The Man Who Spoke My Name

I slouched on a bar stool, sipping hot coffee from a Styrofoam cup.
It was way too early for me to be awake. Ten o'clock. Usually, I'd sleep until noon, but this morning the gal I'd hired to open, Carly, had called in to say she wasn't going to make it. There was no one else around at nine in the morning, so I dragged my ass out of bed.

The television above the bar flashed the weather, but I was too busy warming my cold hands next to the coffee cup.

No one is going to come in at ten o'clock, why am I even here?

It had been a week since Dillon was here. I hadn't heard a word from him, just like I wanted. Melissa had asked what happened between us, and when I told her, she apologized for even getting involved.

“I'm sorry, Joey,” she had said. “When he said he wanted to see you, I didn't think why.”

“Then what was that smile and wave at me when I left that night?”

“Well, I just figured you two were going to talk. Not... anything else.”

That was that.

But what I thought was the end of Dillon, became something like a massive obsession with him. For the last week, I thought of him constantly. His awesomely sculpted body hovered over me, lips pressed into mine, and those two soft brown eyes, narrowed and wanton. He was so gorgeous, unforgettable, and I blew him off.

Well, it was supposed to happen, wasn't it? I wasn't bound to make the mistake of falling in love with my former bully. That would be just as bad as taking Tanner back.

Tanner... that man hadn't even crossed my mind since the night with Dillon. No. I'd spent three emotionally stuck weeks whining about my ex, only to have Dillon take away my pain. It was a different kind of hurt now. I fought to clear my bully from my memories, only to have him pop back up again at random.