“Reese?”
He doesn’t hear me over the screeching alarm as his fingers continue to enter incorrect codes. I move quickly, putting my hand on his shoulder and stepping next to him. As I press the correct pattern of numbers, the smell of alcohol permeates my senses. The alarm stops abruptly and silence fills the space between us. I turn my head up, seeing unfamiliar eyes staring back at me. Glassy and dilated, they no longer hold the intensity I’m accustomed to. Even the shade of green seems dulled out, lifeless even. Besides that obvious difference, he’s clearly intoxicated, which is not a look I ever imagined seeing on this man. Reese doesn’t get drunk. He’ll have two, three drinks maybe and then cut himself off. I’ve never even seen him tipsy before. And as he slouches against the wall, his heavy eyelids closing and his head hanging low, I’m finding myself questioning if I was the only one hurting earlier.
“Hey. Are you okay?” I ask, reaching up with a gentle hand. I stroke the side of his face and see him turn into me, pressing his lips against my palm. His breath warms my skin and I feel the uneven rhythm of it, the quick burst and then the shuddering inhale he takes before he drops his head again.
“Need you,” he says through a broken voice.
My heart wrenches in my chest cavity as I stare up at this man who looks defeated and beaten down. And also way too drunk to get behind the wheel. “You didn’t drive here, did you?”
“Cab. My car’s at The Tavern.”
Relief runs through me before I’m startled once again by the sound of the shop phone ringing. I dash over to it to answer, double backing when I think Reese is going to topple over. After he seems steady, I run to the phone.
“Hello?”
“Miss Sparks? This is Lenox Security calling to check to make sure everything is okay. We received an alert that your security system was triggered.”
“Yes. Yes, it was? but it was an accident. Everything’s okay.”
“Okay, ma’am, we just wanted to make sure. Have a great night.”
“You, too.”
I hang up the phone, rounding the counter and stepping next to Reese. I lift his arm, draping it around my neck and keeping a firm grip on his wrist. My other arm wraps around his waist and pulls him off the wall. “Come on. Let’s go upstairs.”
Normally when I’m this close to him, I’m relishing in his fresh, citrus scent and setting up camp in the crook of his neck. But right now, he smells like he’s hit up every bar in South Side and for the first time since I met him; the urge to nuzzle him is absent. He maneuvers himself with me across the bakery, but I’m doing most of the work as we make it inch by inch. It’s a slow effort and when I finally lift my head and size up the stairs we’ll have to tackle, my grip on him tightens and a feeling of determination fuels me. I look over at him as I position us at the first step. “You need to help me, okay? It’s not that many steps.”
His lips twitch into a smile before he drops his head to the side, bumping it against mine. “You’re so pretty.”
I chuckle, lurching forward and trying to bring him with me. “Thanks. Come on. Lift your feet.”
“I stare at you sometimes when you don’t see me. I like doing that.”
“Oh, yeah?” I sound surprised, but I’m not. I know Reese stares at me. I always feel his eyes on me when he does it. And I like that game we play, where I pretend I don’t notice and let him watch me. He does the same when I partake in my own obsessive gazing. I know he sees me. His lip will twitch or he’ll coincidentally adjust himself as I’m studying him, drawing my attention off his face.
I’m on to his tactics.