A Tale of Two Pretties (2 page)

Three

Mac & Darcy’s Apartment

Friday

9:50 PM

Mac

I had to give Darcy credit. She could turn it on when she needed to. Her little display for B-Rad brought our rent down to almost nothing, for which I was truly grateful. We worked out some of the details next.

“When can we move in?” I asked him. The three of us were standing in the apartment, Darcy still half-naked.

“Tomorrow morning is soon enough. So long as you have the rent,” he added, eyeing me suspiciously. Oh yeah, I was the one to worry about paying… Darcy could probably pay her way with blow jobs. She didn’t seem like the type that would, but B-Rad was
so
not into me. It was fine, really, even if it stung my pride, just a bit.

I pulled a wad of twenties out of the back pocket. “Cash okay?”

Darcy’s eyes widened, but she remained silent.

“Perfect.” B-Rad accepted the money I handed him and then looked at Darcy. “How about your half?”

“Uhh...can I pay you tomorrow? I’ll just have to go to the ATM.” Darcy’s eyes darted around the room.

The problem with us not moving in until the next morning was that we were both sort of stranded tonight.

“So, do I get the pleasure of knowing you lovely ladies names?” B-Rad raised a single brow at Darcy.

 She trailed her finger up his chest. “I’m Darcy. Darcy Pepper,” she practically purred.

“And I’m Mac Barlow,” I added.

“It’s nice to meet you both. I can have the paperwork ready for you first thing in the morning.”

“We should go to your apartment for celebratory drinks,” Darcy cooed, running her fingers down his chest. As much as I absolutely didn’t want to go over there, it was a better idea than sleeping on the street or going back to my parents’ place in the suburbs.

“That sounds like a great idea,” he agreed, leading us out of the tiny studio into the hall. He locked the door and then turned to unlock his own apartment. I half expected it to be dirty, or at least as small as ours, but I was surprised on both counts. The ceilings were high, much higher than ours, and instead of a bedroom, there was a metal spiral staircase leading up to a loft area which doubled as his bedroom. From the front door, I could see his bed, which was made up with a deep blue comforter.

The kitchen was set in the corner underneath the loft, lots of counter space and even a dishwasher. He had a full size fridge and even enough space for a dining table. An overstuffed beige couch, along with matching comfy chair occupied the corner opposite the kitchen and loft area. The pairing was complete with solid oak coffee table and a monstrous flat-screen TV.

I was surprised, despite my negative thoughts about B-Rad. If the raised brows from Darcy were any indication, so was she.

At our curious glances, B-Rad shrugged. “I had a lot of downtime this spring. So I remodeled a lot of this apartment. The floors are all brand-new.” He stomped on the wood floors underneath him.

He was proud of himself, and I couldn’t blame him. The place was practically shiny, it was so clean and new. Maybe this thirty-year-old-guy-who-acted-like-he-was-eighteen wasn’t that bad, after all.

“So, what are we drinking?” Darcy asked, sitting on the couch.

“Depends on what you want. I’ve got some light beer and a bottle of vodka,” he replied, going into his kitchen.

“I’ll take a beer,” I answered, more than ready to let loose. The past few days were hell, and I wanted to forget them as soon as possible. Besides, tomorrow, I’d have to face my ex, and I definitely didn’t want to think about that.

“Got any cranberry juice?” Darcy asked.

I gave her a cursory glance. Vodka and cran was the typical sorority girl drink, wasn’t it? How much did I really know about my soon-to-be roommate? Better to pump her with alcohol and then figure out what the hell she’d been doing all these years, and maybe get some more details about why she was suddenly without a place to live.

“Of course I do! I’ll have them right out,” B-Rad answered, opening up the fridge.

“This place is kind of nice,” Darcy murmured to me when I sat in the chair.

I propped my booted feet on the coffee table. “No kidding. He’s quite the character,” I allowed.

“Plus, he’s kinda cute. Don’t you think?” She glanced at B-Rad in the kitchen, who didn’t seem to be paying us any attention at all.

“Uhh, no. He’s not really my type,” I scoffed.

“Well, at least we won’t fight over him,” she shrugged just as B-Rad walked over.

“No chances of that happening,” I muttered.

“What? No three-way?” B-Rad asked, hearing my comment. He waggled his brows at me and then winked at Darcy.
Gross.

“Probably not anytime this century,” I said, accepting the beer he offered. He set down a martini glass on the table in front of Darcy. Much too fancy for some guy who lived alone to have.

“Too bad. I guess I’ll have to settle for one of you,” he said, plopping down next to Darcy and throwing an arm over her shoulders.

The guy had guts, I’d give him that.

