Chaotic (Imperfect Perfection) (14 page)

“Mmm hmm,” Grandpa mumbled as he gave
Justin a firm handshake. I saw Justin slightly grimace by the death grip
Grandpa was giving to him, and I felt kind of bad. “Strange, we haven’t heard
much about you, up until now. Is there a reason for that?”

“Not that I’m aware of sir. Della
must have been wanting to keep me a surprise, I guess.”

“Surprise indeed. What are you
doing with yourself young man, besides working here? We can’t have our Della
around someone with no motivation.”

“Harold,” Grams said in a warning
tone, still giving Justin a flirty smile. Geez, I always thought I had gotten
that from my mother but now I was sort of rethinking that one.

“Well, sir, I work here in between
going to school. I’m in my last year, and I’ll be finished up soon with my
Criminal Justice degree. I’ve all ready applied for the police academy this
summer.” I looked sideways at Justin in shock.

We hadn’t really talked much about
school, since things were never really serious when we were together. So to
hear Justin would someday be a police officer was like hearing that I was about
to be elected as the next Pope.

I could tell my grandpa was just as
shocked as I watched in amusement as his eyebrows shot up. “That’s…wonderful to
hear then, son. You’re very ambitious for being so young. You’ll have to come
over to the house for dinner one night, so we can discuss this more.” Son?
Really, Grandpa, laying it on a little thick now, aren’t we?

“Sounds great,” Justin replied
before squeezing my hand lightly. “I’ve got to get back into the kitchen before
all of the orders back up. You two have a lovely night.”

Grams and Grandpa left shortly
after, Grandpa being in a much better mood than when they had first showed up.
I’m sure that had something to do with my hotshot…whatever he was. As soon as
the place cleared out for the night, I was seriously going to have to corner
him. Was that whole thing an act with my grandparents or had he really been
telling the truth?

I didn’t have time to give it much
thought as I hustled from table to table. “Score, our favorite waitress!” I
looked up to see Nash, Nick, and Steve sitting at one of my tables, all smiling
wide at me. What was this, everyone come in and visit Della night?

“Hey guys,” I replied as I set
their silverware down on the table. “What brings you in tonight?”

“Just a little celebration,” Nick
chimed in, giving me a sly smile as I set their menus down.

“Yeah,” Steve added. “Our dude here
finally dropped Mariah. Can you believe it?”

I looked at Nash who seemed to be
happy even though his smile was a little tight. I’m sure breaking off any
relationship after three years had to be difficult no matter how good or bad it
was. “Congrats are in order, I guess. Can I get you guys a pitcher of beer
then?”

They all nodded enthusiastically,
so I filled up a pitcher stopping to grab three glasses on my way back. “Here,
we go.” I gave them a smile and then took their orders. Nash grabbed onto my
elbow before I could turn away and quickly stood up to whisper in my ear.
“Could we talk later when you have a minute?” I saw Nick and Steve eyeing us as
he talked to me quietly, they were like two girls trying to get in on the
gossip. “Alone,” he added.

“Um, sure.” I swallowed over the
lump in my throat, only guessing at what exactly he wanted to talk about. This
was going to be awkward. “That shouldn’t be a problem.” I swung around to head
back into the kitchen, only to run into Justin’s chest.

“Whoa, babe, I got you,” he said,
wrapping both arms around my waist. “If you wanted to dance, you just had to
ask.” I giggled as he swayed my hips back and forth to the rock and roll music
that was always playing in here. He dropped his lips to my forehead before
pulling away and swatting me on the ass. “Get back to work now.”

I caught Nash’s eyes as I punched
in my order, and I could tell that he was glaring at me. He had asked me
constantly about mine and Justin’s relationship. I had told him that it was
nothing serious, but really it wasn’t any of his concern.

By the time I handed the guys their
check, Nash had said about two words to me. I didn’t know what else to say, but
I wasn’t sorry for being involved with Justin. I hadn’t wanted to get involved with
him while he had a girlfriend, but now that he didn’t have one, didn’t mean I
was just going to drop Justin for him. His table was empty by the time I came
back out to clear their plates. I guess that alone time he wanted to have,
wasn’t a priority anymore.

