Hector (23 page)

As she walked down the stairs of the building, she almost
expected him to come after her, but, of course, he didn’t. Feeling the hot tears
already burn in her eyes and the boulder-sized knot in her throat swell
impossibly bigger, she began walking faster.
“Fucking
bastard.
Fucking
bastard
!”

With her chest already heaving, even as she tried to hold it all
in, Charlee was only grateful now that Fridays were the one day she and Drew
always took separate cars. The second she got in the car, Charlee slammed the
door shut, buried her face in her hands, and sobbed.

~*~

It took every ounce of self-restraint to not go after
her. Hell, it took everything in him to keep his comments about her
exhausting
weekend to himself. That
had
to be a lie. Either that or he
misunderstood. She could’ve been talking about the Special Olympics thing. She
wasn’t
that
type of girl. He knew
this, even if she had very easily given into him that night. It was just
kissing. She wouldn’t have let him do more. Would she?

Your party wasn’t the only
I went to last weekend. I’d already forgotten about that.
“Bullshit,”
Hector muttered, fisting his hand on the table. Not a day had gone by since
that night that he hadn’t thought about it—thought about her.

“What?” Walter asked, looking up from the chessboard. “That’s a
fair move.”

Hector hadn’t even been looking at the board in front of him. He
glanced down now, glad to see that in just a few moves Walter would have him.
He knew he wouldn’t be in a mood to play before he’d even driven down there,
and he certainly wasn’t after talking to Charlee. He moved his rook ignoring
Walter’s comment. A few minutes later, the game was over.

“So she’s coming over tomorrow afternoon to check out the robot.”
Walter smiled, sitting back in his seat. “I finally perfected it again, and I
set up a few things I could do to demonstrate it to her. This should be good.”

Hector stared at him, continuing to grind his teeth like he’d
been doing ever since he’d talked to Charlee. She was the last thing he wanted
to talk about right now, but he knew this wouldn’t be the case with Walter. She
was all he
ever
wanted to talk about.
That’s why all week after Sunday, he kept the workouts with Walter to just
that. He’d set Walter up then walk away before he could start talking. Avoiding
any talk of her had been fairly easy that week since the only time he’d see Walter
was at the gym. All week he’d debated with himself whether to do the right
thing or not. He’d hoped that giving it a few days before seeing her again
would take the strain off, but he’d been wrong—so wrong.

He expected her to be pissed or even hurt, not that he’d looked
forward to that. He just thought it was inevitable. If he’d known this would be
the reaction he’d get, he might’ve told her the truth. Here he held back
telling her that Walter was his only reason for holding back, that if it weren’t
for Walter, he’d for the first time since he discovered girls, felt the desire
to delve into something deeper than just a physical relationship with one—a
desire that up until now had completely eluded him.

If he’d told her the truth and she felt the same way, which he’d
been certain she would, he was afraid she might take matters in her own hands
and break Walter’s heart. Hector had no doubt that the poor sap would be disappointed
in the end anyway, but he’d be damned if he was going to play a part in it.

Her reaction however had baffled him. Though he didn’t buy it
completely, she’d basically told him she felt just the opposite. Not only had
their time in that room together that night been
forgettable
, according to her “exhausting weekend” comment, he was also
supposed to believe she’d gone out and done the same or more with someone else
already. As much as he refused to believe that, it was fucking galling.

She’d stopped in the middle of what they were doing that night to
specifically point out that she was different, damn it! And she didn’t even
have to. He already knew it. She wasn’t the kind of girl who would do that with
him then go out and do the same thing with someone else the next day.

Hector knew it was pointless to over analyze it now, because it
didn’t make a difference. Whether or not it was true, it’s what she wanted him
to believe for whatever reason: that she had no qualms about pretending that
night never happened.

Curious and because he needed to stop grinding his teeth before
he broke one, Hector asked Walter about something else that shouldn’t matter.
“Did you mention her hanging out for a movie after?”

