Shit. I don’t like her vouching for me at the risk of her job. It makes the pressure to do well intense, and considering my past, I’m more likely to fuck up than excel.
But Benny actually considers her offer and then sticks out his hand to shake on it. “All right, you’re in charge of him. If he messes up, it’s on you.”
I’m so glad they had this conversation in front of me. Jesus. And the lustful look he gives Avery is enough for me to want to clock him in the face. But I keep my composure, knowing Avery is risking a lot on me right now, and the last thing I should do is pay her back by punching her boss in the face.
“Thanks, Benny.” She stands, and Benny checks out her ass when she’s not looking.
“Ready to get started?” Avery asks me, scooping up a few pieces of candy from a dish on the desk on her way out.
I nod then say thank you to Benny for the opportunity before following Avery out of the office. She tosses a candy at me while we’re heading down the stairway. I catch it, unwrap it, and pop it into my mouth, watching as she does the same. We don’t say anything until we reach the bottom floor again. Then I snag her arm and stop her before she continues down the hall. Her back presses against my chest and the vanilla scent of her immediately overwhelms me.
“Why did you do that?” I ask, fleetingly shutting my eyes as I bask in the suppleness of her skin beneath my fingers. “Vouch for me like that and risk getting fired?”
She shivers, but then quickly slips her arm from my hold. “I don’t really think Benny is going to fire me—he likes me too much.”
“Yeah, clearly,” I reply dryly as I open my eyelids. “He was practically undressing you the entire time you were in there.”
She shudders, repulsed. “And, also, I know you’re going to do well, so I don’t have to worry.”
I laugh sardonically. “Do you not remember how only a couple of days ago I had a bag of”—I lower my voice as I lean in—“meth in my pocket?”
“Yeah, but you didn’t do it, so I’m not worried. You’re doing awesome.” When she sticks out her hand for a fist bump, I tap my knuckles against hers. “Just like you’re going to do awesome with this job.”
I want to tell her about the neighbor and his threats just to prove how wrong she is about me, but then I realize that, in doing so, I would make myself look bad. I don’t want to look bad to her anymore, not when she just got me a job. So I keep my lips sealed and let my training for my first legal job begin.
***
The training continues for the next three weekdays. Sometimes I’m paired with another waitress, including Charissa, the woman who coaxed Avery into going out back with me the night we kissed. It’s a fairly easy job, and the pay is good enough that I should be able to give my neighbor his hundred bucks with my first paycheck. However, when Friday rolls around, Avery warns me that the easiness of the job is about to get intense.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this? Because I can ask Benny if I can help you,” Avery says as we hike down the dirt driveway toward her Jeep parked on the road with several other vehicles. She’s getting ready to go home, leaving a few hours earlier than when I have to leave. Each day we part, I find myself missing her more even though I get to see her at work.
“I’ll be fine,” I reassure her. “I’m a natural, remember?”
She smiles yet still seems apprehensive. “But it’s going to be a super intense night, and I just don’t want you to feel… I don’t know, overwhelmed.”
“Of course I’ll be fine.” When we reach the Jeep, I open the door for her. “I’ve been doing well the last three days. The job is actually pretty simple.”
“Yeah, but—”
“No buts,” I interject. “But it is super cute that you’re concerned about me.”
“You’re such a dorky flirt.” Strands of her long, brown and purple hair come loose from her ponytail as the wind gusts from behind her. The sight makes me stupidly breathless.
We’re supposed to be friends. Just friends. So stop. She doesn’t want you like that.
“Dorky flirt?” I press my hand to my chest, my dank T-shirt sticking to my skin. “How your words wound me.”
“Oh, whatever. You totally get off on stuff like that.” She combs her fingers through her hair then puts it back into a ponytail. What I wouldn’t give to touch her hair, to be allowed to touch her… for her to want to touch me… the things we could touch… But she doesn’t want you like that.
I shake the dirty images from my head. “That I do. Although, I get off more when you say stuff like that to me.”
She grips the edge of the door and peers up at me through her eyelashes. Whether the move is on purpose or not, I have no idea, but it’s sexy as hell and fills me with the all-consuming urge to jerk her against me and devour her with my mouth.
My dirty mind has been running wild lately and only increases when I’m near Avery, like now. She doesn’t have a drop of makeup on, her skin bare, eyes flawless, lips utterly perfect. God, what I would give to kiss her again, this time without her stopping me. These thoughts make the friend thing complicated because she’s made kissing completely forbidden.
I’m drawn to Avery for so many reasons. The magnetic pull I felt with her in the beginning grows more powerful each time she smiles at me, does something nice for me, or just simply laughs at one of my jokes. I keep telling myself it’s a good thing, though, that she has her rules since the last thing I could ever be is a good boyfriend, no matter how much I wish I could be. It’s not like learning a job. I can’t simply learn to become a guy who loves a woman unconditionally and gives up everything to be with her. That’s not the way it works. Well, except for maybe with Nova and Quinton, but those two are weird.
“Tristan, did you hear what I said?” Avery angles her head to the side, her expression tinged with concern.
I dazedly rip my attention away from her mouth. “Nope, not a clue.”
Her fingers skim across her lips, as if she knows what I was just imagining doing to her. “I asked you if you were doing anything next Sunday.”
“Why? Are you going to ask me out on a date?” I laugh at my joke, the noise getting caught in my throat when she doesn’t join in. “Oh, my God, you were, weren’t you?” I’m struck speechless.