Tied - Part One (2 page)

There was a slight scuffle on the other end of the line. “Aww, I hear you thinking about it.” Mallet had grabbed the phone away. “C’mon, Kathy, do it. Do it! It’ll be a party every night! And you guys can do more open mic nights together!”

I laughed. That part was definitely appealing. I’d never had much of a desire to be a performer, but I’d done a short set of songs with Alexa at a coffee shop right after Christmas and had a really great time.

“Okay, on one condition,” I said.

“What is it?”

“Don’t call me Kathy.”

“It’s a deal!” I heard him speak to Alexa as he passed the phone back. “I talked her into it.”

“Oh, my God,” Alexa said to me, “Is this really happening?”

“I think it is.” I could believe it even less than her. I was moving out. I was moving to New York to look for work and to live with my sister and her boyfriend.
And Lockett
. “Will your third roommate approve?”

She hesitated. “He’ll be fine with it,” she said, “I just feel like I should warn you. He’s kind of a player.” Alexa unfortunately knew about our kiss and knew about my little crush.

“Don’t talk about my friend like that!” Mallet joked from somewhere near her. “He prefers the term ‘enthusiastic bachelor.’”

“Don’t worry about me,” I said, “Just make sure he’s cool with it before I rent a truck, okay?”

“Okay!” She squealed so loud I had to hold the phone away from my ear. “This is so exciting!”

I held my excitement in check - there were a lot of things that could still go wrong, a lot of reasons this wouldn’t work out.

Still, very cautiously, hope began to bloom in my chest. This was a new beginning. One that I badly needed - I’d been stagnating in my home town for so long. This was exactly the kick in the pants I never even knew I was waiting for.

I wouldn’t tell my mother that. I certainly wouldn’t thank her for kicking me out. But maybe I’d buy Big Mike a six pack on my way out the door.

Chapter 1

March

“You’ve somehow managed to move with the smallest pile of things that I’ve seen yet,” my sister’s boyfriend said, “Congratulations.”

“Don’t listen to him.” Alexa squeezed me in a big hug. I was still in a daze.

All my earthly belongings were sitting in the back of that rental truck. I was with my sister in the city. I was out. I was free.

I was dizzy.

“Can we get something to eat before I unpack?” They’d suggested moving down early in the morning in the middle of the week for the best odds of finding a parking space, and I’d done it. I’d rented the U-haul, paid my aunt’s teenage sons to load it up, and I’d found a parking spot almost directly in front of Alexa’s building.

Why give it up right away if we didn’t have to? I didn’t need to drop off the truck for a few hours, still.

“What are you hungry for?” Alexa asked.

“Anything. I just want to sit somewhere, to be honest.”

“Aww.” She hooked her arm in mine. “A nice comfy booth in the diner will be just the thing.”

I tried to relax in my sister’s presence. It was so good to be with her, though sometime in the few weeks since I’d seen her, she’d gotten her bottom lip pierced. The big sister in me wanted to scold her and ask just what kind of message she was trying to send with the metal in her face and the wild style she’d adopted. Her hair was raven black with a layer of red, her black clothes were ripped and patched. Stylishly, of course, but it was still punk, still more aggressive than the Alexa I’d grown up with.

I bit my tongue against saying anything, though. I wasn’t about to start a discussion like that in front of her boyfriend. And it occurred to me that maybe - maybe - she was just being young and having fun. Hell, I must have looked so boring to them, with my loose jeans and my sky blue cardigan.

I’m going to have to be less disapproving if I’m going to live with her and get along
. It didn’t mean I had to like how she looked, though. Likely she would know better than to ask my opinion and we’d avert that subject.

Alexa led us only a few blocks away to a diner simply named All Day Breakfast. I breathed a sigh of relief once I was safely off my feet. I didn’t even look at the menu - the words were a meaningless jumble when I glanced at them.

“Are you okay?” Mallet asked. Her boyfriend was dressed more like a regular person than she was, though there was nothing “regular” about him, either - he was an MMA fighter, and apparently a really good one. Somehow the puffiness of an old bruise around his eye did nothing to diminish how handsome the guy was. I could see what my sister saw in him, though it was all just a little too exciting for me.

Alexa had squeezed in next to me and he spread out in the seat across from us. “I’ll be all right,” I said, “I’m just a little overwhelmed.” I turned to my sister. “I don’t know how you did it.”

“Did what?”

“Moved to the city right after school. No job, no plan…”

“But I did have a plan,” she pointed out, “I moved with the ex, remember?” A scowl crossed Mallet’s face at the mention of Alexa’s old college boyfriend. “And you don’t have no plan, either. You have me!”

“Us,” Mallet corrected, grinning wide enough to bare all his teeth.

“Us,” Alexa agreed. “I don’t know why you’re so excited. You’ll get to see less of me if I’m hanging out with my sister.”

“Maybe that’s
why
I’m excited.” He grunted as she kicked him under the table.

I had to crush down a pang of jealousy. I loved seeing my sister with him, loved seeing her so happy.

I’d never experienced that myself. I’d had boyfriends before, sure - with never a sober moment in any of those short-lived relationships.

“Did you get your new chip yet?” Alexa asked as if reading my mind. I smiled. We hadn’t always had much of a sisterly bond and it had been my fault. I was glad that we were correcting course, now.

