Match This! (The UnSocial Dater#1) (18 page)

“Like you said, we’ll never know. But Mom, I know he loved you.”

“God, so do I.”

The sadness in her voice is almost contagious.

“And Sam?”

She shrugs. “Sam, your Dad, and I grew up near each other. I was the only reason they were friends. Sam’s love isn’t the same. Sam’s love comes with, strings.”

“He left the priesthood for you.”

“He said he only became a priest because of me. He told me that two days after we buried your father.”

****

That night I lay in bed with a new found clarity into why Carrie, Mom, Mom-ster was the way she was.

Men, who needs them? They fuck everything up.

Juggling three cups of Dunkin’ in my hands, I unlock the door to the shop and kick it closed it behind me. That’s the problem with sleeping past ten in the morning, I just couldn’t sleep anymore and now, I’m here two hours before opening. Normally when I open on Tuesdays, I was the last person to walk out on Saturday. I know shit’s in place.

Wednesdays, depending on how swamped they were, were usually a much different story. Men just don’t take care of things like women do.

I walk down the narrow corridor to the break room and open the door to put the lunch Mom insisted on making in the refrigerator. When I close it and turn around I nearly jump out of my skin.

“Joe.” I cover my chest thinking my heart may bang out of it. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“I’m sorry dear,” she smiles. “I was hoping to be here early to have some things set up before talking to you.”

“Everything okay?”

She turns and waves her hand for me to follow her.

Josephina Steel is a couple years older than my mother but to me she appears less… motherly. Even in the days before she and her sons inherited an ass load of money, Josephina Steel was always put together beautifully.

We sit down at the reception desk and she pulls an envelope towards her.

“My sons, their wives, and my fiancé love this place.”

I nod.

“We love this place and it will always be part of us.”

“Of course.”

“There is a problem.”

“Okay.”

“We don’t believe we put in enough time here to call it ours, but we are not willing to sell it because we are selfish asses and want to be able to come,” she pauses, “home whenever we have the itch.”

I nod, because I already know this.

“But, we don’t want to profit from it anymore. We would like for it to be yours.”

“Mine?” I look at her like she’s nuts.

“You’ve been here the longest,” she says with a smile.

“Ricco has been here almost as long.” I almost snap at her. She smiles and sits back. “It’s a lot of responsibility. I don’t like responsibility.”

“Ricco will be here,” she says calmly.

“I don’t think he will.” I’m dead serious.

“We’ve spoke to him. He came to dinner Sunday night, him and Natalia.”

“Baby Momma number?” I joke.

She looks at me funny. “Natalia is his daughter.”

“Huh,” I shrug.

“You’ve never met her?”

“No.”

“He’s never brought her in?” She acts shocked which confuses me. This is work, not romper room. “It doesn’t matter,” she waves her hand through the air.

“Joe, people like you. You like people. Me being an owner, not such a good idea.”

She laughs. “Kat, you have referrals and repeat customers the same as Ricco and the boys do. I’m sure with a smile you’d have the men lined up down the street.”

“That’s the point, I don’t care to smile. Hell, I don’t like men, or women for that matter. I am not a businesswoman. I’m an artist. Being an artist means it’s okay that I’m moody and pissed off half the time.”

“It also means you’re passionate about what you do and Kat, you’re talented.”

“Hell, I won’t argue that, but the whole business owner thing, that’s not a good idea,” I sigh.

“Ricco is going through some things,” she says looking at me as if trying to figure out if I know what she’s talking about.

“He has a dick problem, a baby momma problem. I know, he gets served court papers all the time.” She tilts her head and looks confused. “Shit you didn’t know?”

She doesn’t answer the question. “When that is all said and done, he will be partner in the business and we’ll sign off. For now, it’s you and me.” She looks at her watch and stands up. “The notary will be here in thirty minutes, just sign and we’re all set.”

Before I have a chance to formulate a
fuck no,
in a way the woman I respect deserves one formulated, a little less fuck and a more stern no, she is walking out the front door.

“What the fuck just happened?” I say to… no one.

****

It’s been one hell of a day. Tattoo Tuesday, every motherfucker out there was coming in for ink, but nothing exciting. Words, feelings, phrases, blah.

