"I am happy for you Skye. I really am. He sounds great. Are you two “official” now?" I said with air quotes around official.
Her
cheeks flushed bright red, "He asked me out when we were lightly kissing each other in bed."
"Shut up! How romantic
," I said picturing them together with the sheets around them and a slight glow coming from the candles while he asked her. I got up from my side of the table to give her a quick hug, which embarrassed her even more, but I truly was happy for her and Jayson.
"So, you have to tell me about your night. I feel bad that I left you there dancing, but you looked l
ike you were having a good time! Plus, I knew Ryder would somehow find you. He acted like he was on a mission to find you since he all but ran away from me once I pointed out where you were."
I sighed and took a deep breath in
, bracing myself to tell her what happened. I began with the story telling her the details of the night; I quickly brushed over the guy who tried to take advantage of me and emphasized the parts on Ryder being there to save the day. While I was telling her, I began picking the nail around my thumb to avoid having to look up at her reaction. When I finally finished the story I glanced up and noticed the tears spilling out of her eyes.
"No, don’t cry Skye. Seriously, everything is okay now. He left his numb
er and stuff but I ripped it up. I don’t want to think of the night at all. It was just too…weird."
"You WHAT?" She screamed so the entire restaurant could hear her.
"I ripped up his number. I don’t want to be reminded of the night. Is that so difficult to understand?"
"You don’t have to be a bitch with me. I feel horrible that I left you now. Here I was having one of the best nights and you're practically getting raped. I feel guilty as fuck, so if you could kindly cut the attitude Harper."
Wow. I was shocked that was so blunt about telling me what she was feeling. Normally she skidded around the truth, telling bits and pieces but never how she really felt. I was actually really impressed.
"Sorry Skye. I don’t mean to be a complete bitch. In truth, it’s been a really hard day today." I said as we picked at our sushi that arrived
to our table, neither of us had much of an appetite.
“Are you okay with everything? You need to stay at my place tonight. No question about it. We’ll do the whole slumber party thing and pretend like we are five again.”
I smiled at her gratefully taking her up on her offer, not wanting to go back to my lonely apartment. We sat in silence for a while eating our food until I brought up Jayson. Skye gladly complied with the topic and our conversation drifted into the late night filled with giggles and dirty talk.
After our dinner we went to Skye’s and spent the night watching cheesy Ryan Gosling movies and ogling over his gorgeous set of abs. We fell asleep in the same bed to a cheesy romantic comedy in the background and I slept through the night without a nightmare or negative though
t to intrude.
Life went on for a few weeks
. I was busy working at Rita’s and hanging out with Skye like normal. Skye and I started hanging out at home doing things like working out and watching goofy movies instead of going to clubs. She was settling into life as a “taken” girl and I was working on myself. I hadn’t thought of Ryder and hadn’t heard from him since he came to the rescue a couple weeks ago.
It was a Saturday aftern
oon and I was helping Rita shelve some clothes from the backroom.
“How’s that man of yours?” Rita asked.
“I haven’t seen him since that one night. I’m working on getting to know who I am.”
“Oh honey, you’re just working on building those walls
higher and thicker around you. Ain’t nothing good about that,” she drawled. She clicked her tongue at me in disgust and disappointment and went to work the cash register while I helped a customer out.
When we were
near closing, Rita called out from the back, “Harper, you go take the cash register while I work in the office on some of these finance forms.”
I walked to sit down at the cash register and fooled around with the desk
, organizing some of the office supplies we kept up there. Once everything was in place, I started playing with the apps on my phone to pass the time. Rita was pretty chill about letting me use my phone as long as there weren’t many customers around. The bell to the shop rang right as I was about to win in my game of Temple Run so I didn’t even look up to greet the customer. I figured the customer would just help herself to whatever she needed.
Footsteps slowly padded their way towards the register and I could hear someone coughing to get my attention. I looked up as soon as
I heard that low southern drawl in front of me.
“I’m here looking for something in particular ma’
am,” he said.
Ryder.
I looked up and saw his beautiful face in front of mine. The line of his cheekbones was chiseled and he had slight stubble on his face. His hair was slicked back in a messy way that looked like he just rolled out of bed. His blue eyes pierced mine and he was twirling with something in his hand in a shy way.
“What can I help you…uh…with?” I stumbled over my words at complete shock that Ryder was standing in front of me…at my work. How the hell did he know where I worked? If I weren’t in complete shock by his presence I would think that he was stalking me and probably kick him out of the store.
Why was he around? Not only couldn’t I kick him from my thoughts but now he was physically present wherever I was. He didn’t understand. I couldn’t do this. He had already seen far too much of me and I can’t let him see anything else. I don’t live the perfect normal life that is handed to you. I live a life of running and pain. I just wanted to have sex with him, taste him. Why didn’t he understand that?
“I’m looking for something for a beautiful woman
that I met a few weeks ago. I know it’s a little premature but I think I might have a huge crush on her. I did come to her rescue so I do believe she owes me…not that I’m counting here or anything.”
“She sounds like she wants nothing to do with you. It see
ms a bit intense if you ask me,” I blurted out, covering my mouth as soon as I finished. I had no intention of being mean to him but who was he to come here? This was my place of work. I swear if Skye had anything to do with this I was going to kill her.
“Ah, you don’t understand. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on
, besides my own family that is. When I see her it’s like something in my heart stops working for just a second and the world slows down to a snail’s pace. She pretends like she doesn’t care about anything, but deep down inside I think she has the capability of loving.”
