How It Rolls (4 page)

              I looked around and seeing no one close, I pulled out my phone and called Nellie.

             
“Hello?” She said and sounded busy.

             
“Hey, you said Reed isn’t in school right?”

             
“Ugh-huh, I knew you liked her.”

             
“Answer me, please.”  I tried not to sound miffed.

             
“Um, I don’t really know.  Why?”

             
“No reason,” I hung up, more confused than before I called.

              If she didn’t give an address then there was no way she was in school.  She probably had a boyfriend in one of those dorms.  A girl like that?  Yeah, that’s exactly what was going on. 

             
I sat back down at the table and tried my damndest to study but all I could concentrate on was her.  Not to mention kicking myself for fantasizing about a girl who was taken. 

             
I went home that night, defeated.  I didn’t even know why I was so fixated on her.  And the fact that some other guy was lucky enough to have her?  It made something down inside of me ache.

Chapter 5

Falcon

             
The great thing about numbers is that they don’t lie.  They never make you think they mean one thing but really mean another.  And when you find the answer?  It always makes sense.  People are like that too, and if you stick a cut in salt it won’t hurt, promise.

             
There’s a big difference between ignoring someone and pretending to ignore someone.  But for me, I am so lame that there isn’t much difference at all.  When I try to ignore someone, I take it so far over the top that the person I am ignoring thinks I’m mad at them or that I have a stick up my ass.  And then they end up making a big deal of it and usually by then I just roll my eyes and throw my hands in the air and give up.   On a scale of one to ten for bad assness, I get a five.  And that’s only because the tats, the piercings and the Mohawk give me three points. 

             
So that’s what I did on Monday.  I sat in the damned office which
had
to be located across from the door to the inventory room.  And Reed just
had
to work in there.  And she just
had
to walk by the doorway every five seconds strutting her stuff.  And I just
had
to look. 

             
I got up and shut the door, not willing to take it anymore. I focused on the numbers.  When I finished, I left, through the front of the bookstore without looking back.  The restaurant’s payroll and bills were current, so I didn’t have anything else to do for the day.  I went to my apartment and intended to watch some TV but instead I must’ve fallen asleep on the couch.  When I woke it was nine thirty at night and I was starving.  I walked outside to my truck and got in and as I started it up I noticed something in the rearview mirror.  Behind me was a beat up old 1980 something Toyota Corolla and inside was Reed. 

             
What in the Hell is she doing?

             
I got out and walked the short distance to her car. As I approached, I could see that she was counting money from a wallet.  I knocked on the window with the knuckle of my pointer finger and she jumped and she let out a scream that rivaled the girls from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  She put her hand to her chest and heaved in breaths until she realized I was still standing there.  She rolled down the window and I thought she was going to rip me a new one but instead she cleared her throat,

             
“I’m sorry.  You just really scared me.  Is this? You live here?” She pointed to the building.

             
“Yeah, the bottom is a bakery and I live in the apartment upstairs.”

             
“Oh,” She began to get that uncomfortable look again.

             
“Look, I was headed to the diner to get some food.  They make the best breakfast.  Do you wanna, I mean you don’t have to, I just…”

             
I rolled my eyes at myself.

             
“Would you like to come eat with me?” I wanted to pat myself on the head and say ‘good boy you spoke a full sentence’.

             
“Um, “she looked around, probably for a way to get out of it, so I helped her.

             
“It’s fine.  I just thought you might want to.  Goodnight.”

             
“Falcon?” She called out as I walked away and I silently thanked my mother for giving me a name that sounded so damn good coming out of her mouth.

             
“Yeah?”

             
“I’m starving.” At that admittance we both laughed.

             
“Ok, get in.”  She got her purse and got into my truck.  As I started it up she pulled a hairband off of her wrist and put her hair up and it was all I could do not to stick my bottom lip out and pout.

             
“So, do you like working at the bookstore?”  I didn’t know what to talk to her about.

             
“I do.  Nellie is really nice.  I appreciate her taking a chance on me.” She shrugged, not knowing if her answer was satisfactory.

             
“Nellie is one of the kindest people I know, except when she’s on the track.  Then, I’m not even joking, she scares the piss out of me.  Ask her to tell you about the time that some skank put her girls in Owen’s face.” 

             
She laughed, “Ok, I will.  So, Owen’s her husband and you work there?”

             
“Owen is my older brother, married to Nellie.  And I handle the money for her, my mom’s restaurant, and the team.”

             
“Oh.” She looked out of the window and I scoured my mind for what I had said to put her back in her shell.

             
I parked and we got out of the truck.  I opened the door to the diner for her and she looked shocked.

             
“What?” I said as we made our way to the booth in the back.

             
“I didn’t know guys still did that.” She shrugged.

