Zenith Rising (22 page)

“Oh. Well. Shit,” the poor man said, looking
flustered. He seemed stricken as he started to get up.

Erica shook her head, and touched his arm.
“Wait. I’m sorry. That was a lousy thing to say. I’m a doctor, and
I lost a patient today. It put me in a really shitty mood,” she
explained. Then, taking a deep breath, she conjured up a smile, and
said, “My name is Erica.”

He smiled back and slowly sat down again. “Hi
Erica. I’m Ronny. I run a construction crew downtown.” He was
looking at her profile, and his gaze landed on her hair. “Don’t get
many female doctors in here.”

Erica turned to him fully. “Does it matter if
I’m a doctor or not? I assume you came over to hit on me. Does my
being a doctor prevent you from doing that?”

Taken aback, poor Ronny looked at her. “No.
No, of course not. I would like to. That is, if you want me
to.”

“I told you to sit down, didn’t I?”

“A woman who knows what she wants. I like
that.”

Erica finally smiled and relaxed her
shoulders. “Yes, I am. And it’s about time someone noticed that I
am most definitely a woman who knows exactly what she wants.”

Chapter Fourteen

“I don’t know, man. She’s pretty pissed off.
She might just go home with him.”

Spencer didn’t answer Rob’s statement. They
were still playing darts. All the while, Spencer tried to ignore
Erica, still sitting at the bar.
Why was she still fucking
here?
Why didn’t she slap his face and stomp out of the bar to
go home? No. Instead, she remained at the bar, and was chatting it
up with some poor slob for over half an hour now. All the while,
she pretended to ignore him and not once cast her eyes in his
direction to see if he was watching her. Or if her little stunt was
bothering him. Wasn’t that what she was doing? Trying to get his
attention? Trying to piss him off?

Well, it was working. In fact, it was
seriously starting to work. At first, he ignored it. But how long
could she keep this up? She appeared to be a little more
comfortable in the bar than he might have pictured. And a little
more at ease over being picked up for a one-night-stand than he
would have guessed. What the hell was she doing now?

Standing up, she slid her purse off the bar.
The man, a bearded, hairy, white guy, stood up too and put his hand
on the small of Erica’s back.
Shit.
They were walking
towards the door.

Rob stopped, mid-aim, and lowered his arm. He
was looking in Erica’s direction too. “Shit, Spence. Quit being
such a dick. She came here looking for
you.
Are you really
going to let her leave with someone else? Or are you going to man
up, for once, and go after something, or someone, you really
want?”

Spencer glared at Rob, but got up without a
word. He followed Erica and the hairy mountain man out of the bar.
Erica looked so good tonight. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans,
with a white tank top under a sheer, red blouse. He’d never seen
her wearing jeans before. They shaped her butt just right, and
hugged her thighs. Her long legs were being showcased, for this
plaid flannel-wearing dick to ogle over. She was, hands down, the
classiest woman in the bar and drew looks from every male patron in
every direction. It was her white-blond hair, the color so natural,
but different, and luxurious that made her the most noticed woman
no matter where she went. Still, only a man with real balls dared
to approach her. It was crystal clear she wasn’t any barfly. She
was pure class and style in a beautiful package. Most men wouldn’t
approach her because they knew she was way out of their league.

Except for this bearded asshole. Sucker must
think he was something pretty special to dare believe he could go
after her.

Once outside, they were headed towards her
car. She didn’t send her mountain man off packing. She didn’t even
look behind to see if he was following her. Was she drunk? She had
to be, considering she was with this asshole and complete
stranger.

Spencer grabbed her wrist just as she reached
for the car door handle. She gasped and tried to jerk her arm away
from his tight grasp.

“Let go of me!”

“Did you really think I would let you leave
here? With him?”

“I wasn’t aware that I asked you.”

“Erica is there a problem?” The bearded man
came around the hood of her car, looking concerned at Spencer, then
at Erica. He ventured no further as soon as he saw that Spencer was
at least a good five inches taller than he.

“No, there’s no problem. This here is just my
handyman,” Erica said, smiling at Spencer along with her pick-up
date.

“You’ve made your point,” Spencer said
through gritted teeth. “You’re not leaving here with him.”

