A Bittersweet Life (1st draft)

Chapter 11

My head was in a fog when I returned to work that Monday. All I could see was Clarissa's hand on his leg and then my mind went crazy filling in the gaps of what I didn't see. I was knocked out of my gaze when I felt the warmth of someone's hand pressing against my shoulder.

"Hey, are you doing okay?" Natalie asked with concerned eyes.

I simply nodded, when in reality, I was far from okay. My mind went to dark places. Like, what if they were having an affair and what if Charles found out about it. Charles, the psycho.

"You're not thinking of quitting are you?" she asked, panic filling her voice.

"What?" I shook my head violently, "never. No, I'm not quitting." I wiped down the back counter. "Besides, if I want to get a place of my own, I need money. And I need to work to make that money."

"Good. Because we would be dying here without you." She perked up and skipped back into her office.

"She's right," Ashley said, appearing out of nowhere. "You mastered that coffee machine your second day working here. You are a true talent we can't afford to lose." I shot her a smile, an actual one. But it fell when the door chimed.

Oh god.

Ryland and Kristen walked in, hand-in-hand. I figured they would walk past us and have breakfast in the dining area. But no. Ryland's eyes locked with mine.

He knew.

He strode over to me. My palms became moist. My legs trembled beneath me, I'm surprised I didn't collapse.

"Hey, Talia." He leaned against the counter with a grin.

I'd like to say that grin distracted me from my memories of him having sex with Kristen while I hid under his bed, but it didn't. My eyes locked right onto his penis that was tucked away in his shorts. I wanted to look at his eyes, but mine had a mind of their own. I blinked hard, forcing myself to look at something else.

"Yeah?" I choked out, finding an empty table to stare at.

"My dad told me you stopped by our house to talk to me the other day."

Oh god, he knows!

"You must have left before I got there. But, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I did. It's all good." I toyed with my shaking fingers.

"Good," he smiled running his tongue across his teeth. He reached forward, taking one of my trembling fingers in his grasp, lowering it to the counter and locking his eyes with mine. "But like I said if you ever need me, call me, okay?"

"So you can come to rescue me on your motorcycle again as a favor to Ellis?"

He rolled his eyes playfully, "I do have a car. A nice one in fact. You would be honored to ride in it."

I heard Kristen grunting behind him as if to tell us to hurry up this conversation. I think Ryland noticed it too by the way he rolled his eyes in a more annoyed manner.

"Do you have your phone on you?" I don't know why I did it, but I pulled out my phone and gave it to him. He typed a couple of things and handed it back to me. "There, now you have my number if you ever need me."

"Come on, babe," Kristen hissed and stomped her foot like a child. Ryland shot me another grin before leaving with her.

My heart was beating so hard like it was trying to break through my rib cage. Maybe it was because I was nervous. Or maybe it was the fact that Ryland was one of the sexiest men I have ever seen in my life with those perfect teeth poking out from that perfect grin. I'm pretty sure he was just flirting with me then. But I couldn't like him.

Looks should not be a factor when it comes to liking someone. It should all be about personality. Even though Ryland was smart and nice, he was a douchebag. Potentially. The whole friends with benefits thing was something that I could not comprehend. And, the fact that Kristen was just leading the guy on was so wrong. And, he was still falling for her.

"God, he is so whipped." Ashley snorted from behind me. I didn't need to be hung up on this one guy who was so obviously unavailable. Why even waste my time? So, I turned to her with a playful grin.

"So, that double date thing... I'm in."