Lag (The Boys of RDA Book 2) (15 page)

We walk to the kitchen right as the buzzer breaks the quiet of the room. I push the button on the little keypad to allow them access after Marissa shouts through the speaker they’ve arrived with the cavalry. I’m a little nervous who she's included in the group. The last person I want to see today is Trey.

The apartment door opens and a stack of boxes is thrown into the open space. Marissa’s long brown hair is up in a ponytail high on her head. Amanda and I both laugh at the sight as she clears the doorway.

“Are you filming an eighties video later today, Mar?” Amanda asks with a hand over her mouth.

Marissa stops in the entryway blocking the others behind her. “What? This is the style now.”

She’s shoved forward and Aspen in jeans and a thick fleece jacket walks in behind her. “Yeah, the style for harlots.” She pulls on her friend's hair and walks past throwing a package of tape on top of the stack of boxes.

“Did you just call me a streetwalker?” Marissa asks with both hands on her hips.

Not missing a beat, Aspen turns to her with her head cocked at an exaggerated side angle. “Yeah.”

Marissa turns her body to the open door. “Finn, your woman just called me a whore.”

Finn laughs as he enters the room and quickly puts his hands in the air in a “not going to touch that” gesture.

“Don’t be upset, Marissa,” Aspen sounds insincere. “It will make a good handle if you decide to take up BDSM.”

“Uh, no thanks. I mean some handcuffs okay, maybe, but I couldn’t do all the whips and chains.”

“Okay!” Finn barks from where he retreated in the living room. “Easy, ladies, Jake and I have virgin ears.”

The large driver I met before steps into my apartment and closes the door behind him. He stops and surveys the room before shaking his head. “I do not even want to know.” He’s dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt but is as imposing as when I last saw him in a suit.

“What boxes are done, Simone? Jake and I will load the car and we’ll take some to Aspen’s.” Finn’s not-so-subtle attempt to change the topic doesn’t fool anyone.

I point to the small stack of boxes in the living room. “I don’t have much. The place came furnished. So it’s clothes and personal knickknacks."

Jake walks to the stack and picks up two before he leaves out the door again. Finn watches him with a skeptical face. But after trying to stack two boxes on top of each other, he eventually gives up and carries one box with both hands.

Aspen pats him on the butt as he walks by and he stops to smile at her shrugging when she eyes his single box. “Don’t want to overdo it.”

“That’s right, baby. You don’t need to show off to the room of girls. You’re confident.” Aspen leans over and kisses him on the cheek.

Finn chuckles at her comment, but his face turns red for a moment before he walks out the door shaking his head.

*

“My God, woman, you have a ton of shoes.” Finn huffs as he places the heavy box on the Aspen’s bedroom floor. "I’m glad I still have the key to the penthouse so we could use the elevator.”

What is it with everyone and their need to comment on my shoes? “Yeah, sorry. I’ll have to get rid of some. I don’t want to take up Aspen's space.”

Finn leans over the box and rips the top open. “Are you kidding? This is great.” He picks up the box and dumps it on the floor. Shoes fall on top of each other and roll to the side. “Hurry throw some of Aspen’s clothes from the closet in here before she comes in.”

He hands me the box, but I don’t move. As he reaches to open another, he looks up to see me in my same position. His eyes widen and he jerks his head toward the small walk-in closet.

“I’m serious. Go. Put some shoes in there or clothes. Just throw it in.” He opens another box and dumps it on top of the shoes from the last.

“Um, Finn…” I trail off not sure what I want to ask him. He’s been so nice today, but this behavior is a little unexpected.

With another empty box, he walks into Aspen’s closet and begins to pull shirts off her plastic hangers dropping them unceremoniously into the box. “I’ve been trying to get Aspen to move more stuff to my house for months. This is the perfect opportunity and I am not going to miss out on it. Now, throw some shoes in there.”

