From Lies to Promises (5 page)

As I pull in the driveway I notice both the girl’s cars. When I walk through the door, Skeigh ambushes me. “Get changed, we are headed to TJ’s! Ms. Bran nearly bought one of everything in the store. Drinks on me.”

  “You two go ahead I have school tomorrow.” I say as I pass them and head to my room to get comfy. I get my shirt over my head when I notice them both in my doorway looking at me expectantly. “What?”

  “Don’t act like we don’t know your school schedule front to back. Your first class doesn’t start till ten in the morning. So get ready and on the way over we want to hear all about your day.” Lexi remarks.

  “Fine, I’ll go to TJ’s, but really my day wasn’t that interesting. I picked up Jamie
and we went to that spot next to the river we like.” I lie. Yea, so I ran into Ryder and the guys from last night. It wasn’t anything special, and yet again I am hoping that it was coincidence and I won’t see them again.

“Kat,
I gave Dave my number before we left the party last night.” Skeigh’s look is suggestive.

  “And?” I ask. Skeigh raises her eyebrow and nods her head.
“Fine, turns out that Jake’s family own mine and Jamie’s slice of heaven and…”

“No, get dressed you can tell us in the car.” Skeigh interrupts.

  As they turn to walk out the room I shout, “You are just going to have to wait on me to get out of the shower. Unless, you like having a tag along that smells of worm guts!” Feeling triumphant, I walk into the bathroom and shut the door a little harder than necessary. I strip down and throw my hair into a bun. I know the longer it takes for me to get ready, the longer we will be out tonight. I’ll just wash my hair when we get back.

***

When I am semi ready, because I was rushed, we walk outside and climb into Lexi’s car. She owns a new convertible and for Lexi it is a contradiction to her personality. Everyone who knows her would picture her driving a SUV seeing as she is really conservative, but this is her way of saying ‘I have a wild side’. Once we sit in the car she lets down the top. That gets a complaint out of Skeigh from the backseat about how the humidity is going to make her hair go ‘poof’. You would think since it is the first week of October that there wouldn’t be any humidity, but it’s the south and there is humidity even in the dead of winter. Once we get going down the road Skeigh leans forward, “Ok, spill it. Dave text me and told me he ran into you there, but I was busy with Ms. Bran and couldn’t text him back.”

 
Oh well, here goes.
I tell them everything from the time that they pull up till the time I leave. I don’t tell them about Jake’s comments, because if I did that would mean I would have to explain about what happened the night before. So I just tell him he is a complete ass, and could care less to see him again.

“Ok, so you didn’t say that you wouldn’t mind seeing Ryder again. Come on, tell me you got his number
and are going to call him up soon to get a piece of that!” Shameless Skeigh.

“Um, no.” I feign innocence. It’s not like I didn’t think about
it.

“Skeigh, leave her alone when she is ready to quit being a prude and get laid
, she will.” Lexi says seriously, then burst out laughing along with Skeigh.

“Wow, y
’all really think that I am a prude?” I say as we pull into TJ’s Parking lot. They don’t say anything as we climb out of the car.

“No, Katrina we don’t think you are a prude really. We just think it would be good for you to
… you know, let off some steam.” Lexi smiles as she says it and walks to the front of the car and we all walk in together. “Well, shit. Our table is taken.”

“Oh, jeez. This table is just as good.” Skeigh says rolling her eyes.

“I am going to find TJ and let him know we are here.” I put my phone down on the table, then head to the office at the end of the hall. All the walls in the bar are made of this rough wood that almost looks like the bark from the tree more than the actual wood. It makes the place pretty dark and the hallways to TJ’s office has little to no lights. The door is shut to his office. I knock on it, but the answer I get from the other side is a few grunts and glass shattering. First thing that pops into my head is someone is in there trying to steal from the safe. So what do I do? I open the door. It takes me a minute to comprehend the scene. TJ has his pants pulled up but they aren’t buttoned and he is holding them with his hand. In the same hand he is holding a bright pink bra. As my eyes travel from his waist I notice that he doesn’t have a shirt on, then he takes his free hand and runs it through his messy hair.

“Hi, there Kat. So. Um, What ya
doing here?” TJ says as he stands there awkwardly. There is movement to the right side of the room where the desk is, and low and behold I find a topless blond standing there holding her boobs with her hands. She is trying to cover them but they are filled with so much silicone, her hands leave little to the imagination.

“Well, Skeigh wanted to celebrate a big sale that she had today
at Sinful. I came back here to tell you we were here, but when I knocked it sounded like someone had broken in your office. You know what, I’ll just see you out there when you two get decent.” I step out of the room and shut the door back. I am almost to the end of the hallway when TJ yells for me.

“Kat, hang on.” It takes him two steps to get to me with those long legs.

“You can put your shoes on, but not a shirt?” I ask as I point to his boots.

A smile slowly starts to appear on his face when he say
s, “They were never off. I know you have heard of doing it with your boots on.” Then he winked. I don’t know how long I stood there with my mouth hanging open. Hell, I didn’t even realize it was till TJ reached forward and shut it for me. “I’m sorry. I thought I locked the door.”

“Why are you apologizing? This is your bar, it’s your office that I walked into.” I was a little confused, if anything I should be apologizing. Matter of fact, “I am the one who is sorry.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” TJ straightens
his back going on the defensive side. His eyes though, I may be crazy, look as if I hurt him. I raise my hands up and start to tell him that’s not what I meant at the same time he leans into my space.

“Wow
, you move fast.” I look over TJ’s shoulder to see that Blondie is now dressed and walking passed us. “Call me when you’re done babysitting.”

