“Not every man is a shithead like Lucas, baby,” Mikayla says, pressing a few more buttons on her phone. “I got to run. I have a date with a hot fireman tonight, and he’s waiting on me a few blocks away.”
“This was your pregame?”
“Yes, Iris. That way, when I have two drinks with him, he won’t know I’ve really had three. I don’t want to seem like I have a drinking problem.”
“You put thought into it. Maybe you do have a drinking problem, Mikayla,” I tell her.
“I have a man problem. They’re different,” she explains as she leans over to kiss my cheek and then kiss Sandy’s. “You two have fun. I know I will.” Shelaughs as she strolls away from us and heads toward the door.
“You want to go? I’ll walk with you,” Sandy offers. “I’m over the bar scene tonight.”
“Yeah, I’m ready,” I tell her, fishing out two twenties from my purse and tossing them on the table because it’s my turn to pay.
Sandy talks the entire walk, telling me everything about the guy she’s seeing, who sounds like a complete douchebag, but she seems happy. That’s all that matters. The bar is only two blocks away from my place, and Sandy lives in the next building. Although it’s close, my toes go numb in my boots on the short walk. I fight through the frigid temperatures because it’s better than trying to find parking near the bar.
“Well, call me if you get bored. I’m just going to binge something.” Sandy gives me a kiss.
“I think I’m going right to bed. It’s been a long week.”
“The weather doesn’t help,” she says to me as I kiss her back.
“That it doesn’t.”
“Bye, babe,” she says as she takes a step away from me.
“Bye, girly pop.”
She laughs as she turns her back, heading home.
I stay on the sidewalk, waiting for her to make it to her building before I head toward the entrance ofmine. A girl can never be too careful, especially when it’s dark outside.
The doorman to our small building isn’t in the lobby to greet me. Sometimes he disappears into the storage room to find a package or to take a quick break from the monotony of sitting by himself for hours.
I opt for the stairs instead of the elevator to get to my third-floor apartment, wanting the exercise and because I don’t entirely trust the old elevators in the building either.
The Christmas wreath I haven’t taken down yet is crooked on my door, and I push it a little to the side to make it right again before I unlock the door.
When I step inside, I’m blasted by the hot air against my cold, exposed flesh. I sigh, wishing I could live somewhere tropical because my body wasn’t meant for the cold.
I get one arm out of my coat before I hear, “Don’t scream.”
In a situation like this, I’d like to think I would scream. That my voice could wake the dead. But when faced with a fight-or-flight-mode situation, my entire body locks up like I’m frozen.
Lucas steps out of the dark kitchen into the soft light of the living room from the few lamps I left on. “I needed to talk to you.”
I touch my chest, trying to get my heart to calm down once it starts to beat again. “What are youdoing here?” I ask in a rush as I tear off my coat and let it drop to the floor. I don’t bother taking off my boots because I may need them to run. At least I still have that much sense left in my head.
“I need a place to hide out.”
“And that’s my problem, because?” I ask him, lifting my chin as I cock my head.
The balls on this guy. A man who shattered my heart. He wants me to do him a favor when all he’s done is bring misery into my life.
“Nowhere else is safe for me.”
I remember a time when I thought Lucas was my safe place and person. Boy, how I was wrong. Even now, he’s more worried about his life than making sure I keep mine.
“You’re not staying here.”
