Bad Intentions (9 page)

“A
ren’t there supposed to be alligators in Mississippi?” I ask, as we walk toward a bench outside the cafeteria.

Zoe’s laughter bellows out of her lungs. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed in the short amount of time that I’ve known her, it’s that she loves to laugh. It’d almost be adorable, if she wasn’t always laughing at my expense.

“There are alligators. I suppose.” She shrugs her shoulders and sits down. I watch as she carefully unwraps her breakfast burrito and sighs a little as she takes the first bite. With a mouth full of eggs, bacon and cheese, she turns to face me. “I haven’t seen any crawling around campus or anything, but I know the closer to the bayou you get, there’s tons of creepy things lurking around.”

My taste buds savor the cinnamon and cream cheese that’s dancing on my tongue. Taking a drink of my iced coffee I ask, “Have you ever been on one of those swamp tours?”

“You sound like you did your research.” She slants her eyes suspiciously. “I thought you left the playing-it-safe side of you at home.”

“I so did, but come on— it’d be ridiculously stupid of me not to do any research. It’s not like I closed my eyes and picked a state off the map and decided that’s where I was going to move.” I abandon my danish and bite into a piece of the burnt, delicious goodness better known as bacon. Forget Zoe’s cute little sighs—I’m practically moaning.

As I chew, I can picture the wheels in Zoe’s mind spinning, but I luck out when she drops the subject. “Okay. Well anyway, did you register for your classes online?”

“Sure did. You?” I answer while holding the tip of my straw in a makeshift coffee stirrer.

“Yeah, but my Internet stalled and it didn’t save shit. I have a meeting with an advisor this afternoon. I’m sure all the classes I wanted are full. Flipping Internet Gods.”

“Girl, I registered weeks ago.”

She snorts. “That’s because you’re a good girl.” I roll my eyes. “Now who’s a bad girl?”

“Shut up and eat your damn food!” I brush off her remark and laugh.

“Did the preacher’s daughter just cuss?” She draws out the word cuss with a deep southern accent – an image of her dressed like a debutante sipping tea flashes in my mind.

“I love the Lord, but I cuss a little. So what?”

“You’re killing me, smalls!” Zoe mocks.

The sound of a clock striking the five o’clock hour makes me jump to my feet. I know we slept in, but I didn’t know it was this late. I have a meeting to get to. I cannot be late. He said in the email that he hates tardiness.

“Shit. Zoe, I had an interview at the gym at four forty-five,” I pause and look down at my wrist knowing that I’m not even wearing a watch. “Like fifteen minutes ago!”

“The campus gym?” She clarifies.

“Yup. That’d be the one. Look I have to go now,” I huff. “Point me in the right direction.”

“I’ll do better than that.” She stands up and crumples her trash into a ball. “Follow me,” she instructs before she takes off into a sprint.

Not missing a beat, I follow. Weaving in and out of students walking slower than pond water on the pavement, my heeled sandals pound the ground. I know my feet are going to ache later, but I pick up my pace and match her strides. The breeze ruffles my hair, as I think about how important this interview is. Without the blessing of my parents, I’m going to need money to survive. The campus gym had an opening. It’s a match made in heaven. That is, if I even still have a chance to talk to Kaiser, the gym manager.

My hair is disheveled and my heart is pounding as we near a large building with windows adorning the front of the structure. I mouth a thank you to Zoe as I turn and reach in front of me to open the door, almost colliding with someone coming out. I take a step back as it swings open.

“Watch where you’re going,” a familiar voice harshly scolds me.

Regaining my composure, I draw my attention upward, only to find Ryle-freaking-Benson hovering over me. His presence both pisses me off and arouses me. Which pisses me off even more, because he’s proved one too many times that he’s a royal jack…

“Bite me,” I bark and try to slide by him.

A hand snakes around my wrist, stopping me in my tracks. I glance up to see whose body it belongs to before I rip the appendage straight off and toss it aside. Thankfully, it isn’t
his
.

“The gym’s closed,” A dude standing to my right says, before he lets go of my wrist.

“What? It’s just now five. I need to—.”

