-Haul up the night
before and I had driven my car up separately the next day. By the time I had
pulled in, the U-Haul was gone and Ally had half the apartment unpacked.

“Nope she didn’t actually. I
just assumed….uh….”

“What? That I’m working my way
into every
girls
apartment? Do you think I’m some kind
of man whore just
cause
I’m a college guy?” He raises
a brow at me and I can’t tell if he’s offended by my assumption or amused.
Either way he looks damn sexy in his grey pajama pants that are hanging low on
his narrow hips and his black muscle shirt. And oh the muscles he has. Yup he
definitely works out.

 And the tattoos hmm…..
Most of the time whenever I see guys covered in tattoos I think of the biker
trash that hung out at the bar where my mom worked but he knows how to pull
them off. I count ten that I can actually see, a variation of words and
symbols, mainly from his shoulders reaching to his elbows and then two scrolls
peeking out from the top of his shirt near his collarbone. Ally and I had gone
and gotten matching star tattoos on my 18
^th
birthday. I had gotten
mine right on my hipbone and
Allys
on her wrist. That
right there was enough pain for
me,
I can’t imagine
how long his took to get done.

“Well yeah that is
kinda
exactly what I was thinking. I mean you did come home
with Ally that one night and then I run into you that one day in the hall. I’m
normally in and out a lot so I haven’t met a lot of the neighbors.” He sticks
his hand out to me, “Well then I guess Ally probably never told you my name
then. Chase O’Neil, apartment 2B, nice to meet you Leah.” I reach over and
shake his hand back. “I’m actually
kinda
surprised
Ally never mentioned me. The day I helped her move in, she told me I was her
roommates
soul mate and she needed to set us up
immediately.”

He lets go of my hand as I turn
around to switch my laundry into the dryer. Of course Ally actually said that
to him, she really needed to get a filter on that mouth of hers. “Well that’s
Ally for
ya
. She’s always trying to set me up. She’s
been a little preoccupied lately though with her own soul mate.” So this was
the guy Ally said she had wanted to set me up with. I turn around and slide
onto the top of the dryer as Chase begins to sort his laundry into the empty
washers to study him. Well I guess Ally really does know my nonexistent taste
in guys pretty well cause if I had one he would be the flavor I would want to
sample.

“I thought she was going to
introduce us the night of the party but when I ran into her she seemed to be a
tad drunk so I figured it was best to get her home.” He pauses as he throws in
some detergent and then hops onto the dryer next to me. “I wanted to make sure
she got home okay and then I got home and remembered I never gave you my name.”
My ears perk up a little bit at
this,
I had just
assumed that they had hooked up. I tuck a loose curl behind my ear. “Oh so you
guys didn’t uh,
ya
know…”I chew down on my lip
wondering why I care. He laughs. Wow even his laugh is sexy. “I was in there
for like 10
minutes,
did you seriously think that’s
what we were doing? Give me a little more credit than that.” He pauses before
giving me a wink with one of his glittering green eyes. “No, I just wanted to
make sure she got to bed okay. I know how overwhelming your first college party
can get.” I shrug my shoulders. As if I care.
Even though
that was pretty sweet.
“Well whatever not like I’m her keeper or
anything.”

He hops off and heads over to
the vending machine, “You want anything?”

“Nope I’m good,” pointing down
to my skittles. He bends over looking at his choices. I tilt my head sideways
and check out the view. And what a nice view it is. I kind of got like a rocker
vibe off of him but he definitely has the physique of an athlete. Preferably a
football player, he could really fill out a pair of those tight pants very
nicely.

“Mommy can I
have some more snack?”
Calebs
little voice
calls out from the corner that I had shoved him in. Woops totally forgot he was
there while I was ogling my eye candy. What kind of mother am I? “Yeah
sweetie,” I reply. “You want a few skittles?” He nods his head and I pour a few
into his small hand as he separates them by color. I swear that child has OCD.

“Hey little guy,” Chase says as
he crouches down to the table. He must have been so fascinated by me as well
because he seems to have just noticed Caleb as well. “What you doing there
man?”

“Coloring,
duh.
What’s it look like? What you have for snack?” Caleb holds out an
open hand waiting for Chase to share whatever he picked out from the vending
machine. “Caleb. That’s Chases snack you have your own buddy.
Manners please.”

“But Mommy his looks yummy,” he
points at the snack cakes Chase has. “Not a problem buddy as long as you’re
Mommy says
it’s
okay I’ll share some with you. Cause
sharing is the cool thing to do. How’s that sound?”

I don’t correct him that I’m in
fact not
Calebs
Mommy but I really don’t want to
confuse Caleb with THAT whole sticky situation. I nod my head in reply and
Chase shares a snack cake with Caleb. I know that is going to be one
chocolatey
mess just waiting to happen. I see a bath in our
very near future.

“So Ally told me you waitress
down at
Ginos
,” he says as he climbs up onto the
machine next to me. Not even skipping a beat when he realized I have a kid. “I
love that place.”

“Yeah I work a couple of morning
and night shifts a week over there. It keeps busy so I’ve been making some
pretty good tips.
Works out good with my school schedule.”
The buzzer on my dryer goes off and I hop down to start folding it. Oh maybe I
should’ve waited to do this upstairs. I did just meet the
guy,
I really don’t want to fold all of my underwear and bras in front of him. Well
at least most of it comes from
Victorias
Secret, no
granny panties here.

