Everything Changes (3 page)

I just finish writing the note, when I hear Tyler beep to announce his arrival. I smile, leave the note on the fridge and walk out the front door.

 
I climb in his car and buckle up.

  
“Hey there, pretty lady. I’m here to take you for a good time. Then go to the park and shit”, he winks at me and I laugh.

“Good time huh? Better go back inside then” I go to grab the door handle but he puts his hand on my thigh to stop me.

  “You and that smart mouth of yours will get you in trouble one day, it’s a good thing I’ve got something to fill it” I turn and stare at him in shock. Did he really just say that?

  
“Get your mind out of the gutter, gorgeous. I was talking about chewing gum… mostly” I smack his arm playfully and accept the chewing gum.

 
He takes his hand off my thigh; the disappearance of the warmth of his hand makes me cold.

 
He reverses out the drive way and we set off to wherever he is taking me.

  
“So where are we going?” I ask a couple of minutes into the journey.

  “Star bucks first babe, got to have my morning coffee”

 
“Coffee, a man after my own heart” I sigh dramatically and clutch my chest, he looks over and we start laughing.

  “I just knew you were my sort of woman”, he winks and then turns his attention back on the road.

 
Spotting his iPod on the dashboard, I clear my throat to get his attention.

  “May I have the honours?” I ask, pointing to the iPod. He smiles and nods.

 
I scroll through his playlists, not bad. There are quite a lot of songs I like on here.

 
I pick out a song and start nodding my head slightly to the song.

We both sit in silence, nodding our heads slightly to the music,
it’s not an awkward silence, and it’s just a mutual appreciation of the song.

 
A couple of minutes later, we pull up to the side of the road to park. We climb out; I check my phone and see Tate hasn’t replied yet. Shrugging my shoulders I put my phone back in my pocket.

 
We walk side by side to star bucks; he opens the door for me and puts his hand on the bottom of my back to guide me in.

  “Such a gentleman” I laugh and look at him. He smirks.

  “Told you I was, babe”

 
We walk over to the counter to place our orders.

  “Mocha, with cream, please” I ask.

  
“Black, please.” The barrister nods and walks away to do our drinks. I scrunch my nose up. He turns and looks at me.

  “What’s that face for?”

  “You drink your coffee, with no sugar or milk?”

  “Your drink sounds girly, so I’m not going to drink that and it’s nice, you should try it” I shake my head. I think I’ll stick with my drink.

 
I walk over to the back and find a table. Tyler brings our drinks over and sits down.

  “What is it with you and choosing the table at the back of the room?” he asks and shrugs off his jacket. I sigh in pure male appreciation, his white T shirt is stretched over his muscles, he’s tattoos are out on show. I would love to trace his tattoos with my tongue.

  A clearing of his throat brings me out of my staring.

   “That’s twice I’ve caught you staring at me”, he smirks. “I’m starting to think you actually like me, babe” I scoff and pick up my coffee and take a sip. I take off my jacket too and I see his eyes drop to my chest. And he said I was staring.

 
I clear my throat and he smiles and his dimples pop out.

  “So, I want to know more about this ‘sexy hunk Tyler’” I say, he leans back in his chair and laughs.

  “What do you want to know? I have 3 brothers; Jaime is the oldest by a year, Sam and Mickey are younger than me by two years, their twins. I’m 23. Never went to college, and I work at a local pub as a bouncer. It isn’t the best job, but I like it”, he says. “What about you?”

  
“Well, I live with my two older brothers, Jack and Justin. Jack is 24 like your brother and Justin is 23. They are both very over protective when they want to be. We live together in a house my nan and granddad left us, after they died two years ago. My nan and granddad basically raised us; mum and dad both ran out on us at different times. I was only 5 when my mum left, I don’t remember my dad, but my brothers do. I work in a library, I’m a bookworm; we like to stay in our natural habitats” He laughs at that. “Oh and I’m 21”

  “I’m sorry about your grandparents” I sigh.

  
“It’s ok, my nan died first of cancer, but my granddad was so lost without her. They were married 55 years. My granddad died 10 days later in his sleep by natural causes” Tyler leans over and swipes his thumb across my cheek. I didn’t even realise I was crying.

  “Sorry for crying. I’m not normally a crier” He smiles sadly.

