“Guys,” I insisted, maneuvering my way past them toward the porch steps. “I really have to go. We’ll see who does it best after tonight, though, I’m sure.”
“It’ll be me,” all three of them said simultaneously, and I looked over my shoulder for a second to laugh.
“Maybe,” I said slyly. “It could be none of you.”
With that line, I hurried down the steps and to my car, which was waiting for me on the driveway. I could still hear them bantering about who would win my heart, and I was pretty surprised at how competitive they were about it.
When I got into the car, I had to sit for a moment to take a deep breath. The idea of having to choose between them, as well as knowing Ihadthe opportunity to even do so; well, it was pretty daunting. At the same time, it was probably the most exciting thing that had happened in my entire life.
For now, though, it was time to head to the mall and spend my day doing mind-numbing work. I caught another glimpse of the three guys as I pulled out of the driveway, and a pleasant shiver ran down my spine.
Get it together,I warned myself as I headed down the street. For a second, I found myself kind of wishing there would be another emergency at the mall that the firemen were needed for. That was a bit dark, sure, but maybe a little fire would happen somewhere that hurt nobody, and I’d have the chance to see them work again.
At the same time, maybe it was a good thing to be away from them for a few hours, focusing on something else. I could clear my head before my date with Beck.
But the kiss,I thought as I turned onto a main road and stopped at a traffic light.Was that not enough to choose Calder?
I remembered how electric it had been, how my whole body had responded to him. It was the kind of feeling I could chase every day and never get bored of. I craved more of it even now, and it was difficult to think about anything else.
As I kept driving, my mind kept drifting off to the men and the predicament that I was in. By the time I’d parked in my usual spot at the mall, I had to take a pause again to get my head in the game.
I checked my phone; I was about five minutes late. Not as bad as I had initially thought, but still an issue. Usually, I got to work early, and I was sure that people would have questions. I didn’t exactly want to tell them the truth, but I had no idea what story I could tell.
“I was just about to call you.” Jenny, one of the cashiers, stood in front of the locked doors at the shoe store, looking pretty concerned. She was the only one there; which was a relief. The others would probably arrive in the next fifteen minutes, but by then, I would be finished opening up.
“Guess I still need to get used to traffic from my new place,” I answered as I began unlocking the doors. “Sorry for making you wait.”
Inside, I clocked in before starting my morning duties. It was a set rhythm; a series of practiced habits that I could do with my eyes closed at this point. In fact, that was the case for the rest of my job, too. The best description of it was a word that I’d read once in an old British novel;humdrum.
I did everything I was supposed to, but the whole time, I couldn’t get Calder, Beck, and Ash out of my head. I kept getting flashes of them in my mind; the way the muscles in their shoulders moved, the way Beck’s smile and Ash’s smolder melted my knees, andthat kiss.That kiss that had rocked my world and lived on in my dreams.
“Hey, Rhea,” Jenny appeared in my peripheral vision, and I turned toward her, pretending that I wasn’t just completely zoned out. “You going for lunch?”
She glanced up at the breakroom clock that still hung on only one unstable screw sincethe incident.It was ten minutes past the time that I usually took my break. I had barely even noticed time passing all morning, and I barely remembered half of what I had done until now.
“Oh, uh, yeah,” I said awkwardly, adding a quick shrug. “Just had a few things to check. You?”
“Mm,” Jenny sighed, and I waited for her to launch into a venting session. Luckily for me, she didn’t. “I’m supposed to go see Aaron’s mom, but I don’t want to. I’m pretty sure she’s going to complain about the wedding flowers again.”
“Better you than me,” I teased, before clocking out and leaving for lunch. I hadn’t thought about what I wanted, but I settled for a quick sandwich in the food court. My usual spot was taken, but I managed to squeeze into a table close to the railings looking down over the first floor.
Halfway through my sandwich, I heard a familiar voice from beside me. “Oh, I thought it was you! You work around here?”
I looked up to see Jackie, who quickly invited herself to sit down across the table from me, with a huge bag of dog food right next to her. She glanced at my nametag and the brand right above it.
“Oh, shoes!” she said, as if she’d just solved a puzzle. “I could never afford that place myself, but I’ve seen some nice pairs through the window.”
“Yeah, even with the employee discount, they’re too much for me,” I joked in return, and we both laughed. It was a sincere sound, something that immediately made me comfortable. “That’s a lot of food. You have twelve dogs or something?”
“Four,” Jackie replied with an exasperated smile. “But they do eat a lot for their size, I’ll be honest. Makes sense, of course,they’re all rescues. This is the only food they like. Organic, healthy, easy to chew for the ones that don’t have teeth. But you probably aren’t very interested in a whole presentation about it. Tell me. How are you settling in?”
I fiddled with the second half of my sandwich, wondering how much I could tell her. She hasn’t done anything to make me think I couldn’t trust her this far, and her advice had been… Fairly helpful. There was no one else I could really talk to about the guys, anyway.
“Well, I went on that date with Calder, and it went great,” I started, and I noticed Jackie’s eyes widen. “The next one is with Beck. I feel a little bad, because… I mean, Calder’s amazing.”
“Oh, to be in that predicament,” Jackie lamented, leaning back in her seat. “Honestly, it makes me think of my younger days, before I had the ball and chain and the kids and the house… You know, when I was wild and free.”
I could hear a bittersweet tone in her voice, even though I was sure she was joking.
