Bottled Up: April Fools For Love (7 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Nate patted the hangers to knock them all back into place. The store closed in five minutes and he was grateful. He didn’t feel like himself. Not the self he wanted to be, at any rate.

Helping women pick out outfits and accessories wasn’t his idea of the perfect job, but working in a place where he didn’t have to get naked was a good change of pace.

Twila shut the door to the office with the deposit tucked under her arm. “Nate, the new sassy talk really helped sales today. I think you should work it into the conversation more. Just make sure you mention the accessories too. The lower cut items really scream for a chunky necklace. Or five.”

Nate nodded. He went to Twila and grabbed the bank bag. “I don’t mind driving you to the bank and coming back for your car,” he told her again.

Twila sighed. “You’re going to follow behind me if I say no, aren’t you?”

Nate smiled his first real smile since he’d left Betty’s apartment. “Stalker or chauffeur. It’s your choice, boss.”

Twila always took the deposit to the drop box of the local bank branch after the store closed. His co-workers had started wrapping the money in a store tote, but with the high price of the items inside, it was just as much of a lure to criminals as cash.

Nate had taken to following his female co-workers to the bank if they turned him down for a ride. He was a big guy, and it was probably a good deterrent to have him by their side. With the robbery a few blocks over just last week, he’d driven by the store on his nights off too.

Not to mention, Twila tended to be more obtuse than his other colleagues. He’d watched her put a register drawer in a stack of sweaters yesterday. Angela joked that it was just her being scatterbrained, but Nate wasn’t so sure.

When Twila gave in and hopped in his car, after he moved some of his trash out of where her feet would go, he decided to push at the boundaries of politeness and ask. If she really was just a space cadet, she wouldn’t know to be offended anyway.

He cleared his throat. “Are you okay? Your head’s in the clouds today. More than normal.” He’d expected her to play dumb, or ignore him, or be insulted. He didn’t expect to see her wipe at her face. Instead of pulling out into the traffic stemming from the local bars, he put the car into park and turned down the music. “I’m sorry if I overstepped,” he started.

But before he could finish he found himself with a woman against his chest and holding on for dear life. It was the second time today he’d been thrown for a loop by a member of the opposite sex. He held onto his boss as she cried.

She did the ugly cry for a solid two minutes before he could interpret one of the words she was mumbling. Pregnant.

He didn’t bother with trying to get details. From her reaction, it was obvious this wasn’t a time to say congratulations. He helped her into her seat after she calmed down and grabbed some of the spare fast food napkins he kept in his glove compartment so she could wipe her face.

“I’m sorry for erupting like that,” she finally told him. “I’m just not sure what to do. I thought Edmund would be happy. We’d talked about getting married, but after I had my first doctor’s appointment he took off. Said it was too
real
for him.”

“Babies do tend to end up being real.”

Twila laughed. “That’s what I said. But since we were already living together it’s been hard to get out of the joint lease. He brought a buddy of his over last night to look at the apartment. If he takes it…”

Nate’s jaw dropped as he realized what she was saying. “Are you homeless?”

She shrugged. “Might be tomorrow. Needless to say, my mind hasn’t been very focused on the shop lately. Ang has really stepped up to take charge, and I owe her a serious raise. Or a promotion. Probably both. Maybe that will keep her quiet if I have to start living in the office.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“It’s either that or my car. Do you think the alarm company would believe me if I told them I was going to be working on an all night inventory project?”

“Not for more than a night. Don’t you have anyone you could stay with?”

Twila shook her head. “I don’t have many friends. Don’t get me wrong, I have my squad who I go to the clubs with or go shopping with, but they are more waterbug besties.”

Nate gave her a confused look. “Waterbug besties?”

“You know. They skate along the surface, but never really get their feet wet with real emotion.”

New slang term for five hundred, Alex.

“What about Angela?”

“What about her?”

“You two seem friendly, maybe she would let you crash on her couch for a few nights?”

Twila shook her head. “I’m technically her boss. I can’t do that.”

“You wouldn’t be if you promoted her.”

“Let’s just go to the bank.”

Nate knew well and good when he was being told to drop a subject, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t text about it. He had Angela’s phone number in his call list from when she’d needed a shift covered a couple days ago. As Twila walked up to the deposit drop with his headlights on her, he told as much of the story as he could in a text. He got a response as soon as Twila slammed his passenger door shut.

“I’ve got you a place.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Betty could not believe she was grabbing extra sheets to turn their couch into a bed for the boss Ang complained about on the daily.

“So why is she homeless?” Betty tried asking again. She couldn’t wrap her mind around how a high-end boutique manager could be hurting for cash.

“I don’t know, but Nate said she was going to sleep in her car if she didn’t have a place to stay. I’m not her biggest fan, but I’m not letting someone I know go without a bed when I can help. Do we have any extra pillows?”

Betty always slept with three, so she grabbed one for Twila to use.

