He clenched his teeth audibly, and a faint grin appeared on his face, venomous. My hair stood on end as he bent down over me, invading my personal space. He knew how to get my attention, and he knew how to intimidate me.
“Doing horrible things is my day job. By night I like to drive girls like you crazy.”
He’d hit the button. I tensed up. I hated that word; I hated it with all my might.
“Are you calling me a girl?”
“Yeah, a whiny little girl,” he whispered, so close I could smell his breath. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you, but just so you know, I couldn’t care less.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck you.”
“Very mature response.”
“You’re one to talk about maturity, Pumpkin.”
“You have no right to call me that,” I said.
“Pumpkin!”
“Shut up!”
“Or what?”
Just then, I heard another voice shout, “There you are!” It was Hoyt, now walking out the door. He had changed out of his suit into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Trey and I separated, but we were still eyeing each other as if we were in a duel and whoever blinked first would lose. I remained firm until he shook his head, smirked, and started walking away.
When he reached us, Hoyt said, “Hey, Trey, are you going?”
“Yeah, I’ll call you in the morning.”
“You okay, man?”
Trey raised his hand with a thumbs-up on his way to the parking lot beneath the orange light of the lampposts and of the Tiki torches lining the path.
“I’m great,” he shouted back. “I’m going to try to find a cat to kick or a baby whose pacifier I can steal. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even push an old lady into traffic while I’m at it.”
I blushed. Maybe I’d gone too far in what I’d said.
Lines appeared across Hoyt’s forehead. “Did something happen between you guys?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
I looked away before answering. “Yeah, we just talked. I mean, he wanted to talk, and I didn’t really feel like it.”
“When’s the last time you saw each other?”
“Four years ago.”
He opened his eyes, surprised. “Four years?”
I felt a twinge of guilt. Actually, we’d talked two days before, twice, but I wasn’t going to tell Hoyt that. Just like I wasn’t going to tell him what happened between us. I wasn’t such a bad person that I was willing to ruin Trey’s friendship with my brother just to get revenge. I loved Hoyt too much for that, and Hoyt loved Trey.
“Yeah,” I responded with more energy than I thought I had.
“And you didn’t feel like talking to him after all that time? I thought you two liked each other.”
