Page 40 of Center of Gravity

He rinsed his mug while I just sat there, my mouth twisting around all sorts of words, none of which formed with any coherence until, “I enjoyed it.” Lame. So lame. Cringeworthy lame.

“Great. All parties are satisfied.”

I glanced at him to see if he was being sarcastic, but it didn’t appear so.

“I’m going to grab my clothes and go. I can bring Winslow by later, and I’m still good for work if you want me tomorrow.”

If you want me.I did. Right then, in fact. But that was beside the point. Scratching at the stubble on my jaw, I nodded. “I do if it’s not going to cause any trouble.” I didn’t want to scour around for another helping hand and didn’t want to get put off for days or weeks by a professional crew. And we were so close to finishing anyway.

“Like I said, it’s fine,” he said it with an airy smile. “Thanks for the hospitality.”

I admired his ability to flip the switch back into neutral as much as it formed a pit in my stomach. Plenty of other fish in the sea or whatnot, so why shouldn’t it be easy for him to let me cast myself back out still hooked on the bait?

“Any time—” I started, then corrected myself, “You’re welcome.”

He grinned, flashing me a wink that bottomed out that pit in my stomach.

Alex went upstairs and when he returned, I was waiting in the foyer with an envelope I pushed into his hand.

“What’s this?”

“Your pay. I meant to give it to you the other day.”

Alex took the envelope, slitting the top, and thumbing through the bills. ”It’s too much.”

“I added a bonus.” I’d padded the original sum by a couple hundred bucks, but I figured he could use it.

Alex gave me a hard stare, the striking gold flecks in his eyes eroding into dullness. Then he flicked through the bills again and removed the extra portion, holding it back out to me. “I’m not charity and I’m not a rent boy,” he said stonily.

I held up my hand to protest. “It wasn’t meant that way.”

“Yeah? Well then your timing is a little shitty. This is what I mean about you being hard to read.” He gave me a tight smile as I folded the extra bills back into my palm and then he walked out the door.

12

Alex

Ididn’t really think Rob was trying to buy me off or treat me like a rent boy. But on top of his clumsy woe-is-me apology, it got under my skin.

I rolled back the reel in my head, and even hours later still got tingly when I remembered his hands on me and the kind of half-desperate way he’d said my name. But there were also these little gaps and inconsistencies that bothered me. Like the fact that we hadn’t kissed, and that he wouldn’t let me get him off or even participate. His insistence on control. So the dismissal in the kitchen wasn’t unexpected, but it still hurt a little bit. Ididlike him, maybe more than I’d been willing to admit.

Determined not to mope around bemoaning Rob’s semi-kind-of-rejection, I threw it in thewhateverpile, chalked the night up to another random hookup, and nipped any surge of heat that came from replaying the imagery in the bud, distracting myself elsewhere. He’d be gone soon enough, anyway.

Tom and I picked up a junk load at noon, followed by a donation drop from some mega-rich guy in the city who made the time pass just by being pretty to look at.

The last part of the afternoon was spent moving a couple of girls from their apartment to a sorority house. I had no idea why they’d put half their shit in a storage unit just to go back to sharing a 13x13 room. But then, I never did get Greek life. I just enjoyed poaching from their male population on occasion. Speaking of poaching, I expected Tom to be trotting out his usual dog and pony show of backwater charm for the girls, but he was uncharacteristically reserved as we worked.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as we boxed the contents of a dresser. There was a thong in every shade of the rainbow, and I expected some crass commentary from Tom at any moment.

“No one needs this much fucking underwear,” he grumbled, his mouth compressed and surly when he glanced up at me.

“No. I mean with you. You’re all…quiet.”

Tom shrugged and shoved another pile of Victoria’s Secret into a box. I reached in after him and reorganized the underwear in a more professional manner. “Usually you’d be halfway to sniffing these now like a perv, sayingtaste the rainbowor something. Bad rest of the night?”

Tom looked up sharply and grinned, but it seemed as if it required effort.

“Nah.” He shook his head. “I got laid on your birthday. Happy birthday to me.”