In Your Arms (4 page)

              “Are you drunk?” Charles asks. “I can't have you ruining your image before it even officially begins, Braxton.”

              “I'm fine.” Braxton says, but Charles just stares at him until he gives in. He looks at the girl. “You better find a taxi, nothings happening tonight.” The girl rolls her eyes, and mutters something, then she walks away from us.

              Charles looked at me. “I'm so sorry about this.” I shrugged.

              “It's fine.”

              “Would you mind riding in a cab with him back to your building?” That was not fine. I didn't want to share a cab with him.

              “Um. I guess it's fine.” I lie.

              “Thank you.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss against my lips. It was brief and in those few seconds, I realized that nothing would probably happen between us.

              “No problem.” I gave him a small smile.

              Charles flagged us down a cab and we got in, Braxton first. I looked at Charles one more time.

              “I'll call you tomorrow.” I nodded and he closed the door.

              “Wow, no goodbye kiss. Bad date?” Braxton laughed and I punched him in the arm. “Ow! What was that for? You're a lot stronger than you look.”

              “You're such an ass. He's your best friend, and we were on a date. Did you crash it because you didn't like me?”

              That had to be it. Unless this was a common occurrence with him, that would just be very sad. I wonder what troubled him.

              “That wasn't what I was trying to do.” I rolled my eyes.

              “Whatever.”

              I knew he was lying.

              Why would Braxton track us down? New York was a big place, and it's hard to run into someone unless you run into the same social circles where one goes to the same place over and over again.

              “I wasn't.” I hear him mutter, but I stay quiet.

              “Why do you hate me?” Braxton asks when we're in the elevator.

              “Does it really matter?” I cross my arms.

              I'm sure I wasn't the first girl to be repulsed by him. I'm surprised that any woman even sleeps with him, he's horrible to us online. Maybe there are some women that like that, but I am not one them.

              “Yes because it's obvious that we're going to have to be civil towards each other if you're going to be dating Charles. He's my best friend, and if we got along, it'd make him very happy.” I look at him and see that he's serious.

              “Fine. Do you want to come up for a quick drink?” He smiles.

              “Sure.” We skip the third floor and go straight up to my apartment.

              “So how is it that you can even afford the penthouse here when you're a secretary at a doctors office?” I look at him and take off my jacket.

              Of course he asked his grandfather about me. That wasn't that big of a surprise, and I kind of expected it.

              “It's my grandmothers place, and she's in a retirement home. I watch the place for her.” Again, don't mention that it is technically mine.

              He looks around at the picture frames. I'm glad that there are no newspaper clippings or captions to say what we have accomplished on that wall. It just looks like a wall full of pictures of family.

              “What would you like to drink?” I ask him.

              My grandmother left her alcohol here, and it was good alcohol at that. My most favorite alcoholic drink that she had was the scotch. It tasted beautifully, but it was strong so I almost never had it.

              “Gin and tonic.” I serve him his drink, and I pour myself vodka with orange juice. I needed something strong tonight.

              “Here you go.” We sit on the couch and I look at him.

              “You act like we're the only ones with faults.” I say while he takes a sip of his drink, probably afraid that I had poisoned it. He should be afraid. I could be avenging all of the women he offended by writing his stupid blog.

              “What?”

              “That's why I don't like you.”

              “Because of my blog?” I nod.

              “I have a right to expression, and you have a problem with what I expressed? Women always think that they're superior to men. We can't do anything without your permission or approval. I challenge those ideas, and that's why you don't like me.” He scoffs. “Un-fucking-believable. You women are all the same.”

              “I don't think I'm superior to you, you don't know how I think. You don't know how any woman thinks, that's the problem. What makes you qualify to write about us, huh? I'm pretty you don't have a vagina.”

              “Like women don't write about men and their personalities and what you should do to change them. You're being hypocritical, you all just make it look prettier and it's not so blunt. Oh, and it comes in the form of every magazine out there. Men are always afraid to write columns or articles in fear of offending all of you, but I'm not.”

              “At least some of those magazines actually get the perspective of other men and what they think about what's going to be written. Your blog is completely biased. Maybe if you had a female guest writer every once in a while, more women would read your blog because it'd actually have perspective.”

              Braxton and I were breathing heavy. We were looking at each other with some look...I couldn't put my finger on it. There was so much tension in the air, and I wasn't sure if it was tension about his stupid blog or sexual tension.

              I could see Braxton leaning in, and I was mirroring him. We weren't even drunk. What the fuck were we doing? His lips brushed against mine and I was hooked. I don't know exactly how long I kissed him for before I came to my senses. I was just on a date with his best friend. I pushed him away and got off the couch.

              Fuck. What do I do now?

Chapter 6

Braxton Wright

              I kissed her. I managed to kiss her long enough to know I wanted more, but she pulled away and literally jumped off the couch and five feet away. Ashton had more common sense than I, obviously. If she hadn't pulled away, we'd be in the midst of a very hot make out session leading up to sex. Then we would have had sex. Which would have been great. I would have had great sex with my best friends date.

