Page 72 of Grease Monkey
Ozzy turns off the engine of the white Hyundai Sante Fe and jumps out. “Yeah, where you going?”
“Out.”
“Teddy…” he warns. “Dude, I can read you like a book. You’re going to see Ana, aren’t you?”
“Fuck no,” I say a bit too firmly.
“Whatever,” he scoffs. “No good can come of this, but there’s no point trying to stop you. Just don’t be a dick.”
I shrug out of my coveralls and grab my car keys, driving the short distance to her rental place. It’s funny how quickly hatred and betrayal can stir the beast inside. My hands vibrate around the wheel as I pull into the parking lot, taking up two spaces like a douche and killing the engine. I look up at the building, to the window on the second floor, where I know she’s staying.
So sue me. In my anger, I might have googled the address. I might have also looked at the rental advert on Airbnb too.
I sprint to the front door just as an older man is leaving, and my first issue of how the fuck I’m meant to get into the building disappears. I thunder up the stairs and right to her door. My thudding bangs ripple on the wood and through the hallway, one after the other, banging, pounding, and thumping until, eventually, the lock unlatches, and the door opens.
“Teddy…”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Morgana
Barreling through the door, Teddy doesn’t give me any time to move out of his way as he bulldozes into the rented apartment, crowding my space and sending me backward. The thin tights covering my feet slip and slide as I struggle to find purchase on the wooden floor, and my hand flies up, gripping Teddy’s arms to keep balance.
Wrong move. Major wrong move as sparks of electricity jump from his body to mine. Heat pools, my mouth dries, and my lips part. Even after seven years, he affects me. How is that possible?
“Teddy, please…” I try, needing him to stop forcing me back and give me a second to catch my breath. His nostrils flare as he glances at where I’m touching him, and I snatch my hand away as I bump against the small island in the kitchen and curl my fingers around the edge instead of his bicep like I’m almost dying to do. I want to feel his warm skin under my palm again, even if it’s only for a second. I need to feel the muscle that’s grown so much since I last saw him, need to know if the shock of me touching him was something else or he felt it too. Maybe it’s all in my head. Maybe the friction from my feet and the wooden floor created static. That must be it, because the dark glow of his pupils isn’t from any lingering lust or feelings he harbors for me.
“What are you doing?” he snarls, his hands splayed out on either side of mine, caging me in with his arms. He’s so close I can feel the warmth of his breath against my skin.
“I… I…”
I can’t speak.
“Why are you here, Morgana?”
Ouch, no longer Ana. I guess I deserve that.
“For work. I…”
“Bullshit,” he spits, and I flinch against the counter. “After all this time, you happen to get sent to Phoenix? Just happen to step intomyauto shop the day after you arrive?”
“How did you…”
“Ozzy.” He’s breathing hard, each inhalation filling his broad chest, and we’d touch if he were an inch closer. Even so, that doesn’t stop him from being any less imposing as he towers over me, and my eyes nervously roam his face, comparing everything I remember to the new things. Like the dusting of freckles on his nose that only appear in the sun. Or how the lines around his eyes have become more profound, making him look older. Or his pink lips surrounded by the hair covering his jaw that once used to smile at me are now pulled into a tight line. Or his dark soulful eyes that used to be filled with mischief, that are now cold and hard, and I hate the way they look at me. I want to fix them, take away the pain Iknowis because of me.
My lips part, but no words come out. What would I even say? Sorry isn’t enough. Sorry is too late now. Sorry is… His gaze drops to my lips, and I wet them without thinking. It’s a reflex, it seems.
“Teddy,” I whisper, glancing at the thick veins beating furiously against his neck. “Teddy, I’m—”
His head snaps down to where my fingers lightly rest against chest, and I look at them too, completely unaware that I moved them, let alone that I’m touching him. I curl my fingers back as Teddy pushes away from the counter, flexing his hands by his sides. Clenching them over and over as his jaw works, grinding his molars together, he stares at me with such blinding hatred it makes me shrink.
I hate this.
He reaches up to where my fingers were, the vein in his neck relaxing for the briefest of seconds that I think maybe he was just shocked to see me after all this time, but then his face hardens again, and he jabs a finger in my direction.
“Don’t say another word, Morgana. Whatever bullshit lies… just don’t. I stopped believing a single fucking word you said years ago.”
He turns his back to leave.
