Seeking Me To Find You (Finding You Series Book 1) (6 page)

“Who’s the one being controlling now?” he says with a grin.

Jackson

“W
here in the
hell are they? It’s been twenty minutes and her drink is reduced to nothing but water with a splash of fruit.”

“Maybe they were stopped by some adoring fans and haven’t made it back here.” Ben chugged that last of his beer and set it down. “I’m ready to leave any way. Some asshole woke me up real early this morning because he couldn’t control his dog’s impulses.”

“Ha! Ha! If she’s still here…we are having one more drink then we’ll leave.”

“Roger that!” Ben walks over to a chick across the way and slips her his number. He struts back with a sly smile plastered on his face. Plopping back in his seat he turns to me and explains, “Her boyfriend just went to the head. I had to act quickly before he came back.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. One of these days, I am going to get a call that he has been castrated and left in a bathtub full of ice.

*

As I exit
the bar, Grace is nowhere in sight. I lean over the bar and ask Mike if he knows where she and her friend had taken off to. He shrugs his shoulders and moves on to fixing up the next drink.
Damn!

“I looked around. The waitress outside smoking a cigarette said she thought they were arguing before they got into a black SUV. Dude, I think she ditched ya,” Ben says with a sympathetic smile.

“Something must have happened. She doesn’t strike me as the type of person to ditch anyone.” My mind thinks over all kinds of crazy scenarios.

“Why are you so concerned? Obviously she is involved with the guy she was with. Any man with a brain isn’t going to let you
snatch
that pretty young thing away.”

Scratching my head, “Something doesn’t feel right. He may have feelings for her but she wasn’t giving off the same vibe. I really don’t think she would have accepted to join us for drinks if they were together. I didn’t see any affection between both of them nor a ring on her finger.”

Throwing me the keys, Ben says, “You’re scaring me man. You’re already getting emotionally invested in someone that you haven’t talked to for more than thirty minutes. Remember that you live your job 24/7. No woman is going to want to sit around and wait two weeks to have your undivided attention every three months and maybe two hours a day in between.”

He’s right. What am I doing?

*

I pull up
in front of our condo and Thor is whining to get out.

“Dude, he better not piss in my car. Get him out quick. Also, while you guys are out bonding, please discuss with him our new sleep schedule. If not, we are getting a doggy door and training that monster how to let himself out. I’ll even shove his big ass in and out, over and over again until he gets the hang of it.”

I clip the leash to Thor’s collar as we head out. There is a wild party going on by the pool this evening. This is usually a subdued complex. Guess someone didn’t get that memo. As I walk by, I look in and see what appears to be a bachelorette party going on. All of a sudden, I get pulled into the wrought iron fence and some old chick starts to molest me.

With hooded eyes and a smoky slur she yells, “Linda, look what I found. Rocky came through with a yummy piece of meat.”

“Holy Hell Louise, he even brought a dog. I told Rocky not to send kinky shit like he did for your party.”

I can only assume this is Linda who is pawing her way towards me. Louise is trying to tug my shirt over my head and suddenly this Linda chick takes my dog.
Where the hell is she taking my dog?
“I’m sorry ladies but I don’t think I’m the person you are waiting on. I’ll take my dog and we’ll be out of your hair.”

“Baby, I’ve been waiting for you all my life. Let me get this shirt off and you can show us ladies what you’re made of.” Not missing a beat, this Louise chick
rips
my new shirt and is now trying to
undo
my belt! I’m so confused that I can’t think. I can’t find my dog. For the life of me, I can’t figure out when this all went to hell.

Prying Louise’s hands from my pants, I hear a voice scream, “Louise, that’s not the stripper. You’re fondling the wrong guy. Oh hell, Louise you’re going to get us all arrested.”

“Ms. Louise,” I say calmly “I just want my dog back and the ability to exit this pool without getting jumped again.”

“Are you sure, sexy, you don’t want to stay for all the action? I can assure that you have never had anything like me. I will rock your world and spin it twice.”

The smell of her breath and the sound of her voice indicate that she has indulged in too many packs of non-filtered smokes. Slightly turning my head to get fresh air and to avoid the spray, I plea, “Ma’am, I just want my dog back.”

The chick who I guess to be Linda chimes in and says, “Oh, he ran off when I put his leash under a chair leg.”

Great!

*

I run back
to the apartment and Thor is not there.
Where the hell can he be
? Of course, I know exactly where that worthless dog has sought refuge.

I knock on Grace’s door and immediately the door opens. “Missing someone?” Opening the door a little wider, Graces tries not to laugh, though she’s not doing a good job at it. The sight before me infuriates me. Thor is lying on her couch with his head between his paws while looking at me with those sad,
sorry ass
, eyes.
He knows he’s not allowed on a couch.

“There was this banging on my back gate. When I looked through the slats of my fence, I saw that he was ramming his head against it. I swear I opened the gate quickly so he wouldn’t get a concussion.”

