there.” I lift my hard hat and run my hand through my hair before putting it back in place. “He found out about my…roommate.”
The word feels like acid in my mouth.
Wrong and painful.
Jake whistles. “He pissed?”
“I think he’s more upset his girlfriend found out before he did.”
He laughs. “Men can say they hate drama and gossip all they want, but they don’t like being left out of it either.”
“That sounds exactly like Dean. He’s almost as bad about gossip as some of the old ladies in our apartment building.” I shake my head. “I still love the asshole though.”
“We all have that one friend we love just as much as we want to smack them upside the head.”
He’s not wrong there.
The boss signals break is over, and we get back to the grind. I do everything in my power to put my thoughts solely on my job and not think about Maya, but of course she slips through the cracks.
She’s been slipping through them for weeks.
When we’re not together, all I can do is think of her. When we are together, all I want to do is touch her.
It’s becoming a problem that’s getting too big to ignore.
Before I know it, Jake’s tapping my shoulder, telling me we’re done for the day. I load up my equipment and check my phone. It’s already six thirty, so I’ll have to skip heading home to wash up before meeting with Dean.
Sitting in my truck, I swap my work shirt for a flannel and pull my phone out to shoot off a text to Maya.
Only my fingers hover over the keyboard.
Why the hell am I telling her where I’m at and when I’ll be home? She’s not my girlfriend. I don’t need to do that. She doesn’t need to know everything going on with me.
It’s just fucking sex.
Annoyed by myself, I toss my phone into the passenger seat before setting off for the bar. Twenty minutes later, I’m parking and talking myself into walking in and getting the inquisition over with.
I finally convince myself to get out of the truck and walk inside, immediately signaling to Donny for a drink.
He sets a tumbler of scotch in front of me along with a beer.
“Looks like you could use it,” he says, then he lifts his chin. “’Sup, Dean?”
“Hey, Donny.” Dean slides onto the stool next to me. “I’ll take the same thing he has. This son of a bitch is paying tonight.”
“Coming right up.”
We don’t talk until Donny delivers Dean’s drinks before moving down to the other end of the bar where his boyfriend is.
It’s a Monday, so the place is more quiet than usual.
I’m relieved. I don’t think I could have dealt with any sort of crowd tonight.
“So,” Dean says, lifting his scotch glass, “to making dumb decisions like banging our temporary roommates.”
We’re both aware Maya isn’t just my roommate.
The more painful realization? She hasn’t been in a long time. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but she’s wormed her way inside a part of me I keep locked up tight.
And so has her kid.
I lift my glass anyway, clinking it against his. We toss our drinks back.
Dean grimaces, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, shaking his head. “Fuck, I hate that shit. I don’t know how you drink it.”
“I figured you’d like it. It’s an acquired taste…like you.”
He shoves my shoulder. “Fuck you very much. And fuck you for not being honest about Maya.”
I sigh. “In all fairness, the night we met, it was nothing then.”
I tell him what happened while he and River were running late. How I had no idea who she was. How offering her a place to live was based on pure, innocent intentions.
How I never meant to fall into bed with her, and it’s the truth.
Maya was firmly put into the off limits category in my mind.
But…then she wasn’t. And I was fucked from that moment on…and not just literally.
Dean blows out a breath, running his hands through his hair.
“Wow.” He laughs. “We’re going to need another shot to celebrate this shit.”
“What? Why? Celebrate what?”
He claps me on the back. “This monumental moment.”
I shrug his touch off, scowling at him. “Just fucking out with it already.”
“You’re in love with her.”
“The fuck I am,” I say at once.
And the asshole’s grin grows.
“What?” I bark, and he laughs.
He fucking laughs.
“Swear to god…I’m leaving.”
I push myself up off the stool, reaching into my back pocket, ready to throw some cash down and bail.