Social Neighbor (The Social Series Book 1) (31 page)

Graham

Netflix And Chill

T
wo weeks had come and gone with Flor at my penthouse every day, and sometimes I felt like I really had something rare and beautiful and full of potential with Flor, but reality kept rearing its hideous face in my direction to remind me that I was living in a fleeting bubble of happiness.

She waited expectantly for me to give her what she knew I was hiding. I caught her leading conversations in the direction where she thought there might be something to confess. I wished I could give her that much. I wished I could reveal my ugly truth to her. I wanted her to know and I loathed the day she discovered the severity of my depravity. Every time I buried my cock in that silken heat, I felt like a thief. I had no right to her. She’d given herself to the man she
thought
I was. She never would have given herself to the real me. I was a recovering alcoholic, a careless asshole who wasn’t there for his brother when he needed me most, and now, a liar.

Every time I indulged in her sweetness, half of me fell for her a little more, and the other half of me felt sick and repulsed by the grave I kept digging for myself.

What will she say when she finds out? What will she think?

There was this hour glass somewhere in the back of my mind and sand kept right on slipping through my fingers despite how much I tried to capture it and hold it captive. Our routine was the same just about every day. Flor came over every morning, if she hadn’t stayed the night. She shared breakfast with me, usually something she tossed together in my kitchen. I loved seeing her in there. She was so natural and comfortable and at home. It gutted me. The blunt-tipped knife of reality and impending doom gouged deeper by the day, slowly carving me out.

Carrying on day to day this way was taxing. It was more than taxing. Alcohol had never been so tempting and simultaneously vulgar. The hardware holding my tibia and fibula in place wasn’t helping either. I was more than ready to have the fucking thing removed. I’d been to the doctor and the infection that had settled in one of my pin sites had been resolved by antibiotics, thankfully, but x-rays indicated that the fixator needed to stay put for a while longer. I never imagined I would say it, but I couldn’t wait for a normal cast to be applied.

Martin wasn’t helping my predicament either. He’d expressed worry over my mood as of late and I hated that he knew me so well. I hated that he had wisdom from firsthand experience with some of my demons—demons that we had in common. He had an uncanny ability to read my moods and body language. It always left me feeling exposed. Instead of capitalizing on my loyalty and wisdom, I’d been hiding from him. He’d invited me out for lunch and dinner multiple times. Each time, I declined citing various reasons. He and his wife invited me to his annual sobriety party and I had yet to RSVP. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t feel up to it. I felt inextricably trapped by my own thoughts. Flor was both my angel and my hellhound. She saved me and she showed up like a bounty hunter coming for a convict. Halley tried getting me out, though her tactics were classic Halley. She reminded me that we had multiple businesses to run and oversee the management of and I was a dead weight on her. She’d threatened and snapped and snarled and I smiled and nodded, which only pissed her off further. Cheap entertainment. Con gave it a shot too. I bought him two season passes to the Yankees game for his fifth year working for me. He wanted to go to a game. I gave it a moment’s thought but declined in the end. Flor mentioned her father’s birthday party, which was tomorrow, Saturday. If there was any one person I’d do anything for, it was her. I wasn’t thrilled about going but then again, I was. I would have a night with the woman I had fallen for. The idea of meeting her father set me on edge, though.

“Hey, handsome.” Flor breezed into my office with a garment bag slung over her shoulder, the garment within.

“Hey to you, too. What do you have there?” I asked, pulling myself up from my office chair and braced myself on my crutches.

“A dress,” she replied with a teasing glimmer in her gray eyes.

“Can I see it?”

“You will tomorrow.”

I rolled my lip out in protest and she laughed a sweet, melodic noise that I was so very addicted to. I tried to ignore the growing feeling that I’d soon be without that sound.

“Did Conrad get your tux from the cleaners? The tailor altered the one leg. He sewed in Velcro. He promised me it wouldn’t even be noticeable.”

“Yes, though I think I’m going to look like an idiot with only half a pant leg hanging open, flapping in the wind on one side,” I said looking down at the dreaded contraption that I was more than tired of lugging around.

“No, you won’t. You know you don’t have to go if you don’t feel up to it.”

“Do you want to go alone?”

“No. Of course not. I just mean, if you don’t want to stuff yourself into a tux and walk around on your crutches, then you don’t have to.”

“I’ll go. I want to see you in whatever’s in that garment bag.”

“We won’t stay long. Just an appearance.”

I nodded and smiled but it wasn’t sincere.

“Come here,” I ordered as I sat back down in my office chair. I was eager to distract myself from the train of thought that had been gnawing at me all day. Flor draped her dress over the back of the chair in front of my desk and dropped her bag in the seat. “We should Netflix and chill soon. Want to Netflix and chill?”

“I’d love to watch Netflix and chill. Your stupid list is exhausting.”

“What should we watch?” she asked, though I knew she hoped it would be a chick flick from her list. I much preferred a comedy or an action movie, but I knew well I’d watch whatever she wanted because I didn’t plan on watching at all.

“It doesn’t matter, we will be Netflix-ing and chilling.” A roguish grin spread across my lips and the light bulb came on. Her gray eyes widened and her mouth popped open.

“Wait! What does that mean? Netflix and chill,” she asked, pulling away from me.