The day I am forced to sign some stupid paper that literally made me feel like I was being tied down and not in a hot way, in a way that made me… responsible. It also happened to be the day I couldn’t be creative, that Ricco called Zack to tell him he’d be late, and that for some reason I wasn’t able to use getting messages from pervs to distract me in that way either.

Today sucked big hairy balls.

The phone rings at five o’clock and it’s Mom. “Hello.”

“Hello, Mace is here and we are going to meet you for Taco Tuesday.” She sounds excited, but fuck if I’m not annoyed. Did she say Mace? Did she use
my
nickname for one of my best friends and am I really so juvenile to be annoyed by this?

Maybe…

No, I wouldn’t be annoyed, that’s a feeling and feelings are nonsense. Mom is a woman. She is a woman that had shitty sex for years, Mom-ster or not, I am on her side.

“Kat?”

And she’s calling me Kat.

“Yeah, okay.”

“See you then?”

“Hey, are you driving or is she?”

“Why?” she asks.

“Just ask her if she took a 420 break.”

I hear Mom cover the phone receiver to speak to Macey, she sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher. I hear Macey’s mumble, but can’t make out anything except she seems annoyed. Oh well. Macey likes to partake once in a while, I’m not one to judge, but well… I judge.

“She told me to say,
you’re a dick
, and no she didn’t.”

“Tell her she’s a twat and I’ll see you both soon.”

“I love you, Katherine.”

“I love you too Mom-ster,” I say because I am annoyed that she’ll be pissed if I don’t return the sentiment. I throw in the Mom-ster because I need to annoy her for, well, annoying me.

I toss my phone on the reception desk, close my eyes and lean back.

It’s quiet, I have no one scheduled. I could leave but Ricco is running late. He never runs late.

I sit up and look at my phone, he hasn’t texted, or called the shop.

“Kat, we got this, go ahead.” I look over my shoulder at Zack.

I should tell him to suck my dick, that I’m his boss and now I actually have an excuse to tell him to mind his damn business, but do I? No. Why? It’s easier to ignore him.

I lean forward and look at my phone. I hit the Match Up app and click on daily matches.

@TallhotPro
pops up first

He’s six foot tall, dark hair and eyes and has some ink. Well, four stars down his arm, that’s a start.

His
About Me
says:

I’m a triple threat. You better be cute, hot, and ready for a man whose hot, cut, and able. You aren’t, you’re out.

I see an option to send him a message, so I do.

You aren’t that cute, you have shitty ass ink that could easily be found in a Crackerjack box, and why the fuck is it her job to be ready? Don’t answer. I just wanted you to know you’re a dick.

Next is
@joco69.

He’s five foot eleven, bald, blue eyes, and a nose that looks like it’s been hit a few times.

A message pops up.

@joco69: I see you checked me out. How about a number.

Kat: No fucking way.

@joco69: lol why not, you’re beautiful.

Kat: Because you’re not.

@joco69: Not beautiful, but handsome and hung.

Kat: Don’t care.

I x him out and click on my messages.

@rider1: Hope you’re having a great day.

@rider1: Must be busy.

@rider1: Who the hell have you pissed off babe? LMFAO, look at the messages under your pics.

I click on my profile picture. I notice five more pictures of me are posted.

I’m gonna kill Macey. I scroll down, and I’m gonna kill Steph. Bitches put those pictures up.

When I get to the last one it’s me at five years old in a fucking tutu, and now I’m gonna kill my mother.

The comments under the pictures say a variety of things.

- Worst date ever, don’t waste your time. #DND

That was Alvin, so I post a balloon floating and a chipmunk, because it’s amusing and to be a bitch.

- She fucked my roommate and then took the little snatch I was sure to get off in. Fucking dykes and their games. #DND

It was Rex. I replied.

Kat: Tell your roommate he is a lousy lay, she was soooo much better.

I decide not to respond to the rest. Fuck them.

I reply to
@rider1

- I didn’t piss anyone off, that’s the fan club.

I wait for him to reply, he has been pretty prompt in the past.

Just not now.

Boredom. It wasn’t the fact that I was really into this shit, I was bored and it was a distraction.

