Page 36 of The Sidekick

“Send it to me. I’m setting it as my background.”

“Shut up,” I blush and stand to straighten my wrinkled clothes with a huff of frustration. Max rights his pants as slowly as possible to give me the best view before it disappears. His smug grin makes me pout.

“Max, get the blanket,” Trevor commands and he folds it quickly as I watch, a little jealous that he’s getting to do it instead of me. What. Is. Wrong. With. Me. Max makes a big show of it, too, gloating in my face.

“The sooner you eat, the sooner you get an orgasm, babygirl,” Trevor leans back and absently rubs his thigh.

My glare transfers to him as I cross my arms. I’m supposed to look like a mighty woman in this pose, but I’m really just trying to hide my eager nipples.

If I had known I wouldn’t get anything out of this unless I ate something, I would have stuffed my face before I came here.

“You doing ok?” Max’s concerned tone as he asks Trevor the question makes me drop my arms and focus on the boss man.

“Yeah,” his hand moves to the desk, making a fist as he tosses the word like a challenge.

There’s a brief silence as Max stares at him intently.

“I’m getting your pain pills,” he states flatly and leaves.

“What’s going on?” I ask and hover over Trevor with my hands splayed like I can spiritually find what’s wrong and fix it. Unfortunately, I am not a main character, so I don’t have special powers like that. I’m convinced they’re out there somewhere in the Universe. They just haven’t found me.

Trevor lets out a breath of frustration, “I have pins in my leg, and the cold gets to me sometimes.”

He sounds more like grumpy Max than himself right now. It causes a surge of panic inside me that I don’t understand. Trevor isn’t supposed to be grumpy. I need to fix this ASAP.

Max dropped the blanket back on the couch, so I quickly snatch it up and drape it over his legs. If the cold is bothering him, then the blanket has to help.

As soon as it falls over him, he glares at me so hard I take a step back, surprised at the vehemence there.

“I’m not a damn invalid,” he snaps and roughly shoves the blanket to the floor.

“I just thought the warmth -”

“I don’t need you to do this shit for me,” he interrupts harshly. “You’re only here for Max.”

“What?” I whisper in confusion.

How did we go from sharing one of the hottest moments of my life to this? I’m so tired of being confused in every interaction I have with people. Why does everything have to be so darn hard all the time?

“He’s been wanting you for over a year. I just finally gave in. Don’t let it go to your head,” he explains with a not sexy dark look that makes me take another step back. If only the movement would guard my heart from the stab it just received. I take it back. Rude Trevor is not hot at all.

He finally gave in? He has no interest in me whatsoever. I can feel a hairline fracture start in my heart. An earthquake is happening in there while I’m perfectly still on the outside.

He let this happen so Max would be happy. While I applaud his willingness to go out on a limb to please his boyfriend, I'm hurt that he didn’t explain the situation before things went this far. I kind of thought that he would be into me, too.

Instead, he’s offering me up as a toy to keep his boyfriend happy. What happens when the shine wears off, and I’m not so new anymore? My breath gets short at that thought.

I’m in love with both of them, and this is the only thing I can get in return? To be a warm body when they need it? The other waitresses have no idea what kind of heartache they lucked out of by getting turned down.

Why, though? What makes me not worth a real relationship? I forgot for just a second that I’m a sidekick, not a main character.

That thought strikes a nail into my heart that I don’t know if I'll ever recover from. The desolate pain of it echoes through me, and I look down, expecting to see blood. Nothing shows on the outside. All of the agony is locked inside my skin.

Trevor shakes his head and gets to his feet with a grimace, “Let's just get some food.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure,” I nod on autopilot and give him a smile that feels forced. I can’t meet his eyes. I’m too busy trying to get my heart to drop back down from where it’s painfully lodged. My eyes are burning with the need to cry.

He doesn’t wait as he opens the door and limps out so stiffly that I want to cringe at his obvious pain. When he disappears down the hall, I glance around me in confusion. I hear Max demand that Trevor take his pills and stop being a butt, and then they both fade away towards the break room.

---