I sputtered as I looked down at my candle and saw that I’d essentially just made a wax dildo. There wasn’t a wick in sight.
The women erupted again and my booth turned to mayhem as the sales part of the night started and I had to work. I twisted and turned, trying to spot the guys as I did, but I never managed to spot them.
11.
***
Ian
***
“Well.”Adamjoinedme and Jayden outside of the booth, away from the crowd of women who seemed way too ready to grab dick-shaped objects. He rubbed his face and let out a quiet laugh while shaking his head. “What the fuck was that?”
I pulled a piece of gum out of my pocket and slowly unwrapped it. I’d given up smoking years earlier, but I still had to do something with my hands if I was just going to stand around and talk. “Thatwas Violet.”
Jayden grunted. “Pretty much.”
The three of us fell into a comfortable silence, each lost in our own thoughts. My mind was on the sexy redhead in the booth next to us, but I figured theirs were, too. I knew that they were both from her past, and it was more than clear that they’d both happily be in her present. That was too bad, because Violet opening a line of communication with me after years of radio silence gave me the green light I needed to go for it with her. We had unfinished business.
“So, this could get weird.” Jayden sighed and stood up straighter. “I’m assuming you’re both exes, too. And judging by the expressions on your faces, both of you are interested.”
“Yep.” I nodded and rubbed my beard. “You too, obviously.”
“Yep.” He laughed, surprising me. “I want to be pissed, but I fucking get it. That woman is like a disease that sneaks in and changes your DNA without you realizing it until it’s too late, and you’re following her around like a goddamned puppy.”
“Or you’re standing naked in front of a room of touchy women with an erection.” Adam joined in on the laughter. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Violet.” I grinned, despite myself. “I’m glad you jumped at the chance to strip down before I could. I’ll end up doing business with half of those women, or their husbands, and I’m not sure how I’d do that if they’d seen my bare ass.”
We were quiet for another few minutes until Adam broke the silence. “Is this the part where one, or two, of us back down and go home?”
Jayden looked between the two of us and shook his head. “Not unless it’s you two.”
“Not a chance.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and went back to scowling. “Things didn’t end right with us.”
“Didn’t end right?” Jayden scoffed. “I told her I loved her, and she moved away.”
Adam frowned. “Seriously? She moved away when I told her how much she meant to me.”
“I asked her to move in. She movedawayinstead.” I shook my head and glanced towards her booth. “She did that same shit to all three of us?”
“And yet we’re all here, willing to get naked for a chance to see her. Like I said: she’s a disease. A beautiful, smart, funny, sexy-as-fuck disease, but still.” Jayden suddenly smiled. “I won’t lie. It does take the sting out a little to know she did the same thing to you guys.”
“I’m not there just yet, but I’m working on it.” Adam met my stare and slowly nodded. “Okay, I’m there. If she left your ass, I don’t have to feel so bad. It wasn’t me, after all.”
I laughed. ‘Thanks?”
“You’ve got that broody thing women go crazy for.” He saw that Jayden and I were staring at him and shrugged. “I wasn’t much of a reader until Violet came along. She helped me get my GED and made me practice my reading fluency using her romance novels. That shit sticks with you. I know way too much about brooding men and all that shit.”
I smiled down at my boots. He’d managed to make me like him, and Violet, more. “She made me get a dog. I mean… Not really. I got the dog after she left, to prove that I could do it, or something. I don’t know. I got the dog as this protest, and it didn’t occur to me at the time that I was going to be stuck with this little asshole for the rest of its life. It also never occurred to me that dogs couldbeassholes.”
“I saw Vi have a full conversation with my dog the other morning,” Jayden said. “She snuck out, of course. I looked through my security footage to make sure she was good when she left, and I saw it. She insulted my choice of name to the dog’s face and then told him he had poor manners. She was somehow even awkward with a dog.”
“All right, so you already got a jump at spending time with Vi.” Adam stared up at the ceiling and then looked back down at us. “What do we do here?”
We didn’t manage an answer, because women started pouring out of the booth, winking at Adam and doing cutesy little finger waves at us. They all had bags dangling from their arms, and I felt a sense of pride for Violet. She hadn’t quite found her way when we’d been together, but it seemed like she was doing what she loved and doing well at it.
We made our way into the booth and stood out of the way as Violet finished with her last customer. The two women talked with their heads together, but their voices traveled through the booth.