“Look little lady, we’re closed. I had an interview, but the girl no-showed. Can’t keep it open for the next shift if there isn’t anyone to run it.”

This is a cruel joke. It has to be.

“I’m the no-show. I ran here. Literally. I’m so sorry I was late. I’m Adaley.” I take a breath hoping that he caught all of that.

“You’re Adaley Knight, my four forty-five?”

I nod. “And you must be Kaiser?”

He’s the one nodding now. “Well I’ll be damned.” His accent is thick. He must be a local. “I thought you skipped out on me.”

“I wouldn’t skip out.” Whatever that means. “This job is really important to me. I’m normally so…responsible. I really am. It’s just my second day on campus, and I…” I turn around and glance at Zoe. “I wasn’t sure how to get here, and this sweet girl offered to help me.” I wink in her direction.

“No worries. I get it. Here,” Kaiser opens the door wider. “I have a few minutes if you want to interview now?”

Whew
, I exhale feeling relieved. The ad made it seem like the manager was a stickler. Kaiser seems nice. It makes me question who posted the ad in the first place.
What if it was Ryle?
I think suddenly. No, it couldn’t have been. He obviously didn’t know I applied for the position earlier in the summer.

“Yes. Absolutely. I’m so sorry for being late,” I ramble as I take a step forward.

“Make it quick, Kaiser. We have somewhere to be.” Ryle’s deep voice is crisp and clear.

“What’s he, your master or something?” I spout off, totally ignoring the fact that I should’ve bitten my tongue. There’s no censoring me when Ryle is around. One could say he brings out the inner bitch in me.

A soft ripple of laughter bubbles out of Kaiser’s mouth. “Far from it, but let’s let him pretend a little longer.” He ushers me inside the dimly lit building with a wave of his hand.

I follow Kaiser and refrain from looking back to see Ryle’s expression. With the flick of a switch, the room lights up. “Wow. This place is huge.” My eyes rake in rows and rows of cardio machines, a boxing ring positioned in the middle of the room, and a large space with mirrors reflecting a wooden floor and mats – lots and lots of cushioned mats. The place reminds me of my gym back home, minus all the equipment. A girl could go crazy in here with all the floor space.

“I take it you’re impressed,” Kaiser says from beside me. He’s so close, I can feel his arm brush against mine.

“Impressed is an understatement. I just found my new favorite place on campus.”

“And where’s your old favorite place?” he probes.

“My shower,” I say aloud without thinking. “Ha ha. I mean, I don’t have a coed one. So it’s pretty nice.”

“I bet it is. You’re one of the lucky ones. I remember when I was a freshman. I got thrown into the coeds and saw things that still haunt me to this day.” He cracks a smile that I can tell is one hundred percent genuine. “Over here is the cardio unit.” He points to his left, my eyes following in that direction. “That screen over there plays movies on repeat. Sometimes you’ll get requests to play chick flicks. I’ll show you where we store the DVD’s.” Kaiser continues to show me around the large space, telling me a story from time to time. I feel comfortable being around him and this place. For the first time since I arrived on campus, I feel like I will truly fit in. It could be Kaiser’s hospitality that’s putting me at ease, but it’s probably the gym itself. It’s always been my home, my sanctuary. I let out a breath of pure contentment.

“This here is the café. We sell muscle milk and protein shakes, but mostly people just purchase water and fruit when we have it.” He turns to face me and leans back on his elbows, the counter supporting him. “Do you have any questions?”

I’ve never held a job before—well other than helping out around the gym and coaching—but this interview seems less like an interview with each passing minute. “I umm…I guess not. But shouldn’t you have some for me?”

“I got your resume in the email. You grew up in a gym. To me, it sounds like you’re going to be the perfect employee.”

I’m not confident about his interview skills and pray that he’s not a business major, but if he’s down to hire me, I’m all in. “Okay. When can I start?”

“How about tomorrow?” He doesn’t pause to wait for my answer. “We get paid every Friday, so you won’t get a check this week, but the following Friday you will. I’ll look back over our emails and see how much you were told we could pay.”