He points to the pile of shoes at the back of Aspen’s closet, and this time I move to follow his orders while laughing. I have no idea what she’ll think of this, but I can’t refuse Finn when he’s so enthusiastic about it.

Once both boxes are full, Finn works to close the flaps again, his lips stretched to his ears. He’ll give himself away the minute Aspen walks in the door, but I can’t help but smile with him. His excitement is a bit infectious and I understand why Aspen fell so hard for his sweet playful personality.

Finn reaches down and picks up one of the boxes containing a good portion of Aspen’s closet before he turns back to me. “I want you to know, Simone, I’d offer to help you more than just moving some boxes, but I get the feeling you’d tell me no.”

I grab the box Finn left behind. “You’d be right, but thanks for the offer.” It might seem stupid to some, but if I’m going to do this, I need to conquer the city on my own.

He laughs. “That’s what I thought. You remind me of Aspen.” Finn starts toward the door but stops, looking back to me again. "Once Trey gets his head out of his ass, I’m going to enjoy watching you make him earn it.”

My eyes roll completely of their own volition. “I have no intentions of doing anything with Trey ever again.”

He responds with a loud chuckle as he walks out of the bedroom, but nothing else.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose both my pinkie toes after today. Regardless of how comfortable your shoes look, they all hurt after six hours on your feet. I'm not sure what’s worse — only having eight toes after I finish my first shift at Bonnie’s Café or the possibility I may have to buy a pair of those ugly lunch lady shoes.

I limp behind the black counter with my empty coffee pot in hand and start the task of making a fresh batch. In order to keep some weight off my aching feet, I switch from foot to foot to find a small amount of relief.

“You need more support in your arches,” Jamie, my trainer and coworker for this shift, tosses my way when he comes to stand beside me at the coffee pot.

Jamie throws the white towel he used to clean off the tables in the sink to our right and leans a hip on the counter, turning his body to face mine. His upper arm muscles bulge stretching his official black Bonnie’s polos shirt at the hem of the short sleeve. It takes me a minute to pry my eyes away. Muscles do that to a girl. When my eyes roam up to meet his deep blue ones, he smiles at my assessment of him.

I look to my feet. “Is it that obvious?”

He laughs for a moment before answering, “No, you’re doing a good job of hiding it. I just know the signs.”

My eyes slide to his own footwear and I smile at his hiking boots with the laces tucked into the top. They remind me of Trey’s and I wonder if it’s the normal shoe wear in a city where everywhere seems uphill.

“Hey, you can laugh, but they work.” he wiggles his foot in front of us. “Besides, I thought you had experience.”

My eyes float to the ceiling while I lie. “Yeah, in college, but it was a few years ago. I’ve forgotten how hard it can be.” Okay, technically it's not a lie. I did waitress in college. I pulled an entire four-hour shift at our local pizza joint before I threw down my apron and quit after I spilled a third tray of food on me. Here’s hoping this second attempt is a bit smoother.

“Don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it again.” Jamie pats me on the back as he turns and retreats to the kitchen.

While waitressing at Bonnie’s Café pays significantly less than my past job, more than eighty thousand less, I need the money. It turns out quitting a high paying job and leaving town for a few months negatively affects your credit score. Not only do I owe Aspen $500 a month for rent, which I’ll probably have to force her to take, but I also owe over $12,000 to my previous apartment.

The biggest secret I’ve kept while living the high life in New York? I did it pay check to pay check. The company paid for me to move to San Francisco, but I used the small amount of savings I had as a security deposit and first month’s rent. Now I owe them for October and November's rent, late fees, and early termination fees for breaking my lease. Basically, I’m screwed. And not in a good way.

The kitchen door swings open and Jamie exits carrying a tray with two sandwich platters. “Think you can handle getting these to table six?” He slides the tray on the counter between us.

“No problem.” I pick the two round white plates up in my smooth attempt to avoid using the big black tray and head out to the main floor.