They hadn’t been in the club for ten minutes when Ang had grabbed her hand and said they had to go. Being that Betty hadn’t moved from the bar and was having the opposite of fun, she’d let herself be pulled out toward the car.

Ang’s text from Nate hadn’t had a whole lot of information, but it was obvious he was busy dealing with something because he’d flat out said he would text when they got there and hadn’t responded to anything since.

“Do you think her boyfriend hurt her?” Betty could only think of a few reasons a woman had to get out of her shared home fast, and none of them were good.

Ang tucked the blanket into the cushions and held out her hand for the pillow Betty had. “I don’t know,” she said, “But I hope not. Otherwise I’ll have to kill the bastard.”

Betty was
pretty
sure that wasn’t just an expression.

Ang’s cell phone buzzed on the table and both women jumped.

We’re here. Can you come down to the parking lot and help grab some bags?

Betty went with her roommate and stopped short when Nate got out of the car. Nothing like an awkward reunion with a dude you had dismissed after sex. She stared at him as Ang went up and hugged Twila. She kept staring at him as the two women each grabbed a bag from Nate and went upstairs to get Twila settled.

Nate waited until they were out of earshot before he said, “I know.”

“You know what?”

He pulled the last bag from his trunk and shut the lid. “I know this is weird. I know we just had sex this morning. I know I stormed out. And I know I probably should have taken Twila to my place, but I think she needs some female company right about now.”

That shook her from her self-centered haze. “What happened to her?”

“An asshole.”

“That doesn’t tell me anything.”

Nate stacked three bags on top of each other. He repeated the process, and then proceeded to begin lugging all the suitcases toward the apartment building himself. “Not my story to tell.”

Betty grabbed one of the towers and tried to pull it from him, he nearly growled at her. “I can help you carry these,” she said.

“I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself. And besides. I have a bit of frustration to work out.” He hiked the bags higher under his arms. “And we both know you are done with helping me out with that.”

Betty shut the trunk before running in front of him to open doors and press the elevator buttons. He barely glanced her way and her heart pounded harder.

When the elevator shut and began dinging up the floors she tried again. “I didn’t mean to be insulting. I thought you wanted an easy out, and I was trying to be a grownup and give it to you.”

He snorted. “Betty, I have had a lot of women try to be considerate of my feelings, but from my experience when a gal says thank you for the fuck, it means she got what she wanted out of the deal.”

“Has that really happened to you?”

“Just this morning as a matter of fact.”

Ouch
. Betty realized she might have come across as aloof, but that was the opposite of what she’d felt as her heart had pounded against his.

They got to the third floor and as the doors began to slide open she realized he would run out and then they would part ways and it would be over. She slammed her hand on the emergency stop button. Blaring alarms had Nate dropping his armfuls to hold his hands over his ears.

“Are you crazy?” he yelled at her.

“You were going to leave,” she yelled back.

“Instead I’ll go deaf. You’re right. This is much better than awkward after-sex time.”

Betty tried to stand in front of the emergency button, but Nate reached behind her and pressed it to turn off the alarms and let the doors slide open. Betty didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t leave it like this, so she sat on one of the pieces of luggage. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll just sit here until you agree to talk to me.”

Nate huffed, but he didn’t pause as he pulled up all the of rest of the bags and got them out the door to where Ang and Twila were standing in the entrance to the apartment watching. After he had the bags out and saw Betty wasn’t going to budge he started handing things to Ang who tossed them in the doorway but didn’t take her eyes off the scene outside of it.

“Twila, call me if you need me. Ang, thanks again for helping Twila out.”

Betty sat on the suitcase and waited for what Nate would say to her. When he turned it was obvious he was thinking of what that would be. His jaw flexed and his brows dipped. She wished she could see his dimples one more time, but she’d hurt him. It seemed they couldn’t have sex without one of them screwing up the relationship end of the deal.

He stuck his arm in the elevator to keep the doors from closing. When they bumped back open, he pressed his hand against the edge and crouched in front of her. “It would have been good between us, but I’m not a sex toy. I’m a person. I had you on a pedestal, because I thought you were so much more than the women I’ve dated before. I
wanted
to be more for you. You were supposed to be the person who could see past the exterior. I wish it had stayed a fantasy. Then I could have believed someone wanted more from me than my body.”

Nate stood. The doors closed and Betty sat on the suitcase, enclosed it a silent box. After she didn’t press any buttons the elevator began its descent to the lobby. She felt the floor shake as she descended, but couldn’t make herself move until the doors opened in the lobby.

As if Nate’s words hadn’t hurt enough, she saw him walking away again. He ran his hand through his hair, and punched at the front door to make it open. He didn’t look back.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Betty had no problem with groveling. She had no issue with begging for another chance with Nate. It was just damn difficult to do when he wouldn’t answer her calls. He even left the sales floor of the boutique when she went in. So instead of making amends and going on a date to try again, she was sitting on her couch, gaining another five pounds through gelato.