After the restaurant was cleared
out for the night, it was just Justin and I. I sat on the countertop, counting
my tips and munching on a basket of fries as he finished his final cleanup. For
some reason, Brian trusted him to close out the restaurant on the nights he
worked. I guess he was a little more responsible than I thought.

“You know, it’s really hard to get
any work done when you’re up there like that.” I fluttered my eyelashes at him
like I had no clue what he was talking about and tucked my tips away.

“Sorry, from now on I’ll wear a
cloak so I won’t distract you,” I answered, crossing my legs. “So what was that
all about earlier?”

“What exactly?” He asked while
lifting up my feet to wipe off the bar stool.

“Hmm.” I tilted my head at him, trying
to decide what to even start with. “Well for starters, the whole pissing on my
leg thing when Nash showed up.” He stopped to give me a guilty look like I had
just caught him red handed in the cookie jar.

“You caught onto that, huh?”

 I stared back at him, rolling my
eyes. “I’m a woman, we catch everything.”

“Trust me, I know that you’re a
woman.” His handed landed on my bare thigh, just teasing the hem of my skirt
before dropping back down. “I guess I felt a little…jealous when I saw you out
there with him. Figured I’d stake my claim.”

“Oh, really? So now you’ve turned
into a caveman all of a sudden. What’s next, are you going to throw me over
your shoulder and drag me back to your cave?”

“Don’t tempt me,” he simply replied
before untying his apron and throwing it into the dirty clothes pile. I shook
my head at him and pulled off his beanie he had thrown back on as he came to
stand in between my legs.

“And with my grandparents? Are you
really graduating with your Criminal Justice degree?”

“Uh, yeah. Is that so hard to
believe?” His brows rose up as he questioned me.

“Well…yeah, it kind of is. I
thought cops were supposed to be serious, focused on the job at hand. Not
tattooed up and chasing girls all over campus. Do you really think you can
handle that?”

“I really do,” he replied back
seriously. “The job actually runs in my family. My dad’s a Lieutenant and my
grandpa retired from the department before he passed away. I’ve always looked
up to the both of them and I plan on carrying on the tradition.”

I was stunned into silence at his
admission. He had never talked about his family with me, not once.

“Yeah, I rebelled a bit when I was
younger, getting these,” he pointed to the sleeve of tattoos on his right arm
and then moved to his lip, “and a few of these, but I straightened out a bit
over the years. As far as the girls and the laid back attitude, well I guess
I’m just having fun while I can. Don’t get me wrong, I know I’ll love my job,
but I’m not going to have time to be chasing girls around then. Might as well
get it out of my system now.”

“I just can’t imagine you being a
cop someday.”

“Well it’s gonna happen, princess.”
His arms circled my waist, pulling me to the edge of the countertop. “Sorry, I
don’t have any handcuffs yet. I’m sure we could have a lot of fun with those.”

I burst out into laughter, but it
was cut off by Justin’s mouth on mine. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he
deepened the kiss; his tongue feeling like it was trying to touch every inch of
my mouth all at once.

I felt a hardness pressing between
my legs and my hips had a mind of their own as they rolled into him. He pulled
away all too soon, but not before capturing my bottom lip in between his teeth
and tugging at it.

I sat there, catching my breath
like I always did after one of his mind blowing kisses, and he pulled away with
a smirk, letting my legs drop loosely back against the countertop. The sound of
the back door locking brought me back to reality and I reached for my purse to
leave.

“Aren’t you going to eat something
before we leave?” I finally asked, my eyes searching through the almost pitch
black darkness for his form. He normally made it his mission to see how much
free food he could cram down before we left for the night.

“I’m really not that hungry,” he whispered
huskily into my ear from behind. “For food at least,” he added on before
twisting my body around so he was once again standing in front of me.

