Xena - See? I told you he would bang your worries away.
Me - I still don’t have a job or even an idea of what I’m going to do, but for tonight that’s OK. I’m going to kick back and read for a bit and then go to bed. I’ll talk to you soon. You’ll see me tomorrow sometime when I come in for coffee.
Xena- Sounds good. I’ll expect more details when I see you. I need measurements, and reenactments, and details. All the details.
I reach for another peanut butter cup while I pull up the Kindle app on my phone. May as well finish that romance novel I’ve been reading. I may not get my own happy ending, but maybe I can live vicariously through the characters in a book for a while, and forget my own shitty lack of a love life.
Sometimes I wonder if the men in these books could actually exist? Not the characters, but men like them. Strong, sexy, loving, and all the other good stuff that I’ve never found all together in an actual human male. The older I get, the more men I meet, the less it seems possible.
I’m nearly at the end of the book, so it doesn’t take all that long to finish reading it. I’m a little surprised at the enormous pile of peanut butter cup wrappers I’ve amassed on my coffee table. Thinking back, I can only clearly remember opening three of them, but there are at least a dozen wrappers staring back at me. I guess Aiden running away like he did is affecting me more than I thought, if I’m eating my feelings like this. Probably need to unpack that a little more tomorrow, but for now I’m going to forget it and go to bed.
I replay everything with Aiden while I wash up and brush my teeth. It seemed like such a brief encounter, but I’m feeling almost like I’ve broken up with a boyfriend. I’m a little hollow in the chest, and a lot sad, especially after the gorgeous, happy ending the couple in my book just had. It was a much better ending than the dude running away as soon as he was done, anyway.
Chapter 24
Aiden - Revenge is Best Served Drunk
Fuck, Aiden. How could you be so stupid? You’re nearly 40 years old. You should know better than to forget a condom. What the fuck?!
To say I’m pissed at myself would be an understatement. I haven’t even made it home yet, because I’ve just been driving around berating myself for being stupid enough to forget a condom.
And, as if forgetting a condom wasn’t stupid enough, I jumped off Rhea and ran out of there like my ass was on fire. She’s pretty cool, and she definitely didn’t deserve that. I’m going to have to apologize, but I can’t bring myself to get near her again. Not if I get that out of control. I’ll need to get her number from Devon. It’s better if we don’t see each other in person anymore.
And, not that it’s worse than any other consequence that will come from this, I’m sure I won’t be able to get coffee at Bump & Grind anymore. Not if I don’t want to be on the receiving end of one of Xena’s sword tantrums. I’m sure I deserve it, but even being subjected to a beating with a rubber sword probably isn’t enough.
I should have tried harder to stay away from Rhea. I knew something was going on with me. And now, I don’t even know what could happen. I’m not worried about diseases or anything like that. I know for a fact that I’m clean. I’m pretty sure she would have had regular physicals at least until recently and she doesn’t seem like the type to purposely try to infect anyone with anything. But I am worried about the no condom thing, because even worse than a disease, would be the chances of having a baby with half my DNA. Because my DNA is poison.
Just like dear old dad.
This shitty self talk lasts about an hour, all while I drive around in a daze, until eventually I’m pulling into my driveway, parking next to Johnny. His door opens as soon as I get out of my car.
“What are you doing here?” I have a lot of my own shit to deal with. I don’t need Johnny crying over his love life right now. I just don’t have it in me to console him.
He holds up two bottles and sways a little. “Thought maybe you’d want to have a drink or seven with me? Gotta warn you, though. I got a head start.” He lifts the bottle to his mouth and takes a few swallows, spilling some onto his shirt.
“Fuck, dude. You didn’t drive here like that, did you?”
“No. No, no, no.” He takes another drink. “I’ve been waiting here for a while. Tried to get Becca to talk to me when we were leaving Connor’s place and she was going on another date. So I figured it’s just time for me to give up, and I came over here to get drunk with you. Travis has been too busy with whatever secret shit he’s been up to lately, so I thought maybe you’d be a good surrogate brother.”
Seems like Johnny forgot that I rarely drink, but he might be onto something for tonight. I wouldn’t mind having a few drinks and forgetting what an asshole I was leaving Rhea the way I did. Fuck it, I might as well drink. I made a pretty huge mistake already today. And it’s not like I’m going to run out and do something dumber than that.
“Come on in,” I say, unlocking the door and motioning Johnny to head in. “I could use a drink or two.”
Johnny goes in ahead of me and settles himself on the couch. I detour to the kitchen and grab myself a glass. Johnny may be fine drinking straight from the bottle, but I’m not planning on getting that trashed tonight, so I’m going to need the glass.
I grab the unopened bottle of whiskey Johnny brought and pour myself two fingers. That’s more than enough for my purposes right now.
“So tell me what’s going on with Becca.”
Johnny gives me the rundown. Seems he’s been after her for a while now, and she’s just not looking for a relationship. She likes to date around, but thinks a relationship will take up too much of her time.
I refill my drink as he tells the story.
“So, like I said before, then? She’s got her hands full with her business and doesn’t have time. So what’s your problem then? You’ve never wanted to settle down before either.”
Talking Johnny through the problems in his love life isn’t nearly as good a distraction as I thought it would be. I pour myself another drink while he thinks over what I’ve just said.
Johnny looks down at his bottle, nearly half empty now, and lets out a breath. His shoulders slump and he leans forward with his elbows on his knees.