Darcy handled it well, gently pushing his hand off and sitting forward, legs crossed. “Easy there, killer,” she said.

“My bad,” B-Rad mused with a smirk.

I took a large gulp of my beer, knowing that this night would probably end with the two of them fucking in that damn loft while I listened. How depressing. I drank some more.

“Mac, what have you been doing since high school?” Darcy asked. Her eyes were glued to mine, and I knew she was desperate to get the subject changed, so I did what I could.

“Umm, I went to Kennesaw State University, graduated with an English degree last semester. Now I’m trying to figure out what the hell I want to do with it,” I started.

“I have an English degree, too!” Darcy squealed, sitting further forward, noticeably away from B-Rad. “I don’t know what the hell to do, either,” she admitted.

“We’ll figure it out, I’m sure,” I commented. “Where did you go to school?”

“Georgia State, go Panthers and all that shit,” she said before taking a tiny sip of her drink, probably trying to test if it was roofied.

“No use trying to rush into what you want to do. You have your whole life to figure that out,” B-Rad muttered. He spoke from experience, the sadness in his eyes evident. For a second, I felt sorry for him, but then I remembered that the pompous ass actually referred to himself as B-Rad.

“Or, if you have my parents, you figure it out, go to college, and then throw it all down the drain because nothing interests you,” I remarked.

“Well, at least you wasted their money,” B-Rad retorted.

I laughed but didn’t correct his assumption. My parents didn’t pay for shit. The pile of student loan bills piling up were proof enough of that.

“At least your parents paid for something,” Darcy muttered, downing the rest of her drink and then handing the empty glass to B-Rad. “Refill, please.”

B-Rad chuckled, but dutifully got up to refill her glass. I shook my near empty beer bottle at him and he nodded.

“Way to lay on the heavy,” I whispered to Darcy, once he was out of earshot. “We should probably try to lighten things up.”

“What do you want me to do, suggest a drinking game?” She shrugged.

“Why the hell not? Beats talking about our pasts with him. We don’t even know him,” I reminded her. The truth was, though, we didn’t know each other, either.

B-Rad returned with our drinks, settling on the couch, and I noticed he put a little more space between him and Darcy.

“Drinking game time!” she chirped.

“Oh yeah? Which one? I think I’ve got a deck of cards,” he said.

“What about asshole?” I asked.

“I don’t know if I remember how to play,” Darcy confessed.

“It’s cool. We’ll teach you,” B-Rad said.

“I’ll need another drink. Or two,” Darcy commented.

“Yeah, me too. I tend to lose drinking games pretty fast,” I admitted.

B-Rad went to the kitchen, made Darcy another drink, grabbed me a beer and then scrounged up a deck of cards from one of the drawers.

Darcy grabbed my wrist and leaned in, whispering, “Please, whatever happens, do not let me sleep with him.”

I laughed a little. “That’s not really up to me.”

“I’m serious, Mac. If we’re going to be roommates, I have to know you have my back,” she stressed.

“Fine. I’ll do what I can. But I’m not a fucking babysitter either. So if you can’t handle yourself, you’re on your own.”

B-Rad returned, setting our drinks down. He pulled up a chair to the opposite side of the coffee table, shuffling the cards in his hands. “Let’s go over the rules.”

***

Four

B-Rad’s Apartment

Saturday

7:11 AM

Darcy

Water.
I needed fucking water. I smacked my lips and sat up.

Fuck.

That was a bad idea. I fell back against the pillows and moaned, grabbing my pounding head.
How much did I have to drink?

Of course I did it again. This was what I always did. I broke up with a guy, moved out of his place and got drunk. But no. I shook my head. This time was different. I remembered. This time I was going to move in with a roommate. A
girl
roommate. Not like the fucking prissy ass girls I hung out with in college. MacAllister Barlow was a feisty, petite badass that would hopefully be able to put up with my shit.

A low moan came from the other side of the bed.

Where did I sleep last night?

The last thing I remembered was losing another hand and downing my sixth vodka cranberry, B-Rad’s hand trailing higher up my leg and I cared a little less where it went and really wanted to know what his tattoos said so I asked him to take off his shirt.

I didn’t…

No. No. No
.

I closed my eyes, hoping and praying that I didn’t actually do it.

Slowly I turned my head to the side and opened one eye. Lying on top of the deep blue comforter was B-Rad. I covered my mouth to stifle my gasp, but couldn’t deny that my eyes widened as they trailed over his body. I mean, at least he wasn’t naked, but the dude was wearing
manties
.

