Out Bad (8 page)

Turning back to the drain, he ran the wire down the open
pipe using the hooked end to try and grab the offender.  The longer he
fished around, the more aggravated he became.  Finally, he hooked the clog
and slowly pulled.  First came the matt of yellow gold hair, followed by a
pop as the plastic head cleared the opening.

"It's a Barbie head." 

He hooked the stopper back in place and flipped on the
faucet.  The water exited the tub through the drain almost as fast as it
poured in.

He turned to Gwen and held up the doll head by its slimy
hair.  "Did you use
Draino
?" 

She glanced at the drain and then up at him.  "Is
that bad?"

He laughed and looked at the slightly melted features on
Anne Boleyn.  "It just means she won't be recovering from her
be-heading."

Gwen scooted a little closer and he noticed the wrap of her
robe had gotten looser, the soft, smooth fabric slipping from one
shoulder.  She leaned further forward, her face just a few inches from
his, her eyes focused on his mouth. 

“I really appreciate you coming all the way out here to help
me.”  She looked up at him from under her long dark eyelashes.  She
was so close he could smell the richness of the wine on her breath.
  “Maybe I could make it up to you
.
”  She shrugged her
other shoulder, letting the robe slip free of it as well.

Joe didn’t dare look down, there was no telling how much of
her was left covered.  He tossed his stuff back in his box, quickly
closing it up and standing.  He walked out of her bedroom, only stopping
when he was far enough away that he trusted himself, even then he couldn’t turn
around.  “I think you and I are looking for two different things. 
I’ll let myself out.”

He walked out of the house to his van, not even stopping to
take the plastic baggies off his boots.  He threw his shit in the back and
jumped in, feeling like he couldn't get out of this neighborhood fast
enough.  Away from the houses that cost twice what his house would be
worth when he finished it.  Cars he would never drive, even if he could. 
A woman he'd wanted so much to believe might be meant to be his in spite of all
that. 

He shook his head, still struggling to reconcile what just
happened.  He couldn’t wrap his mind around how quickly things shifted,
let alone begin to process how he felt about it.  There was however, one
feeling he could easily acknowledge. 

Disappointment. 

Maybe Heath was right after all. 

Gwen fished the half-full bottle of wine out of her fridge
and carried it upstairs.  She angrily wiped at her tears with the sleeve of
her robe. 

What the fuck was wrong with her?  She pulled the cork
and took a swig of the icy cold white she’d opened after work.  The same
wine that took a stupid idea and ran with it until somehow, it ended up
sounding like the best thing she'd ever come up with.

Dropping her robe on the floor of her bedroom, she went to
the bathroom to fill the now perfectly functioning tub with water so hot it
might burn her skin off.  Maybe it would burn off the hieroglyphics
too. 

What in the hell had she been thinking? 

She climbed in the tub, the water barely an inch deep, and
took another long gulp of wine, the liquid cooling her throat as the water
scalded her ass.

Grabbing a bottle of lavender scented bubble bath off the
shelf behind her head, she squeezed a hefty dose of the pale purple gel into
the rising water hoping the promises of calm and relaxation the label made were
true.  She needed some calm.

What she really needed was to get it together.  In what
world did sexually propositioning your brother-in-law's best friend, a man you
barely know by the way, sound like a great idea?  Apparently, at least for
a little bit, the wine fueled world she was living in when he arrived on her
doorstep.

Only it didn't seem asinine then.  It made perfect
sense.  Based on past experience, sleeping with Joe would be the perfect
way to stop her attraction to him dead in its tracks. 

In the past two years she’d had sex with exactly two
guys.  Two.  One, two.  It was a pathetic number at best,
especially considering two was also the number of times she’d had sex in the
past two years. 

Both were with men she met at the gym.  Both had seemed
like a good idea at the time.  Both ended quickly and horribly leaving her
facing the cold hard reality that she might spend the rest of her life
alone. 

The first came about a year into her life as a single
woman.  Ted was nice enough and he had a
bangin
’
body, but for some reason she just wasn’t really feeling that into him. 
But it had been so long since she'd had any sort of companionship outside her
family, the idea of at least getting to go to a nice dinner made her say
yes. 

Unfortunately, Ted was just not that interesting and they
struggled to even make small talk over a mediocre meal.  She decided to
give him one more chance to get her attention and at least get to have a little
fun, in a physical sense. 

By the end of the night she was even more positive being
single was the way to go as she shoved him, his great body, his lackluster
bedroom skills, and wet blanket personality out the front door.

The second time was a year after that.  This time he
was much younger and she figured, why the hell not?  He wasn’t very smart
and he was a little immature, but he was very good looking and she was crossing
her fingers he'd at least be exciting.