It shouldn’t matter, but Hector wanted to know now if Charlee was
not only going out tonight but again tomorrow night like she’d apparently done
last week.

Walter frowned.
“No, not yet.
I’ll wait
until tomorrow.” With a frustrated shrug, he added. “I’ll probably chicken
out.”

The irritation was more than Hector could bear. He knew it wasn’t
Walter’s fault, but that’s where he channeled his frustration. As ridiculous as
it sounded, if Walter could grow a pair, he may just keep Charlee from going
out tomorrow and stay there with him where Hector knew nothing would be
happening. Walter couldn’t even get the nerve up to ask her to watch a movie
with him. There was no way the guy would be making any kind of move.

“Dude, when are you gonna man up already?” Hector sat up a little
and pointed at him. “You blew chance after chance last week. Now tomorrow,
she’ll be there at your place, and your pansy ass is gonna blow that too?”

Immediately, Hector felt bad. Walter sat back in his chair,
looking wounded, but before Hector could take it back or at least rephrase what
he’d said, toning it down a little, Walter smiled brightly, sitting up again.
“I hadn’t had the chance to tell you. I saw that guy again, and I went right up
to him and Charlee.”

“What guy?”

Walter’s smile waned a little. “You know the one you knocked out
on campus? He and his friends—”

“Yeah, Yeah, I know.” Now Hector did the sitting up a little.
“When?”

Walter thought about it for a moment. “Monday, first thing in the
morning, I saw Charlee sitting and talking with him right here on campus, and I
walked right up to them,” he said proudly.

Hector didn’t think that he could feel any more irritated tonight
than he already was, but he literally felt his body heat go up a few degrees.
“She was sitting with him: the guy that nearly broke your ribs because you were
defending her?”

Walter rolled his eyes a little. “Yeah, well, she said something
about him not actually wanting to harm her or anything. That he’s just,” Walter
lifted his fingers, air quoting Charlee, “‘pursuing her,’ but she did say he’s
intimidating.”

“Intimidating?
Like how?”

Hector had been called intimidating by girls before, but it was
more of a compliment than anything negative. This guy wasn’t intimidating; he
was a disrespectful little bitch, who didn’t fight fair.

“She didn’t really say, but when it started to sound like she
might be taking up for the guy or making excuses for him, I told her the guy
was a jerk, and she agreed.”

“Taking up for him?” There was no hiding Hector’s exasperation
now. Walter had told him about the guy completely disrespecting her. He tried
to put his hands on her even after she made it clear she didn’t want to be
touched. “How’d she take up for him? What excuses did she make?”

Walter was beginning to seem frazzled. Hector got that he was
trying to tell him about manning up and going right up to them even after the
guy had beat on him once. They’d get back to that soon enough, but first Hector
wanted to get this part straight.

“I don’t know, man. She just . . .”

Walter paused as if to try and recall exactly what she said, and
Hector gave him all the time he needed, because he couldn’t imagine what
excuses she could’ve been making for the idiot. Maybe Hector did have her all
wrong. Maybe she was a stupid girl that made out with guys randomly and then
flaunted it shamelessly.

“Oh, I remember now,” Walter finally said. “She didn’t exactly
make excuses, but she said she didn’t think he was so bad—cruel! That’s the
word she used. She said she didn’t think he was being cruel or something.” He
shrugged,
looking a little irritated himself now. “It just
sounded almost as if she were saying that if the guy weren’t so aggressive or
intimidating, he wouldn’t be so bad.”

Unbelievable.
Hector couldn’t get past
this.
“So what?
Now she’s gonna sit and chat with him
like they’re buddies or something?”

“No, I don’t think so. She said he asked her to have coffee with
him, and she did thank me for saving her again.”

Finally, Walter shed some relief on the situation. Hector didn’t
even know why he cared. If what she said to him was true, she wasn’t anyone
he’d ever take seriously, and maybe Walter shouldn’t either. He thought about
maybe telling Walter what she’d said—
warn
him. But
then he’d have to tell him how the subject even came up.