 
He’s just about to say something when a beautiful woman stops at our table.

  “Can I help you, love?” I look over at Tyler, where the woman is smirking. I see all the blood drain out of his face.

  “Maybe you can. I just wanted to know why my fiancé is off having coffee with some tart”, she sneers. I’m the tart? Staring at Tyler, I clear my throat and arch my eyebrow. He turns to me and says the classic line.

  “It’s not what it looks like”

 
I feel like a complete idiot! ‘It’s not what it looks like’ you’ve got to be shitting me. I stand up from the table and put my jacket on. I give Tyler a glare and then turn to the woman.

  “Sorry, I didn’t realise he was engaged, and you ever call me a tart again I will rip your fake hair out” I walk away from the table.

 
I hear Tyler curse and his chair scrape back.

  “Cassie! Wait!” he shouts.

  
“Nope, fuck you” I don’t stop; I just flip him the bird and walk out the shop.

Cassie

 
I’ve managed to avoid Tyler for three whole days, fourth day, not so lucky. On Sunday after I left star bucks I rang Jack for him to come and get me. I hid in a charity shop until it was all clear. Cowardly I know. But my ego had taken a hit; I wasn’t ready for the shit to come out of his mouth.

 
I walk to work and see Tyler leaning up against the doors; I wanted to turn and walk away but it had to be my turn to open up didn’t it.

  
“What can I do for you Tyler?” I ask, crossing my arms and glaring at him from the bottom of the stairs that lead to the main doors.

  
“I’ve come to explain, considering you won’t answer your phone!” he runs his hand through his hair.

  
“You don’t need to explain anything to me. We were just friends hanging out” I walk up the steps towards him. The height difference between us is big normally. But me standing on the bottom of 4 steps and him standing on top of them, sort of has the ‘I’m the king of the castle’ feel to it.

He looks at me, when I stop about a foot from him.

    “If it wasn’t such a big deal to you, why did you storm out of Star Bucks?” he arches his pierced eyebrow. His dark hair looks messy from running his hand through it too much. He looks tired; obviously he hasn’t been sleeping well.

Don’t get
distracted by his looks Cassie!

  
“I stormed out, because I don’t like to be made to look like an idiot”

 
He sighs. He looks a little lost for words. I walk towards him and he tenses slightly. I touch his arm and push.

 
He frowns but moves out of my way. I walk up to the door and unlock it, walk in and turn on the lights.

 
I just love the smell of the library, the old leather covers on some and the dust. I know I shouldn’t probably like that smell but it’s comforting.

Tyler followed me in here, I can feel him watching me as I disable the alarm and turn o
n more of the lights.

 
I walk into the kitchen off to the side and put the kettle on.

  
“Are you going to talk? Or just follow me round like a lost sheep” I say over my shoulder to him.

 
He has arms over his head, holding onto the door frame. It pulls his top up a little. I see a sliver of tanned skin, and a little of his happy trail. I see a glimpse of a tattoo too.

  
“Are you actually going to listen to me?” he asks.

   “I can certainly try
” Why am I being such a bitch to him? I’m not doing so well in making him believe I don’t care. When the kettle is boiled I pour myself a cup of tea.

   “Want a cup of coffee?”

  “Please” I nod and stretch to get another cup from the cupboard above. I’m sensing today wasn’t the best day for me to wear a tight fitting pencil skirt and heels.

 
I pour him his coffee, like he has it. I bend and get the milk from the fridge under the counter. I hear a soft moan. The last thing I need is for either of us to get horny and fuck’ like rabbits’ in the kitchen of my work place.

 
I take our coffee over to the table in the corner of the small kitchen. I sit and cross my legs. Tyler sits down and looks at my legs.

 
I look down and see my skirt has risen a little. I’m glad I didn’t wear the skirt with the slit running up my leg. He would have a nice view of the top of my stockings by now if I was.

 
I take a sip of my tea and place it back on the table. Turning and looking at him.

   “So start explaining yourself, you
r words. Not mine” I try and look like I’m not anxious of what he has to say.

   “Ok, b
ut no butting in until I’m finished” I motion my fingers like I’ve locked my mouth up and threw away the key. When he’s satisfied he starts.

   “Right
, I’ll start from the beginning” I have to bite my tongue from saying a smart remark. This keeping quiet sounds like hard work.

