The Fighter (The High Rise, Book 1) (22 page)

“I wanna go
back to the cabin,” I pout when we get into LA late Monday
afternoon.

Heath pulls my
hand to his mouth and kisses the back of it as he drives. “I’ve got
vacation time saved up. We can go any time you want. Just let me
know.”

“Tomorrow,” I
say and he laughs.

“How about the
first week of May?” he suggests.

“That sounds
good. I’ll check to make sure no one else in the office will be
gone that week and if not, we’re so there!” I love that cabin. I
wouldn’t mind living there forever.

Back at the
apartment I do laundry and catch up on all the messages I’ve
received, half of them from Mrs. Lanning. Go figure. When Dani gets
home, I tell her all about Heath and my mini vacation, also
throwing in that I might be falling for him.

“I’m so
frickin’ scared,” I admit. “I don’t wanna get hurt. I watched you
go through it with Dwight and I don’t want to feel the kind of pain
you did.”

She sighs. “I
know. But that’s the risk you take when you fall in love with
someone.” She shrugs. “I wish I could tell you it’s all hearts and
rainbows and unicorns but life always gets in the way. I don’t know
Heath very well, but he doesn’t seem like the type who’d cheat on
you.”

“Yeah, but I
never thought Dwight would cheat on you either.”

We stare at
each other for a moment.

“Better to
have loved and lost and all that shit, right?” she offers.

I take a deep
breath and blow it out. “I hope so.”

The next four
weeks go just as well with Heath and me. I’ve stayed at his
apartment almost every night except when he had to go to San
Francisco for a meeting at which he had to schmooze some bigshots
who he’d put in a bid for a job, he explained. He ended up getting
the job and when he got back the next day, we celebrated that night
by going to dinner and a movie.

Another time I
didn’t stay with was our first big fight and boy, was it stupid. It
was a Friday night and I’d been late getting home. He’d texted
telling me that he had dinner ready and I texted back that I had to
change first but would be right over. So I got there and he’d
already dished the spaghetti he’d made onto our plates and told me
to come into the living room with him to sit on the couch because
he was watching a movie. When I got settled, he started the movie
he’d paused on the DVR which I saw was halfway through
The Usual
Suspects
and Verbal Kint is telling the customs agent the story
of how his gang got involved with the shipment of cocaine. As I
spun a big bite of noodles onto my fork, I said, “Ha! That customs
guy’s so dumb, not even figuring out that Verbal’s actually Keyser
Söze until it’s too late.”

Bringing the
fork up and stuffing it into my mouth in a less than genteel
manner, I sucked loudly on a noodle that’d slipped away, leaning
over my plate as it made its way up and in. I then noticed Heath
had paused the DVR and he’d gone quiet. Looking over at him, I saw
that he was staring at me and looking a whole lot pissed. So with
my mouth stuffed full, I less than elegantly asked, “What?”

Come to find
out, he’d never seen the movie and was mad that I’d spoiled it for
him.

“How in the
hell could you never have watched this?” I asked.

“I just never
did!”

“It came out
in the nineties! Like twenty years ago! And you’re telling me no
one’s ever told you what happens in it? How stupid is that?” I
yelled.

“Are you
calling me stupid?”

“No! I said
it’s stupid that you never knew what happened!” I corrected
him.

“That’s pretty
much saying I’m stupid!”

“No, it isn’t!
God! Semantics! Learn some!”

“Oh, now
you’re really saying I’m stupid by saying that!”

“What? Where’d
you get that from? That’s stupid too!”

“See? You just
said I’m stupid!”

I’d taken my
plate to the kitchen then stomped out of there and gone back to my
apartment mad as hell. Dani was gone staying the weekend with her
parents, so I didn’t have anyone to gripe to. And I didn’t want to
call my mom and complain so that she’d get the wrong impression of
Heath before they even met, not like she would judge him or
anything, but still I didn’t think it’d be a good idea.

I’d fallen
asleep on the couch watching reruns of
Sex and the City
,
crying because one of the episodes was where Carrie and Big broke
up before he went to Paris… and maybe crying because Heath and I
had fought.

Hours later, I
was awakened when I was picked up off the couch not knowing what
the heck was going on. It was Heath, of course. He’d called Dani
and gotten our “lost key” password and borrowing a duplicate from
the front desk, had gotten into my apartment. He’d carried me to my
bed where he’d apologized then we had the best sex yet.

Oh, but
talking about the best sex…

The last time
I didn’t stay at Heath’s because we’d argued, was last week when
we’d invited some people over for a small party-type thing, kind of
a stop by and say hi deal at my place, and there were maybe
twenty-five people max in my apartment at any given time.

Several of the
guys on Heath’s crew showed up along with a plumber and electrician
that he’d worked with many times, some with their girlfriends or
wives, some without. Dani and I had invited several friends and
we’d both asked Paul who came with his new boyfriend. She’d invited
Craig without my knowing (big fat yuck) and he and a woman he
introduced as his girlfriend made an appearance with the Pamela
Anderson lookalike in tow. And even though she tried hanging all
over Heath, she wasn’t what caused the problem. Nope. Not even
close.

Around eleven,
when the alcohol had been flowing for hours, the music was playing
great songs and everyone was having a good time, Chastity, Dani’s
boss showed up. Of course, Dani had invited her like she always
did, not expecting her to show up because she never had before. And
I swear, it was like one of those
vinyl-records-playing-that-suddenly-goes-
rrrrriiiiipppppp
moments when she walked in.

