500 Days (9 page)

“
More like she was hoping
I had a friend who I could set up with one of her
friends.”

“
No. I don’t get set up.”
I lay back down.

“
Oh come on
Cas. Do this for me.”

“
Ask Greyson.”

He glared at me. “Seriously, Greyson, we’ll
never make it past the appetizer. Casper please, it’s one fucking
night. You do this shit all the time. So you have to sit for a few
hours and actually have a conversation before you get into her
pants.” I cocked my head to the side, not amused. “And you’ll get a
free meal out of it.” He clasped his hands together begging me.

I scrubbed a hand down my face and sat up. I
was tired of looking at the pathetic look on his face. “Fine, but
you owe me big.”

“
Thank you, thank you,
thank you.” His goofy grin returned and he jumped up high-fiving
the door frame in excitement. I shook my head and lay back down.
The last time someone set me up it was the biggest disaster of my
life. So I swore never to let anyone do that to me again. I admit
I’m not picky, but I do have some standards - okay not really. I
guess I could do this for Colton. I mean, Declan was hot so I’m
sure her friend was too, but the fact that she needed to be set up
made me think she was a dog. I grunted and smashed a pillow over my
face. I was doing this for a friend. It was just one night and I
could deal with one night.

Chapter 6

Alexis

“
Who was that?” I asked
after Declan sat her phone down on the counter.

“
Colton,” she
blushed.

“
Did you finally say
yes?”

“
I did.”

“
It’s about time. That boy
was two seconds away from jumping off a cliff.”

“
Oh stop it. No he
wasn’t.” She pushed herself off the counter and searched through
the fridge.

“
So what made you finally
say yes?” I asked curiously.

“
Well, I told him I would
go out with him if he agreed to make it a double date.”

“
Who you doubling with?”
She stood up and looked up at me over her shoulder. “Declan, I
don’t have a boyfriend or a date to go with you.”

“
I know that’s why I asked
him to bring a friend.”

“
No, no way. You are not
setting me up with some loser.”

“
Alex, not all of Colton’s
friends are losers.”

“
Just for the fact you
admit he has friends that are
,
is a bad sign. Seriously, what guy can’t get a
date and has to be set up.”

“
I don’t know, you tell
me?” she challenged.

“
I don’t have to be set
up. You’re forcing me to. Do you even know who the friend is he’s
setting me up with?”

“
No,” she said
guilty.

“
Great, so he’s probably
ugly.”

“
So what if he is. Looks
aren’t everything, you even said that yourself.”

“
No, I said looks can be
deceiving, big difference.”

“
Whatever just do it for
me, okay? It’s just one night and who knows, you might even hit it
off.” The hopeful look on her face made it hard for me to say
no.

“
Fine, but I’m only doing
this for you.”

She clapped excitedly and hugged me. “This
is going to be so much fun, you’ll see.

“
Yeah, yeah. I got to go.
Jas wants me to grab him some lunch. He ended up filling that big
cancellation he had so now he doesn’t have time to get
something.”

“
Why doesn’t Jack or Jax
do it?”

“
Jax is working and Jack
is spending the day with Jacob.” She gave me a small head nod as I
made my way out the door.

I picked up a few sandwiches and pizza at
one of the shops downtown. I knew most of the other workers would
be hungry too so I just got food for everyone. When I arrived the
receptionist said I could just put all the food in the back room
and that Jasper was already working on his client. I headed down
the small hallway to their break room and froze when I saw Colby. I
hadn’t spoken to him since the night of Jacob’s graduation. He was
with the boys when they came to check out my new job but with me
working and my brothers around there wasn’t really much we could
say.

“
Hey,” I said, somewhat at
a loss for words.

“
Hi,” he replied with a
killer smile, easing some of my tension.

“
What are you doing
here?”

“
I thought I’d fit some
buddies of mine in while I was home. Jas is letting me use Carl’s
station while he’s on vacation.”

“
That’s nice of
him.”

“
Let me help you with
that.” He walked over to take the bag and pizza out of my
hands.

“
Thanks,” I mumbled. “So,
how long you in town for?”

“
Not sure yet,” he said,
placing the pizza on the table. We stood there for a moment in
awkward silence. “Um, I wanted to talk to you about Sunday
–”

I cut him off quickly. “It’s no big deal,
really. It happens.” I thought if I treated it as something that
was casual I could avoid a hurtful rejection.

“
Something you do
often?”

“
No, of course not. I just
didn’t want you thinking I thought it was something
more.”

“
Right.” His face was
confused, but before I had the chance to ask, Jasper walked into
the back.

“
Finally, I’m starving.”
Jasper took one of the sandwiches and a slice of pizza and sat down
to eat.

“
Aren’t you supposed to be
working on somebody?”

“
He took a smoke break,”
he said in between bites.

“
Did you draw me up
something yet?”

“
It’s in my room, but I
don’t know when I’ll be able to get to it. I’m booked through the
next two months.”

“
Then you can just come in
on your day off.”

“
No.”

“
Why not, you did for
Jack?”

“
That’s because he’s only
here for two weeks and I like him better.” I glared at
him.

“
I could do it,” Colby
offered. Jasper froze mid-bite and my heart skipped a beat. “If
it’s cool with you.” He looked at Jasper.

Jasper’s curious eyes met mine and I tried
to hide my excited expression. He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s up
to her.”

“
You wouldn’t care?” I
asked a little skeptical.

“
No. I know Colby is good
enough not to fuck it up and this way I won’t have you hounding me
to do it.” I wanted to jump up and down for joy, but I contained my
glee the best I could.