I could see that smirk on his face,
being so close, as his hand glided up my thigh once again, but this time he
didn’t stop at my skirt. His warm hand caused me to break out in his goose
bumps as it ran over the lacy material of my underwear. Yeah, I think they were
pretty much ruined because of the feelings he was generating.

“How ‘bout we play a little game?”

“A game?” I managed to choke out
over my racing heart. I really wasn’t in the mood for any of his joking.
Really, I was in the mood for something completely different.

“Yeah,” he replied licking his
lips. “A game that I’ve all ready won, because clearly I’m awesome, and my
prize is you. What do you think?”

“Sounds like an excellent idea,” I
breathed out as his hand went back into place, only this time I could feel him
working them down my legs. His hand came to rest at my hip bone as his other
scooped up my underwear and he tucked them into his back pocket like they were
his prized trophy before coming back to hover me, making sure not to touch any
part of my body.

He stared down at me, those gray
eyes looking like they were trying to soak up every inch of me. “You’re so
beautiful.”

Those kinds of words were rare out
of his mouth, at least up until now. Sure, he told me I was sexy all the time
and could never keep his hands off of me, but these softer words sounded even
better coming from his lips.

 I squirmed underneath him, waiting
for what was to come next, but he stayed there just out of reach. I threw the
back of my arm over my eyes and let out a groan. “Okay, I’m your prize. Now
please have your way with me,” I said, it coming out muffled but I knew he
heard every word.

I felt him shift above me, his
hands moving farther down on my legs and then suddenly he was moving them
apart. My insides were tingling at what was to come next but I didn’t look
down, the anticipation seemed to make it even more exciting.

I felt his mouth on me the instant
it landed. His tongue darted out and I suddenly wished I wasn’t on this
countertop, I really felt like I was going to fall off each time I arched into
him, but I soon forgot that as he continued licking and sucking.

My skirt hitched around my hips as
I hung on for one of the most exhilarating rides of my life, and I moaned out
his name when he inserted a finger. It was then that I became undone, moaning
so loud, it was almost embarrassing. I didn’t care though, my mind was
completely clear of anything at that moment, besides Justin.

He kissed a trail back up my leg
after I had finally calmed down and I peeked an eye open at him, his expression
calm and relaxed as he stared back at me. “That was a really sweet prize. You
ready to go again?”

My stomach rolled with a little bit
of excitement as Zoey, Callie and I all get ready for the party at Drew’s frat
house that we had all planned to go to together. Parties had always been my
kind of scene, but since moving here to go to school, I hadn’t been to a single
one. I had been doing so well with keeping myself busy, that I hadn’t been
trying to fill that empty void that had seemed to be hanging around in my chest
for awhile.

“So, is lover boy coming tonight?”
Zoey asked, plopping down on the floor next to me where I was running a flat
iron through my hair.

“Lover boy, really Zoey?” Callie
chimed in. “Justin is far from being a lover boy, more like a bad boy to have
fun with. Right, Della?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged my
shoulders and pulled out my makeup bag. “Lately things have been a little
different between the two of us. He hasn’t been joking around
as much,
I
don’t think he would ever really be able to stop, but we’ve been having actual
conversations. Things are different.”

“Different in a good way or what?
Because I know Nash is single and hot on your ass right now. Are you stringing
two boys along Miss Della?”

I rolled my eyes at Callie and
swiped lip-gloss across my lips, puckering them in the mirror before
responding. “Different in a good way. And I’m not stringing them along. At
least I don’t think I am.” After Nash had left the other night, he ended up
calling me, and we made plans for the next day. It felt like more of a date
this time around, than just a friend’s hang out.

Strangely, Nick and Steve had been
absent from the house when I showed up, and it had actually been clean. Nash
fixed me dinner and we even sat at their dining room table, aka a card table
with a table cloth covering it. It had been decked out in votive candles and a
vase of roses that he had given me at the end of the night.

He was trying, I would give him
that, but I was confused on where my relationship with Justin really stood. I
felt guilty for being with Nash like that, even though I hadn’t considered it
as a date. I knew I had feelings for the both of them, but they were jumbled up
in my head right now and I wasn’t sure what I felt for whom.