“Sounds good to me. Thank you again for understanding my tardiness. I promise it won’t happen again.” I smile coyly.

“Shit happens. Oh.” He reaches behind the counter and pulls out a handful of papers. “Here is your new employee paperwork. Just fill it out and bring it back with you tomorrow. I’ll give you a key then, and we can go over anything else you might have questions about.”

I reach toward him and retrieve the papers. “I have class until noon, but being the first day of the semester they might let us out early.” I try to sound like I know what I’m talking about, when really everything I know about college I learned from television. “What time should I be here?”

“Afternoon shift is from two to seven. That work for you?”

“Works great.” We exchange a smile. “I’m sorry you’re shutting down early because of my lack of punctuality,” I admit, as we walk in unison toward the door.

Kaiser grasps the metal door handle, pausing before he speaks. “Don’t be sorry. It’s not like Ryle would have trusted you enough to stay open alone on your first night.”

“Why would he have an opinion in the matter?” I’m curious now, and a little frustrated. I hope it’s not apparent from my tone.

“He’d have an opinion, because he basically owns this gym.”

It’s me who’s flabbergasted now.

“He owns the gym?”

“The school technically owns it, but it got a complete makeover and new equipment because of Ryle. He’s a giant benefactor of Braxton. Just to be blunt about it, he doesn’t trust anyone. Don’t take it personally.”

With a small flick of the wrist, Kaiser opens the door. I’m too stunned to move. Ryle is a benefactor of the University? How does a dude his age have that much money? And what’s up with him not trusting anyone? Not that I’m surprised in the slightest by that one, but still. WTF?

The warm, summer night breeze whips my hair and pulls me out of my thoughts. I’m surprised to see Zoe and Ryle still standing outside. Her finger is in his face and from the looks of it, she’s giving him hell. Their conversation becomes clear as we near them. “You’re out of your flipping mind! Making her believe I was ever with you,” Zoe shrieks. “You lied to her face and made me look like an ass!”

“I didn’t say that,” he retorts, seemingly unaffected by her accusation.

“You didn’t have to say it. You knew she would assume that after you planted the seed. You wanted it to blossom.”

“I don’t have time for this bullshit. I have somewhere to be.” Ryle grabs his backpack off the ground and slings it onto one of his shoulders. Quickly he turns around and before I know it, his eyes hone in on mine. I can’t look away. There’s an apparent scowl on his face that seems only to be present when I’m near. I don’t know what his deal is, and I have to admit I’m curious to find out. “Let’s roll.”

Kaiser pats me on the shoulder before jogging to catch up with Ryle, and with that, they’re gone.

“Perfect timing,” Zoe says sarcastically, while rolling her green eyes. “He’s like… He’s a giant ass, and I want to slap that frown right off his face. What the hell does he have to be frowning over? If anything we, us,” she waves her hands around in the air, “everyone who shares air with him should be frowning because we have to put up with his doucheness.”

“Feel better?” I ask, a smirk hanging on my lips.

Zoe shakes her head in silence.

“Listen, I’ve only had the utter pleasure of being around him twice, and it was too much. That’s saying a lot coming from me, since I’ve been brought up to love thy neighbor.”

“I can usually deal with him. He just got under my skin,” she admits.

I refrain from telling her that he’s gotten under mine as well, and I change the subject. “Well that was the most awkward interview ever.”

“Did you get the job?”

“Yeah. I start tomorrow.”

Zoe nudges me in the shoulder. “Way to go girl! We can celebrate later, but now I have to get to my meeting. Check ya later, boo!”

And then there was one.

“Just shoot me now. Put me out of my misery,” Zoe groans as she walks into our room and tosses herself onto her bed.

“The meeting was that bad huh?”

“My advisor was gorgeous. He has a classic, Richard Gere thing going on, but not as old. But yes, it was awful. And get this—Gere Jr. was gracious enough to schedule me for a political science class tomorrow at seven a.m.” Zoe clenches her hands into fists and gently pounds them on her forehead. “Seriously. Kill me. How are we supposed to celebrate tonight with a looming sunrise class on my mind?”