He had one hand propped behind his head, ruffling his black, spiky mess of hair. Seeing him without his shirt exposed all of the tattoos that were scrawled across his lean upper body. He wasn’t overly buff like the guys that spent way too much time at the gym and looked like the fucking Michelin man, but the guy was definitely toned. And the full sleeve on his bicep, nautical stars on his chest and writing down his rib cage were enough to make me re-think my thoughts on staying away from guys with any ink. I wanted to run my fingers along the surface of his tattoos and feel their smooth texture underneath my fingertips. There was something utterly intriguing about them.

As if he caught me staring, he opened his bright blue eyes and a devilish smile crossed his face. “Ey, Darcy.” He stretched both his arms over his head. “You like what you see?”

I pulled the covers up to my chin. “Uh… I have to go…”

Slowly I shimmied until I was able to slide off the bed and fell with a loud thud to the floor below, pulling the comforter with me. Thank God I still had my clothes on.

“Ow,” I whined.

“Ey, are you okay?” B-Rad rushed to my side of the bed and crouched down beside me. I didn’t look up for fear that if I did I’d come face to face with his morning wood.

“Mac! Mac! Where the hell are you?”

“Don’t fuck with me in the morning, Darcy,” she mumbled from somewhere in the apartment below.

I turned to my stomach and looked over the edge of the loft and saw Mac sprawled out on the couch with her arm over her eyes. Her wavy blonde hair was splayed on the pillow underneath her and her shirt pulled up ever so slightly to reveal her flat stomach that at some point me or B-Rad must have written “douche” on.
How drunk did we get?

She did say she wouldn’t babysit me. But now the big question was, how the hell did I end up in the loft with her down there?

“Mac, are you awake?” I yelled. “Mac…” I forced myself into a sitting position even though my head was protesting and I just wanted to lay back down.

“Maaaaaaaaaaaaac,” I whined her name like a toddler that needed her mommy and a sippy cup.

Mac finally shifted her arm from over her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “What?”

“How the fuck did this happen?”

“How the fuck would I know? I don’t remember much,” she muttered, rolling over on the couch and pressing her face into the fabric. Not the smartest choice, but I could tell she was irritated with me.

I sighed and sat up on my knees, untangling myself from the blanket that had woven itself around my legs.

“Are you gonna ask me what happened?” B-Rad asked.

I slowly turned toward him, trying my hardest to keep my eyes above his waist and not at the cross tattoo that poked just above his underwear line.

“I don’t think I even want to…”

“We didn’t have sex if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Thank God for that,” I muttered.

“Gee, thanks.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it to be bitchy. I’m hungover and I just got out of a bad relationship and it’s nothing against you and …”

He lifted his hand, cutting me off mid-sentence. “Say no more, I understand.”

“You do?” I arched an eyebrow.

He shrugged. “Yeah, kinda, sorta, but why don’t you go take care of Mac for now and I’ll make you two girls breakfast? Then you two can figure out whatever shit you gotta figure out before we sign the contracts and move you in?”

I nodded. “Okay. That sounds good.”

He smiled. The guy actually had a really nice smile. He probably had to suffer through years of braces to have the straight white smile he had. “All right.”

He grabbed a pair of faded red Georgia Bulldogs basketball shorts from the floor near his bed and pulled them on before he descended the spiral staircase.

I let out a deep breath before I stood up and smoothed out my hair. At least at some point during my drunken stupor I managed to pull my shirt down after my seduction-to-try-and-get-us-cheaper-rent and button my pants back up, but I didn’t even want to think about what my makeup looked like or how my breath smelled. I straightened out my ponytail and padded down the stairs, past where B-Rad was cooking on the stove and went straight for Mac on the couch.

“Pssst, Mac,” I whispered, poking her back.

She grunted unintelligibly but didn’t turn over.

“Mac!” I hissed and poked her harder.

“What the fuck,” she grumbled. She turned over, putting her hand in my face. “Back the fuck up, girl. No one should be that close this early.”

“You didn’t just wake up next to B-Rad in his manties so don’t tell me about fucking close!” I growled.

“Manties?” she asked, a laugh escaping before she reigned it in. She sat up, swinging her feet to floor. While my makeup was probably a mess the girl wasn’t even wearing it, or she had some really high price stuff that didn’t smear.
Lucky bitch to have that good of skin
. “I need a beer.”

“A beer? Dude, it’s the morning.”

“Were you a goodie-goodie in college? Everyone knows the best thing for a hangover is a beer.”

“Already ten steps ahead of you ladies.” B-Rad came into the living room with a beer in one hand and a bottled water in the other. He handed Mac the beer and me the bottled water, his fingers lingering on mine as he handed it to me. “I figured by the way you were talking you weren’t a
hair of the dog
type of girl.”

