Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers Book 1) (8 page)

Okay.

I glanced down at my half-finished drink, then back up at Olivia. I’d watched plenty of trash reality TV in my free time, and seen those women act up. Enough to think that a drink to a woman’s face because you were upset was a silly thing to do.

So I threw it in Grayson’s stupid, smirking face instead. And while he was coughing and sputtering and cursing about the soda and alcohol burning his eyes, I slammed the glass down on the table, turned to a shocked Olivia, and yanked the bar stool right from under her legs, sending her crashing to the floor.

Now, I had the barstool in my hands. I didn’t
plan
to do anything with it except put it down, but somebody must have thought different because it was snatched away. A few seconds later, big arms were gripping me from behind, dragging me away from the scene while I wriggled and fought.

“What the
hell
are you doing?!” A familiar voice demanded.

I was put back on my feet in the crowded back parking lot of the club, and turned to see Devyn’s brother, Eric, standing behind me with an exasperated scowl. He worked security for Refill, and we playfully called him “Big E.” Because, well… he was big. He was also a teddy bear, but he tucked that away here, because this was work. Here, he wasn’t allowing any nonsense to go down.

“Fighting again, Reesie? Is that what’s happening, we’re going back to that now?”

“
No,
Eric I just—”

“Just what?”

“I wasn’t
fighting
—”

“It
looked
like fighting, the way you laid that girl on her ass, and looked like you were about to knock her head in. You’re lucky I’d already spotted you, or no telling what-”

“There’s plenty of telling what!” I screamed, and Eric stopped, putting his hands on his waist. “I’m telling you now, I wasn’t about to do anything to her! I mean… yeah, I threw the drink in his face, and yanked the stool out, but that’s all. And I’m not sorry. I hope her ass bone is sore as fuck tomorrow.”

“Reesie,” Eric scolded, even though he was trying not to laugh. “That’s still not okay. They could press charges, and you’ve worked too hard to get back on track for some bullshit to mess up your life. Right?”

I swallowed hard. “Right.”

He pulled me into a hug, and I settled into his arms. He easily enveloped me in his large frame, squeezing me tight. “I know this time of year is hard for you, but… come on.  Don’t self-destruct, aiight?”

I nodded as he let me go, trying my best to blink back tears.

“You’re lucky this happened where it did, so you didn’t have a big audience and make a scene. I’m gonna go back inside, talk to my people, see about smoothing this over. You… go home.
Now
.”

I let out a deep breath as he went back inside. That little half of a drink had definitely worn off, and now the little bit of a happy vibe I’d been building was completely gone, and I felt like shit.

I
shouldn’t
have done that.

It
wasn’t
cool.

But… a little smile crept onto my face at the memory of Olivia’s expression as she fell off that stool. She
definitely
hadn’t expected me to do that, while she wanted to play smug about screwing my boyfriend. It didn’t matter if I didn’t want him – he was mine until we broke up, officially. I was actually madder at her than I was at Grayson, because you weren’t supposed to do your home girls like that. If it was just some random chick, whatever. But she knew damn well we were together, had asked me about him and all.

I shook my head.

That was probably why she was conveniently clueless the other day. Grayson wasn’t going up there to study law. More like anatomy.
Hers.

Oh, and I was pissed at him too. This city was huge – he could have chosen someone else. Or no one else, until he broke up with me because he wasn’t feeling it, because that was what adults with decency did.

You sure weren’t thinking about decency when you were flirting with and – literally – showing Jason Wright your ass.

I stopped in my tracks as I headed down the sidewalk, passing droves of people out to have a good time on Friday night. That was certainly true – I hadn’t been thinking about anything about getting a reaction out of Jason. When I was around him, Gray barely even crossed my mind… but intuition told me he and Olivia had been screwing around long before
my
eyes started to wander. Not that multiple wrongs meant taking a left made sense, but it certainly made me feel less guilty about it.

But overall… screw both of them. I didn’t need either of those trash bags in my life.

My stomach rumbled a little as I made my way back to my car, and instead of heading back to where I was parked, I went the other direction. The streets got a little emptier, buildings got a little older, people outside got a little more… hood. But that was alright.

I knew exactly where I was going.

seven.

I grinned as soon as I walked into Sammy’s BBQ and bar, inhaling the smoky aroma – a blend of cigars, swishers, and the smoker out back where they prepared the best damned ribs this city had. For a long time, I hadn’t been allowed to come to Sammy’s, specifically because of the “bar” part. My dad would bring the food home to us, but it was well after I was grown that I actually stepped foot inside when it was occupied at night.

Sammy, the namesake and owner, was standing at a table just beyond the entrance, laughing with a group of guys playing poker. I spoke to a couple of people I knew, but hadn’t seen in a while, as I approached, and then tapped him on the shoulder. He turned with a pleasant grin, probably thinking I was a just a regular patron with a question or something. As soon as recognition dawned on him, that grin turned into a big smile, and he pulled me into a hug.

