Page 30 of Volt
“Pretty sure he’d rather stick his—”
Bree squeals with laughter and holds her hand up. “If you’re going to use another absolutely horrible metaphor like your last one, I don’t want to hear it.”
I flash her a smile and shrug. “I’m an artist. This is what I do. I paint pictures.”
She throws a fry at me. “You’re horrible is what you are.”
“I can’t argue with that right now.”
And it’s true, even a few days removed from it, I still feel horrible for what happened with Blake. I know I hurt him when I said I wasn’t sure what it meant for us. I could see it in his face as plain as day. When he left, I said I’d call him, but I haven’t yet. And with every hour that passes, it seems to make it even harder to actually dial his number. All I can think about is his friend being murdered and Blake being involved with some horrible things.
“If you’re referring to what happened with Blake, no, you’re not a horrible person,” Bree says. “I really doubt he’d say that.”
“I feel it though.”
“I mean, what were you supposed to say when he dumped all this motorcycle gang murder and mayhem thing on you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Exactly. Because it’s such a weird situation that caught you off guard and you didn’t know how to react to that. How is that your fault? Better yet, how is that something you should be feeling horrible about?” Bree presses. “I think any normal person would have reacted just like you did, babe.”
“I don’t know. I just… The hurt I saw in his eyes,” I reply. “I hate that I hurt him.”
“I get that but guess what?”
“What?”
“You can fix anything,” she says. “All you have to do is pick up the phone and call him. It’s amazing how things like that work out when you put on your big girl panties and actually have a conversation.”
I laugh softly. “You’re such a smart-ass.”
“This is true. But it doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
She’s not wrong but I don’t even know where to start. Now that a few days has passed, am I just supposed to call him up and say everything is fine? Tell him I don’t want to see him again? What? What is the protocol here? And more importantly, what do I want?
“You like him. I can tell,” she says.
“And how can you say that?”
“You have this healthy glow about you and a smile on your face,” she replies. “And most obviously because you banged him.”
“Banged him?” I say, laughing and covering my face with my hands.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend your delicate sensibilities,” she responds. “What I meant to say was, and most obviously because you engaged in sexual intercourse, you made love. You copulated vigorously.”
“Stop,” I cry, laughing so hard I feel like I’m going to pee myself. “You’re awful.”
“Yes, that’s true. But you really do have this glow about you,” she says then adds with a sly smile, “but that’s probably because you got banged like a screen door in a hurricane wind.”
“Awful. Just awful,” I say and laugh.
I slowly manage to calm myself down and get myself back under control again. I take a sip of my iced tea and settle back into my chair. What she said isn’t wrong. I do like him. I like him a lot. I just don’t like what he apparently does. Nor do I like the people he apparently gets involved with. I cut a glance around at the half-empty patio then lean forward and hold her gaze.
“I just don’t know if I can get past this whole cartel thing, Bree. That’s some scary stuff.”
She nods. “It’s horrifying. But for whatever it’s worth, I don’t think he’s actually involved with a cartel,” she says. “I think the story he told you, about protecting his town from them is absolutely true. I’m ninety-nine percent positive that it’s true. I heard somebody talking about a big battle out in the desert. Said the place got blown to hell and a bunch of cartel men were killed. The local cops took the credit of course, but the way I heard things, it was your boy and his club who took out the cartel. They were the white hats in this scenario.”
I purse my lips and look down at the table for a moment. Bree is pretty plugged into Pineville and the surrounding communities—mostly because she loves to gossip and has a knack for getting people to open up to her, whether they’d intended to or not. If anybody is going to have the answers to the questions I have, it’s going to be Bree.