I look up when the door chimes.

Some chick wearing a half shirt when she has no business wearing one storms in.

“Ricco here?” she asks.

“No,” I say and look down.

She snaps her fingers almost in front of my face. “Hey, I’m talking to you.”

Oh no she didn’t.

“When he comes in you tell him the tests were wrong and me and my sister both know the babies are his. All three of us had a hot night and-”

I hold my hand up an inch from her face. “You should really just shut the fuck up.”

“Excuse me!” She puts her hand on her hips.

“I said, you should really shut the fuck up and get the fuck out of here.”

“I want to speak to the manager.”

“You are.”

“Then I want to speak to the owner!”

“You are.”

“Then you tell him Carmen was here and-”

“I’m not a hundred percent sure how to speak whore so I’ll say it slower. Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. My. Shop.” I stand up.

“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but you better watch your back bitch.”

“What the hell’s going on?” Zack asks as he jogs down the hall.

“One of Ricco’s wanna be baby mommas is just leaving,” I say walking casually towards the door and opening it.

“You the boss?” she asks Zack. “Cause this bitch certainly isn’t.”

“Zack, this bitch has it.” I point to myself and then down the hall towards his room. “Go ahead back.”

“No fucking way,” he laughs. “I’d love to see a Kat fight. I’ll even hold your hoops.”

“That’s enough,” booms from down the hall as Ricco walks towards us in a slow, long, casual stride.

“This bitch needs to leave,” I snap at him.

“She’s leaving,” he scowls as he takes her elbow and walks towards the door. “Shit’s done, Carmen.”

“The test was wrong,” she argues.

“Ninety nine point nine percent sure I’m not either one of their fathers means done.” His tone is even and calm.

“Fucking whores,” I mumble under my breath.

“Kat, that’s enough!” he snaps at me.

Ricco never yells or snaps. I give him the finger.

“I need that money, we need that money. If we didn’t think they were yours we would have gotten rid of them,” whore ass snaps.

“Not my problem anymore. Go test someone else. They can provide.”

“No he can’t!”

The door shuts behind them and he is still walking her towards the car.

My blood is boiling and I cannot wait until he comes back in here whore free to face the bitch he thinks he can tell what to do.

“Daddy?” I hear a little voice and look down the hall at a little girl with wavy black hair, big greenish brown eyes and she’s wearing Ninja Turtle pajama pants and a Batman pajama top.

“Natalia?” Zack asks walking quickly towards her.

Her shoulders slouch, head hangs and she pops two fingers in her mouth, the middle one is sticking straight up.

That’s fucking adorable and if she wasn’t a kid, who more than likely has germs, I may actually like her.

But I don’t do kids.

“Zack, you’re scaring her, slow down man,” Marcus says walking out of his room. He looks at her. “Hey, Natalia.”

I can’t see her reaction but the idiots both laugh.

“Not funny,” comes out in a pissy, muffled, quivering tone.

“Hey,” I say and the guys turn around. “Kid, he’ll be right back.”

She looks up and nods.

“These two are his buddies. They may look like weirdos but they won’t bother you or your Dad will kick their butts, okay?”

She nods and pulls her fingers out. “Are you the cat?”

The door opens. “Hey, Nat, go grab me a Gatorade will you?” She smiles and nods. “Get one for you too.”

The sound of his voice pisses me off.

“Does the cat want one?” she asks. I shake my head no and she shrugs. “Kay.”

I don’t turn around. I’m waiting to rip him a new asshole and Tweedledee and Tweedledum are looking at me. They know I’m pissed.

“Show’s over,” Ricco says.

They walk back to their rooms.

I turn around and glare at him.

“Don’t start, Kat. Been a shit day,” he says and walks by.

“Shit day or not, don’t ever speak to me like that again,” I warn him in a low snarl.

He doesn’t look at me, he walks by. “Done here.”

“Excuse me?” I hiss.

He turns around and looks at me. “I said, we’re done here.”

For a moment I’m speechless, but it doesn’t last long. “Who do you think you are?”

He runs his hand over his head and turns around. “What I am is a man who’s had a sick kid for a couple days who comes to work just in time for a pissing match.”