“Jay Wright! If I ain’t know better I’d think I’d seen a ghost. Where the hell you been?”

I stepped back, shaking his hand as he clapped me on the shoulder. “I been in the army, dude. I’ve been all over.”

“Well I know
that
. I’m talking about since you been back. Your daddy told me two months ago you were coming home, but you shole ain’t brought your ass down here to eat, catch up, nothing!”

I shook my head. “My bad, Sammy. Just been getting acclimated to a different lifestyle.”

Sammy rolled his eyes. “
Acclimated
? Now see, that’s the little fancy ass college coming out in you.”

He and the whole table of poker players laughed at that, and I couldn’t really do anything but laugh too. I knew it was nothing but love – Sammy drove my mother to the hospital to deliver me, with my brothers in tow. That was back before the dealership was a thing, when my father was working late shifts, overnight to make sure we ate. Sammy was my father’s friend, and damn near like an uncle to us. I would accept the little lightweight clowning with a good attitude – I should have come to see him sooner.

I stood there talking for a little bit longer, before a flash of something pink in my peripheral caught my attention. My eyes went a little wider, and I excused myself from Sammy to go investigate.

I was just about to walk away when Sammy caught my arm, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. “Proceed with caution, young buck. That one’s a spitfire.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I know.”

She was sitting at the bar, nursing a glass of something dark. Her focus was so intense on the ice in her glass that she didn’t even look up as I sat down. She knocked the rest of the drink back, and then motioned at the bartender for another.

“You’ve had enough,” Lana told her, gently placing a glass of ice water on the worn, but well-polished bar. “How you doing baby?” she said to me, smiling. Lana was Sammy’s wife, and one of the first crushes I’ve ever had.

“I’m doing alright. Water for me too please.”

She nodded. “Coming right up.”

I turned to where Reese was sitting, and looked her over. Sammy’s wasn’t a dump by any means, but it was comfortable. It was worn, well broken-in. They made their business on people who stopped in to take out food, but the inside was for the neighborhood folks, honestly. It was the type of bar old heads came to play poker and smoke cigars. Reese was out of place.

“Nice boots,” I said, leaning forward to see her face, partially obscured by her braids.

She turned toward me, just a little, enough to see that her eyes were red. “Thanks.”

“Let me guess, trouble in paradise? Surprised to see you slumming on this end of town.”

“Okay,” she said –
slurred
– and then climbed off her barstool on obviously wobbly legs. “I’m not about to sit here and take shit from you, ‘kay?”

“Yeah, I hear you princess,” I said, standing up to catch her around the waist as she stumbled a little.

“Get your goddamn hands off me.”

I shook my head. “I will, after I sit you back down. You’re not clearheaded enough to be out in this neighborhood at night by yourself.”

She sucked her teeth. “I’m not
stupid, Jason.
I wasn’t leavin’, I was goin’ to the otha end of the bar to get away from you, stupid.”

“You know each other Jay?” Lana asked from across the bar. “I was trying to monitor how much she had, and thought I cut her off at the right time… until she opened her mouth just now.”

I chuckled. Reese sounded like she’d taken a muscle relaxer or something, and was having trouble moving her mouth.

“Yeah, I know her. Unfortunately.” Reese mumbled something that sounded like
fuck you
, and I shook my head again. “I’m gonna take her to sit down. Can you send two catfish baskets over to the table please?”

Lana smiled. “Sure will.”

She cursed me out the whole way there, but I managed to wrangle Reese into a booth-style table. A waitress came by and I ordered more water, urging her to drink it, which she thankfully did. A couple minutes later, our food was dropped off.

“You eat catfish, right?” I asked, then popped a French fry into my mouth. “I know it’s salmon, or sushi, but this is how we do it around here.”

She looked up at me with a sneer, but otherwise didn’t respond. Instead, she grabbed the bottle of Louisiana hot sauce from the table, opened it, and loaded her food down before she began going in.

Guess that was my answer.

We ate in silence for several long minutes, and then finally, she spoke up. “You know I’m not
that
drunk, right?”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Could’ve fooled me.”

She gave me a look, and then bit into a hushpuppy. “I’d barely eaten anything today. I’m definitely a little tipsy, but more than that… just hungry.”

I scoffed, but she did sound better already. And I’d been hungry enough before to feel lightheaded and discombobulated, so maybe that made sense too. But still… I wasn’t all the way convinced.

“So why were you drinking and crying? Was I right? Something happened with your little boyfriend? Somebody was looking at you and he tried to kick their ass? You saw he wasn’t worth shit?”

I was just messing around, trying to bait her into our normal dynamic, but she shook her head, knocking back a gulp of water. “No. Well, I
did
see that he wasn’t shit, but I already knew that. Today was confirmation. Caught him with my frie—no. Caught him with a trollop I
thought
was a friend.”

