Page 21 of New Girl in the City
“Sure you will, kid.” The creep shot back, and I recognized the dismissive tone in his voice as surely as Liam did. It was then I really looked at Liam and saw that the creep was right. Liam was young. I hadn’t realized it until now, but now I wondered just how much younger he was than me. A cool decade? Maybe less, who knew. My thoughts on age and aging had long been destroyed by what television told me were “totally normal teens,” but that I knew well enough were in their thirties.
I cleared my throat and touched his back. “Let’s go.” I paused and then added, “Please.” No sense in letting him get in trouble over a jackass being caught being a creep.
Liam broke his stare off and glanced my way. “Yeah, sure. Get in the car, Mel.”
I went still. It wasn’t ma’am.
It wasn’t Princess.
It was Mel.
We turned then but now before Liam growled a quick, “I better not catch you ‘round here again.”
“Yeah, sure,kid.”
There it was again. I rolled my eyes, turning to flip off the creep. “Hey, fuck off, you shit.”
“Such language on a lady. Told you! She wanted it.They always do.”
Liam went rigid again and made to start back towards the man, but I stopped him. “He’s not worth it. Let’s go. I’ll buy us dinner.”
His jaw set and I saw him grinding his teeth, the flex and clench of it making my mouth go dry. I didn’t care if Liam could star as a “totally normal teen,” this man was sexy. He looked at me, his eyes shifting from light to dark and I knew he was trying to make a decision. But when I squeezed his arm he sighed and nodded, putting a hand to the small of my back and guiding me towards the car. All the while I kept my hand aloft, finger raised, flipping off our creepy asshole until I was getting in the car. It was then that I gave it a little flick because I was nothing if not a sucker for dramatics.
Liam chuckled at that and shut the door. Shut, not slammed. Another detail that served to make me take notice. I watched him closely as he rounded the car and got in. First Mel, and then a gentle door shut.
Something was up.
When he got in he was silent for a beat, big hands squeezing the wheel as he breathed in. He held that breath for so long that I wondered if he would pass out, but then he let it out in a slow whoosh that I realized I was mimicking with my own breath. We sat there together, breathing, until he looked at me in the rear-view mirror.
“What the fuck were you doing out there?”
I slowly blinked at him. The sudden shift from protector to annoyed driver making me do a double take. “Sorry?”
“You were just standing out there like you were in a field of fucking wildflowers, not smack dab in the middle of the city. You know what can happen to you when you’re not watchin’ your goddamn back, Mel?”
There was the nickname again, even if he was back to his asshole vibe.
I crossed my arms and watched him in the rearview mirror. He wasn’t the only one with a killer stare.
“I was taking in the night air, okay?”
“Takin’ in the night air, she says.” He scoffed. “We got smog, not night air.”
“Whatever it is, I wanted some of it after a day cooped up in the office, okay?”
“Fancy lunch wasn’t enough for the Princess? Had to come down here and pretend the city is safe? You’re lucky I showed up when I did. That guy was fixin’ to—” he stopped then and swallowed hard before turning to look at me over the backseat. “You need to be careful.”
“I am,” I said, though I knew the evidence of that was flimsy, at best. “I mean, I am normally…” I stopped, my voice trailing off weakly and I shook my head. “I’m still adjusting, okay? Walter usually just, I mean he used to keep an eye on me.”
“Makin’ the old man worry over you because you can’t be bothered to know where you are and who’s around?”
I jerked back like I’d been slapped. “I never made him worry.”
“Yeah, you did. Told me you liked to wander, didn’t pay attention, no mind to the crowd. That I was going to have to keep a close eye on you.” He tapped a finger to his cheek for emphasis and I glared at him, but I only managed to hold it for a second before I realized what he was saying.
I had made Walter worry. I’d never meant for that to happen. Was that why he’d retired upstate?
“I didn’t know,” I said, voice just above a whisper. “He never said. Walt just said he liked to keep an eye and that I was going to have to suffer through it.” I shook my head, shoulders slumping. “I didn’t know.”