All the men
stopped and stared along with my own boyfriend because Chastity’s
tall, blonde, model-thin and beautiful, and I get that it’s hard
not to look at her when she walks into a room. That’s why she’s an
actress. Duh. So after her grand entrance and everyone finally
settled down, she’d made her rounds, chatting it up with only the
men who, ignoring the dirty looks they were receiving from their
wives or girlfriends, fawned all over her looking like complete
idiots. When she came to Heath, she made sure to tell him how
“absolutely, fucking hot” he was right to his very face grabbing
onto one of his biceps and I swear to God she meowed. Ergh. Then
she told him he should be an actor, that she’d be his leading lady
any day, and she’d given him a wink to which he shyly ducked his
head giving her a “get out of here” look. Good lord.

And even
though I wanted to smack the shit out of him for it, that’s still
not what caused our fight.

Thirty minutes
later, Chastity left after having caused as much damage as she
could between the wives and or girlfriends and their significant
others, all except for Heath and me which made me proud that we
were so secure in our relationship (even though I still wanted to
smack him). One of the wives had even stomped out after calling her
husband a “son of a fucking bitch” because he’d not only hit on
Chastity but had come up behind her trying to dirty dance with her
telling her to grind on him which had made Chastity giggle.
Ugh.

So there I was
feeling all high and mighty that I hadn’t caused a scene until
Heath and several of the guys went out on the balcony so a couple
of them could smoke.

“That Jake guy
is so hot!” Dani said coming over to me, talking about one of the
guys who works for Heath. “He asked me out!”

“That’s
awesome!” I replied, giving her a big smile, glad she’d found
someone she was interested in.

When the guys
had been outside for almost thirty minutes, I grabbed Dani by the
arm saying, “Let’s go see what they’re talking about. Maybe Jake is
telling them all how hot you are!”

“And Heath’s
probably telling them how hot you are!” she added.

Because men
always talked about their women to other men, right? We were tipsy,
what can I say?

We went to the
patio doors that were opened just a bit where she and I stood
behind the curtain so the guys couldn’t see us. And that’s when all
hell broke loose.

Matt, the
guy Heath worked out with in the weight room
: Who was the diva
who came in?

Heath
:
Chastity Chastain, some actress Laney’s roommate works for.

Jeff, a guy
who worked for Heath
: Did you see her tits? Goddamn, I know
they had to be fake but they looked so fuckin’ real!

Kale, a
plumber who worked with Heath
: My wife’s tits used to be that
perky before she had our son. Hell, for all I know, they might have
gotten their spring back in ‘em but she’s too fuckin’ busy to have
sex anymore.

Guys
chuckling.

Jake,
Dani’s prospective date
: Chastity Chastain, huh? Very nice
tits. I’d like to motorboat those sons of bitches.

Guys laughing
all around.

Jeff
:
Who out here wouldn’t like to have something like that?

Guys all
agreeing.

Spider, a
creepy guy who worked for Heath:
Would you tap that?

Guys talking
simultaneously:

Kale
:
Fuck yes, I would!

Jeff
:
Hell yeah!

Jake
:
I’d tap that bitch
more
than once!

Matt
:
If the wife wouldn’t find out, I’d do her more than once!

Heath
:
(laughs) Hell yeah!

Wait,
what?

Dani and I
looked at each other, jaws clenched and eyes big for different
reasons.

Hers because
Jake had called Chastity a bitch, which I knew Dani would interpret
it as he’s a disrespectful asshole and if he called one woman a
bitch, what would keep him from calling her a bitch and I knew he
was history.

And me because
I was shocked at my boyfriend’s saying he’d sleep with
Chastity.

I came out
from behind the curtain and grabbed the patio door pulling it open
with a bang. All the guys turned and looked at me before looking at
Heath. Then they got the hell out of there, going inside being all
polite and saying excuse me as they walked by. Jerks.

Stepping out
onto the patio, my hands went to my hips and I raised my eyebrows
at Heath. “Something you wanna tell me?”

He frowned and
acted like he was trying to remember if he’d forgotten to tell me
something. He next pursed his lips, shrugging and answering,
“No.”

I laughed
sarcastically. “Really?”

He shook his
head, clueless.

I mocked
Spider’s creepy voice. “Would you tap that?” Next, I glared at
Heath mocking him, laughing like he does then saying, “Hell
yeah!”

He narrowed
his eyes at me and said, “Baby, that’s not what that meant.”

Whatever. I
went back inside, pulling the patio door closed on him and stomped
off to my bedroom slamming my door. No one noticed me because the
music was loud and they were busy getting refills anyway. Then
suddenly my door banged open and Heath was standing in my doorway
pissed.

“What the
fuck, Laney?” he bit out.

“What the
fuck?
What the fuck?
” I yelled back. “You stand out there
telling the guys you work with that you wanna fuck Chastity and
make me look like an idiot and you wanna know what the fuck? Yeah,
so now every time they see me, they’ll laugh at me thinking I’m a
dumbass for being with you because you’d rather be fucking
Chastity?
That’s
what’s the fucking fuck!” I scream the last
two words hopefully getting my point across.

I then noticed
the music in the living room had gotten louder, so I knew Dani had
seen Heath go to my room and she’d pumped up the frickin’ volume so
no one would hear us.
Such
a great friend.

“That’s not
what I fuckin’ meant! I was laughing at what Matt said and just
agreeing with him!” Heath yelled back.

“Why would you
agree with him if he’s wanting to cheat on his wife!”

“Because
that’s what guys do when they’re drinking and talking about
women!”

Oh. My.
God.

Wrong thing to
say.

“So you’re
telling me that you talk shit on me when you’re out drinking with
the guys?”

“That’s not
what I said.”

“That’s
exactly what you said!” I was so angry by then because he didn’t
actually deny that he talked shit about me! Drunken reasoning is
the best.