Exciting wasn't the half of it.

After a nice dinner with surprisingly interesting
conversation, he took her home and she'd invited him in.  Things were
going well and she thought maybe it would be a better time than her last
go-round.

She was wrong.

What started out as a hot and heavy make-out session somehow
dissolved into an alternate universe where a grown man was asking to be smacked
across the face while he
wanked
his Prince Albert
topped dick with both hands.  "Hit me.  Hit me hard baby."

What the fuck was going on?

Turns out he'd been attracted to her because of her
"icy personality" and hoped to capitalize on it.  Sexually.

After she kicked his kinky ass to the curb she'd decided
that going for the overly good-looking guy might not be the best approach, and
made a new set of rules for herself.  No more gorgeous men and definitely
no more gym memberships.

And she was doing just fine following them until Joe the
plumber came along to fuck up her world.  In less than a week, his
existence had caused more inner turmoil than she had suffered since-- in years
and she just wanted it to stop. 

She wanted to go back to the way she was before she tried to
ignore him from across the bar.  Before she felt his body pressed against
hers in a way that set parts of her on fire which no man had successfully even
warmed in recent years.  And definitely before she all but threw herself
at him only to be denied and left alone and mortified, drunk in her bathtub.

That was how having sex with him ended up sounding like a
good idea.  Sex had effectively ended the two other times she’d been
distracted by a man.  She had no reason to assume it wouldn’t work
again. 

If she had sex with him, she would be shoving him out the
door and rushing up to take a shower and brush her teeth, trying to rid herself
of him completely.  She would be able to sleep at night without imagining
where he was and what he was doing.  She wouldn’t be wasting time
wondering why he was still single at an age when most men who looked like him,
especially ones with a successful business, were snapped up by women who
couldn’t wait to have their babies.

The kind of woman she used to be.

At one very wonderful time of her life, those were the only
two things she really wanted.  A husband and children, but fate turned out
to be a cruel bitch with other, lonelier ideas. 

Gwen used her toes to shut off the water as fresh tears ran
down her cheeks, flushed pink from the heat of the bath. 

It wasn’t fair.  Nothing about any of this was
fair.  Why could she not just forget him? 

It had been so easy with every other man she met.  All
the pretty boys in their slim cut suits at work, all the gym rats, even the
guys at the coffee shop who tried to make conversation with her.  No one
made her think the things he did.  No one since... 

It was only a matter of time before she had to come to terms
with why.

Gwen downed the last of the wine.  The heat rising off
the tub had quickly warmed it to nearly room temperature and it didn’t bite at
her throat the way it did a few minutes ago.  She grabbed a cloth and
dipped it in the water before wringing it out.  Sliding down in the tub,
she rested her head against the edge as she draped the hot rag across her puffy
eyes. 

She was overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed with the insane
feelings she had for a man she didn’t even fucking know.  Overwhelmed with
the way those crazy feelings were making her act.  And overwhelmed by
memories she’d been avoiding for a very long time.  They seemed to be making
their way front and center demanding her attention, but she wasn’t sure dealing
with them was something she would ever be able to handle.

****

Joe tapped his thumbs against the steering wheel as the
streetlights began to flash on along the highway.  This time yesterday,
the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen was sitting dangerously close to him,
suggesting he service more than her drain. 

He’d lain awake all night staring at the ceiling, trying to
figure out what the hell was going on.  Gabbi told him in no uncertain
terms to stay away from her sister and it was turning out that he probably
should have listened. 

Gwen was a mystery.  Based on looks alone, she should
have every single man who laid eyes on her running after her.  Add her
obvious success in her career and the men should be beating down her door.

So why him?  Why not any one of the men she came across
in her normal life?  If it was simply a need she wanted met, there had to
be any number of men that would line up to work that out for her, but as much
as he hated himself for it right now, he would not be one of them. 

He couldn’t deny the physical reaction he had just being
around her.  The struggle to keep his eyes and his mind on the job was
nearly impossible even before she tried to get him in bed, but he wasn’t
looking for a bedmate.  He was looking for a life mate and rumor was, Gwen
was not thinking the same way.  After last night, he considered believing
it.

It was just so damn hard to come to terms with.  There
was something between them.  It wasn’t something he could explain, or even
something that made sense to him.  It was just a pull he felt anytime he
was near her.  An overwhelming desire to touch her, hold her close, and
make her forget what she thought she wanted. 

It was a feeling he was going to have a hard time ignoring
if he ever came across her path again.

