Sweet Forty-Two(18)

“It must get tiring, huh? Strutting around like you know everything?” With the tension in the room dialed all the way to Exit, I did just that, finally getting to slam the door behind me.





As I wiped down the tables at the end of my shift, anger seeped into every muscle of my body. Thankfully, Lissa and the rest of the staff left me the hell alone so I could finish out my shift without hassle. But I was still pissed at CJ and intended to track him down to tell him just that.

“Night, Liss,” I called over my shoulder as I adjusted the straps on my backpack.

“Night, girl. You good?” She tried to sound casual, but CJ’s outburst clearly had her shaken.

“Yep.” My tone was clipped as I pulled the thick wooden door open and walked into the starlit night.

My heart pole-vaulted into my throat at the sight of a broad shadow leaning against my car.

“It’s just me, G.” CJ’s voice rumbled through the parking lot.

“You mother f*cker!” I yelled as I sped toward him, reaching for his face with my hand, but only making it as far as his shoulder.

He grabbed my shoulders and held me at arm’s length. Just far enough that I couldn’t hit him.

“Georgia, calm down.” He sounded bored.

“Do you have any idea what the hell you did in there tonight?

He ducked his head to meet my eye line. “Yeah, kept you from getting hit.”

“Yeah?” I stepped back and crossed my arms. CJ let go, but didn’t put his hands in his pockets. “And what do you think you’re keeping me from now that you’ve pissed him off and embarrassed him in front of a bar full of his friends?”

CJ ran a hand over his over-gelled hair. “He doesn’t know where you live, though, right?”

I shrugged.

“For f*ck’s sake, G, you take them back to your place, still? I thought we talked about that.”

“I...” My shoulders sank under my tears. “I did flirt with Dex last night and left the bar with him. But, only to walk him to a cab. You know, make sure his drunk ass didn’t try to drive home. The bruise wasn’t from him, CJ.”

CJ held me at arms length. “Who is it from?”

I shook my head, looking to the stars in an effort to stop the stream down my cheeks.

“G...”

Looking back at CJ, I found the only person left in my life who knew everything. I swallowed hard and tucked some hair behind my ear.

Immediately he knew. I know he knew because he whipped me back into his body and tried to wring the pain from me with a tight hug. It was deep in my bones, though.

“I didn’t realize it had gotten bad again, G. You should have told me.”

As I sniffled into his shoulder, I tried to come up with something defensive to say. There was nothing. I should have called him. Told him in the back room, instead of letting him construct an outlandish story in his head about Dex and me that was cemented far from reality.

“Stay with me tonight,” he whispered into my hair.

“I can’t. I have to go to the—”

“Not tonight, G. You know how she is after a rough night. It’s still the same, isn’t it? She’ll be too medicated to know you’re there.”

I wanted to say yes. That I’d spend the night with my old best friend. “I can’t, CJ.”

“Georgia.”

I was too tired to deny him a third time. So, I just sighed.

CJ growled. “God. Whatever. You’re not going back to your place tonight.”

“You’re not the boss of me.”

The second it spilled out of my mouth I knew he’d laugh. And he did. So did I.

“You’re insufferable.” He grabbed me into a hug.

“Insufferable? Word of the day calendar?” I smiled into his chest.

He laughed, bumping my head against his chest. “Screw off.”

“Where are you staying?” I pressed my chin into his pecs as I looked up, smiling as he looked back down.

“With some friends in North Cove.”

“Mission Bay? Classy.”

“Not as classy as La Jolla.”

“Hey now,” I teased, “that was all my dad’s choice. Not mine.”

CJ opened his driver’s side door. “Ride with me. We’ll come back for your car tomorrow. How is your dad, by the way?”

“Dead.” I yawned and plunked into his car.

“What the hell? When?” He eyed me like I was insane.

Not yet, I wanted to tell him.

“What?” I shrugged. “Last year. Don’t act so surprised. He was an alcoholic, CJ. His liver ran out of motivation. The house in La Jolla was his, though.”

“Scumbag...” CJ mumbled and shook his head.

I shrugged. I knew he didn’t totally mean it. CJ knew the full story, but that meant he also knew every dirty detail. My dad had been a schemer his whole life: shaking your hand with one hand, and tying your shoelaces together with the other. But there was something about him that women loved—a charisma woven through his gap-toothed smile. It’d done my mother in, which is why I’m here.

When she left, though, he did the best he could for me. Even if it wasn’t enough, it was his best. When I’d tossed a fistful of loose earth over his final bed, I’d taken comfort in that.