Page 26 of Wait With Me
Miraculously, my black moment with Miles matched up seamlessly with the black moment in the book I’ve nearly finished writing. Just a couple of more pages of depression, cue grand gesture, andbam…happily ever after. If only I could fucking write from home!
“Why are you here?” Lynsey asks, opening my front door without a knock to find me sitting cross-legged in my living room with my laptop open on my pretentious barnwood coffee table. Her face falls. “Oh my God, what is that horrible smell?” She opens my front door wide and waves the stench outside as my face heats with humiliation.
“It’s nothing!” I blow out the candle next to my computer and pop the lid on the tin to quickly stash the source of my embarrassment underneath the coffee table.
“It’s not nothing. It smells like…burnt rubber.” Her eyes go wide with realization. “Is that a fucking tire scented candle?”
She leaves the door open and dives on top of me, flattening me to the floor as we both grapple for the tin.
“Stop it! You’re going to make me spill wax on the floor!”
“Then let go so I can see what you’re hiding!” she squeals and claws her way up my arm, trying to reach my tightly gripped hand under the coffee table.
“No, you’re just going to make fun of me!”
“You’re damn right I am!” She redirects her hands to my sides where she starts tickling me mercilessly.
“Stop!” I howl and start laughing and screaming in unison as she assaults my tender sides and squirms on top of me. The ruthless bitch is going to leave bruises!
“What theeee fuuuuck?” a masculine voice stops us both midmotion. Lynsey’s face is only inches from mine, her hair falling around both of us providing a curtain of privacy.
I cautiously push Lynsey’s hair back to see Dean standing in my open doorway, gawking at us.
“Oh, thank God.” I exhale. “It’s just Dean.”
“Yeah, it’s just Dean,” he repeats and gestures with his hands for us to continue. “Please…don’t stop on my account.”
Lynsey and I both roll our eyes as she hauls herself off my body but not before she makes one more attempt for the tin. “Ah-ha, I got it!” she exclaims, but her face crumples in disbelief as she takes in the label on the tin. “Burnt rubber scented soy candle. I cannot believe this is a thing.”
She hands it over to Dean, and he winces as he takes a sniff.
“How much was that?” Lynsey asks, crossing her arms and tapping her foot like she’s preparing to scold me.
“Only $8.50 on Etsy,” I scoff and mumble, “I paid extra for expedited shipping.”
Dean booms with laughter. “Jesus H, you’ve got it bad, Kate!”
“I know!” I cry and stand up, staring at my manuscript still lit up in front of me. “I can’t write a damn word, and all I want to do is go back to Tire Depot.”
“Then go back!” Lynsey exclaims. “So you kissed him, and he turned you down? Big fucking deal! Your ex still technically lives in this house, and you refuse to move out, knowing full well he can come back any day. But one little kiss with the sexy mechanic, and suddenly, you’re a recluse again? I don’t think so!”
“She has a point, Kate,” Dean adds, completely unhelpful. “It’ll be awkward for a day, three days tops. It’s not like you have to gaze into his eyes from the waiting room. He’ll probably stay in the garage and avoid you too.”
I groan and drop down onto my couch, scrubbing my hands over my face. “You’re right. My house smells like shit now too, doesn’t it?”
They both nod down at me.
Lynsey adds, “You’re going to have to get someone in here to clean it.”
“Or throw a raging party when you finish this book, and we’ll trash it so badly that the smell of booze and puke will overwhelm the burnt rubber.”
Lynsey and I eye him with disgust.
He shrugs. “Just an idea.”
“Fine, I’ll go back,” I decide at last. “But only because burnt rubber is not the same as new rubber, and I couldn’t find a new rubber candle anywhere online. I wasted an embarrassing amount of time trying.”
I walk into the back door of Tire Depot with my head held high. I have a book to finish, damn it. Lynsey and Dean are right. I sure as hell shouldn’t stop sneaking in illegally and pilfering complimentary coffee in the CCC because of Miles and his hot and cold treatment.