I start to fold some of my work
shirts up and Chase looks at me with a smirk as he bends over and hooks a
leopard bra around his pinky that had escaped from the dryer. “I think this is
yours.” I snatch it from his hands quickly and toss it on to my pile. “Doesn’t
look familiar, I think it came from your pile but it looks about the same size
so I’ll keep it.” He crosses his arms over his broad chest. “Hey I’m not that
kind of guy,” he looks at me like I offended him. “I don’t do girls
laundry,
they take it with ‘
em
.”
He laughs and I catch the glint of light off his tongue ring.

Mmmhmm
and I bet he has plenty of girls tripping over each other to claw their way to
him. “So what are you majoring in?” I quickly change the subject as he tosses
his laundry into the dryer.

“Well I’m in my last year
actually. I’m majoring in secondary education and
minoring
in English. My dream job would be to teach English at a high school. It’s
always something that’s interested me.” Huh. He definitely doesn’t seem the
teaching type as I gaze at his tattoos. They could all be covered up with a
long sleeve shirt so I guess there was no problem there. Well he could teach me
a thing or two anytime he wanted.

“Really?
I couldn’t imagine wanting to go back to high school, having to deal with all
the drama. Doesn’t sound like a fun time to me.” He grins back at me, “Well
yeah but you’re the teacher so you make the rules or be a dick and give ‘
em
a year’s worth of detention. I think Ally told me you’re
in the nursing program, right?”

“Yep I’ve done some dual
enrollment and summer classes too so I’m almost half way through.”

“Wow that’s really impressive.
You must be very ambitious.” I shrug my shoulders, “Well I’ve always had to
kinda
be that way. Neither of my parents
are
around and I have that little man to take care of. I’ve always just pushed
myself
harder,
I don’t want to end up like my mom. And
he deserves a better life than I had.” Chase stares back at me with a hard look
likes he’s contemplating the right words to say back to that.

I finish placing my folded
clothes into my basket and rest it on my hip. “Well I’m going to head back
up,
I have a few things to finish up for one my classes.” He
grabs the basket from me. “Here let me help you with that I can come back for
mine in a little bit.” I gather Caleb up shoving everything back into his
backpack. He’s colored pictures for both of us and Chase graciously accepts his
scribbled page. “Thanks buddy I’ll hang it up on my fridge.” Hmm he seems to be
pretty well with kids too. I think I just met Mr. Perfect. Surely he has a
girlfriend.

We head up to my apartment and
he sets the basket down on the kitchen counter when we walk in. “So I was
wondering if you wanted to come out on Thursday. I have a band that I’m in and
we play a few different spots around town. We’re playing at
Kilroys
bar and grill that night.” Okay soon to be high school
teacher,
tattoos, good with kids, hot body AND he’s in a band. Isn’t that like every
girls dream type rolled into one?

“I don’t get out much with Caleb
and I don’t think….” He interrupts me before I can finish my excuse, “Well that’s
cool bring him too. It’s not a scummy bar, totally kid friendly I promise, just
come on out to see us play.”

“Okay I should be able to make
that work. So what kind of band is it, are you guys
gonna
be big someday and be a major headliner?” He shrugs his shoulder and gives me a
crooked grin, “Well I don’t know about that but we’re pretty good. I guess if
we had to put a label on it I would consider us like an alternative rock. It’s
just kind of a thing that I do to make some extra money while I’m in school,
instead of getting a real job to pay the bills I get to play the guitar.

“I wish I could play an
instrument and make money off of it instead of running around on my feet all
day and night hoping I get left a good tip.”

“Yeah I can’t complain but I’m sure
you look pretty hot doing that. The customers must get a pretty nice view.” And
there he goes with his little wink again. Most of the time I think that’s
pretty cheesy but not coming from this guy. “Well I should be going, got to
grab my laundry. See you on Thursday, right?” He leans down and ruffles
Calebs
hair whose plopped himself
down on the couch with a pile of books. “Good to meet you buddy. See you
later.”

“Bye bye Chase. Pound it.” Caleb
gives him a fist bump that Chase returns with a laugh and heads out the door.

“We’ll be there, see
ya
Chase.” I wave and shut the door behind him. Wow no
wonder Ally wanted to set me up with him I could totally see myself dating him
and a whole lot more.

Leah

I end up working the night shift
with Remy on Wednesday night which is rare since we haven’t worked together
since my first day on my own. Nights at
Ginos
are
totally different than the mornings. Instead of the usual crowd being senior
citizens, it is jam packed with students ordering pizza and guzzling down beer.
Remy and I are both worn ragged by the flow of customers that are coming in.
“Wow I’ve never seen it this busy,” I say as I take a sip of water and then
start to fill up two pitchers of beer for a table of guys I just seated. “Yeah
I like the breakfast shifts much better, they’re a little more laid back. At
least they fly be this way though and the tips are so much better especially if
they drink more.” Remy answers back. “So how are things going with you and
Gage? I haven’t heard you talk about him much at class lately.”

I shrug my shoulders, “We’re
just friends Rem.” I remind her and she just rolls her eyes back at me.
“Seriously,” I add on, “but he’s coming to hang out with us tomorrow night
we’re going to see this band. The guy that lives across the hall from me is in
it and invited me out. They’re playing over at
Kilroys
.”

“You’re not talking about Major
Hoosiers are you? I know they play there a lot.”

“Um I have no idea. I didn’t ask
him the name of his band. Have you seen ‘
em
before?
”