Table six sits along the back wall away from the main area of the small diner. The couple is young, maybe late teens, and they lean in toward one another whispering together. It’s four o’clock, almost quitting time, not that I’ve been counting down or anything, so I assume these two came here from school. The girl giggles at something her companion has said and I sigh at the cuteness. I miss young love.

The bell over the front door rings as someone new enters the diner.

“Go ahead and seat yourself and one of us will be right there.” Jamie’s voice booms between the four walls, but I don’t turn to look.

My replacement should be here any minute and hopefully they’ll be ready to take this table because my feet cannot handle one minute past four.

“If you two need anything else, just let me know.” I smile at the couple as I place their plates on the table. It’s a lie. If they need anything else, they best ask someone else. Like anyone else.

They don’t address me, which takes away some of their cuteness factor. What happened to manners? I turn back toward the kitchen repeating, “Twelve thousand dollars. Twelve thousand dollars,” to remind myself of why this job is my financial life saver.

I stop at the counter as Jamie closes the cake case and stands. “Ben and Lori aren’t here yet. Can you grab the new couple? They’re at table one by the window." Jamie points to the front window and I sigh.

“Sure.” I hope this doesn’t mean I have to stay until they’re done eating.

“Thanks.” He bends behind the counter again, but pushes back up quickly. “Hey, do you need a ride home? I’d hate to have you walk on those feet.”

I blush at his question and immediately look to the floor. Oh my God, it’s not high school. I shouldn’t react to this kind of shit. If only he wasn’t so young. There is no way Jamie’s over twenty-two. I have nothing against younger men, but I’d like to reach cougar status before I test the waters.

I bend to pick an imaginary item off the floor hoping he’ll think I was looking at that rather than having an internal fight with myself. “I’m actually only like two blocks away."

“Well, it’s an easy yes then.” He smiles down at me and I smack my lips at his straight teeth. How old before I reach cougar status?

“Okay.” I grab the note pad off the counter and walk to table one in a daze over exactly what I agreed to.

I’m still halfway in my mind and smiling over Jamie when I reach the table where I need to take an order. “What can I get you today?” My eyes move up to acknowledge my newest customers and my mouth falls open while my feet lock up, jolting me with the loss of momentum.

“Simone?” Trey looks to me from his seat at the table with a puzzled expression. From his confusion, I could lie and say my name was Jane and he might fall for it. I suppose it’s not like he’d expect me to be his waitress in a Pacific Heights diner.

In the seat across from him sits Mari. Unfortunately, with her black business suit and red hair tied back in a loose bun, she looks better than your average bimbo. On the floor next to her, a black bag large enough to fit a small poodle leans against her chair and I almost trip over it as I stand next to their table.

“Oh, do you two know each other?” she casually asks.

Trey balks at her question and I want to jump across the space and hit him. A small part of my brain set on revenge wants to tell her exactly how we know one another, but I don’t have it in me to ruin their relationship. Even though she needs to know her boyfriend is an asshole, this is not the place to tell her.

I recover more quickly than Trey and answer her question. “I’m friends with Aspen.” I smile in her direction and it seems to work.

At least until she sneers at hearing Aspen’s name. “Oh, her. Yes, well doesn’t perky little Aspen get around then.”

My mouth falls open again at her blatant disdain toward someone I’m already considering a best friend. She did not just talk shit about the woman whose boyfriend helped move my ten boxes of shoes and then opened her apartment to me, did she?

“I didn’t realize you were working here,” Trey says with a bit of hesitation.

His comment makes me move my eyes to him. The distraction saved his girlfriend from losing a clump of hair. When did I get so violent?

“Yeah, well it’s a long story.” One I refuse to hash out with him. Trey doesn’t deserve to know anyway. Obviously Aspen and Finn haven’t shared and I’d prefer it stayed that way.

“Simone, I’m ready to go whenever you are.” Jamie’s deep voice carries over the space and a slow grin makes me cast my eyes to the floor. If I didn’t love that man before, I do now for his timely rescue.