He let Walter tell him the rest of the story about how he so
bravely walked up to her and asked her if she was ready. Hector held back rolling
his eyes. If it had been him, Hector would’ve asked straight out and in the guy’s
face if she needed him to kick his ass again, not walked up with some vague
excuse to get her away from him without hurting the guy’s feelings.

Unaware that today would have taken so much out of
him,
Hector lay in bed that night, feeling completely
drained. It was
his own
fault. He should’ve just done
it first thing that week, not wait and let the anxiety of getting it over with
build all week. Somehow he thought doing this would bring closure to the angst
he’d been feeling and he could go back to feeling like he did before he’d met
her—held her—kissed those sweet lips. Instead, all he could do was lie there
and wonder who the fuck she was with tonight and what exactly she was doing
with him.

Chapter 14

This didn’t prove shit. So it was a beautiful Sunday
afternoon and Hector could be anywhere, with anyone, doing something fun. So
what? Walter had invited him more than once to accompany him to his
grandfather’s assisted living facility to play some of the old guys there. Walt
had told him he’d be surprised how good it felt to make their day.

“Just don’t purposely let them win,” Walter warned as they walked
into the old folk’s home. “They’ll know and be mad. One guy called me an
arrogant asshole for not only assuming he wouldn’t be able to win but for
thinking he wouldn’t notice me going easy on him.”

Hector laughed.
“Got it.”

Hector had never been to an old folk’s home, and he hadn’t
exactly looked forward to it. Already just walking in, he noticed the smell
wasn’t the most pleasant. He frowned, still unwilling to admit why he was
really here. Yesterday morning, Walter had come in to work out and let Hector
know he wouldn’t be coming in today because of his visit to see his grandpa and
some other stuff he had to do.

After deciding he wouldn’t be torturing himself by going into the
chess lab more than he absolutely had to, Hector didn’t plan on going in until
at least Wednesday. The soonest he’d probably see Walter would be Monday night
when he came into work out. He didn’t want to wait that long to hear about
Walter’s afternoon with Charlee. Most importantly, he was anxious to hear if
she’d hung out with Walter after or if she mentioned having more plans that
evening. Hector had also offered up some tips on small-talk topics like asking
her what she did on her free time or maybe asking how her night out Friday had
gone.

All right, so it was a little underhanded, but Hector needed
something
. He thought maybe if he could
confirm she really was that kind of girl it would make it easier for him to
take her off that damn pedestal he’d placed her ass on the week before. It’d be
easier to scrape her out from under his skin.

Hector didn’t waste time. He started in on Walter as soon as they
started walking down the depressing hallway of the place. “So how’d it go
yesterday with Charlee?”

Walter smiled instantly. “Good. She seemed genuinely impressed and
excited about the demonstrations I showed her.”

They’d been asked to wait in a small waiting room while they
finished changing his gramps, so Walter had gone on longer than Hector cared to
hear about the robot. As soon as he got a chance, he asked about what he really
wanted to hear.

“So did she stay and watch a movie with you?”

Walters’s excited expression fell, and Hector was already
beginning to frown, irritated because he had a feeling Walter would chicken
out. “You didn’t even ask her to. Did you?”

“I was going to. I really was,” Walter insisted. “But before I
could, she started talking about some play she was going to later that night. I
figured it was pointless since she already had plans.” Walter was smiling
again. “But we did have pizza.”

Hector was still focused on the first part of what Walter said.
“Was it a date?” He pretended his interest was for Walter’s sake.
“The play thing.
Did she say she was going with a dude?”

Walter shook his head. “No, she didn’t.”

“And you didn’t ask?”
God
dealing with Walter was the most exasperating thing
ever
. That’s the first thing Hector would’ve asked. When Walter
frowned, shaking his head again, Hector let out a sharp breath. “Well, did you
at least ask about what she did Friday night? You gotta ask these things, Walt.
What if she’s seeing someone else? All this effort to impress her could be a
waste of time.”