Messy Love(20)

“This time we didn’t fuck,’’ he said distractedly as Joan gave me my freshly made smoothie and we walked away to get to one of the few high tables bordering the bay windows overlooking the streets in Downtown Atlanta. “I dropped her at her place and left.’’

I arched an eyebrow at him.

“I told you two months ago, asshole. Emma and I? It’s over. I’m not goin' to keep up with this shit going on.’’

“It didn’t look like it the other night.’’ I slurped on my smoothie and reveled in the taste of the strawberry, banana, and vanilla.

He turned his arm sideways and looked at his new ink, a smile on his face. “When Emma’s around I momentarily forget not to think with my cock. But I told her I’m tired of her usin' me. She seemed surprised.’’ He shrugged nonchalantly, but I saw it on his face, and I knew this fake smile. The fucker was harboring some feelings for the redhead woman. He and Emma were the perfect example for me to avoid getting attached to one woman other than my mother and my little sister. They were the only women in my life.

“Speaking of, what happened the other night?’’ he asked again.

I sipped my smoothie, trying to come up with something but I knew it’s ridiculous. It’d been days, and the fucker hadn’t stopped asking me questions. At first, he thought I had left with Marissa because I went home after she left. I ended up camping in the middle of the mess from the working crew on the renovation I was doing in my apartment.

“We had a fight,’’ I remembered the look on Marissa’s face. “I think I messed up.’’

Ralph snorted and played with the stud through his eyebrow. “You mean you hurt her.’’

“Wha—''

“Don’t pretend you didn’t. She looks like she’s barely slept and she didn’t smile. Not once. Shit, you can’t go around and spout shit to people you don’t like so you feel better about your mess, Wyatt.’’

I glared at him and finished my smoothie at once. “You don’t know shit, Ralph.’’

“I know you.’’

I ran a hand through my sweaty hair and scratched at my scalp. “When I see her she makes my fucking blood boil.’’

“Like any red-blooded male when he sees her.’’

“Not like that, fucker.’’ I shook my head and cringed. “Well, not only like that. Damn it. It shouldn’t be possible to want to fight with a woman and want to fuck her too at the same time. It should be either or. Not both.’’

“You can always fight, then fuck the anger out of both your systems. It had worked for Emma and me. Guaranteed hot sex.’’

“You want me to fuck Marissa?’’

He shrugged and looked around, eyeing a young blonde woman bending at the water fountain, but in his eyes, I didn’t see the appreciation I should find there when he fixed a round and firm ass in tight pants. “I’d do her if I had an openin', but after seein' all that tension between you two, I’d rather not be mixed up in all of that.’’

I unclenched my fists, now realizing the tension in me flowing out now that I knew he wasn’t interested. I rubbed my face and groaned in my palms. “Fuck. Shit. Damn it.’’

“And he opens his eyes,’’ Ralph said, laughing at my expense.

I scowled at him and sat straighter in the high chair. “I can’t shag my mother’s biological daughter. It’s too fucked up.’’

“Lydia doesn’t have to know.’’ At my silence, he looked around us and leaned over the table. “It’s not like I’m telling you to grab Marissa and drag her to Vegas for a shotgun wedding. It’s just sex. Maybe afterward you’ll be less uptight when you’re in the same room.’’

I didn’t need much to picture her naked. My cock hardened in my baggy shorts as the thought took form. I put a hand over my crotch before a co-worker caught my hard-on and thought it’s my best friend’s doing.

“She’ll never fall for my shit.’’

“You can’t know for sure unless you try.’’

“You didn’t see her look. Fuck, her eyes have been the only thing on my mind.’’

“It’s another reason why you should find her and apologize.’’ Ralph stood up and tapped me on my back. “She finishes at InkSpired at six tonight. Be the man I know you are, Wyatt. You don’t have to be an asshole to everybody outside of the people you trust.’’

***





MARISSA


“Bye, Kam and thank you again,’’ I called out to my mentor as I shouldered my purse and rummaged through it to find my car key.

Kam didn’t look up from his work as he applied the flash tatt for his client, a guy who came here every month to work on his partial sleeve. “You did good, girl. See you tomorrow and don’t come too early. You need to rest, or the clients are going to leave when they have a look at you.’’

“Ah. Ah. Ah,’’ I deadpanned and left InkSpired with a small smile at the thought of my first design tatted on someone other than on fruit or fake skin. It had felt great to tattoo Ralph with my piece, and when I looked at the result, it didn’t feel only good, it had made me proud, and so exhilarated that it forced me to forget how tired I was and how my mind wrecked since that night at the club.