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7

Jared

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Hugh asked. “It’s your weekend off.”

I stood at the back of the pet store with my cell phone to my ear, bending down to look through the glass. Lula was fascinated, staring enthralled with her nose pressed to the bottom row of tanks, tail wagging. There were schools of brightly colored fish, exotic lizards, and even a few giant hermit crabs. They definitely weren’t as cuddly as Lulabelle, but I supposed I could see the appeal.

“It’s no problem, I’ll just drop Lula off for Ridley. You know me, I never mind the extra hours,” I told my boss, walking down the row of tanks before I found what I was looking for. “And really, what else would I be doing?” I knew exactly what I would be doing. My nerves gave a little tingle of excitement—more than enough to drown out any lingering feelings of bitter guilt. “Why did Steve call in? Is he sick?”

“Yeah, some sort of a bug. He said it’s not too bad, but he didn’t think he should be serving customers if he could be contagious.”

“Fair enough,” I said. A lot of employers would make their staff feel guilty about calling in sick, especially for something non-life-threatening, but not Hugh. He was the type of boss who would swing by Steve’s house after work to bring him some hot soup. Honestly, Hugh was lucky nobody had ever taken advantage of his generosity. “What time do you need me?”

“Three, if you can make it? I know it’s short notice. Debra can stay a little late from her morning shift, and in the meantime, I’ll be holding down the fort.”

“Yeah, it’s all good. I needed to head down your way anyway,” I told Hugh, while I waved at the guy behind the counter and pointed at the tank beside me, indicating that I would take a dozen.

“Oh? You have a hot lunch date?” Even though he was teasing, I heard a note of hope in his voice. He knew how hard my breakup with Ridley hit me, and just like any good pseudo dad, he wanted me to find my true love. Little did he know, I’d met my true hate instead.

“Nope, no dates here. Just an… appointment.” With revenge .

I wrapped up the call with a promise to be at work by three, then I stood back and watched the pet store employee grab a plastic container and scoop up my purchase for me. “Here you are,” he said, passing me the tub, and I held it as lightly as possible, a shudder working up my spine. I swore I could feel their little legs right through the plastic. I lifted it up to see them from below.

“What do you have?” the guy asked.

“Huh?” I lowered the tub and blinked at him.

He frowned in confusion. “What are you going to feed them to? I assume it’s not your dog,” he added, looking down at Lulabelle.

“Oh. Um… iguana?” I hadn’t meant for it to sound like a question, but I couldn’t very well admit what I was about to do with them.

“Cool.” He nodded, and when I didn’t offer anything else, he said, “You can pay up front.”

“Thanks!” I turned toward the till at the front of the store, still a bit baffled by my own idiocy. Was I really about to bring a whole dozen cockroaches into Grounded? But then I thought of how Hugh was literally the nicest guy ever, how he was working his ass off to keep his business going to support his family. And Liam? I remembered how much fun I’d had, how much hope he’d made me feel at his stupid speed-dating event, only to turn out to be the bad guy, and my resolve hardened.

Yep. He was going down.

It was 2:30 by the time I settled in down the block from Grounded. I tried to look casual, with my tub of live dubia cockroaches stashed in an inconspicuous eco-friendly fabric bag. I swore I could hear them scuttling around in there, but it was probably my imagination. Right…?

The little roaches were kinda cute if you were into the whole beady-eyes, six-legs thing. They were dark brown with little spots, not even an inch long. They’d honestly gotten a bad rap they hadn’t entirely earned. They were currently snacking on some fruit scraps I’d tossed in there to keep them happy.

I approached the café cautiously, peeking around the edge of the window. Liam was in there, serving a customer. His smile, wide and friendly, did dangerous things to my traitorous body. My heart sped up, palms damp with sweat, and while adrenaline had definitely started to pump through my veins, I suspected it had nothing to do with this sense of danger I was experiencing and everything to do with the man himself.

Why couldn’t he have been in any other profession? Tax auditor, hockey referee, sewage plant attendant. Literally anything !

I groaned, drinking up the sight of him as he handed the customer their coffee, then darted back before he could see me. When a woman passing by gave me a suspicious glance, I did my best to smile in the most non-threatening way I could manage without looking like a psychopath. But right about now, I felt at least halfway to crazy. At least .

What did I hope to achieve by doing this? I mean, I could plant the bugs then call in a complaint to the health department, get him shut down, but that felt like… too much. I didn’t want to ruin his career. Just maybe… encourage him to move to a different neighborhood where he wouldn’t be risking my job and those of my friends.

I was caught in a nonstop loop of my existential crisis when the customer came out, and when I peeked inside again, I saw Liam heading into the back. Now was my chance!

Before I could chicken out, I darted in through the door before it even had a chance to close. There was a young girl at the counter, but when she opened her mouth to greet me, I clutched a hand to my stomach. “Sorry, just need the bathroom. It’s an emergency!”

She made a face—the kind of cringe only a teenage girl could manage—and waved me off.

As soon as the bathroom door closed behind me, I blew out a sigh of relief. Now, time to get down to business then get the hell out of here. I pulled the tub out of my bag, popped the lid, then crouched down and coaxed the roaches out onto the tiled floor.

“Be free, little guys! For what it’s worth, I hope you don’t get squished.”

Guilt twisted my gut into knots, but I quickly tamped it down, determined to feel satisfaction for a job well done. Liam would find the pests and lose faith in this location, then he would move somewhere else where he wouldn’t compete with us, and in turn, we wouldn’t compete with him, and his business would prosper. Honestly, I was doing him a favor. It was win-win!

Ducking my head, I ran straight through the café. “Thanks!” I muttered on the way past, waving a hand over my shoulder. I didn’t stick around to see if she said anything in reply.

I waited just outside, my back plastered to the brick wall, until I heard a high-pitched shriek. I slammed a hand down over my mouth to contain the involuntary giggle that tried to escape. Then, with a fresh surge of adrenaline, I darted across the street as if the devil himself were on my heels.

I burst through the front door of Crave at full speed and headed straight for the staff room at the back. My heart was still hammering against my ribcage, my breath sawing in and out.

Of course Hugh was there, steaming milk at the cappuccino machine, and when I tried to slip past, he called after me. “Hey, Jared. You okay?”

My limbs locked up, and I forced a smile on. “Yeah. I’m okay. Great, actually.” And I was surprised to find it was true. Sure, there was relief now that it was over and I hadn’t been caught, but also… it was a bit exciting. I’d always been the good boy, who then grew up to be the good man. I’d followed all the rules, studied hard, worked hard, smiled and nodded and said the right things.

But this… was wrong. It was childish and silly—and I hadn’t felt this alive in a long damn time.

Hugh went back to his customer, and I headed to my locker to change into my uniform, feeling every pulse of my heart as it eventually returned to its regular pace.

It was a little harmless prank, I told myself, and as much as I hated to admit it, it was fun . I was only sorry Liam wouldn’t see it that way.