Page 63 of Badd Ass
“I kind of smashed my phone,” I said.
“How very mature of you,” he deadpanned.
“Shut up.”
“Youshut up,” he shot back. “You’re a big boy, you can figure it out.”
Going through BUD/S all over again seemed like an easier prospect than this, but I wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, especially not when it involved a woman like Amarantha Quinn.
* * *
Ifelt stupid. I had a dozen roses gripped in one fist, and a stomach full of butterflies. Stepping off the elevator, I resisted the impulse to turn and run, which was dumb as fuck, since I hadn’t turned and run from anything in my life.
I made my way slowly down the hallway to apartment 14B, and knocked on the door.
“MOMMY! SOMEBODY’S HERE!” I heard a small female voice say.
“I’ll get it, sweetie. Keep eating your lunch,” I heard a woman say.
There was the rattle of a chain lock and then the door opened, revealing a pretty young woman of maybe thirty, wearing stained black yoga pants and a white tank top, braless, her breasts heavy and her nipples prominent behind the thin cotton. She had a baby on one hip, her hair in a messy ponytail, and she glared at me angrily.
This wasnotMara.
“If those are from Harry, tell him to shove them up his ass,” the woman snapped. “He wants to talk to me or see me, he has to crawl his slimy ass here himself.”
I blinked at her venom. “Uh, sorry. I’m not from Harry.”
The woman sagged. “Oh. My bad. How can I help you?”
I struggled to figure out what was going on. “This is apartment 14B, right?” I rattled off the rest of the address. “Do I have the right place?”
The woman nodded, glancing down as a curious young girl of three or four peeked from behind her. “That’s us.”
“So…obviously Mara Quinn doesn’t live here anymore.”
The woman shook her head, her expression sympathetic. “Sorry, no.” She winked at me. “But give me those roses and come on in, and I can pretend to be Mara for…oh, twenty minutes. You’re hot.”
“Thanks, but…no.”
She nodded, understanding. “Sorry, honey. We’ve lived here for a little over two weeks now. I think the previous tenant, your Mara, must have moved unexpectedly because I’m still getting a lot of her mail.”
I sighed in defeat, rubbing the back of my neck. “Gotcha. Well, sorry to have bothered you.”
“Sorry I couldn’t help more.”
I nodded and turned away, still carrying the flowers. I stopped, hesitated, and then jogged back to 14B, just as the woman was closing the door.
“Here,” I said. “Take ‘em.”
She smiled, and I saw a vibrant, beautiful woman, one I’d have been interested in had Mara not consumed my attention.
“Thanks,” she said, happiness suffusing her features as she accepted the roses. “My dick of an ex-husband never gave me flowers even once.”
“You’re really beautiful, you know,” I said. “Your ex is an idiot.”
She blinked at me. “Sure you don’t want to come in? It’s almost nap time in here.”
I laughed. “No, but thanks. I’m flattered.”
