Nina Levine - Fierce

“I don’t have a type, brother.  She’s got a hot ass, a great rack and I bet there’s a sweet pussy to go with all that; I’d say that’s my type.”

He shrugged my hand off his arm and walked towards Harlow.  I sat back down and observed.  Harlow was wearing a short denim skirt and a tight black tank top with a shitload of necklaces again.  I could do without those necklaces; they blocked the view.  While Nash chatted to her I took in the way she twirled her hair between her fingers as she listened.  He would have her under his spell within minutes; he was a smooth motherfucker.  She laughed.  Yeah, brother, home run.

As they continued to talk, Madison and J came outside, carrying the meat I’d brought with me.  J looked at me and jerked his head towards the barbeque to indicate he wanted my help.  I met him there and muttered, “Madison doesn’t intend on having these things too often, does she?”

“Fuck, I hope not.  The last thing I want to be doing on a weekend is entertaining her stuck up work friends but you know what your sister is like; when she wants something to happen, it fucking happens.”

“Time to put your foot down, brother, and say no.”

“And risk getting cut off?  Not fucking likely.  I’ve been cranking the shank for long enough.”

“You’re a pussy.”

“You wait till you rely on one woman and then let’s see how quick you are to ever piss her off.”

“And that’s a good reason to never rely on one woman, J.  Relationships aren’t for me.”

He chuckled.  “One day, brother.  One day you’re gonna fall and I can’t fucking wait to see it.”

I ignored him and moved on to discuss Indigo business.  J had lined up more manager interviews for next week; we were desperate to find someone for the job so we could spend less time fucking about with the day to day running of the joint.  When Storm bought Indigo, it was purely as an investment opportunity; there was a manager in place and we wanted nothing to do with running it.  We just wanted to collect the cash at the end of each month.  Now it had turned into one gigantic headache.

We finished cooking the meat and I carried it over to the table where Madison had set the food up.  Stoney was deep in conversation with the three chicks he’d brought with him, although one of them was distracted by Nash and Harlow who were still standing inside talking.

“Nash, time to get your ass out here and eat,” J called out to him.  Harlow turned her head and surprise crossed her face when she saw me.  She quickly gave her attention back to Nash but after saying something to him, they both looked at me.  I decided to join their conversation.

Walking towards them, I said, “How do you know Madison, Harlow?”  I slid the door open and took a moment to appreciate the curves that Harlow was made of.

“My eyes are up here,” she said.  I ignored the tone she took with me.

Meeting her eyes, I said, “You didn’t answer my question.”

“That’s because I like to look someone in the eye when I’m speaking to them.  Madison is a customer at my Mum’s café.  She loves the coffee.  So does her brother.”

What the fuck?  “I’m her brother, sweetheart.”  I hadn’t realised that Madison and Blade were spending that amount of time together.  “Blade’s our half brother.”

She looked like she was connecting dots in her mind.  “So you’re the brother who owns restaurants and is best mates with J.  Yes?”

“Shit, let me guess, you know our entire family history too.”  Why did women feel it necessary to share so much with each other?

Nash chuckled.  “Madison likes to talk, brother.”

“No, I don’t know your family history.  What’s wrong with knowing a couple of things about a friend’s family?”  She was peeved.

“I just don’t understand why women talk so much about private shit.”

“It’s because we like to get to know each other.  I don’t understand why men don’t talk at all.”  She folder her arms across her chest and I dropped my gaze to take in the cleavage on display.

“We do; we just don’t waste breath on bullshit.”

Her face was ablaze with annoyance.  It was hot, and it fucking turned me on.

“Are you always this much of an asshole?”

“Oh, baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Nash snickered.

“No actually, I think I’ve seen enough.”  Her voice was coated in ice.  She gave me one last dirty look before pushing past me to go outside to Madison.  I zeroed in on her ass as she walked away, imagining what it would look like without that skirt covering it.

“Fuck, I’ve never seen a woman dismiss you like that before.  She either hates you or totally wants to fuck you.  I’m going with the hates you option because I’m betting she actually wants to fuck me, not you,” Nash surmised.

His words faded into the background as I continued to track Harlow’s movements.  Nash was right; women didn’t fucking walk away from me.  But more to the point; I didn’t chase them, so I diverted my gaze away from her and looked at Nash.  He was watching me with a smirk on his face.

“What?” I demanded.

“Like I said, I’ve never seen a chick walk away from you, but I’ve also never seen you make the effort to check one out.  You got a hard on for that one?”

Scowling, I said, “Highly fucking unlikely.  She’s got a hot ass but there’s plenty of hot asses out there for the taking.”

He laughed.  “Whatever you say, brother.  Whatever you say.”

I ignored him and looked at J who was motioning for us to come and eat.  “Let’s go and eat and get this over with.  The sooner the better as far as I’m concerned.”

* * *

“Madison told me you’re still dealing with that cat and Michelle,” J said midway through lunch.

“Yeah, the bitch is high all the time and has no idea what’s going on with her daughter or her cat.”

Madison leant over to Harlow who was sitting next to her.  “That’s the cat he brought into your work.”  We’d worked out the connection between us all, but Harlow still looked confused.  She was sitting across from me and was eyeing me strangely.  It looked like she had something to say but wasn’t sure how to say it.

“Spit it out,” I said gruffly.

“Spit what out.”

“Whatever the fuck is running through your mind right now.  Looks to me like you’ve got something to say.”  Jesus, she’d been shooting me filthy looks all lunch and my patience was wearing thin.  I lived my life one way; if you’ve got something to say, then fucking say it.

