My fingers shake as I reach forward, wrapping them around my keys in the ignition, starting the engine. Pulling out from the dirt, hands quivering around the wheel, I take the road out of town toward the lake house.
I kick my foot on the gas, shift the gears and white knuckle the wheel, speaking under my breath, “The second part.”
He shoots back, “Yeah, so, why are we driving in the opposite direction?” Harlen glances from the window and back to me.
“Got some shit I have to get rid of.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, my palms wrapping around the matte black mug Kali extends toward me.
I am onto my third cup of peppermint tea.
Chase and Harlen had disappeared hours ago, Skinner leaving not long after them. The only person that had stayed behind was Rusty, though he had retreated to his office for some time now. I heard him talking on the phone when I was in the bathroom earlier, but the most I’d caught was a breathy mumble, picking up on something about a ‘run.’ I didn’t know what that meant, didn't quite care to know either, however my guess was that it was why this cool brick building felt so empty.
I’m blowing steam from my mug when Kali places another chocolate chip cookie on the plastic plate beside me. And from behind the cup, a smile of gratitude tilts the corner of my mouth. After the day I’d had, it was exactly what I’d needed.
I wrap my lips around the edge and take a careful sip—I’d burned my tongue earlier, and the tiny little red bumps at the tip were still prickly and sensitive.
“I’m going to need the recipe for these.” I reach for the lump of decadence, dunk it in the tea and moan as it disintegrates on my tongue. “Everything I attempt cooking either becomes a rock, or I burn it,” talking with my mouth full. I drag the backof my hand across my mouth to clean a rivulet of tea that drips down my chin.
Kali laughs, reaching for the stool beneath the scarred bar, its legs screeching against the flooring.
I turn to face her as she takes a seat, biting into her own mound of sugar. She brushes her hands together, ridding them of crumbs before sipping the hot tea.
“Do you use a recipe?” she asks, returning the mug to the bar with a thunk.
“Ahhh no, I just?—”
She chuckles again, arching her back, dragging her fingers through her black curls and pulling them back from her face. Her black crop top sits just over her nipples, her underboob on full display.
“That’s where you’re going wrong, you cannot bake without a recipe…” She pauses to bite the hair tie from her wrist, and I can’t help but notice how green her eyes are against the depth of her ebony hair and pale freckled skin. “No matter how good you think you are.” She taps her shoulder to mine playfully, returning her hands to her mug and slouching over.
I smile, taking another sip of tea.
“So, you’re Chase’s girl, right?”
I spit the smoldering liquid back into the cup, coughing and splattering, choking. “Oh, no…” I place the mug on the bar, not picking it up again. “Chase and I, we, no—there’s nowe,” I say, furrowing my brow, returning my eyes to the warm cup and watching my finger circle the opening of the ceramic.
She smiles at me, as if she knows exactly what I’m trying to tell her—though I don’t know what that is myself.
“Complicated, huh? I know everything about…complicated.” She rolls her eyes. “These men…fucking assholes, but they also have a fucked-up way of looking out for you, maybe that’s why I’ve stuck around.”
My stomach tightens and heat blooms to my cheeks.How many of them had she been with?Had she been with Chase?I brush the thought away quicker than it arrives; it’s none of my business.
I shuffle for the right words. “Chase and I…we aren’t…like that. He is my best friend's brother.”
Something settles over Kali’s face.
She takes a sip from her mug, the smile she had in her bright green eyes earlier had faded, replaced with a tenderness that had my stomach turning over itself.
I think she sees it, the way I look at her, because she shifts her sorrowful expression and changes the subject, “When you bake you have to make sure you follow the measurements…”
I swallow another mouthful of tea and let her trail off, because now I could only think abouthim.
I think about how it felt to be so close to him again, how our noses had almost brushed, how his heart slammed against my chest, and how his hands tightened on my wrists. Then, I think about how I wanted his touch buried beneath my skin even though he had hurt me in a way no one else could.
It was warped and fucked up, a little like the two of us.
When Jade was alive, me and Chase fought. Often, too. But back then, his flames kept me at a distance. Only today it was as if distance no longer existed, and the closer we got, the more terrifyingly we burned.