“Yes, actually, I am. See? I think you were
right, and a good lay would really help right now. Especially if it
helps me forget my stupid tryst with you.”

“You’re not seriously doing this.”

“What’s the matter, Spencer? Do you care?
Wait. No. You don’t. Now let go of my wrist.” She paused, and
stared up into Spencer’s eyes. Then she laughed. “Oh, now I get it!
You think I’ve never done this before, huh? Picked up a guy for a
one-night-stand? Oh, Spencer, this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve been
on the singles scene for a long time, six years longer than you.
And I could probably teach you a trick or two. I’ve had plenty of
casual sex. Adding this one might be a lot for one week, but hell,
that’s just how it is, isn’t it? At least, this guy can call me by
my name.”

Poor Ronny could only stare from Spencer to
Erica, his mouth open in shock at the gist of their
conversation.

“Look,” Ronny suddenly interjected, “there’s
obviously something between you two. I don’t think I need to get
involved.”

“Ronny, wait! No. There’s nothing between him
and me,” Erica exclaimed, looking almost desperate with longing
towards the asshole.

Spencer didn’t take his eyes off Erica or
look at the man she planned to take home, as he said, “Get out of
here, Ronny. Before I rip off your balls off and put them in my
pocket. Erica’s not going home with you tonight, or ever.”

Ronny looked one more time at Erica, then
backed up, turned, and almost ran away. Erica balled up her fist
and stomped her foot. “That was entirely unnecessary. That was
stupid, macho bullshit. I can’t believe you did that.”

“So was using him just to get your point
across to me.”

“You scared the poor man. He was very nice to
me. Far nicer than you’ve been.”

He sighed. “All right. You made your point.
Get in the car.”

“I had no point to get across to you. You
were very clear about your point to me. I simply didn’t want to be
alone tonight. But since you’ve now guaranteed that. Please, just
go away.”

“I’ll drive,” Spencer said, as he took the
keys from her hand and got in. She sputtered and cursed at him, but
got into her car. She didn’t say another word to him and the icy
silence grew thick until he pulled into his own driveway.

“I want to go home.”

“No. You said you didn’t want to be alone
tonight.”

“Well, I don’t want to spend it with
you.”

He slammed the door on her, cutting her off
mid-sentence. She got out, so angry she stumbled over the cracks in
the driveway. He kept walking into his house after pocketing her
keys.

She stopped up short and put her hands on her
hips. “I’m not going in there.”

He stopped too. “You said you were looking
for me so we could talk and you spent an unusual amount of effort
trying to find me. So we’re going to do that.”

“Talk?”

“Yeah. Talk.” He turned towards his house as
if he just commanded her to follow without further hesitation. Of
course, he knew better.

“Erica.”

He turned back at hearing her voice and
sighed. “What?”

“Repeat after me, it’s quite simple, ‘We’re
going to talk,
Erica.
’”

He rolled his eyes. “God, not that
again.”

“You already said my name back there, so say
it again when you’re meaning too.”

His jaw tightened in annoyance. She got her
way with him better than anyone else on earth. How did she keep
managing to do it? He gritted his teeth and muttered softly,
“Erica.”

She smiled as if he’d just given her a
diamond ring. She’d won this battle in their strange, ongoing
standoff. Spencer turned on his heel and stormed through his front
door.

****

Erica followed Spencer into the house and the
living room. She stood there as he threw her keys on the counter,
before turning towards her. They were separated by the couch and he
stared at her. She clasped her hands in front of her.

“How long have you lived here?”

He shook his head. “You didn’t track me down
tonight for this banal conversation bullshit.”

“You think I tracked you down just to have
sex with you? You really don’t know me very well at all. I tracked
you down for exactly this:
banal conversational bullshit
.
How else can you get to know someone?”

“I don’t.”

She sighed. “Ah, that again. You don’t.
Won’t. Can’t. Well, you can, you will, you are.” He didn’t answer
and crossed his arms over his chest. She stared at him, and finally
nodded. Fine. She could play his games. She walked over to the
couch, taking off her blouse as she went, before sitting down and
bouncing on the couch, as if testing its springiness. “I see. You’d
rather just get on with it. Why not here? We can just get it done
fast and I’ll be gone before the hour. That’s what you prefer,
right? What you like?”

