I wasn’t going to lose my shot this time.
“Can we talk?” I asked.
But Mary didn’t get the chance to answer before Nero was all but putting her behind him like he was some sort of barrier. “Actually, we were just about to play a game of pool and Mary’s on my team.”
“I’m pretty sure Mary can answer for herself,” I said, still keeping my eyes on her.
She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut in again before she could.
“And I’m pretty sure you don’t need to be an asshole about it.”
“I’m not being an asshole, I just asked if we could talk,” I said, finally looking at him.
He laughed. “Yeah, I bet you want to talk. Your face tells a different story.”
“Nero,” Mary said, tugging on his sleeve. She looked like she couldn’t believe he’d just said that. “It’s fine, I’ll just be a second.”
“No, it’s not fine,” Nero sneered. “Because this guy is pretending to be a gentleman offering you his bed when it’s clear as day he has another agenda.”
“That’s fucking rich, coming from you,” I shot back.
Mary’s eyes grew wide. “Leo,” she scolded.
Her co-workers were tuned in now, and I saw a few of them share questioning glances at my comment. The two girls who’d been watching Nero’s hand on Mary’s back earlier seemed particularly intrigued, and it made me wonder if Nero wasn’t just a creep to Mary.
“What?” I asked Mary, but my eyes were still boring into Nero’s. “Don’t want them to know that your boss crosses the line and puts you in uncomfortable situations when no one else is around?”
I barely got the words out before Nero was rushing me like he was ready to fight. We met in the middle, chest to chest, both of us seething as his friends crowded behind him and my teammates began to flank my sides. Clay and Zeke were the closest, and knowing they had my back only kicked my confidence up another notch.
“That’s enough,” Mary said, slipping between us and shoving me hard until I had no choice but to step back. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“Me?” I almost laughed, but when I looked at her and saw sincere anger, my mouth hung open in disbelief. “Really?”
“I think you’ve outstayed your welcome, kid,” Nero said from over her shoulder. He crooked a smile at the word kid, and when I looked back to Mary and found her staring at the floor, avoiding eye contact, and not saying a fucking word in my defense…
I realized he was right.
What the hell did I expect?
Mary hated me. She’d made that much clear from the moment we met last year when she lived with Julep. It didn’t matter what I did to prove to her I wasn’t who she thought I was. Even now, she tolerated me at best, shutting me down any time I tried to cross the line she’d drawn between us.
But that night, in my room…
She was drunk.
She was drunk and didn’t even remember a second of it.
I tongued my cheek, nodding as I stepped back, all the while willing Mary to look at me. I pleaded silently for her to stop me, to take my side, to stand up for me and for herself.
But she didn’t.
And when I couldn’t bear to watch her reject me any longer, I turned, blowing through the crowd for the exit so I could detonate without taking anyone down in the carnage with me.
Mary
Leo hadn’t made it five steps out the door before I shoved through it, too.
“Leo!”
He didn’t stop, and I had no idea where he was even going considering he was storming into a parking lot full of cars that didn’t belong to him. We’d all taken Ubers. He didn’t have anywhere to run, to hide.
“Leo, damn it, stop,” I called again, and this time he paused, fingers rolling into fists at his sides before I saw him take a deep breath. His hands relaxed a bit, and he dragged them through his hair before keeping them there on top of his head, back still to me.
The lot was empty, save for a few smokers hanging out outside the bar. They didn’t pay any attention to us as I hung my hands on my hips, waiting for Leo to say something. His back muscles tensed enough for me to see even through his button up, as if he had a right to be the angry one right now after what he just pulled.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked when he didn’t speak.
Slowly, calmly, Leo turned around.
He pinned me with an inescapable gaze.
“That was me trying to talk to you, and then standing up for you when you wouldn’t do it yourself.”
“You’re joking, right?” I threw my hand toward the bar. “That was you making a fool of me in front of everyone I work with.”
“Because I told the truth?”
“Because you interjected yourself into my job, my career. Do you know how hard I’ve worked for respect at that shop? Do you realize what you could have ruined with those little comments you made?”
“I didn’t ruin anything,” he said confidently, pointing behind me to the bar. “That guy is the one ruining shit. And in case you didn’t realize it yet, he isn’t going to let you go. He wants a piece of you and is damn sure he’ll get it.”
“Oh, and you can see all that by meeting him one time?”
“I knew before I met him. I knew when you told me on the roof what happened between you two.”
“But you weren’t there when it happened! I don’t even know if anything did happen.” A frustrated breath puffed out of me. “I… I probably read too much into it, and nothing weird has gone on since, but now—”
“Don’t do that,” he said, shaking his head. He took a tentative step toward me, his eyes softening a bit. “Don’t second guess yourself like that creep wants you to.”
My words stutter-stopped in my chest, and I swallowed, folding my arms over myself. “Look, what happens to me is none of your business.”
“What if I want it to be?”
Silence.
Silence that was so deafening I felt it in the very core of who I was.
It fell over us a like a parachute, drifting down slowly until we were encompassed completely and hidden from the rest of the world. My pulse reverberated through every cell in my body, the air between us a living thing. And when Leo took another tentative step toward me, his Adam’s apple bobbing hard in his throat, I lost the ability to breathe.
“Say something,” he pleaded.
My heart thundered in my ears as I shook my head, and I had to look down, away from him.
For a moment, Leo stood still, waiting.
Then, he growled in frustration, whipping around until he was storming away from me again.
“Leo,” I said, his name cracking my voice.
I gasped in surprise when he turned on me again, pulling at his hair before his hands thrust toward me, his eyes wild. “I can’t fucking do this, Mary!” His breaths shook through the words. “I want you. I know you know it, too.”
My heart shuddered to a stop.
It was one thing to assume it, but to hear him say it…
“I didn’t—”
“Don’t lie,” he said, his voice calmer now, softer. He took another step toward me. “You know it. You can feel it. You want me, too, but for some reason you keep playing this fucking game.”