Tangled (37 page)

The visible exhaustion saddling her
shoulders derailed his irritation. Her straggly ponytail lay lifelessly down
her back. She smelled of grease fires and onion rings. Features wan, she looked
about ready to pass out. Something told him it only dealt partly with her time
on the job. Adonis joined her on the couch and drew her into him. “Tell me
what’s wrong,” he murmured.

Resistant at first, eventually she caved
and slouched into him like a rag doll. “Just tired.”

The words ‘quit’ burned on the tip of
tongue. For a second, he considered buying the entire franchise just so he
could fire her or at least adjust her wages to an amount that satisfied him.
Fuck ethics. His moral compass hadn’t been calibrated in years. “What can I do
to make it better?”

She attempted a smile. “Nothing. I’ll be
ok.” Her burbling stomach broke the silence.

Adonis scowled. “When did you last eat?”

“I don’t even remember.”

The muscle in his jaw twitched, wanting
to argue but knowing it wouldn’t change anything. “What do you want?”

Tess yawned. “I’ll be fine.”

“You know, I’m getting really tired of
hearing that.” She protested as he heaved her to her feet. “Get changed. We’re
getting food.”

“What? No,” she whined, wanting to sag
back into the couch. “I just want to go to sleep.”

“You can sleep after you’ve eaten
something.” He started unbuttoning her shirt. “So get changed or I’ll do it for
you.”

Glaring at him, Tess slapped his hands
away. “I’ll get something from the fridge.”

“There’s nothing in the fridge.”

Grumbling, Tess shucked off her work
clothes and withdrew some bum clothes from the overnight bag she kept in his
closet. “I hate you,” she said once fully dressed.

 
“I hate you too. Let’s go.”

____________

A few minutes after midnight, there
weren’t a whole lot of places open. Unfortunately most of the pubs and eateries
around campus stayed open later on weekdays for those pulling all-nighters. Tess
tried not to be annoyed with him for strong-arming her into going out for food.
She would’ve been fine with a burger from a fast food joint.

Adonis wouldn’t have it, asserting her
diet was shit.
 

So what if she lived off cups of noodles
and old pizza.

Who
anointed and crowned him the health guru?

Still,
Tess kept her trap shut. He was trying to be sweet and supportive. He didn’t
understand the unstated separation of work and play. After work,
she—along with everyone else who worked in the food service
industry—wouldn’t be caught dead in another restaurant in her off time.
Tess was around food all day. She didn’t want to clock out and be around more
food.

All
she wanted to do was crawl in bed next to him and sleep. In sleep, she could find
rest from the tumult of her thoughts; an escape from the void that plagued her
waking hours.

After parking, they headed into one of
the lower key cafés on campus.

“What do you want?” he asked.

Stifling a sigh, Tess scanned the menu
that never changed and picked the Mediterranean turkey sandwich with a bowl of
potato soup. “Get a table. I’ll place the order,” he said decisively.
 

He was gone before she could locate her
wallet. She hated when he did that. Tess looked around and grabbed a booth next
to the fireplace, mostly because she was still half-frozen from the walk up the
hill.

Adonis joined her minutes later.

She passed him a crumpled ten.

He stared at the bill, his features
metamorphosed with rage. “If you don’t
get that
shit
out of my face.”

“I don’t need your handouts.”

“It’s not a fucking handout. It’s me
treating you to dinner. Can I do that, Tess? Or is it a crime to be
considerate?”

Her head began to throb. She dug her
fingers into her temples to work the tension from her skull. “Ok. I’m sorry.
I’m just exhausted and grumpy.”

“No shit,” he said, but his face
softened. “I know it’s a lot to ask of your pride, but let me take care of you
once in a while.”

He knew her too well. Emotion welled in
her chest. “Thank you, Adonis. Really.”

“That’s what boyfriends are for, I guess,”
he shrugged nonchalantly.

Beneath
all of his arrogant posturing was a heart of gold.

Well,
perhaps not the entire heart. More like kidney’s worth. But that was more than
she could say for a lot of people.

Tess smiled. “Is that what you are? My
boyfriend?”

Adonis glared at her, clearly not wishing
to go into detail on the matter.

Her phone vibrated. Her pulse leapt as
she unlocked her phone and deflated at the text from her brother.

“She hasn’t returned your messages yet?”
he asked, voice low.