“
You sure you don’t
mind?”

“
I wouldn’t have offered
if I did. I’ve got tomorrow free if you’re not busy?”

“
Tomorrow’s perfect. I’m
going to go see what he drew up and then we can discuss changes if
need be.”

“
You’re not changing my
design,” Jasper complained.

“
Whatever.” I left and
headed down to his work station. His client was back in the room.
He had his back to me and was looking at all of Jasper’s work he
had on the wall. He was also shirtless and oh my, did he have a
nice figure. He was over six foot, dark hair that seemed to be a
little longer in the middle than the rest, tight, toned muscles and
jeans that hung a little low on his thin frame, and a butt that was
just so perfect I wanted to reach over and pinch it.

He must have sensed my presence because he
turned around. His blue grey eyes widened a bit before he smiled.
My smile fell when I realized who it was. It was that jerk musician
from the bar.

His eyes drifted down to my legs and worked
their way up my body and back to my eyes. The way he was looking at
me made me feel like he was seeing me for the first time. He
studied my eyes for a second. He didn’t know who I was. He has
never seen me out of uniform and with no makeup, hair down, and
wearing shorts and a tank top; it was easy for people to not
recognize me outside of work, which is what I preferred. “Sorry,
didn’t know anyone was in here.”

“
It’s okay,” he said,
still staring at my eyes.

“
I just have to get
something and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“
It’s not a problem.” He
turned back to the drawings on the wall. His normal cocky
confidence he exuded at the bar seemed to have escaped him. He must
be one of those guys who gets liquid courage. I walked over to
Jasper’s desk and looked through his things. I couldn’t help but
peek at him out of the corner of my eye. He had his one arm across
his chest while his elbow rested on his hand and the other he
rested his chin on. I caught him sneaking a peek at me and
pretended I didn’t notice, which was hard with the way he was
looking at me. I could feel his eyes on me while I continued to
look through Jasper’s desk.

“
Do I know you?” he asked,
leaning in closer.

“
Doubtful.”

He moved in even closer and I instinctively
took a step back. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t help but think we’ve
met somewhere before.”

I put my hand on his chest to stop him from
getting any closer. “Look, I’m not interested so you can just drop
it.”

“
Did I miss something
here?” He looked confused.

“
I know a pick up line
when I hear one and I’m trying to let you down easy.”

He chuckled, amused. “That was a far cry
from a pick up line.” He dropped his chin to my hand that was still
on his chest.

I quickly pulled it away. I couldn’t help
myself. My eyes found their way to his abs. It was kind of hard not
to check him out when he was standing there shirtless and right in
front of me. God this guy was cut in all the right places. My eyes
lingered a little longer than they should have and he cleared his
throat. “Like what you see?”

“
Hardly,” I spat,
embarrassed at being caught checking him out.

“
It’s okay, you can look.
I’m not shy,” he winked. So I was wrong about the liquid
courage.

“
No, you’re just an
arrogant prick.” He smiled and I found myself not able to take my
eyes of his chest and abs. I mentally smacked myself in the
forehead. I rolled my eyes and searched for the tattoo Jasper drew
up for me. He moved closer to me and when I caught his scent I felt
a small shiver go through me. Something about that scent was all
too familiar. He was just a few inches away from me now and I could
feel my heart start to race. What the fuck?

“
You know, for someone who
claims we never met, you sure have developed an opinion of me very
quickly.”

“
I call’em like I
see’em.”

He snapped his fingers as if a light bulb
just went off in his head. “Now I know where I know you from.
You’re the little red devil.”

“
Excuse me?”

“
That’s it,” he took a
step closer, backing me up against the desk. “You’re Alex, the
bartender with the attitude.”

“
I think you have me
confused with someone else.”

“
No, I’d recognize those
eyes anywhere.” His close proximity was making me slightly
uncomfortable, but oddly in a good way. What the hell was happening
to me?

“
Most guys spend half the
night staring at my tits not my eyes.”

“
I’m not most guys.” He
threw me one of his sexy smiles that I’m sure most girls just
melted over. “And thank you for proving me right.”

“
How did I prove you
right?”

“
You just admitted you
work there.”

“
No I didn – look, I don’t
know what you want from me, but I’m not interested. So really, you
can just give up. I’m not going to be another notch on your
bedpost.”

“
So you think all I want
from you is to get in your pants.”

“
I don’t think. I know.” I
searched through more papers trying to find the drawing and making
a mess of Jasper’s desk.

“
What if I told you I
didn’t want to sleep with you and all I wanted was one night with
the pleasure of your company?”

I laughed. “Yeah, because I would believe
that. I’ve seen the girls you go home with. I am not going to allow
you to put me in the category with those skanks.”

“
So you’ve been watching
me?” he asked, his lips twitching into a small smile.

“
No, that’s not…okay, I
get it. You never had a girl turn you down and now you look at me
as a challenge, but I’m gonna save you the trouble right now. Move
on and forget about it, because I will never, ever go out with
you.” He lost his spark and for a moment I thought I actually may
have hurt his feelings, but then I reminded myself he was just one
those guys who only cared when he was going to get his next lay.
“No need to get upset about it. I’m sure there’s at least one or
two girls you haven’t slept with yet that you could bag. If not
when school starts up in the fall
,
there will be plenty of willing freshmen that you
can flirt the pants off.” I gave him a sarcastic smile and patted
his chest, but before I could pull my hand away he grabbed
it.