TWO
Brooks
I’mearly to meet Ender but I had to get out of the apartment. Being around Rae is torture.
She’s so sweet and she looks so soft. Every time I see her, I just want to grab her and kiss her but I don’t think that she would like that. I can just picture her rejecting me, looking at me like I’m insane, and then I spend the rest of my life trying to avoid her.
I think I should try to start this roommate thing off on a better foot than that.
My shoulder is killing me after moving boxes and clothes for most of the afternoon. I’m lucky that Niall stopped by. The other guys at Eye Candy Ink offered to help too but they all worked today and I didn’t want to wait until the shop closed to start.
My phone rings as I rub my shoulder and I wonder if I should cancel on Ender and go home to ice it. I check the screen and smile slightly when I see that it’s my friend Jasper calling me.
“Miss me already?” I joke as I answer it.
“Not at all,” he deadpans back and I laugh.
I stayed with Jasper when I first got back to the States. He was back in Rosewood, Colorado, for his father’s funeral and I stayed for a couple days to help him get his house ready to sell. Jasper and I were both trying to figure out what to do now that we were out of the military.
Jasper ended up staying in Rosewood with his now-fiancée, Evangeline, while I came up to Pittsburgh for a change of pace.
So far, I like it more than the small-town life, but I still don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life.
I’ve been working out at King’s Gym with a few friends and trying to get my shoulder and left side back to a hundred percent. I have savings, so I still have time to decide what I want to do for a career.
“What’s up?” I ask Jasper as I stop at a crosswalk.
“Not much. Evangeline is having a girl’s night, so I thought that I would call and check in on you.”
“I’m doing good. I just moved into my new apartment today, so I’m working on getting unpacked.”
“You moved in with that girl, right?”
“Rae, yeah.”
“How is she?” he asks.
“Good. I don’t know her super well but she seems cool.”
That wasn’t entirely a lie. I don’t know Rae as well as I would like to and she does seem cool. I want to tell Jasper that I want her, that I’m trying to think of how to ask her out without making things awkward between us.
“How’s your shoulder and ribs?” he asks me.
“It’s getting better. Training has been helping me get more strength back.”
“That’s good.”
I know that Jasper gets it better than most. We were both injured while overseas and spent some time at the base in Germany healing before we came back to the States. Jasper hurt his shoulder too and it’s been nice to have someone to talk to that is going through the same shitty thing as you.
“I was thinking about coming up for a few days to see Niall, you, and Ender,” Jasper says as I cross the road.
“Yeah? I’m actually on my way to see Ender right now. We’re going to grab a beer.”
“Tell him I said hi and I’ll see him in a few weeks.”
“Do you have dates yet?” I ask him as I see the bar sign up ahead.
“I’m thinking the twentieth to the twenty-seventh.”
“Okay, let me know when you get your ticket and I can pick you up.”
“Will do.”
“I’m at the bar now, but I’ll talk to you in a few days.”
“Sounds good.”
We hang up and I head inside the bar. Ender is already there and I head over to join him. Ender has already ordered me a beer and I clap him on the back as I take the stool next to him.
“Have you been waiting long?” I ask him, and he shakes his head.
“Nah, I just got off work and walked in to order before you got here.”
“How was work?”
He shrugs, taking a drink of his own beer.
“How was the move?”
I shrug back and he grins.
“I just talked to Jasper. He said he’s thinking about coming up here at the end of the month for a week or so.”
“Cool. Is he staying with you?”
“Probably his brother, but I didn’t ask.”
Ender nods again and I take a drink.
“How’s Rae?”
Ender has always been able to read people better than most, so when he asks me that, I wonder if he knows how attracted I am to her or if he’s just being polite.
“She’s good.”
He studies me as he raises his bottle to his lips and I look around the bar.
It’s a hole in the wall place with wooden floors and brick walls. It’s only about halfway filled with people but it’s clean and the service seems fast.
Ender is still staring at me and I sigh.
“Yeah, so I’m into Rae.”
“I know. Every time we’ve hung out as a group, you can’t stop looking at her.”
I wonder if she’s noticed.
Do I want her to or not?
“It’s funny though because you look at her and she looks away and then when you look away, she looks at you. You just never seem to look at each other at the same time.”
I’m not sure what to make of that, so I stay silent and pick at the label on my beer bottle.
“Why don’t you ask her out?” he asks when I stay silent.
“I just moved in with her. What if she says no or we do go out and it’s a train wreck? Plus, I’m like a decade older than her. She’s got her whole life ahead of her.”
“And you, at twenty-nine, are washed up?” he asks me sarcastically and I roll my eyes.
“I just mean that we’re at different points in our lives. I doubt that she would say yes if I asked her out, and I don’t want to make things weird.”
“Do you really think that that’s going to happen?” he asks me and I pause.
“I don’t know.”
He nods and then changes the subject. He knows me well enough to know that I don’t take unnecessary risks. Not since I joined the military and definitely not after the accident.
“How’s training going? Are we going to be going to your fights soon?”
“No, I’ll leave that to Niall, Finn, and Jameson.”
Ender grins and I roll my eyes.
“How’s the side?” he asks, nodding to my left side.
“It’s getting there.”
We start to talk about him and his fiancée, Cat. He’s head over heels in love with her and I’m happy for him. I’m glad that all of my friends are happy and in love but it makes me feel like everyone is settled, except me.
I think about Rae again. She’s so beautiful. She’s got curves for days and this big, beautiful smile. She’s my opposite in a lot of ways. I’ve got dark hair and she’s got platinum blonde. My eyes are light blue and hers are a dark hazel color. She’s bubbly and makes friends easily, whereas I’m more reserved.
“I was going to go volunteer at the veteran’s hospital on Saturday. Think that you’d want to come with me?”
“I didn’t know that you volunteered there,” I say as I turn to him.
“I just started. I wanted to give back in some way and they have a new program where you can help as they train service dogs.”
“Sure, I’m in. What time?”
We make plans to meet on Saturday and order another round of beers. He tells me about the tattoos that he did that day and I tell him about working out at the gym.
By the time that we leave, my shoulder is killing me and I know that I’m going to have to go home and ice it.
“I’ll see you Saturday,” Ender says as he heads over to his car.
I wave goodbye and start to walk home. The apartment is only a couple of blocks away and it’s a nice night. The walk helps me clear my head and as I let myself into the apartment, I’m ready to shower and fall into bed.
Then I walk past the couch and see Rae curled up on it. The TV is still on and I lean over, turning it off before I go back and scoop her up in my arms.
My shoulder protests but I can’t leave her sleeping like that. She’ll wake up with a sore neck.
She smells like oranges and paper and I take a deep breath as I head into her room and gently lay her down on the bed.
She sighs as her head hits the pillow and then rolls over on her side. I smile as I cover her up and take one last look at her before I head down the hall to my own room.
I take a quick shower, dig through the boxes in my room until I find my own pajamas, and grab an ice pack from the freezer before I lay down in bed.
As I close my eyes, I swear that I can still smell Rae and I smile as I let sleep claim me.