Lag (The boys of RDA #2)(36)
“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.