              “Um.” She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them back up. Ashton seemed mortified. “You need to go, now.”

              “Ashton.” I stood up and she took three step back.

              “Please. You can't be here.” She ran into a room, which I assumed was hers, slamming the door behind her.

              I ran my fingers through my hair. I couldn't do this to Charles. He has forgiven many things, but this could be the deal breaker for our friendship. He'd never forgive this or he'd always hold it over my head.

              I went to the elevator and went back to my grandfathers apartment. I couldn't stay here in this building knowing what could have happened just a few moments ago. Tonight was my last night, and tomorrow morning I'd try to book a hotel. The landlord promised that the renovations were going fast, so hopefully I'd be at my new apartment soon.

              If I was lucky, I'd never have to see her again. I have to convince Charles to never see her again. I could convince him, couldn't I? What if he really liked her? What if this sparked into a full relationship and they ended up getting married? I couldn't lie to him for the rest of our lives! Fuck, Braxton. Don't get ahead of yourself, it was one date that they had, and probably a shit one. Ashton meant nothing you and you mean nothing to her, obviously because of her reaction, and this was obviously a mistake that was meant to be forgotten.

              I was nodding off when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Charles. He sits across from me. He wasn't in his usual business attire. He seemed to be adjusting to the time change just fine. As for me, I was nodding off at six in the evening here. It also could be that I had stayed up the past few nights thinking Charles would find out what happened.

              “So did you two make amends?”

              “What?” I yawned.

              “You and Ashton.” I looked at him once he said her name. I thought for sure she would tell him. Why hadn't she?

              “Um, not entirely, but we're on that track.” I lie. On the track of never speaking to each other about anything ever again. We couldn't risk hurting Charles.

              “I figured. She hasn't said one word about you.”

              I sat up straight. “You've seen Ashton in the past few days?” Was he confirming that Ashton never said anything? She's had many opportunities. This shows that maybe she does have some kind of feelings for Charles.

              “We've had dinner together everyday since Sunday. She's wonderful and kind. She volunteers at a recreation center in Queens and teaches kids to dance for free. Did I mention that I really do like her?”

              “Wow. She sounds perfect.” Too perfect.

              Nobody is that perfect. People always have a past and a motive. It was the truth. If you dig deep enough, you'll find the deal breaker.

              Then he said the magic words. “But she only wants to be friends, so I have to respect that. You better not go snooping.” I rolled my eyes. I had a habit of looking up all of Charles dates and then telling him what was wrong with them. He really despises me when I do that, but it only usually happens when he ruins my potential bed partners. Interesting how she didn't want to date Charles, but was willing to be friends.

              “I won't.” It was a lie. Of course I was going to dig dirt on her. Something didn't feel right, she could be a reporter or she's just trying to con him out of every penny he has.

              “Brax, I'm serious. I like her a lot.” I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. “Ashton is different.”

              I sigh. “Fine. Your happiness is what is most important.”

              “Thank you.”

              “So where is this recreation center?” I needed to have a chat with her.

              “Queens.”

              I watched Ashton teach her class. It was obvious that half of these kids had no rhythm, but she didn't seemed annoyed. She seemed to enjoy the kids trying to tap to some lame song. The only reason I knew the song was because my younger sister used to sing it all the time because her kids used to watch Teen Beach Movie.

              “Toe heel, guys! They should all sound like one if you're listening to the beat of the music.” She was walking around correcting them when she could see them making a mistake. I wondered how much dance experience she actually had.

              I opened the door and she looked to see who was there. I gave her a small smile, but she was frowning. Well, that's a first.

              “I'll be back, keep practicing.” She tapped a girl, the oldest who seemed to have some experience, and the girl walked up to the front of the classroom to continue teaching the class. I watched Ashton walk to me, made sure not to look at her swaying hips.

              She grabbed my arm and dragged me outside of the dance room. She is a lot stronger than she looks. Her stare was harsh.

              “What are you doing here? How did you even know I volunteered here?”

              “Well, all I had to do was listen to Charles since he cannot stop talking about you.” She looked away. “Why didn't you tell him?” She looks back at me.

              Her brown eyes were...sad. Her face told a whole different other story. Now it is more than obvious that she is hiding something, and probably something really big.

              “You're his best friend-”

              “He'd forgive me.”

              Charles would be very angry at me for a while, but eventually he would forgive me. He always does.

              “We were intoxicated-”

              “Barely!” I could see she was getting irritated that I was cutting her off every time she talked to rebut her argument.

              “I like Charles as a friend!” When she senses that I won't be interrupting her again, she speaks again. “I like him and don't want to hurt him.” She says softly.

              For some reason, the fact that she actually liked Charles (not that there was anything wrong with him) kind of hurt me.

              “You barely know him.” She shrugs.             

              “He's kind and I like him, that's all I need to know.” She sighs. “Please, don't say anything. It sounds pathetic, but I don't exactly have many friends here.”

              I stay quiet for a moment. “Fine.”

              “Really?” I nod.

              “Thank you.” She seemed really happy that I was willing to forget this. A little too eager if I say so.