   “Georgina and I met when I was 20. I hadn’t long started working at the pub I’m working at now. She came in with a group of friends and me being me, walked over to her and started talking. We hit it off st
raight away” I roll my eyes. He gives me a stern look but carries on. “She would come in the pub often and we would talk. Well one day, I plucked up the nerve to ask her out. She agreed. We started going out and everything was fine for the first couple of months, but then she starts going all weird, saying we need to take our relationship to the next level. I’m not a commitment dodger or anything; I just didn’t feel like we were ready. So I tried to do it gently and break it off with her, but it blew up in my face. She has a dad, high up in the ranks, nothing to do with police” I nod; we have some dodgy people around Colchester. “I get a visit from her dad and his ‘friends’ giving me a ‘nice’ warning that I get engaged to his daughter or Sam wouldn’t walk. At the time Sam was working behind the bar, so Georgina met him a couple of times. So I agreed to get engaged”

  
“I have no intentions in marry the crazy bitch. We don’t live together or anything, I try and separate my life from hers but she pops up. I get reminders that I can’t back out. They send me up to date photos of my brother’s and parents from afar, so I know they are watching them” He sighs; well this situation just got a whole lot more complicated.

 
I tap the table to get his attention. He smiles sadly.

   “You can talk now
” I sigh with relief.

   “So you’re technically still engaged to her?” I ask.

   “Unfortunately, yes. I’ve tried getting out of it. They cracked a couple of my ribs” I pick up my cooling tea and take a big gulp.

   “I really don’t know what to say. You know we can’t
be anything other than friends” He sits up in his chair quickly.

   “But we’re not together! I don’t have any feel
ings for her! Well that’s lying, I do, I hate her”

   “I’m sorry Ty, but I don’t mess around with taken men. Forced or not
. It’s not how I was brought up”

   “I don’t know if I could ever be just friend with you, I’m pretty sure friends don’t have thoughts of fucking there other
friend nine ways to Sunday” My breath catches in my throat. Damn it!

  
“We can’t be friends then” I’m not going to lie. The thought saddens me. But my nan raised me better than to fuck around with spoken men. Times like this I wish she was still here, just so I could have someone to talk to about all this. I don’t really have female friends. I’ve always had guy friends. I know I could never talk to Tate about all this.

   “But I
can’t stay away from you, babe” I rub my temples. “I will try my hardest to be your friend. I can’t, not have you in my life now. It’s like seeing a light at the end of this shitty tunnel then covering it up again”

  
“So, friends” I put out my hand. He puts his big warm hand in mine. I would love to tell you, that a current of electricity went up my arm from his touch, but it didn’t. It’s nothing like my books. But my heart rate did speed up.

   “Friends, s
o what do friends do?” he asks taking a sip of his coffee.

   “You can help me out here today. It’s only me and Helen today but she doesn’t come in till 12, so I can have my lunch break. I have to put all the returns back into the right category. You can reach the ones that are too high, so
I don’t have to grab the ladder”, he smiles.

   “See
, being tall does have its uses”

   “Alright, rub it in why don’t you. Being small has its perks too you kn
ow”, he smirks at me.

   “It sure does
”, he winks. I roll my eyes and take our cups to the sink.

   “May as well get started a
pparently there are a lot of books to be put back”

 
We make our way to the main desk and get the list of books that have gone out and need to be put back. Some haven’t returned yet. But they are due in today.

 
I walk over to the back room and get the trolley. Getting the keys for the drop box, I empty that. Once all the books are on the trolley, I turn and face Tyler. I catch him staring at my arse.

   “Friends don’t stare a
t other friends arses like that” I shake my head.

   “I can’t help it if you have a nice arse and you’re wearing a tight skirt that looks like
you’re not wearing any underwear underneath” Technically I am, I’m wearing a thong. But he doesn’t need to know that.

   “I am, that’s all you need to know. And you may want to get little Tyler under control b
efore customers start coming in” I nod my head down to his jeans.

   “Punch to the ego w
oman you wound me. There is nothing small about my cock, babe as you found out on Saturday”, he winks and walks to the direction of the bathrooms.

 
Well shit. Now all I’m going to think of now is how his cock would feel in my hand. Horny and frustrated all day until I get home to B.O.B. great! What a fun day this is going to be.