“Let me show you. Step by step. See it starts like this…” I pulled her forward until her body was flush against mine. “Then, the next step is this.” My fingers curled around the back of her neck and tangled in her silky hair. “Then you…do…this…” I tugged her hair gently, tilting her face upward. I leaned forward, my lips covered her soft mouth and she melted under my touch. My mouth moved against hers in a gentle but demanding kiss and she fell instep with me. I broke away from her and kissed her softly once more.

“I didn’t know that’s what that meant,” she whispered in a hushed voice.

“Still want to Netflix and chill, baby?” I asked as my hand slipped down her back and cupped her perfect ass.

“How’d you know what that meant?”

“Facebook,” I confessed as I leaned in and claimed her mouth with mine again.

“Of course.” Wrapping her arms around me, she buried her face in my neck and I inhaled the scent of her.

Flor

One In The Same

A
s I spent more and more time with Graham, I spent less and less time at my own apartment. It was just as well though. Matt hadn’t been around much either. He and Cal were really starting to get pretty serious—pretty committed. I loved the fact that my best friend had finally found someone who seemed to keep his attention and his heart. I also loved the fact that neither one of us felt guilty for not being around to hang out. It was a win-win.

When I’d gone home that morning to retrieve my makeup and the jewelry that I’d planned on wearing that night to my dad’s birthday party, I stopped at Tommy’s place to check for anything Graham might need or want.

The small apartment was eerily quiet. Evidence of Graham was all over and it brought a smile to my lips. It seemed like just yesterday that my awful neighbor was playing wall ball, and it also felt like so much had happened, too. It had. My life over the last several weeks went from mildly boring to exciting and full of anticipation for what was to come.

I had managed to survive childhood, or Graham Stone’s version of it. I wouldn’t admit it to him, but checking things off his list had been fun. The little girl in me loved experiencing all the things that she was deprived of all those years ago.

I took a look around Tommy’s apartment and regretted that I’d never meet the man. I regretted it and I felt truly sad for the man that seemed to mourn his loss on a daily basis. I still didn’t understand why and suspected that his secret, or secrets, directly pertained to Tommy and his death. That was my best guess. Tommy had committed suicide so I couldn’t think of any reason for Graham to have secrets regarding Tommy, but that had to be it. What else could he have to hide from me?

I grabbed the only thing I could think to bring back with me and locked up Tommy’s apartment. I made a mental note to try once again to get Graham to open up to me. I couldn’t keep trying to coax it out of him the way I had been. He was stubborn and wouldn’t budge when I led our conversations to topics that I suspected might harbor his big secret. Enough was enough.

Graham was wiping his face with a napkin in his kitchen when I arrived at his penthouse.

“Hey, Goliath,” I said, heaving my backpack up onto his counter.

“Having trouble there, shrimp? Need to eat your Wheaties. Build some muscles.” He flexed his arms in an exaggerated way.

“Funny,” I said dryly. “I don’t need muscles. That’s what I keep you around for.” I smiled.

“I knew it!” He smacked his thigh and pretended to be wounded by my confession.

“My backpack is so heavy because I stopped by Tommy’s apartment on the way over and brought his DVDs.” I unzipped my backpack and went to work tugging the thick binder of movies from inside my backpack. “Thought maybe we could watch—” I looked up from the binder to see that Graham’s playful mood had evaporated.

“What?” He swallowed. His dark eyes squinted just a bit.

“I brought the DVDs from Tommy’s apartment,” I whispered, realizing that the look on Graham’s face wasn’t a good thing. “I was just thinking that maybe tonight, after the party, we could watch a movie.” My voice was small and feeble.

Shit.

“I don’t want to take things from Tommy’s.” He shook his head, making a single lock of obsidian strands fall forward over one brow. My palms itched to smooth his hair back and kiss his lips and apologize for being so presumptive.

“I-I’m sorry. I just thought…” I didn’t know what else to say. It was clear that I had crossed some invisible boundary line and I wanted to kick myself for not asking him first. I was being intrusive. I should have known better.

I had only one thing that once belonged to Elle and I guarded it with my life. That tatty old blanket stayed tucked away in the safety of a plastic shoebox in the top of my closet because I would never risk something happening to it. I also didn’t want to see it every day. It hurt too much, and the temptation to bury my nose in the old cloth in search of the scent of baby lotion that had long since faded was too much to tamp down. I can’t fathom seeing an entire household full of her things on a regular basis. It would be impossible to bear.

Why does he torture himself like that?

“I shouldn’t have done that. I know better. I’m sorry. I’ll take it back.” I averted my eyes and went to work shoving the binder back into my bag. God, I was an idiot.

“Flor, wait,” he mumbled. His head hung and he seemed torn, and the last thing I wanted was to make him feel guilty for my stupidity.

“Hey, it’s okay,” I said as I came to stand in front of him. I ran my hand down his arm tentatively. “I’m sorry, and I get it. I should have asked.”

“It’s a habit. A bad one. I shouldn’t be so protective of his stuff. I just… Sometimes when I consider clearing out some of the old stuff over there, it feels really final and it scares the shit out of me.”

“I get it.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to act like that.” He shook his head and tucked my hair behind my ear like he so frequently did.

“Hey. I said it’s okay and it is.” I held his face in my palms and brushed my lips across his, hoping that I could sate him for now. I broke away from him and smudged away my lip gloss from his bottom lip. “Sorry.” I laughed. Graham smiled and licked his lips dramatically.