Page 101 of Hopeless
He swaps from solemn and brooding to playful and flirtatious, to sensual and domineering, to introspective and sensitive. Frankly, it’s becoming difficult to keep up with which version he’s going to give me each day.
It’s becoming difficult to not want them all.
We’re intimate and he walks away like nothing happened. I’m unfamiliar with how to navigate relationships with men, and I’m realizing I picked a complicated one to get my feet wet.
“Okay, well, I’ll show you around and get you acquainted with everyone and the space.” She takes a swig of water and smiles at me. “When do you want to start?”
“Anytime. Literally any time. Today?” Am I coming off as desperate? Maybe, but I don’t care. Iamdesperate. “Monday?”
Her head tilts in question. “I thought you worked at the bar on weekdays?”
I shrug. “Yeah, I do.” But that makes no difference. I’m used to working hard. “I don’t mind, though.”
“You’re going to work both jobs on those days?” She seems slightly alarmed.
“I need the money,” I confess.
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me.” She twists the cap back onto the bottle. “I just … I figured Beau would give you a bit of a leg up.”
I keep my face blank.
“He’s done well as a single guy with next to no expenses. Invested well. He’s—”
I scoff and wave a hand. “Oh, totally. I just don’t want to rely on him, you know? I’ve been forced to be super independent my entire life, so it’s hard to escape that.” My explanation really isn’t much of a reach. I pride myself on how hard I work, on busting my ass to be different from the people who raised me.
“Well, why don’t we work your shifts around your current schedule so you can still have a couple of days off? Be with your man.” Summer winks at me, like we’re two girls who know what the other is up to.
I feel instant guilt. She’s been so kind to me, and I’m lying to her face and using her brother-in-law to get ahead.
My brain cycles back to where it did earlier, and I wonder again …
“Did Beau ask you to do this?”
Summer rears back. “Do what?”
I shift on the spot, suddenly nervous. Asking that was probably a bad idea, but I don’t back down. I asked, and I meant it. “Hire me.”
The other woman eyes me speculatively, and we stare at each other, but not for long. She catches me off guard when she laughs. “That’s funny, because Beau would absolutely do something like that. Those Eaton boys are a protective bunch, but no. If I started letting those meatheads make my business decisions, they’d take over the damn place. Beau hasn’t asked me to do anything for you, Bailey.”
My eyes skim over her face, and then I nod. “Okay.”
She mimics the motion and replies back with her own, “Okay.”
Then I spend the next couple of hours learning the ropes at Hamilton Athletics.
My new job.
“We’re going out,” Beau announces as he struts into his modern marbled kitchen. His jeans and V-neck T-shirt have no business clinging to his body the way they do.
I want to be that shirt.
I glance down at my cropped tank top and oversized sweats, rolled over and over at the waist. “We are?”
“Yeah. I’m taking you out.”
I look down again, wondering if he’s blind, because I am definitely not ready to go anywhere. I’ve got a celery stick in one hand, a jar of peanut butter in the other, and I’m leaning up against the kitchen counter having a snack.
“I’m good.” Going out in this town is a constant exercise in humility.