His eye twitched. “And when Rob walks
in?”

“Oh, well, he could just join us, don’t you
think? He seems nice enough. Quite hot, in fact. So sure, why
not?”

He didn’t answer and she raised her eyebrows
at him. “What are you doing, Doc?”

“Just being you.”

“How exactly is that?”

“Blasé, rude, cold, oh, and quick. The
quicker, the better so you can get me out of here as fast as you
can.”

“Yeah, that is me. So why do you want
anything to do with me?”

“Because we slept together, and I suddenly
feel differently about you.”

“Your problem, not mine.”

God, he could be so flippant, and cutting. No
one had ever been so rude to her before. But then… he kept coming
back to her when he didn’t have to. “Then why didn’t you let me
leave with Ronny? You acted like a jealous ass back there; so if
you don’t really care about me, why did you bother bringing me back
here?”

She had some good points. He turned away.
“What do you want from me?”

Erica sighed. “For you to simply answer my
question. How many years have you lived here?”

He was silent for so long, she swore he
wouldn’t answer her. His shoulders sagged as he finally admitted,
“Five years.”

She felt like she was asking him for the
codes to a nuclear bomb. He managed to make simple, first date,
normal conversation sound weird and imposing. “And before
that?”

“Before that, we were in and out of places;
and before
that,
we were homeless.”

“We? Meaning you and Rob?”

“Yes. It’s always me and Rob. Although, for a
few years, it was me, Rob and Joelle. Why don’t you ask her? She
was around for a lot of it. Probably remembers most of it better
than I do.”

“No. I’m asking you, about you, Spencer.
Where’s your piano?”

Silence, then his arms crossed. Finally, he
said, “Upstairs.”

“Why? Why not put it down here? You’ve
certainly got the room.”

“Because I don’t want to look at it.”

She didn’t get him and tilted her head. “Why?
Why don’t you want to look at it?”

“Because I just don’t. Is this line of
questioning really necessary?”

“Yes.”

“Why is it necessary?”

“Because you owe me. You were a total prick
at the bar. Then you brought me here. You owe me some
conversation.”

“I don’t owe you anything.” His jaw
tightened. He didn’t like to be pushed or made to feel like he had
to do anything. Even something as simple and stupid as a
conversation.

“You owe me a conversation; is it really that
hard? That awful? Are you sorry about what you said to me at the
bar? Because we could talk about that instead.”

“Should I be?”

She dropped her arms and nearly shrieked in
frustration. “Of course, you should be! God, you were rude. Crude
even. I didn’t appreciate it.”

His lips twitched. “It wasn’t meant for your
approval. It was meant to get you to leave me alone. Yet, you still
came with me.”

“You scared away my date.”

“Were you really going to let him come home
with you?”

“No. I would have taken him to a motel. I
don’t take one-night-stands home.”

His expression changed. It wasn’t exactly a
frown, but his face definitely reflected some kind of displeasure.
He strangely didn’t like hearing about her having casual sex. “Do
you have them often?”

“No. But, yes, I have had them. Now are you
sorry? Did you mean it? What you said to me? Or were you trying to
piss me off so I’d leave you alone?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe what?”

“Maybe I was trying to piss you off so you’d
leave me alone.”

“Why? Why do you keep insisting I leave you
alone?”

“Because you talk a lot. You ask a lot of
questions.”

She stepped closer. “Yet, you waited for me
this morning.”

His eyelids lowered so she couldn’t read his
expression. “You read way too much into things.”

She could not do this anymore. She could not
argue with Spencer and try to convince him to want to be with her.
She wasn’t made that way. He would either be a big boy and take
responsibility for them, or not. She came around the couch. Nearer
to him. “I’ll leave. You want someone like Tamira, someone to screw
one moment, and leave the next, then have at it! We’ll just chalk
up what happened in my office as a mistake. An erroneous, one-time
mistake. I found you tonight because I wanted to know for sure what
we did. But if you really feel that way, we’ll go back to how
things were before. It’s totally fine. I can do that.”