Flaw (The Flaw Series) (6 page)

“Oh, I think it’s in my room. Sorry, I didn’t hear it,” I apologize, wiping a hand over my heated skin.

Becca looks at my face and then over at Jordyn, who is slipping her feet back into her heels. Her eyebrows raise and she swallows. “I see you guys met. This is the guy I’m always talking about.
My
Aidan,” she says possessively.

Josh walks in next, stressed out and apologetic. “Sorry, sorry. Everything blew up today and I know this doesn’t make me look good. I swear I’m usually on time.”

“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t mind waiting at all.” Jordyn looks over at me before getting up. She walks over and extends her hand out to Josh. The two of them begin talking in the kitchen and Becca scoots over, directing my attention towards her.

“You’re not wearing your glasses. I’m surprised.” She eyeballs the beer in my hand. “Guess you feel comfortable with Jordyn.”

Jordyn makes me feel anything but comfortable. Knowing she’s in the room still has me all worked up. Becca snuggles in next to me on the couch, lifting my arm up so she can tuck her body under it. Over her head, I glance back over at Jordyn. Our eyes connect and she gives me a quick smirk.

Becca sits back up, blocking my view. “Let’s go watch TV in your room and let them talk alone.”

I’m reluctant to leave the room but allow Becca to take me by the hand, leading me back into my bedroom and shutting the door. We watch TV wrapped up closer than usual. Becca’s arm is thrown protectively over my chest;
that’s something new
. I hear the talking in the front room end and hear the heavy front door close. Jordyn’s gone. My heart rate slows back down. The comfort of being with Becca takes over.

“You never mentioned her before,” I say, giving my chin a quick scratch.

“Who? Jordyn?” She sits up in the bed, her eyes piercing me with a questionable stare. I’m sure it’s all over my face, the reason I’m asking. Her hand combs through her hair and she scrunches her nose up. “I don’t know. I probably never mentioned her because she’s a stuck-up bitch.”

I wince as she crashes back down into my ribs, landing hard. Becca’s either threatened or jealous. The notion of either one of those two things is ludicrous. I’ve just been cooped up too long in this apartment and receiving any attention from a girl who’s not Becca just had me curious. That was all.

We go back to watching the TV, Becca dozing off next to me. A few shows in, my heavy eyelids takeover and win.

Deep in my dream, I’m back in the front room with Jordyn again. The sexy brown hair flowing, being blown in a breeze. She slides off her black heels but doesn’t stop there. The buttons to her blouse get slowly opened and she lowers the skirt down, stepping out of it to walk towards me. My hands slide around her waist, pulling her in close against my body. I let my hands wander up and allow them to explore. She opens her red lips, releasing a sweet sounding noise and I’m jolted awake.

Becca’s backside is pressed into my morning wood and my hand is underneath her shirt, cupping her breast.
Shit
. I remove my hand immediately. She’s slept in my bed many times but nothing like this has ever happened before. Damn dream. Is she awake? Is she aware of what I just did? Backing away, I inch over as far as I can in the bed. She stirs gently and then turns over to face me in the shadowy darkness of my room. Without saying a word her fingers reach out, landing on my chest, slowly making their way down. I try to move her hand away to stop whatever this is, but she fights free and keeps going. Once she reaches my boxers, her fingers slip in and I feel her grasp me. She moves her hand, easing the aching I woke up with.

“Becca, don’t,” I say through strained breaths.

“Shh.” Her hand moves faster. The act is very mechanical. No kissing, no other touching, just this. I close my eyes away from this moment and land back in my dream. I take her hand away and finish the last few strokes myself, ending with a quiet shudder. We don’t say anything and after a few minutes she gets up and leaves the room.

Holy fucking shit
.

Josh

“Jordyn mentioned you a few times tonight,” I say into the uncomfortable silence of our living room. Instead of the close snuggling Becca and Aidan usually engage in while we watch TV, Becca is sprawled across my chair and Aidan sits off to the end of the couch farthest away from her. “Said she thinks you would be great at the door.” She also made a few remarks about a body like his going to waste, but I keep that to myself. Becca already looks upset about something. Did they have an argument?

“Hmm.” Aidan smirks, his eyes never leaving the TV.