When I take my eyes off her retreating form and back at TJ I notice he never looked away from me.
His smile comes back, and I notice that the palms of my hands are warm. They are on his hard chest.
Holy mother of Pearl.
I yank my hands back and cross them over my stomach.

“You didn’t have to do that.” He says through hooded eyes.

“Didn’t have to do what?” My stare now on the paneled walls.

“Stop touching me.” He grabs my chin and turns it to him. “I don’t bite. That is unless you want me to.”

“Yea, I mean no, no. I’m just, um, going back to sit with the girls.” I take a step backwards, “Get a shirt on and get us some drinks, before Skeigh climbs behind the bar to start making her own.” With that I turn and flee back to the safety of my friends. TJ has always made it known that he wasn’t into to me more than a friend. So, why was he apologizing? And what was with the whole ‘you don’t have to quit touching me bit’?

“What took you so long?” Skeigh ask while pushing me my margarita.

“I see you already took it upon yourself to get us drinks?” I smile and take a drink. “Anyways, when I went to get TJ I ended up interrupting him and some blonde getting it on in his office.” I laugh out.

“I guess he is back to his old ways.” Lexi states.

“I don’t think he ever stopped to be honest. I just think he kept it under wraps.” Skeigh looks at Lexi with her eyebrow raised.

“Wait, what are you two talking about?”

“My brother is what you call a man whore. Or he was, I thought he put that behind him a while back. I haven’t seen him usher any skanks from his office in a couple years. Guess not though if you just walked in on him and Janice.” Lexi says. She lets out a sigh and picks up her wine.

“We saw her walk out from the hallway, but assumed that she was coming from the bathroom. She was his number one.” The snarl that Skeigh has on her face is her usual ‘I Don’t like that girl’
look. Which is on her face most of the time, because with the exception of me and Lexi she doesn’t like other girls. We all turn our heads when TJ takes his spot behind the bar. He says something to the waitress points to us and walks back to his office. A few seconds later she comes over to our table.

“I have been informed that anything you girls want tonight is on the house. My name is Sam just holler when you finish your drinks and I’ll bring you another round.” She says it like we just kicked her puppy, before going back behind the bar. We normally don’t take the
time to learn any of TJ’s waitresses’ names because they never last long enough.

“I guess that is my dear brother’s way of making up for you having to witness such a travesty.” Lexi finishes her wine, “Sam, could you be a dear and bring me another glass of wine?”

“Lexi!” Skeigh and I say in unison.

“What, that was polite.”

  We have another round while Skeigh tells us all about her awesome new customer. She explained that she is a major journalist for this new magazine called Strong Women. It covers topics about how woman can be empowered to go after their dreams, and things they can do to make them happen. This Ms. Bran goes around the country interviewing women that have made it happen, and ones that have struggled and been through some awful things in their life but come out on top.

“I wonder who she is doing a story on here? Maybe, it’s about your shop. Wouldn’t that be
great!?” Lexi’s grin is practically from ear to ear when she looks over to Skeigh.

“Sadly, it isn’t about me. However, she did say that she was going
to have someone come out and do a spotlight in the magazine and feature some of my clothes!” Skeigh explains.

Skeigh tells us that in the next week or two a woman will come down with a few models. They will have
Skeigh dress them, then a photographer will take some pictures. While that is going on the journalist will be interviewing her about how she comes up with the ideas.

  It’s nearly midnight by the time we get home, so I wash my hair and change into my pajamas. Once I climb into bed and plug in my phone I notice that I have two unread text messages. The newest one is from TJ saying he was sorry again, and hated that I walked in and saw that. I just ignored it and went to the other one. It was received at eight o’clock and I don’t recognize the number.

I made Yoda blush today. Let me keep my promise, and let me take you out ;-)

As I read that simple text, I blushed.

              The next morning my phone teases me, begging me to pick it up and text Ryder back while I get ready for school.
Damn text.
I ignore it. I finish getting dressed, grab a cereal bar and water from the fridge and am out the door. The girls have already gone, which is good because if they weren’t they would know something was up and would pester me till I told them that Ryder wanted me to go out with him. Then would have insisted that I text him back. I really want to, I mean what woman wouldn’t. With Ryder’s ethereal good looks and body that was made just for women to ogle. I haven’t been able to pin point what it is about Ryder that calls to me.

 
The few relationships I have had over the past few years have been ok, they were nice. Up until the end when they realized that I wasn’t as normal as I made myself out to be. So of course they broke it off, saying they didn’t need my shit. It’s a good thing I never fell for them, but Ryder is different. I can see myself falling head first over a damn cliff, and he would just end up walking away from me like all the others.

  I make it through my first cl
ass pretty easily without daydreaming of Ryder, and what it would be like to actually give in and go on a date with him. When I leave the classroom my stomach rumbles informing me that I need to grab something to eat. Instead of going to my car I decide to walk. It isn’t unbearably hot today and The Burger Shack is just down the road. It’s got the best burgers and fries in town, with has a nice area outside to sit and eat with a good view of the park. The line is fairly short today so it doesn’t take long for them to get my order ready. I grab my basket, and start towards a small table closest to the park. Once seated, I grab a book from my bag. I figured I might as well get some reading done for my next class.

  “Greek and Roman Mythology. Interesting, I figured you would be reading some smutty romance novel.” I jump at the sudden intrusion of my reading. Then turn in my seat to
see Ryder standing behind me with his hands in his pockets. He then walks by me and takes up residence in the other seat at the table. “So, were you going to text me back eventually, or are you going to make me beg you?”

  “I don’t read smut books
, this is for school.”
Really. What the crap Kat?
“And it seems that I don’t have to reply back to you, apparently you have excellent tracking skills.”