She huffed, displeasure clear as day on her face.  “I’m just confused as to why you leave your child with a woman who is high.  And your cat too.”

Anger flashed through me at her judgmental attitude.  I leaned forward and stared her hard in the face.  “You should get your facts straight before you go shooting your mouth off.  For one, Lisa isn’t my kid.  Two, that cat isn’t mine either.  And three, the last place I would leave Lisa, if I could help it, would be with her own fucking mother.”

Surprise flared across her face.  “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh is fucking right.”

“Scott..” Madison tried to shut me up.

I shoved my chair back and stood up.  “Yeah, I’m out.  Thanks for lunch but I’m going to go.”

“I’m sorry, Scott.  Please don’t leave because of what I said,” Harlow apologised but I didn’t really want to hear it; people had one shot with me and she’d said more than enough for me to work out the kind of person she was.

“I’m not leaving because of you but I’ll be honest; I’ve got no interest in anything else you have to say.”

Her eyes widened and Madison sucked in a breath.  She looked pissed off with me.  “Fine.  Go.”  Yeah, I was in my sister’s bad books again but it was a place I was familiar with.

Without even bothering to say goodbye to J, Nash or Stoney, I left through the side gate.  I stalked to my bike, gripped by anger, but I wasn’t sure who the anger was directed at.  And my suspicion that it was actually directed at myself only served to annoy me even more.

Harlow

I sat in stunned silence.  Scott had just stormed out of Madison’s get together, because of me.  I was mad at myself for causing this to happen, and really freaking shitty that I’d judged him incorrectly and actually voiced my thoughts out loud to him.  It was so out of character for me to do that.  I was the kind of woman who thought stuff about people but never had the guts to say it to their face.  Keeping the peace was high on my agenda in life.  For me to say what I’d said to Scott was so far out of left field for me that I was sitting here stewing on it and trying to work out why I’d opened my mouth.

Everyone else had just carried on as if nothing had happened after he left.  This also surprised me.  Not one of them got up and followed him to try and get him to stay.  The more I thought about it, the more I felt the urge to go and catch him before he left, and apologise again.

I quickly stood, grabbing Madison’s attention as I did this.  “What’s wrong, honey?” she asked.

“I’m going to go and apologise to Scott again.  I feel awful about what I said.”

She waved her hand dismissively.  “Pfft, don’t worry about him.  Scott’s a moody bastard; it’s best just to let him go when he’s like this.”

Well that would explain why no-one was going out of their way to stop him from leaving.  However, I still wanted to try apologising again.  “No, I’m just going to see if he’s still out the front.  I won’t be long.”

I followed the path he’d taken when he left, and hurried out the front.  When I saw him sitting on his bike, I felt both relief and apprehension about approaching him.  His face was a mask of anger and the moodiness that Madison spoke of was rolling off him.  I stalled for a moment, but then threw caution to the wind and walked to where he was.

He must have heard me because he whipped his head around and turned his angry eyes on me.  I held up my hands in a defensive gesture.  “Just hear me out, okay?”

A minute passed as he contemplated this and then he nodded.

“I truly am sorry for what I said, Scott.  Yes, I presumed you were Lisa’s father and Monty’s owner.  Yes, I thought you were a shitty pet owner for not bringing him in sooner.  And, yes I presumed that Lisa’s mother was your partner and that you were happy to leave Lisa with someone who was high all the time.  Which then led me to the conclusion that you were a crappy father and human being -“

He cut me off.  “Is that supposed to be a fucking apology?  Because if it is, it’s the worst one I’ve ever heard.”

“No, this is the apology bit.  I’m sorry that I judged you.  You have no reason to believe me or even care, but I’m not usually this judgmental.  In fact, if you were to ask any of my friends or family they would say I was the least judgmental person they know.  They would also tell you that I never, ever speak my thoughts like I did to you.  I have no idea what came over me today.”

He held up his hand to stop me.  He didn’t seem as angry anymore.  “As far as I’m concerned, you should always speak your mind.  I’m not pissed that you did that.  But as for judging me, yeah, that shit me.  However, I’ve been sitting here thinking about it, and as much as I fucking hate to admit it, I can see how you could have come to the conclusion you came to.”

“So, apology accepted?” I asked, pushing him.  He didn’t seem like the kind of man to easily accept an apology.

He hesitated for a moment.  “Yeah.”

He gave me a one word answer, and yet it felt like he’d given me something rare.  I didn’t know Scott well enough to know for sure, but I sensed from his body language that he didn’t really want to give what he’d given.

I waited for him to get off his bike but instead, he moved to put his helmet on.  “Are you still leaving?” I asked, and realised that I wanted him to stay.

He stopped putting his helmet on and gave me a pointed look.  “I don’t do get togethers.  Only came to this one because Madison would get pissy if I didn’t, and Madison in a pissy mood isn’t worth the headache.  You gave me a good excuse to leave.”

I laughed.  “Glad I could help you out then.”

“Yeah, thanks for that.”  There was a hint of humour in his voice and he sat watching me for a minute.  Finally, he put the helmet on, turned on his bike and took off without a backwards glance.

I stood on the footpath for a long time staring after him.  There was definitely something about Scott Cole; something that made long forgotten desires come to the surface.  As I stood staring into the distance, I realised that I’d liked it when he just sat and watched me.  His eyes hadn’t moved from mine and somehow we’d connected.  I’d felt it but I wondered if he had.  I also wondered if it was even a good idea to be thinking these things because, let’s face it, Scott was bound to be heartbreak on legs.