“Is that something you would consider? Working at a bar? I thought you said you would never step foot in a bar again,” Becca quips. The first words spoken since I’ve been in the room.

“No, she was just being polite. She was offering Josh a job and probably felt bad for me so she mentioned offering me one, too.” Aidan picks his beer up from the coffee table. “But you know, I was thinking about maybe signing up for some courses and going back to school.”

I go to tell Aidan that’s awesome but Becca jumps up from her seat and starts going off. “I’ve been trying to get you to go back to school for over a year now. Looks like ten minutes with a pretty girl has changed things.”

“I think you may be right. I know when I woke up this morning things were certainly different than they had been,” Aidan barks before taking a sip of beer.

I’m not following anything going on but Aidan’s comment shuts Becca right up. I focus my attention on the TV, nursing my beer, pretending I’m oblivious to the tension filling the room.

Becca gets up, leaving the apartment, slamming our door behind her. Aidan gets up from the couch and surprises me by going into his bedroom instead of chasing after her.

I wait a few minutes and when it’s obvious Aidan isn’t coming back out to go over to Becca’s, I quietly leave our apartment to cross the hall and knock on her door.

She opens the door, obviously expecting Aidan, not me, to be standing there. “You all right?” I ask.

“Yeah.” She opens the door wide so I can come in. “I don’t know what the hell that was. We don’t usually fight like that.”

“How long have you guys been together?” This is my first time in Becca’s apartment. Very colorful, vibrant paintings on the wall, an orange couch with green toss pillows and it’s much neater than I pictured. The same setup as ours only I know she has just the one bedroom.

“Want a drink?” she asks, ignoring my question. Maybe I had no right asking it. I lift up the beer I’m still holding onto from our place. She laughs and takes a bottle out from a cabinet above her fridge. “I meant a drink, drink.” She holds up a bottle of vodka.

I place the beer down on her coffee table and nod my head. She pours two glasses and hands me one, clinking my glass into hers before drinking. One sip of sweet tasting alcohol and I’m confused. I force the liquid down my throat. “I thought this was vodka.”

Becca twists the bottle to face me. “Bubblegum flavored,” she says and laughs. “Want more?”

“Nah, I think I’m good.”

“So tell me all about your first day at work. Did you like it?” She fills her glass again.

“Yeah, it was more just like training tonight. I’m gonna be behind the bar but I won’t be making drinks just yet. I gotta work up to that. For now I’ll just take the drink orders, get beers, fill sodas, grab the money. They said it’s mostly just beers that people order anyway. Oh, and you want to hear something weird? Know how we saw Patrick Daniels the other day? His brother is in one of the bands that Jordyn and her dad hired to play. He’s gonna be there next Friday for the first time.”

“Kent?” Becca scrunches up her nose. “That is so weird. Probably means I’ll be seeing Patrick and his new girlfriend again. Lovely. Maybe I can say more stupid stuff and make a fool of myself.”

“Stop, who cares about them?” I hadn’t thought about it, but she’s right; I’ll probably be running into every damn person I went to high school with. Not to mention a bunch of girls who know me as
Joe
. I can see some not-so-fun times ahead.

“Was
Jordyn
there tonight? What do you think of her?” I pick up on a hint of an attitude as she says the name Jordyn. “She’s really beautiful, isn’t she?”

“She’s average at best,” I say. Jordyn is pretty but since meeting Becca, the bar has been set to a higher level. I’m looking for someone who stands out, is different from the rest.

“Really, you don’t think she’s gorgeous with her long brown hair and glowing eyes? I thought you’d be all over her. Figured I’d be making her pancakes by tomorrow morning.”

“No more pancake breakfasts. I learned my lesson.” I hang my head, wishing she hadn’t witnessed what she did that morning. “By the way, are you the one eating all my chocolate chips?”

“Sorry. Aidan told me not to, but I can’t seem to stop myself. Every time I’m in the apartment I grab a handful and munch on them. Okay… .” She bites her shiny lower lip. “Maybe a couple of handfuls.”

I have to smile at her honesty. “I do the same thing. They’re addicting. I’ll call my mom tomorrow and tell her when she shops for me to pick up a few extra bags. Actually, I might just go there tomorrow. She needs to do my laundry. I can tell her then.”