             
“Honestly, I never really thought about it.  My dad opens doors for my mom.  I guess I just learned it there.”

             
“You and your family are pretty tight?”  She picked up her menu and flinched for a fraction of a second.

             
“Yeah, we are.”  I was about to do something very wrong.  Nellie had already told me about her family history but I wanted to hear it straight from her.

             
“So, what about your family?” She rolled her lips in between her teeth and furrowed her brow. 

             
“Um, I don’t really have one.”  She twisted a silver rosebud earring in her left ear. 

             
The waitress came and took our orders and she ordered only a bowl of grits.  So I doubled my order and she gave me a funny look.  I wanted to press her a little about her family but didn’t. 

             
She cleared her throat and fiddled with the napkin wrapped silverware before talking again.

             
“My parents died when I was eleven.  I’ve been fostered since then.”

             
“And now?” I wanted to pull her to me and hold her against my chest just at the admittance of her parents dying when she was so young.

             
“I’m kinda on my own.” 

             
Our order arrived then and I divvied it up between us. 

             
“I thought you ordered all of that for you.” She looked confused.

             
“Nope.  You have me confused with Owen.”

             
“Huh,” we both began to eat and contrary to her order, she ate everything in front of her. 

             
I finished off my orange juice and she had that concerned look again.  The waitress brought the ticket and I pulled out two twenties and handed it right back to her.  “Keep the change.” I said.

             
“You didn’t have to do that.” She looked like she might blow a gasket.

             
“And you didn’t have to keep me company—even trade as far as I’m concerned.”

             
I didn’t know what kind of people Reed had been around, but I had gathered a few things just from this encounter.  Number one, the men in her life apparently didn’t open doors for women.  And what kind of man would not pay for a meal he shared with a female?  I couldn’t imagine it, not to mention Sylvia Black would have me tarred and feathered if she ever found out I did that.

             
“Back to your car or do you want me to take you home?” I started up the truck and laid my arm around the back of the seat to look out the back to reverse out of the parking spot. 

             
“Just back to my car, thanks.”

             
“Ok,” I drove slowly, totally on purpose.

             
“You work tomorrow,” she asked me and it took me totally off guard.

             
“Yeah, Monday is my day off from school so I usually go to my mom’s and Nellie’s place and—nevermind,”

             
“What?” She looked at me.

             
“I just try not to bore people with my suit talk.”

             
“Yeah, I totally thought you were a stiff when I first met you.”

             
“I heard.”

             
“But then you showed up at the try-outs looking…”

             
“Well, don’t stop, damn.”

             
“Looking more like a normal person.”  My brain sent my ego a message, Alert: Letdown in Progress

             
“Ah,” but what I really wanted to do was make an explosion sound signaling my bubble had burst.

             
We both got out of the truck and she thanked me for the food and walked away towards her car.

             
“Reed?” I called after her.

             
She turned and it looked like maybe I was annoying her.

             
“If you ever need anything, you know where I live now.”

             
She looked up at the windows that marked my apartment and back to me.

             
“Yeah, ok, thanks.” She said, back to her weary voice.

Chapter 6

Falcon

Six a.m. was the best.  I felt chipper, ready to start the day with a smile on my face and a song in my soul.  And a rusty screwdriver perfect for stabbing myself in the eye.

             
Why this school, any school, offered classes at seven a.m. was beyond me.  It was apparently beyond a lot of students too.  Most of them came to class in their pajama pants.  Girls could get away with it because it reminded guys that they had recently been in bed.  But guys—no.

             
And a plus for me?  My seven a.m. teacher was from France.  And he spoke Frenglish.  Sometimes it was funny, but when he announced which chapters we should study and the names came out in English, but the chapter numbers came out in French, I wanted to strangle the sacre bleu out of him.

             
The girl next to me, one of those pajama girls, looked at me pitifully and moved her paper to the side of the desk so I could copy what chapters to study.  I muttered a ‘thanks’ and continued to struggle with the lecture.  He was very charismatic, and not in a good way.  Once, he was getting his panties in a twist about Marie Antoinette and then he went on a tangent about some girlfriend he had and she was lying on the beach.  But when he said beach it sounded, well, not like beach, and the entire class laughed so hard that he cancelled classes for the rest of the week. 

             
I left class and hauled ass to my next nine o’clock class.  I heard my phone’s message tone and checked it before entering the classroom.

             
Nellie: Family Dinner Tonight.

              The rest of my classes were pretty boring and I left school about three.  I went over to Cindi’s Indie and I stopped at the smoothie shop to get Nellie a Wicked Watermelon smoothie.  I decided to get three.  I walked into the bookstore and Nellie was going nuts over some signed book she received in the mail.