“In fact,” he continued, “ I th
ink she should come out with me so I can show her what life is like with a man who would give the world up just to spend one evening with her.”
My cheeks flushed red and I heard Rita come out from the back. I fiddled with my hands and started to bite my nails. Frankly, his confession scared the crap out of me. I didn’t do dates…ever. I don’t think I could ever do dates. I just…no one can ever find out.
“Harper your good to close….oh,” She stopped in her tracks when she saw Ryder standing over the counter leaning in towards me. She clearly saw my cheeks garnished in a rosy color. “Hello there, I’m Rita,” she said and stuck her hand out at him.
“Ryder.
Pleasure to meet you ma’am. I’m just trying to take your lovely employee out to dinner but she’s being stubborn.”
“Oh, she’s off work
so she’s going with you,” Rita said forcefully and winked over at me. “Get your stuff, I’ll close out.”
I huffed towards the back knowing that there was no way
of getting out of this, especially with Rita’s glare penetrating me. I went to the back and changed into a light summer dress that was supposed to go on the racks. If she was going to make me go out with him the least she could do would be to let me borrow one of the store’s dresses. I fluffed my hair up and grabbed the rest of my stuff.
When I walked ba
ck to the front of the store I heard Ryder and Rita laughing hysterically.
“I can’t believe you know where the marsh is!” Rita exclaimed at him. “Harper, can you believe that Ryder here is from Texas, but has family in Louisiana! Small world now ain’t it?”
“Thanks for the drink Rita,” he said as he motioned to his cup of water that she must have offered him. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah, l
want to get this over with,” I mumbled under my breath hoping he wouldn’t hear the tone in my voice. I don’t remember the last time I went out on a date with someone. My hands were sweating at the thought of a date…with Ryder nonetheless. My breath was short and I felt like the world was slowly closing a hole in my chest.
When we got outside I took a deep breath
, hoping that I would be able to breathe, but I started getting clammy and dizzy.
“What’s wrong?” He asked
clearly noticing my pale face and the sudden reaction I was having.
“I just don’t feel great. I think I’d rather go home.”
“Oh no you’re not. I knew you wouldn’t call when I left my number at your place but there is no way you’re backing out of this. You were fine ten minutes ago when I saw you playing on your phone so spill…what’s wrong?”
Shit. He
had read me like a book. The only people who could understand me like that were the people like me: broken and abused. At this point lying to him was out of the picture, so I decided to jump in with two feet and tell him what I was feeling.
“I don’t do…dates,
” I managed to choke out.
“This isn’t a date? What are you talking about? If this was a proper date, I wouldn’
t be picking you up from work.”
“How did you find me anyways?”
“You don’t want me to tell you all my secrets already now do you? What would be the fun in that?”
“I’m serious. It’s kind of creepy that you just showed up.”
“Your friend Skye came into the coffee shop yesterday and told me where you worked. She also said that you have been absolutely miserable without me,” he spoke in a joking manner, emphasizing the word miserable as we walked side by side down the storefronts.
“She did not!” I gawked.
“Haha no she didn’t, but she did tell me where you worked. I hadn’t heard from you since that night so I figured maybe we could go hang out by the beach and have some sandwiches or something?” Maybe I could use this as an excuse to get laid…
“A total non-date,” h
e emphasized.
I was going to kill Skye. Seriously kill her. The only reason she went to that coffee shop was because she knew that’s where Ryder was. Ugh. This is not something I wanted to do today. I was exhausted from work
ing all day and quite frankly just wanted to go home. He walked closer towards me, allowing his hand to ever-so-slightly brush against mine. I felt the electricity pulse through me. It awakened a desire deep in my belly. The panic I had felt earlier quickly vanished into need. I wanted his large hands all over my body, touching every last bit of me. I wanted his delicate lips pressed up against mine and wanted his cock to tease me. Oh fuck, I needed to get laid ASAP. Maybe this will be good for me; I was in need of a little attention from a man.
Suddenly, I felt Ryder’s pinky finger
curl gently around mine, holding it there as if we were promising each other the world in our fingers. His ring finger, ever so gently, glided over mine sending waves of electricity through my body. He then laced the rest of his fingers with mine, caressing my palm with his thumb. And there we were, walking hand in hand down the street towards the beach in complete silence.
When we got to the beach the sun was fading over the horizon and dusk settled. We were the only ones on the beach, proba
bly because it was getting dark. Ryder brought a small lantern with two sandwiches and bags of chips. He laid out a checkered blanket under us and motioned to sit.
“For you my lady,” he said in a dorky way while bowing towards me. I laughed at the silly gesture. When I sat on the blanket he handed me the sandwich and said, “I got turkey, you seem like a turkey girl.”
“And why is that?”
“Turkey is like one of those lunch meats that is so determined to be front and center. It’s all-American and you can’t ever go wrong with turkey.”
This was probably the stupidest thing I have ever heard and maybe the most unflattering, yet I couldn’t help but smile. I think it was suppose to be a compliment, but being compared to lunchmeat? Sexy, right?
Ryder popped open the cork to a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne and poured it into two glasses.
“For you. Cheers for finally allowing me to take you out.”
“Cheers for total s
talkers,” I snarled at him.
“Tough one aren’t ya? I don’t know how else I am going to impress
you…maybe some more of this,” he said and grabbed my hand in his and laced our fingers together once again. I quickly shook him off, moving my hand over.