Page 12 of Hard Focus
Jonas
He watched Cole’s face as he focused on Connie’s car traveling up the street.There’s a little too much interest there, he thought, then gave the man his back and strode to his car.
It had been a bad day, followed by what was shaking up to be a shit evening.Better start groveling.
Paused at a red light, he snaked his phone out of his pocket and thumbed to the text app.I’m sorry.
Two lights later, he took a picture of himself pouting and looking hangdog, then sent it to Connie with another apology.
After leaving Audrey’s, he’d originally headed home by rote, but part-way there, he decided to backtrack. Parking on the street was hard to come by, but a car pulled out just as he drove up, and he smiled.Fate.
Hey, baby, I’m on my way up. Let’s talk.
***
Connie
Taylor held Connie’s elbow to steady her as he steered her from the dance floor. She twisted to look up at him, laughing at his exaggerated huffing and puffing, trusting him to keep her from bumping into anyone. She pulled her phone from her back pocket before throwing herself into the booth Alden lounged in. Slapping it on the table, she woke the screen with her thumb, glanced at it and then turned it facedown with a groan.
“More sexting from the boyfriend?” Taylor sat next toAldenand reached out to grab one of the water bottles waiting for them. “Doesn’t he know this is my weekend with you? Visitation rights are a bitch, little man.”
She laughed. “Not hardly. This looked like more angry texting because I didn’t do what he wanted, and now I won’t answer his calls becauseI’mstill pissed.”
“And rightly so, my friend.” Alden pushed a bottle towards Connie. “You don’t talk about him much, one way or the other, but he doesn’t sound like much of a keeper to me. Not from this most recent debacle.”
Minimizing the emotional upheaval from the day, she told Alden, “I’m beginning to agree with you.” She dusted her palms together, then grabbed the water and twisted the cap off, flicking it towards a laughing Taylor. Upending the bottle, she took several deep drinks. “Now, enough talk about my impending lack of a love life. Tell me what’s on the menu for this weekend. Isn’t there something happening downtown tomorrow?” Taylor shot her an appreciative grin while Alden sat forwards, elbows on the table as he leaned into the topic.
She knew exactly what washappening,because Alden and Taylor had organized what promised to be a huge protest against a controversial state bill. The proposal was in danger of passing, and if it happened, it would become a law that would strip away the abilityfordomestic violence shelters to protect the anonymity of their clients. Alden, in particular, had spent hours writing letters, making calls, and engaging on social media arguing against the bill.
Connie drained her water as she listened, chiming in with a few suggestions that had Alden pulling his phone out to make notes. Then it was back to the dance floor for another lengthy sweat session that was guaranteed to leave her happy and exhausted.
The three of them shared a ride back to the apartment building, and Connie split off from the two men in the lobby, leaving them to enter the elevator as she checked her mailbox. The doors slid closed, cutting off their conversation as she found a blank envelope shoved inside her box. Gathering up the junk mail along with the mysterious envelope, she took the next elevator up to her floor and stepped off. Her heart jumped into her throat when she saw a form slumped against the wall near the door to her apartment.Arm extendedbehind her to keep the elevator doors open, she fumbled her phone out and gripped it tightly in her other hand.
Then the form straightened, and she recognized Jonas.
What the hell?
“Connie.” His voice was quiet, almost cajoling, but edged with something else, and she felt the hair rising on the back of her neck. “Where have you been?”
Ignoring his question, she shook her head. “What are you doing here?”
“What? I can’tcomesee my girlfriend?” He took a step towards her and Connie found herself edging back towards the elevator. The doors bumped her arm, reopening when they met the obstruction. “Where were you tonight?”
“You need to leave.” She tried to keep her voice steady, but her heart was hammering wildly in her chest, blood pounding and echoing in her ears. She cradled the phone to her chest, hoping to hide how badly her hands were shaking.
He had positioned himself between her and the apartment, and with the open elevator at her back, Connie felt frozen by indecision. Should she walk towards him? Still, even as angry as she was it seemed a foolhardy approach for a woman alone.But you know him. You’ve slept with him. Shrugging off her thoughts, she backed another step into the elevator.I could go to Taylor’s apartment. “Jonas, you need to go.” Her body decided for her, and her arm jerked upwards at the last moment, blocking the doors again. The elevator began making a loud buzzing noise. “I’m tired, and I don’t want to do this right now.”
He stared at her, head slightly cocked to the side. “You’re kicking me out?” The hurt in his voice scored her conscience. Then he ruined any sympathy she might have felt by adding, “After the shit day I had?”
Suddenly infuriated, she stalked towards him, the elevator closing behind her. “You had a bad day? I got a demand from this guy I’ve been dating”—his head jolted at that, and she realized she hadn’t called him her boyfriend—“to leave work early and pick up the daughter he has with another woman. Me being the kind of person I am, I do that, only to be treated like crap by that woman’s brother”—Cole hadn’t really treated her like shit, and she guiltily remembered his defense of her against Jonas’ behavior—“and then by you.” He reached for her. “So, before you say you had such a bad day, consider mine.”
She twisted away and avoided his grasping hand as she dug her keys out. After two tries, she got the door open, then turned to tell him to leave and gulped when he was right there in her face. Eyes blazing, hereachedand seized the edge of the door. She leaned against the door to try and close it, but he slowly forced it open, easily pushing against all her strength. Connie stumbledbackwardsinto the apartmentandJonas followed after her, the door closing behind him with a quiet click. “Jonas,”—she unsuccessfully tried to ignore the tremble in her voice, feeling the quaking migrate to the muscles of her legs—“you need to leave.”
“I had a shitday,” Jonas repeated, each word enunciated separately, a deliberate and frightening pause between them as if he didn’t believe her intelligent enough to understand his meaning otherwise. He followed her up the hallway, head down, eyes glaring at her from underneath his brows.
She escaped into thekitchenand cast around for anything that would help better her situation. She kept her eyes locked on him as she angled behind the island, successful in putting about five feet of distance between them. Connie kept her gaze fixed on his face, trying to read the emotion in his eyes, but they were shuttered tightly, blank as he stared at her, his eyes filled with dark shadows. She tried to warn him off a final time. “Jonas, don’t. Don’t do this.” Whatever “this” was, she didn’t know, and Connie had a sickening feeling she really didn’t want to learn his intentions. Would it help to admit a tiny bit of vulnerability? “You’re scaring me.”
“Some guys hit the bottle after a bad day. Or hit something else.” He snarled, lip curling so high it pulled the side of his face into a terrifying grimace.Was that a threat?“Me? I just wanted to see my girlfriend. Thought she might make me feel better. Make me feel good. Never really had one before now, and I thought one of the perks of having a girlfriend was she’d have your back, no matter what. Be there when you’re down, that kind of thing.” He shifted to move around the island,andshe flicked her eyes towards the door, measuring the distance. At her single, instinctive glance, Jonas pulled to a stop and took a step back towards the center, cutting her off. “But, I guess I was wrong. Because I had a shit day, and she’s not there for me. And when I tried to talk to her, all she did was ignore my texts and calls.” He placed a hand on top of the island,andshe stared at his fingers, watching as they flexed and curled into a fist, tendons pulling taut and hard knuckles whitening from the pressure. “Then I thought to myself, what if she’s sick or hurt? She’d want me to be there for her. And it’s only fair that this goes both ways, right? I was afraid for her, so I go to her apartment. Know what I found, Connie?”