“It must be nice,” she says, sighing and rolling her eyes.

“What must be nice?”

“Having everything handed to you. I have to work my butt off just to pay for this dump and I’m up to my eyeballs in school loans. One night last week the chocolate chips I stole from you were my dinner.”

“What? We have a freezer filled with food that you can help yourself to anytime you want.” If I had known that, I would have been forcing her to eat with me every night. From now on maybe I’ll insist that she does. “Please eat whatever you want, whenever you want, you’ll be doing me a favor. My mom is always after me to eat more, this way she’ll think I am.”

Becca shakes her head and laughs. “It’s so funny how much your parents still do for you. I mean, you’re twenty one, right?”

“I can admit I grew up very spoiled.”

“Very,” she agrees. “I come from a big family. I’m the oldest of five kids. I don’t know, maybe that just forced me to be more independent at a young age. But I can’t imagine having my mom do my laundry or shop for me at this age. It’s weird.”

“I don’t think it’s weird. I think it’s just my mom being helpful. Besides, there are no laundry machines here or I would do my own laundry.”

“There are laundry machines in the basement,” she says, taking another sip of her syrupy drink.

“I did not know that,” I say slowly, wondering how to get out of this. “Um, but my mom likes doing my laundry and with me moving out and everything, I think she would feel bad if I didn’t bring it to her.”

“Uh-huh.” Becca laughs at me.

“Tomorrow, though, maybe I’ll do my own grocery shopping.” I think I can handle that.

“But the laundry?”

“My mom, ya know. Like I said, she likes doing it.” I give her a wide grin. “Come on Becks, baby steps. I can’t do everything all at once.”

Her laughter rings in my ears. It’s hard not to join in and laugh with her, even if it’s at my expense. She pulls at the string on her plaid pajama pants and twists it around her finger. “Want to hang out for a little bit? Watch TV?”

I take a quick breath as she pulls my hand, leading me over to the couch. We sit down and she flips through the channels until landing on something she considers good. I throw an arm over the back of the cushions and by the commercials, she’s moved over closer to where I am.

I’ve lost track of the show, more focused on Becca and if she’ll maneuver herself any closer to me. Will she snuggle into me tonight?
God, I want her to so bad
. It’s wrong for me to be thinking like this and even more wrong to want it like I do. Aidan’s my roommate. Becca’s his girl. I gotta remember that. But Becca is just so different. It’s making remembering that real hard right now.

Becca inches in those final few inches and rests her head down on my shoulder. I close my eyes, breathing in her soft scent. I only get a few minutes before a knock on the door pulls her away from me.

Becca jumps up to answer the door. Aidan’s finally decided to come after her. It sure took him long enough. Before they start talking, they both look over in my direction for some privacy. I mutter a goodnight and cross back over to our apartment.

In the darkness of my room, for some reason Tessa, a girl from high school, pops into my mind. I never treated girls right, but for the most part they all walked away unscathed, at least as far as I could tell. None of them ever truly cared about me. Except Tessa. She was sweet, innocent, and was looking for things I was never willing to give. Even though we never hooked up, I probably treated her worse than any other girl I was ever with. I really fucked with her head. She never deserved any of the shit I put her through. Of all the apologies I owe, and there’s a shitload of them, she’s at the top of the list.

I’d always been warned about Karma and how payback was a bitch. I always laughed it off. But I get it now. For the first time in my life, I think I may feel something for someone. And that someone is off limits.

Aidan

I start the awkward conversation off. “We reached a strange place this morning. What are we doing?”

This morning’s encounter had left me feeling guilty for some reason. Instead of relishing in a moment of intimacy, I’d been chasing the thought away from my head all day long. I let Becca do something to me while the image of another girl filled my mind. It was wrong. Everything about this morning was so wrong.

“I don’t know. I think seeing you with Jordyn yesterday …” Becca’s eyes gloss over. “I didn’t like it. Then this morning when I woke up and you were holding onto me like that, it felt nice.”

“I’m always holding you.”

“Not like that,” she says. “Today was different.”

“Becca, we’ve always been just friends, is there something more to us?”

She breathes in deeply, lowering her eyes. “I don’t know, maybe?”