Fuck to the no. I haven’t made love to anyone in my life, and if I wanted to make love, I sure as hell wouldn’t do anything like that with Rita, who I barely fucking know. On top of that, what I do know isn’t complimentary.
Contrary to the drama she threw down with tonight, she couldn’t give a shit about me. We never had a relationship. I met her at a bar on the tourist side of town a few months ago. At the time, I was surprised when Rita told me that she lived on the island, since I’d never seen her before. She explained that away by telling me that she’d recently moved to town and was renting an apartment in an area that bordered what locals call the Gateway to the Vacationlands. I found out later she was full of shit. Yeah, she’d recently arrived, but she’d lived on the island for most of her life.
Anyway, not knowing she was a nut but absolutely knowing she wanted to have sex, at the end of the night, I went back to her apartment. I was bored and my dick thought some casual, no-strings-attached sex seemed like a great idea.
My dick and my judgment were both wrong. Rita wasn’t no-strings-attached sex. She was a nutjob masquerading as normal, which is the worst kind of crazy. I started to figure that out when she strolled into the precinct that Monday. The moment I saw her, alarm bells started sounding. Other than the fact that we’d had sex, I knew nothing about her, so it was damn weird she showed up at my work. Especially considering I never mentioned what I did. I never told her much of anything, and it’s not like she was dropping knowledge on me either. We fucked. The end. Emotion wasn’t involved. Only that wasn’t the way she made it seem when she strolled into the station.
I’d been standing at the front desk, talking to Felicity, when Rita showed up. When Felicity grimaced like a pile of dog shit had sprouted legs and was walking toward us, I knew something was up.
When Rita saw me, she said my name all weird and breathless like she was on the set of a cheesy romance movie. She then half ran, half skipped over to me. I’d never seen a grown woman skip with glee before, and God willing, I hope I never will again. I’m pretty sure my balls crawled up and hid inside my body right about then.
When she stopped, she beamed up at me like I was some kind of god. “Tyler,” she’d murmured, her voice low and husky. “I missed you this morning.”
The siren going off in my head right then was so goddamn loud that I just stood and stared at her like a dumbass for a good five seconds as I processed her words. Since it was Monday and I hadn’t seen her since Friday, she couldn’t have missed me that morning.
When Felicity cleared her throat, I snapped back to reality.
“What’re you doing here?” I asked Rita.
I should’ve asked how the fuck she knew where I worked, but at the time, I was busy assuring myself that someone had mentioned I was the chief. Charlotte’s Cove is small; it seemed like a reasonable assumption at the time.
She’d smiled at me innocently as she stepped back. “I was across the street at the church, dropping off some donations, and I just had to drop in and say hello.”
Felicity’s snicker was not subtle. Because of that, I witnessed Rita dropping her bullshit act for the first time.
“Hi, Mrs. Falls,” she’d said, super, super loud, like Felicity was hard of hearing. Which she wasn’t. In fact, it was more likely that Felicity Falls could hear pencils hitting paper at the school down the street.
“Rita,” Felicity responded, her tone stiff. “Are you here to pay a ticket or a fine? The Cove coffers missed all the money you paid into it in the past with your antics.”
I’d never, ever seen or heard Felicity be snide or aggressive with anyone. That she was doing it to Rita said a lot.
Well, fuck, I’d thought. So much for the new-to-the-island bullshit Rita had fed me.
I learned a lot that day. I learned more in the days after—primarily that I fucked myself into this corner, literally, because I let my dick lead the way.
I have a career and a reputation to uphold, and this island is too small for me to be making waves. When I found out the truth about Rita, I also found out she’s universally despised. And yet, somehow, people will try to pull strings for her. I know this, because both the mayor and the fire chief tried to talk me into hiring her on as Felicity’s replacement. It was a firm-as-hell no on that, but the strong-arming was ridiculous, especially considering that even a blind man could see Rita was in no way qualified.