Ang plopped next to her and stole the spoon for a bite, savored the taste, then put the spoon back in the carton. Then Twila plopped down on the other side of her and repeated the thieving process.

After three weeks, it had become obvious Twila needed to be in their house. She was still paying off her lease from her former apartment until her boyfriend found a new roommate. Any guy that kicked out a pregnant woman and then made her keep paying her share of the rent deserved his tires slashed.

Betty had talked Ang out of performing rubber surgery on the man’s vehicle. Instead they’d just decorated his bumper. They weren’t sure if Twila’s man ever looked at his bumper, but they made sure to stick the Herpes Hotline sticker on there good. The erectile dysfunction window cling had been especially fun to put on.

Either way, Twila needed help. She wasn’t showing yet, but the woman was definitely eating for two. She hadn’t been consuming as much food as she needed before due to stress and that had been causing some serious brain fog. Ang said she was on top of her game now as long as they kept blueberry muffins in the break room.

“Did you want to come with us for the ultrasound appointment?” Twila asked. “They are going to put this lube stuff on my belly and listen to the heartbeat.”

“And then she’s going to cry. I am bringing the tissues. You can help me clean her up.” Ang grabbed another bite of gelato before stealing the whole container and taking it back to the freezer.

“I can’t even get Nate to return my calls,” Betty pouted. She would have given up a week ago, but when she couldn’t make herself throw out that black sand, she knew she had to at least find a way to say she was sorry.

“A guy not returning your calls? Best birth control ever,” Twila said. Her hands fell to her tummy.

Betty put her arm around the other woman. They’d been living together for less than a month, but she was already starting to care for her. Staying up late and talking about everything under the sun tended to bring you closer. Or make you want to gouge out the other’s eyes with a spoon when they breathe loudly.

Since she could still see, she figured Twila felt the same way about her.

“You’re going to be a great mom. Just look at how well you took care of Ang after she drank that tequila two nights ago.”

Ang smacked her and Betty laughed.

“Tequila is not my friend. You were just too lazy to go get us more wine. You weren’t my friend that night either. So are you coming or not?”

Betty looked at the bag she’d set by the door and at the clock on the wall. “I need to get to the library. I have some of the new release loans in there. The fees are a buck a day if I don’t get them back, and I’m pretty sure the little librarian with the glasses chain hates me enough to hold them out. I have to get them back to Patty.”

“The fact that you are on a first-name basis with the librarian is a sad expression of your social life,” Ang said.

“And my social life would be better sitting in a doctor’s office?”

Ang mumbled something about how hot doctors were never a bad day.

Twila tapped her shoulder. “We told you Nate’s going to school to become a nurse, didn’t we?”

“Yes. You did.” And knowing that he was trying to do something as selfless with his life as take care of others, made her feel like even more of an ass. She hadn’t even bothered to ask him any of that. “I’m going to wallow a bit more before I take my books to the library.”

Ang put the bag of chips Betty had been dipping in the gelato back in the cupboard. Betty frowned, but it was probably for the best. She’d skipped her power yoga class twice this week. She didn’t want to think about how many sun salutations she’d have to do as penance for those sour cream and onion goodies.

Betty jumped at the slap of Ang’s hand on the wall over her head. Her roommate swung her key around her finger. “We’re going to the shop to check up on things after the appointment, but we were thinking of having an early dinner before I’m due in for work. Want to meet us there?”

Betty waved her phone at them. “Just text me.”

The two took off for the doctor’s appointment and Betty had to make herself move. She tried to text Nate again. It couldn’t hurt, right?

She had waited for three days since she last sent him a text. That way she wasn’t stalkerish. Or
as
stalkerish. It wasn’t that she couldn’t move on from him as a potential relationship, but she couldn’t leave things like they were.

She couldn’t have Nate out there thinking she didn’t see anything in him beyond the physical. Shouldn’t she get points for being attracted to him when he was a plumber? She thought about how she’d nearly ripped his clothes from his body.
Nope
. She didn’t come off any better in that instance either.

I just wanted to say I was sorry again, and offer to take you out for dinner to apologize. I don’t expect a reply, but I wanted to say it anyway. I’m sorry, Nate.

She waited until the message was read. Then immediately put her phone to sleep and headed out. Maybe Patty would have a new batch of books in. The librarian sometimes told her what books they were about to order so she could put her name on the waitlist first. There were some good romances coming out next month, and it looked like she’d be getting her groove on in literary form for a bit.

Betty made it to her car, and her phone buzzed. She scrambled to open the text she’d gotten. But the image sent to her was Twila puffing her belly out and making a goofy face. It wasn’t from Nate. Betty texted back
“LOL”
and tossed her phone into the seat. She wasn’t really laughing out loud, but it was the easiest way to end the conversation.

She blasted the radio loudly enough to drown out any phone noise and let the good sound system vibrate her rear view mirror all the way to the library.