When I heard the bathroom door close behind him, I changed into my last pair of clean jeans, forgoing a shirt. Traveling was fucking exhausting. I plopped on the bed and stared up at the brown, water-stained ceiling.
I thought about how much I’d wanted to come to New York almost four years ago. How I wanted to start my life here, my career. There was still that sense of longing for something I could never have. After all this time…
I was still lost.
Still confused.
At least for now…
We’d been on a cramped train for the last few days. All I wanted to do was lay down. My back was fucking killing me. I had run out of pain pills the night before, and I was feeling the effect today. Mike said he would take care of it though.
The loud knock on the door startled me awake. I had just started dozing off. I could still hear the water running in the bathroom. Mike always took the longest damn showers. I stood, stretching my back for a second, trying to work out the knots. Rubbing my stomach as I made my way to the door, perfect timing.
I was fucking starving.
I opened the door and the first thing I saw were a pair of familiar bright blue eyes staring back me.
Almost knocking me on my ass.
“Austin.” She jerked back as stunned as I was.
“Briggs,” I rasped.
We both stood there looking at each other for I don’t know how long, taking one another in again as if it were the first time.
Damn, she was a sight for sore eyes.
She was wearing a white low-cut tank top that hung lose on her tiny but curvy frame. Her lacy, bright pink bra peeked out the top, revealing her ample cleavage. One of her bra straps hung low on her upper arm, the other one exposed on her shoulder. With small ripped shorts that I knew barely covered her luscious ass.
But the black combat boots, that’s what really made me smile.
A dark green backpack hung low on her back. Her vibrant purple hair cascaded down her face, reaching her waist, like she hadn’t cut it since the last time I saw her. Almost a year ago.
“What are you doing—”
“Was that the door?” Mike asked, walking out of the bathroom, interrupting me with a towel wrapped around his waist.
“Hey.” He nodded toward her. “We met at a party a long time ago. Briggs, right?”
I glanced back at her and she nodded, her gaze settled on me. I couldn’t tell if she was looking at my abs or my scars. Working in construction most of the time kept me fit as much as the gym did. I assumed it might be a bit of both by the way her cheeks turned slightly red.
“Austin, you rude fuck, let her in. She’s your new best friend.”
She bit her lip, not in a seductive way, but in a nervous one.
I stepped aside, opening the door wider to let her by. She walked in and my eyes went straight to her ass, as suspected the shorts barely covered her cheeks. My attention went right to the black tattooed bows on the backs of her upper thighs. Each one attached to a seam running all the way down her long legs, into her boots. They were the only tattoos she had on her legs.
God, she’s beautiful.
It looked like she was wearing thigh highs and it was sexy as all hell on her.
My cock twitched, an instant fucking hard on.
I walked to the other side of the room, sitting on the couch. Trying to hide the fact that I was sporting wood like a goddamn, horny teenager.
“Just throw your shit on the table and we can decide what to buy. I’m going to throw on some clothes,” Mike said, closing the bathroom door behind him.
I glanced from Mike back to her, and then it hit me like a ton of fucking bricks.
“I ordered us some food and shit. Answer the door.”
“You’re not here to deliver food, are you?” I whispered loud enough for her to hear, even though I already knew the answer.
She shook her head no. “I’m your new best friend, remember?”
She walked over to the beat-up coffee table in front of me, taking off her backpack and setting it on the floor beside her. She opened the top zipper, reaching in and pulled out several bags, throwing them on the table in front of me.
My eyes wandered to all the bags on the shitty table. I couldn’t look away from the truth that was so blatantly staring me in the fucking face. I could feel her looking at me. I could sense she was waiting for me to say something, anything.
I couldn’t.
I felt like my mind was playing tricks on me, like this was a joke and I was waiting for her to say, “Just kidding.” Like she wasn’t supposed to be the person who showed up at the door ready to numb my pain.
So when I heard her take a deep breath, my eyes shifted to her beautiful face. Her serious, solemn expression mirrored mine, and then she confirmed all my illusions and stated,
“I’m the drug dealer.”
<>Briggs<>
And just like that…
The look he had for me seconds ago. The one I couldn’t stop thinking about. The one that no one else had ever shown me…
Was gone.