Changing Course (Wrecked and Ruined #1)(15)

"She killed Manda and she killed me. I don't know what happened that night, but Sarah may as well have pulled a trigger aimed directly at my head because she has destroyed my f*cking life. I've heard all about her little freak-outs every day, but it still sounds like that crazy ass bitch got nowhere near the punishment she deserves after killing Manda."

I didn't pause or even think twice. I threw everything I had into punching my grieving best friend. He only staggered backwards a few steps before releasing his own fists on me.

It took five grown men to pull us apart. I left a few minutes later, not bothering to stay for the rest of the funeral. In the end, I knocked out two of his teeth and he blackened my left eye shattering my cheek bone. We didn't speak after that day for six and a half months. And if it meant forgetting the day he came back into my life, I'd be willing to go another six hundred years without seeing Caleb Jones.





Jesse

OH MY God, I'm going to hyperventilate. Deep breaths Jesse, deep breaths. That was quite possibly the most embarrassing moment of my life. What the heck was I thinking? Of course Brett isn't interested in me. Crap, why didn't I realize this sooner? No, instead I stood there looking like a fool, asking him out in front of the whole coffee shop. I somehow convinced myself that he actually wanted to be with me. First the football game, but then, we'd eventually fall madly in love and make ridiculously tall green-eyed babies together. Jesus, how could I be so stupid? The look on his face when I asked him to the game was mortifying. It was only made worse when Caleb so obviously threw him under the bus. Oh my God, I'm the proverbial bus! Deep breaths, deep breaths.

"Stop freaking out, Jess." I hear Kara say as she walks into the back office, leaving the register completely unmanned.

"Did you see his face? How am I ever going to face him again? This was such a mistake. Why didn't you talk me out of that?"

"You just surprised him, that's all. He probably didn't even know you were interested." She tries to reassure me, but doing nothing to stop the growing knot in my stomach.

"I've been flirting with him for weeks, how the heck could he not know I was interested?" I whisper yell, very aware that the object of my embarrassment is just around the corner. The last thing I need to do is make myself look like even more of an idiot in front of him.

"He's a man. Men are stupid," she says as if it should explain all of life's great mysteries.

"How am I going to get out of this? He obviously doesn't want to go. Crap!" I start pacing the small office nibbling on my thumb nail and trying to devise yet another plan. Probably not the greatest idea considering my first plan is what got me into this mess in the first place.

"You just need to pull up your big girl panties, meet him at the game and knock him off his feet with how awesome you are. He may be a little hesitant about going now, but after he gets one look at you at the game on Sunday, you won't be able to get rid of him."

"Crap, crap, crap! This is bad...oh this is so bad," I say pacing. “Wait, what do you mean after he gets one look at me? This isn't exactly a blind date."

"Yeah, but that man has only ever seen you in a white button-down shirt, black pants, and a god-awful apron. Not exactly the outfit that men fantasize about," she says as she runs her eyes down my body.

Trying to cut her off before she gets any crazy ideas, I blurt, "I'm not raiding your closet, you dress like a hooker." I barely finish my sentence when I hear a loud commotion out front.

"What the hell was that?" Kara asks as we both take off to investigate. When we get out front, I see Brett standing with a finger pointed at Caleb and his chair tipped over behind him. His face so distorted in anger that I almost didn't recognize him. He's usually so laid back, but this man towering over the table is anything but mellow.

"Shut up, Jones. Shut. Up." Caleb sits in silence fearlessly staring him directly in the eye.

I try to figure out what the heck is going on, when suddenly it hits me. This has got to be about our date. Great, as if I wasn't embarrassed enough. Now I have to talk him off the edge of killing someone at the very idea of going out with me.

"This should be fun," I say to myself before rushing over to the guys.

"You don't have to go on Sunday. I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry," I hurry out when I get to the table.

"Not now, Jess!" Brett snaps, never taking his eyes off his partner.

"No really, it's okay. I'll ask Kara to go to the game or something. Actually, why don't I just give you the tickets and you can take whoever you want. It doesn't have to be me."

The stare down continues, neither man moving a muscle.

"Not f*cking now, Jess," Brett repeats very slowly pausing between each word.

In order for me to explain to you why this one sentence caused me to lose my mind, you should probably know something about me first. I don't cuss. Cussing is for ignorant people with a limited vocabulary. I think it's rude, crass, and pointless. My mom doesn't cuss, and the way my brother babies me, it’s scandalous when he says “darn it” in front of me. I don't hate people who cuss though. Kara says the F-word sometimes, but never aimed at me. It's usually when she drops something or sees a hot guy walk by the coffee shop window. She certainly never snaps it at me in an angry tone while having a hot guy staring competition. So, being that this is the first time anyone has ever talked to me like that, I believe I should be given a free pass on the freak-out that followed.