“Trollop?” She shrugged, then savagely bit into a piece of heavily buttered Texas toast, and I chuckled. “Man,” I said. “You’ve got to admit that it’s nice to be so privileged that a cheating boyfriend is the extent of your problems. That hit you so bad that you had to come to the regla’ black folks side of town to drink.”

Again… I was mostly just messing with her, but from the look on her face, she wanted to reach across the table and choke me. She finished chewing the bread in her mouth, then took a long sip from her glass before she fixed me with a glare.

“My father died today. Not like,
today
, but six years ago, today. It’s not a fucking good day for me. I picked myself up, got out and did something, trying to cheer myself up. Trying to
forget
. So to find out today, of all days, about
that
shit? Yeah, I came to have a drink, okay?”

Shit.

“Reese, I—”

“These are my father’s people! Sammy and Lana. Lana was my father’s cousin. They knew him, they know
me.
I came here to feel close to him, not to get fucking judged by you. Not today,
Jason.
Yeah, I got a little bougie in me, from my mother side of the family, but I’ve got a little “neighborhood” in me too. This is home, just as much as the campus side of town. I came to hurt around my family, not to “slum”. So fuck you.”

By the time she finished that little mini-monologue, she had tears streaming down her face, and I felt like shit. It was clear that she’d been crying already when I walked in, from her eyes being red, but actually seeing her face wet made my damned chest hurt. Her tears turned to quiet sobs, and I started to slide out of the booth to try to comfort her, but she looked up with scowl.

“Stay your ass over there,” she snapped. “I
don’t
need you feeling sorry for me.” She grabbed a handful of napkins from the dispenser on the table and cleaned her face, then pinned me with another glower. “They weren’t gonna let anything happen to me. The only reason they even let you approach me or bring me over here, is because apparently, they know you too. But recognize – you’re a family
friend
. I’m
family
.”

“I see that now,” I nodded, swallowing hard. “I was fucking with you Reese. I didn’t mean anything by what I said. I get that you don’t really feel like playing like that right now, though, so I’m sorry.”

She sucked her teeth. “You should be. Come in here messing up my vibe.” A few seconds of silence passed between us, and then she said, “But thank you.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “For what?”

“For treating me to dinner.”

“Who said I was treating?”

Reese stopped to frown at me, with a pickle slice halfway up to her mouth. “
I
said you were treating. It’s just a fish basket. What, you can’t afford a fish basket on a mechanic’s salary? Do I need to pay for yours too? Is that why you’re so testy, you can’t afford a date?”

I drew my head back, and then opened my mouth, ready to light into her for that long list of wrong-ass assumptions, but then I caught a look at her face. Her expression was blank, but her eyes were smiling.

“Aiight,” I laughed. “Point taken. But, you were doing a little judging yourself, princess.”

She shrugged, then wiped her hands on her napkin. “Yeah… I kinda was.”

Silence again, while we ate, and then something occurred to me. “Hey… what did you do when you caught ol’ boy messing around?”

Reese almost choked on her water, then shook her head. “You don’t wanna know.”

“The hell I don’t, with a reaction like that!”

She pushed out a heavy sigh, playing with her straw as she held her glass in front of her. “Umm… I threw a drink in his face, and snatched her seat from under her.” She looked away as soon as those words were out of her mouth, and took a long sip of her water again, just before the waitress came by with refills.

My eyes were wide as hell as I waited for the server to leave, so I could hear more about that. I’d jokingly though that Reese might carry around a blade, but damn… was she
really
a little mini-thug?

“You did
what
?” I asked, as soon as we were alone again. “Are you serious?”

“I’m dead serious. And as wrong as I know it was… it felt good as hell.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “Yeah, I bet it did. Wow, though.”

“Mmmhmm.”

I watched her for a few seconds as she played in the remnants of her fries. “Hey,” – she looked up – “I almost expected you to tell me you pulled a Viv. Put on your sweats and got a bat, ready to go smash up his house.”

Okay. So… I dropped a reference to the book I’d been reading for Professor B’s class. The main female character, Viv, had caught her boyfriend in some wild shit on social media, and was ready to risk it all for about five minutes before she thought better of it.

After those words left my mouth, Reese stared at me for a full five seconds, lips parted, before she dropped her gaze and let out a little sigh, smoothing her dress over her legs. I didn’t even know what had compelled me to say some corny shit like that, but as I watched, a smile spread over her face. Even though she still wasn’t looking at me, and was shaking her head like she didn’t
want
to smile about it… mission accomplished.

She leaned forward onto the table, with her elbows propped on the laminate surface, and put her chin onto her hands. Something in the mood had shifted, yet again, and she looked up at me with those sexy big brown eyes.

“You remember that offer you made me?” she asked, and my whole damn mouth went dry.