“Thanks…” I tried not to stare into the endless blue of his eyes and fumbled opening the bottle before taking a big gulp of the water.

“So, did you two fuck, or what? ‘Cause if you did, I didn’t hear a thing,” Mac commented before chugging her beer.

I almost choked on my water and had to bang on my chest so it didn’t go down the wrong pipe. B-Rad patted my back, which didn’t help make matters any better and probably just made Mac really think we were headed toward coupledom.

Once I regained my composure, I shook my head. “No. No, we didn’t. I woke up with my clothes on.” No thanks to her; she was supposed to be watching me. We’d have to have a talk about that one later.

“Yeah, you two were fucking wasted last night, and I carried her up there when you pushed her off the couch and said you wouldn’t fucking share sleeping arrangements with the Amazon woman.” B-Rad laughed.

“Yeah, that sounds like me,” Mac confirmed.

“So…what’s going on for today?” I asked, trying to break up the awkwardness. I didn’t want to talk about what happened after B-Rad carried me upstairs or anything else, for that matter. I just wanted to move into the apartment and be done with things. “I need to get my shit out of my ex’s place, but I don’t have a car.”

“Me either. I’ve never needed one in the city,” Mac confessed.

“I’ve got a truck. It’s a single cab, but I’m sure it can fit all your stuff in it. I wouldn’t mind helping y’all out,” B-Rad chimed in.
Was his southern drawl this sexy last night?

“I think that would work just fine. Let me just hop in the shower and I’ll be ready to go.” I chugged the rest of my water and grabbed my purse. I always kept an extra set of clothes with me. I was used to the whole
walk-of-shame
thing and I never actually knew where I would wake up since I didn’t stay any one place too long. It never hurt to have an extra set of clothes with me at all times.

“Need some company?” B-Rad raised an eyebrow.

Mac rolled her eyes while mine, I was sure, had the deer-in-the-headlights look.

B-Rad laughed. “I’m just messing with you. Lighten up.” He smiled, the motion brightening up his whole face. I couldn’t help but smile back at him. His grin was contagious and I found myself staring at him, unable to break eye contact.

Mac cleared her throat. “Uh, are you going to shower or just eye-fuck all day?”

All the heat in the pit of my stomach rose to my cheeks and I looked away from B-Rad, biting my lip. “I guess I’ll go shower,” I muttered.

“I’ll show you where the bathroom is,” B-Rad offered.

“Okay.” I nodded.

“No fucking in the shower!” Mac took a swig of her beer, leaning back against the cushions.

I ignored her and followed B-Rad down a small hallway where he opened a door to a tiny red bathroom. At least it was bigger than the bathroom in Mac’s and my new place and had an
actual
bathtub and shower. He opened a small accordion-style door directly to my left and pulled out a big white cotton towel and handed it to me along with a washcloth.

“Did you remodel this as well?” I looked around the small space. It definitely wasn’t original to the building with the red tile surrounding the bathtub and the modern white vessel sink that sat on a granite countertop.

“Yeah. I had a lot of time on my hands last spring when I moved here.”

“You did a really nice job…”

“Thanks.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

I waited for him to excuse himself so I could jump in the shower and scour his cabinets to find his toothpaste to scrub my mouth out, but he just stood there. I was about to ask him to leave when he took a deep breath.

“Listen, Darcy, I know I come on kind of strong, but I just wanted to let you know that nothing happened last night. I’m not the type of guy who would take advantage of a girl when she’s drunk.” His eyes were so intensely focused on me that I couldn’t look anywhere but directly into their depths.

“O-o-okay.”

“You and Mac seem like cool chicks and I’m just trying to do my best to help y’all out.”

I bit my lip. God there was something sexy about him. He may have been goofy and had the whole hipster-punk kid style going for him, but there was something raw about him that I was undeniably attracted to and it was that unknown reason that scared me. I couldn’t fall for a guy.
Ever
. I made sure never to let love come into the picture. I used guys for what I needed them for and then left them. At that moment, though, Mac and I really needed the apartment for more than just a night, so I couldn’t let myself fuck up the situation.

“Thanks, B-Rad, I really appreciate it. Mac and I both do.”

He took a step closer to me. His mouth was so close to mine that his words were practically a whisper on my lips. “You can call me Brad if you want.”

I swallowed hard, trying to regain some composure. “Okay, Brad.”

“Are you two fucking in there or what? I thought B-Rad was making breakfast!”

Saved by Mac’s smartassness.

Brad laughed, stepping back. “I guess I better get to cooking.”

“Yeah, I’ll be out soon.”

***