Not trusting herself to speak, Tess shook
her head once.

“Then stop crying and do something about
it,” Adonis said brusquely. “If you want your friend back, work for it. Pick up
the fucking pieces and put them back together.”

He was right. She’d fallen into passivity
and so far it hadn’t worked for her.

God, what was she becoming?
 

What happened to taking the life by the
horns?

Before she could respond, someone called
out his name.

Tess looked up as an attractive,
pouty-lipped girl strode up to their table, her long-lashed eyes only for
Adonis. “Hey.”

“Sandra,” he drawled her name, leaning
back. “What’s up?”

“Did you catch the assignment for
Professor Billings gave us? I had to leave early.”

Tess watched his interaction with the
girl. Although Tess couldn’t call foul just yet, she posed her questions with a
kittenish smile, her stance coquettish yet open to invitation. Adonis didn’t encourage
her worshipping, but neither did he appear turned off by the subtle
eye-fucking
she gave him.

Neither did he introduce her as his
girlfriend.
 

She wanted to think what they shared
transcended pettiness. It had to.

During their sabbatical from the real
world, she’d never given thought to the consequences of dating him; of the
hoards that would try
their
hardest to lead him
astray.

She’d always been aware of his magnetism;
of the way girls became spellbound in his presence, trapped in the netting of
his beauty, his innate sensuality. He could turn the most levelheaded, rational
woman into a blithering, weak-kneed
fangirl
.

In the past, she hadn’t cared. About him
or his whores.

And now she was one of many.

The feeling nauseated her.

In all of the time she’d known him,
Adonis had never been with someone longer than a month. His taste in women was
as extravagant as his money-spending habits. All of them had been beautiful, rich
debutantes. How could she hope to compete? If she hadn’t chanced upon his
secret would they still have connected?

What would happen if that spark that made
their chemistry so incendiary died? How long would it take for boredom to
strike?
And then what?
Would they gradually resume
their previous relationship? Or would she fade to nothing?
Just
another notch on his ever-expanding bedpost.

Jealousy burned in her gut as the girl’s
dark waterfall of hair swished vibrantly with laughter.

How long until her usefulness outlived
itself?
Until he found someone else to confide in and share
his burden?

Insecurity lingered long after the girl
finally departed.

Tess lay in bed, Adonis’s sleep-heavy
breathing warming her neck. Her head pounded with exhaustion and yet she found
herself unable to submit. Sighing, Tess slowly lifted out of the bed and padded
down the stairs to the kitchen.

A dark figure rummaged through the pantry.

Tess cut on the light.

His head jerked up, the top of his head
slamming into the shelf. Riley pulled out with a string of Gaelic expletives and
glared blearily at her. “Thank you for that,” he said, his brogue thick with
drink.

“You’re very welcome.” Tess glanced at the
time. It was almost two in the morning. “Bars closed?”

“
Y’know
it.
But, its ok.” He resumed ferreting about until he emerged with a bottle of
whiskey. “I got reserves. Join me?”

Why the hell not. It wasn’t like she was
going to sleep any time soon. Tess gathered a few cups and plunked herself at
the table. “Why are you hiding whiskey in the pantry?”

“It’s me super secret stash.” He winked
and poured her a quarter of a cup. “What’s the
craic
?”

It took a beat for the expression to
compute. “Nothing. Can’t sleep. How was your night?”

Tess sipped from the cup, warmth filling
the cold crevices of her soul as he regaled her with his exploits.

He must’ve noticed her distraction
because he stopped mid-story and stared at her, his gaze uncannily perceptive.
“What’s wrong?” His blue-green eyes flashed. “What’d that twat do?”

“He didn’t do anything.” Tess knocked
back the rest of it and held out her cup for more. He obliged willingly. “Do
you think I’ve changed?”

“In what way?”

 
“In general.”

Riley scowled. “No. Why do
y’say
that?”

“Sometimes I feel like I’m becoming a
different person. Like, he’s changing me. And I don’t know if it’s for the
better.”

“If it helps any, ye do seem happier.”

Tess nodded vaguely, though it wasn’t the
answer she’d been looking for. “I just…I have a lot of things on my mind. For
one, I don’t know where we’re going.”

“
Beginnin
’ to
have doubts, eh?”

“Yes. No. I suppose.” She rubbed her
eyes. “I care for him. And I know he feels the same.
For now.
But how long is that going to last?