“You were worried about him getting a concussion? Not worried that he was about to tear down your gate?”
Unbelievable.

“When I let him in on the patio, he rushed inside and has been in this position ever since. Poor guy looks so traumatized.” Looking at me with a curious gleam, she asks, “Were you in a fight?”

Puzzled by her question, I reply, “No. Why?”

“Well, you’re just…” She looks like she is trying to select her words before she continues. “Well, your shirt is shredded in half, your belt is about to fall out of the loops, and your hair is a mess.” She slowly moves towards me, looking at my face. Running her finger down the side of my face, she whispers, “Is that blood on your face and neck?”

Her voice is an aphrodisiac. Her breath is like sweet candy. And her touch is making me go rock hard. I’m going to lose it before I can lay her down on this floor and lick her from one end to the other.
Did she just say blood?
I look around and spot a mirror. In two swift jumps I make it over and start frantically examining myself. It’s not blood, it’s lipstick.
How the hell am I going to explain this one?

Grace

T
here is an
adorable dog that is glued to my couch and a strange, but beautiful, man freaking out by my mirror.
Things could be worse.
I walk over to him to see if I can help assess his damage and the look I’m faced with is of embarrassment mixed with a little apprehension. He turns back to the mirror, licks his finger and starts to wipe off this crimson stuff that is streaked down his face, when a huge sticker on his back catches my eye. I try to stifle a laugh.

“What’s so funny,” he says as he whips back around.

I’m trying so hard not to go full on belly laugh at him. “There is this sticker on your back…”

He frantically tries to turn so he can look in the mirror
. Poor guy can’t see it any way he positions his body.
“Where is it? What does it say?”

I lose out to the bubbling from deep in my throat. I’m now laughing so hard that I cannot speak. “It says ‘Beat Me – Whip Me – Make Me Beg.”

“You’ve
got
to be
kiddin’
me!” He walks slowly back over to my couch and plops himself across from where his dog is sitting, throwing his head back in the pillows at on the couch and slinging his arm over his eyes. His dog looks up for a moment and then goes back to his rest position.

I can’t catch my breath and my stomach starts aching because I just can’t control my laughter.

“Grace, this isn’t remotely funny.”

I walk to the kitchen and dampen a couple of paper towels, then walk to where he is pouting and start wiping off his face and neck. I can now see that it’s a waxy like substance, almost like lipstick.
Lipstick?

“I bet you are wondering why the hell I look like I’ve gone a round with a rabid, lipstick wearing raccoon.” I can tell he’s dreading tell me about what happened.
I’m going to enjoy this.

Suddenly his phone rings. He answers. “You will not believe me when I tell you.” I can hear the other voice say something about kidnapped or passed out in a gutter. “Man, I wish that was the case. I can’t talk about it right now. I have to explain it to the lady who owns the house that my dog has taken refuge in.” I hear the person start laughing. “I’ll be home soon. And don’t go down near the pool for
any
reason. It’s not pretty. Get me?” He pushes end and tosses his phone beside him.

“Well, are you going to tell me what happened?” I ask quizzically.

Already putting it out of his mind, “Excuse me?”

“Rabid, lipstick wearing raccoon.”

“I was accosted by what I assume were two crazy loons from a bachelorette party while walking Thor near the pool. An inebriated, crazy chick named Louise was trying to have her wicked way with me. She ambushed me from behind, grabbed my crotch and before I knew it I had lost my shirt, my dog and my dignity.”

Pulling off the sticker I added, “They probably thought if they whipped ya, and beat ya that you’d beg for them to eat ya.”

“Ha, Ha, Ha…Not cool!”

The smile he gives me sends little flutters to the pit of my stomach.

“Just kiddin’. So how did Thor end up ramming my gate like the billy goat gruff?”

“He must have seen a crack in their defense and took a run for it. I guess he never learned the phrase
Leave No Man Behind
. I’m so sorry about all this. Now it’s my turn. What happened to you and your boyfriend tonight?”

“Boyfriend?”

“Yea. You and that dude, Nate. You guys skipped out and I was left hanging at the bar with a fruity, chick drink.”

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. And he’s
not
my boyfriend. He has been my best friend since college.”

“Really? How can a boy be only a best friend with a woman as beautiful and sweet as you? There is no way I could be just a
best friend
to you.”

There goes my body betraying me with warmth that starts from my toes, bypassing my head and going straight to my heart. “Thank you, I think. Nate and I met when I was a freshman at college. We both had a love of music and we just started hanging out. About a year into our friendship, we received a lot of pressure from people to date. No one could understand, like you, how a boy and a girl could be best friends without benefits. One night after going out with friends we thought maybe we were just ignoring something that others saw in us. That’s when we kissed and instantly we knew that we could never be intimate. It was like kissing my brother. No sparks. No ooey gooey feeling in my soul. Like I said, I love him like a brother.”