It was after nine when he pulled into his driveway to find
the lights on inside his house.  He pulled around back and parked beside
Heath’s bike.  He headed up the back steps and came in through the back
door, dropping his keys on the counter and opening the fridge. 

“You are my favorite person right now.”  He grabbed a
cold beer from the case Heath brought and headed up the stairs.

Heath was surrounded by a powdery white haze that had settled
in his hair and was clinging to his eyelashes.  A half empty beer sat on
the ground in the hallway away from the fallout of the drywall dust.  Joe
put his on the opposite side of the door before heading in to help sand.

“I better be your favorite person more than just right
now.  I don’t see anybody else here helping your ass with this shit.”

Joe laughed as he peeled off his long-sleeved work
shirt.  The tank top he had on underneath would be much more comfortable
to work in. This room was going to get real hot, real fast with both of them
working in there and there was no reason to worry about someone seeing his
skin.  “Nobody called begging you to come over.  I believe you showed
up on your own.”

“And brought beer.”

“And brought beer.  Which I greatly appreciate.” 
Joe ran his hand across the drywall feeling for rough spots.

“Rough week?”

“You don’t know the half of it.”  And unless Gwen told
Gabbi, he never would.  “Why are you here for real?”

“Gwen's at my house.  I don’t know what happened but she
was in a mood.  That woman scares me on a good day, and I didn’t want to
stick around and see what she was like on a bad day.”  Heath stepped out
and took a swig of his beer. 

“I just don’t know what to think of her.  With Gabbi
and the girls and even usually me, she’s one kind of person.”  He tucked
the lower half of his face inside the neck of his t-shirt and sneezed, the
fabric helping him avoid sucking a huge gulp of drywall dust into his
lungs.  “But then I see her around other people, men especially, and she’s
totally different.   I mean she’s never
gonna
be as sweet and fuzzy as her sister, but damn.”

The information dump couldn’t have come at a better time for
Joe.  Not wanting to do anything to stop this unexpected conversation he
stayed quiet, nodding his head occasionally and taking it all in.

“I’ve seen her punch a guy out cold before.  Just clock
him right in the middle of a bar.  I’m not saying she was wrong, he had
more than a few people who would have paid her to do it, but you just can’t go
around knocking guys out for trying to hit on you.”  Heath went to grab
his beer and downed the last bit.  “I’m
gonna
grab another.  Want one?”

“Yup, thanks.” 

He listened as Heath went downstairs.  He thought about
Heath's words as he walked around the room studying the walls running his hands
over the smooth surface, feeling for any ripples that would show through the
paint. 

Joe hadn’t expected his rejection to even faze her, but she
was nothing if not unexpected.  Of course, there was a chance it had
nothing to do with him and something else had her wound up.  But, if Joe
was a betting man, the look on her face last night when he walked out would be
a pretty good indication where he should put his money.

Heath came back and handed Joe a cold beer.  Joe
twisted the cap with the hem of his t-shirt.  “How long you
gonna
stay?”

Heath shook his head.  “I have no idea.  Long
enough to avoid my sister-in-law."  He took a swig of his beer. 
“By the way, you called and begged me to come help you tonight.”

“Yup.”  The men went back to work, carefully sanding
the drywall smooth before shop-
vac
-
ing
all the accumulated dust off the floor and wiping down
the walls so they’d be ready for paint tomorrow.  They were sitting on the
couch downstairs watching TV and chatting when Heath’s cell started ringing.

“Hey baby.”  He was up off the couch, tossing his empty
bottle in the recycling and collecting his stuff.  “
Alrighty
. 
I’m getting ready to head out now.  Love you.”

That little bit of a one-sided phone call was enough to
bring on a stab of jealousy.  Maybe jealousy was the wrong word. 
Envy might be a more appropriate term. 

He was happy for Heath.  He didn’t begrudge his friend
any happiness.  Hell, it was part of what helped Joe believe it could
really happen.  It just made him wish he could get some of his own. 

“The coast clear?”  He did his best to seem interested
only from the perspective that it was affecting his friend.

“Who knows.  I just know it’s always easier if you come
when they call the first time.”  He gave Joe a wink.  “Add that to
your list for future reference.”   

“Will do.”  Hopefully someday he’d get to use it. 

“Thanks for coming.  I’m ready to get that shower up
and running.  This bath only thing is killing me.”

“Bath’s are way more fun when you have company.”  Heath
gave him a big grin.  “Add that to your list too.”  He gave him a
wave as he headed out, the grin still on his face. 

Joe stayed on the couch to finish his last beer of the night
before heading in to take another damn bath.  He couldn’t help but imagine
what a bath with Gwen in that big tub of hers would be like.  Damn Heath.