“I do,” I said, pulling it from my pocket. The green pokerchip read “6 Months.” I felt pride and shame all at once.
One day the shame will fade
, I reminded myself. I still had a ways to go.
But it’s getting better.

My sponsor had encouraged the move when I’d told him. He worked in the city himself, so I wouldn’t need to find someone new. That was a relief - that was one less change to adjust to.

“Congrats,” Mallet said, though he was obviously uncomfortable with the sombre turn in the conversation.
Boys
. I stuffed the chip away. “We have to throw a party, you know.”

“We don’t have to throw a party,” Alexa said.

“Is that any way to welcome your sister?” he asked. “We can’t not have a party.”

“We can so
not
have a party,” she said, though she was grinning. “When can we do it? I’m working through the weekend.”

“Tuesday.”

“Who parties on Tuesday?”

“Uh, anyone who’s anyone.”

I listened to their banter with half an ear. Truthfully I could have done without a party. I would have preferred to celebrate with an ice cream cone and a tour of the neighborhood. I didn’t need much else.

They were dead-set on the idea, though, and by the time we’d shared some french fries and onion rings and left the diner, they already had a grocery shopping list planned.

I didn’t recognize the man waiting by the truck at first. He wasn’t bundled up like any sane person at the beginning of March ought to be and he was partially hidden behind a tree.

But I knew who he was right away once he stepped out into the middle of the sidewalk.
Rob Lockett
. The man - the player - with the body to die for and the most addictive kiss.

My third roommate.

“What’s up, Riley sisters!” he called, though we were still half a block away. Other pedestrians barely glanced up at the outburst, though they gave him a wide berth as they passed.

His hazel eyes drank me in, so intense I nearly stumbled. He crossed his arms over his chest, baring those dark, winding tattoos and those thick muscles. He was so diabolically tempting, so devilishly perfect. Even the as the breeze brushed through his light brown hair, it fell into the perfect windswept sweep.

The mere sight of him was enough to set my pulse racing.

I knew right then that I’d made a mistake. And now, with the truck full of my belongings and my sister bouncing on my arm, I knew it was too late. I was stuck.
God help me.

○●○●○●○●○

I couldn’t fall asleep that night. I was exhausted, emotionally and physically, but the strange sounds and surroundings set my nerves on edge. I was in my own bed, surrounded by my things, but this wasn’t my room. This wasn’t my home.

Not yet
, I told myself,
I just have to get used to it
.

The sounds of traffic weren’t helping matters. I’d lived in the suburbs my whole life, where crickets would sing me to sleep at night, not engines and horns and sirens.

Finally, I sat up. The room was too damn bright, too. I hadn’t hung any curtains yet and I had streetlamps and the moon and the buildings across the street casting light through my window.

I’d never lived away from home, before. I’d stayed in a hotel every now and then for short trips and vacations, but I’d never really lived anywhere else.

It wasn’t that I felt unsafe. It was just all so… unfamiliar. And the unfamiliar was uncomfortable, at least for me.

Sighing with frustration, I got up and quietly slipped out into the living room. The apartment was dark and quiet. No one else was awake as far as I could tell.
Maybe some infomercials will help me doze off
.

I was sitting cross-legged on the couch and flipping through the channels when I heard a russling sound.
Just neighbors or pipes or something
. I’d always lived in a house, there were all sorts of new noises I was going to need to adjust to.

Awareness didn’t put me at ease, though. I heard shuffling above me, a distant, dull thud somewhere to the right, a trickling through pipes somewhere hidden from view.

A hand descending on my shoulder. I yelped and scrambled back. Panic gripped my chest and the scream that built in my throat was trapped inside as I rolled onto the floor.

“Whoa!” A deep voice chuckled. It took all of a breath of a moment for me to realize who it was - Lockett. I hadn’t even heard him leave his room, I was so intent on ignoring every strange sound I could hear.

I placed a hand over my racing heart. “You scared me!”

“Got you good, too.” He hopped over the back of the couch like it was nothing and sank onto the seat, one arm lounging lazily across the top. “Did you hurt yourself?”

I stood. “No.” Just my dignity. I straightened my t-shirt and returned to my seat, squeezing myself against the arm of the couch, as far from him as I could manage. “You could have warned me.”

“Sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry. He sounded like he was trying not to laugh. I tucked my knees up against my chest - I wasn’t wearing a bra and I was afraid he’d be able to tell, despite the darkness. “Can’t sleep?” he asked.

“Yeah. It’s… noisy.”

“You’ll get used to it. Everyone does.”

“I know.” I squinted at him - my eyes had been adjusted to the light of the television and it was hard to make out his features. I could tell that he wasn’t wearing a shirt, though, and I quickly looked away. “What are you doing awake?”

‘”I’m a night owl at heart.” I tried to pass him the remote but he shook his head. The infomercials droned on. “So,” he said, “What brought you here?”

“The couch?”

He chuckled. “New York.”

“Oh. My sister?” I thought that she or Mallet would have mentioned my getting kicked out.

“I know that.”
Oh.
“What do you want?”

“What do you mean?” I shifted in my seat. I could think of a few things that I didn’t want to say out loud right then.
For you to kiss me again
.

“Everyone who comes to the city has some big dreams, right?”