Life Lesson #8: candy isn’t a meal

➸ Blackjack ★

My stance since getting out of juvie has been to never ask anyone for help. Either I do shit on my own or shit doesn’t get done. Until now.

Yarrow’s place has a flat screen just out of the box and likely never used. Wanting to hang it from the wall, I consider doing it alone. Then again, I can see myself dropping the damn thing. Yarrow might not like the TV, but she’ll notice if I break it.

Giving up on my long-held stance, I ask Oz to come over and give me a hand. Part of me even hopes he’ll say no. He doesn’t, of course, since he’s got daddy lectures to give me.

“Moving fast with Yarrow, aren’t you?” he asks as soon as he looks over my tools.

“No.”

“Are you aware she isn’t totally convinced the world is round?”

“She’s hot enough to be a flat-earther.”

Oz scratches his jaw and changes tactics. “If this thing with Yarrow goes south, it could fuck up the bond between our club and the crew.”

“Shut up.”

“Hey, I’m your fucking president,” he growls.

“Exactly. You’re my president, not my father. You aren’t Yarrow’s father either, so stop sticking your nose into shit that isn’t your problem.”

“If I tell you to stand down, you’ll stand down,” Oz says, trying to intimidate me with his size.

“Are you also telling Glitch to stop sniffing around Clove’s pussy? Or maybe you can tell Vile to put his fucking kid on a leash. No, you won’t run their lives, but you’ve got to jump headfirst into mine.”

“What is your deal, asshole?”

“For fuck’s sake, no one gave a flying fuck about my life until Yarrow. Now you want to take away the one good thing I’ve known since I was a kid. How the fuck should I react?”

Oz sizes me up as if preparing to throw a punch. If he does, I’m more than ready to take it. Getting kicked around is one of my few skills.

“Yarrow’s delicate. You know that, right?” he asks instead of punching me.

“Delicate isn’t the right word. Scarred is better,” I explain while marking the wall for the screws. “Yarrow’s wounds are old, and the scars are thick. She’s no longer vulnerable like a raw nerve. Her thinking is rigid. She likes things the way she likes them, and changing her mind isn’t easy. Right now, she wants me. I couldn’t stop her if I wanted to. Neither can you. Yarrow grabs what she wants and holds on. It’s the only way she’s survived coming out of that room and into a world way too fucking big for her to comprehend.”

Running his hands through his dark hair, Oz sighs like he’s a million years old and life’s gotten too much to bear.

“Ginger’s all twisted up worrying about Yarrow. She wasn’t ready for her girl to start dating. It’s making her miserable.”

“I don’t know why. Yarrow decided to date a guy in the club and who lives next door. She still sleeps at your place. Yarrow isn’t ditching the crew. She’s making visits to the townhome the crew wanted her to live in.”

Rather than respond to my words, Oz glances at the picture Yarrow bought today.

“What’s with the elephant?” he asks before drilling the holes for the TV mount.

“I like them. If you spent more time with your club bros, you’d know that about me.”

“Feeling neglected, pumpkin?” he asks, fighting a smile.

“Not so much since Yarrow decided I’m the sexiest fucker she’s seen.”

Losing any hint of a grin, he mutters, “Fucking her would be a mistake.”

“Thanks, Dad, but this isn’t my first crazy fox rodeo.”

“Explain to me why you’re moving in here.”

“Thought that would be obvious. Your mom is moving out of the old house, and I won’t have anywhere to live. Yarrow doesn’t use this place, and she agreed. Can’t imagine any other place where I can be sure Annie won’t break in while I’m sleeping and gouge out my eyes.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing about fucking crazy foxes. They don’t take well to being discarded.”

I clench my teeth to keep from correcting the record on Annie. I’d told Oz and the guys what made sense to tell them. My easy lie made me look like an asshole, which was icing on top. Now, though, I want to clear the air. I keep my mouth shut instead.

“Are you here to help me hang up the TV or did Ginger send you over to give me the riot act?”

“Both. No matter what you say about Yarrow, Ginger won’t let go of your dating history.”

“Nothing happened with Annie!” I shout, suddenly losing my temper. “I didn’t fuck her or even kiss the little bitch! I didn’t do shit to her except for listening to her whine about all the people doing her wrong!”

Oz’s chest puffs out as if preparing for a fight. “That’s not the story you’ve been telling, Blackjack, so excuse the fuck out of me if I don’t believe you.”

“You wouldn’t have believed me if I told you the truth.”

“How do you figure?”

“You were acting like a fucking fool after you became president. Walking around, wagging your dick, showing off. The guys hooted and hollered over every hot piece of ass. Everyone was bragging about who they fucked as if getting laid meant we were safe from the shit that sank the rest of the club. Can you imagine if I said I’d played sympathetic girlfriend with a chick at the bar and she turned into a psycho and started stalking me? You guys would have torn me up. I didn’t need that shit, so I told you what you’d understand. She went nuts after a one-night stand.”

“Yeah, because what you’re saying now doesn’t make much fucking sense.”

“Look, you know my history,” I say, pacing across the empty living room. “Why I was in juvie and shit. So, I have a soft spot for messed-up chicks. I like playing their heroes. When a sad Annie came into the bar, I bought her a drink, and she started talking. We ended up in a booth for a few hours. Nothing sexual. I just listened to her bitch about people. I told her she was right and they were wrong. She seemed lonely, and I never had any luck with women. I figured I’d feed my need to be the hero by listening to her, and she’d feel like someone cared.”

“And she thought you should keep caring,” Oz says and plops onto the couch.

“I told her right off how I wasn’t looking for a date. Friends only. She was fine that night. Sweet and sane. Then she showed up the next night and tried kissing me. I told her that I wasn’t into dating anyone. She said we could fuck. I said no. She cried. I told her that it wasn’t personal.”

I stop pacing and exhale slowly. “Then she kept showing up, and people started thinking she was my girlfriend. I tried blowing her off like a nice guy, and then I tried as an asshole, but she wouldn’t stop hounding me. I started calling her by the wrong name, but she acted like she didn’t notice. I had to leave whenever she showed up somewhere. That’s when she started messing with my house. Now you saw how she showed up here. I don’t know how to end it. I can’t call the cops or kick her ass.”

“Let’s have the crew handle her. They’re perfectly cool beating on women. Now that you’re dating Yarrow, Annie is their problem too.”

The possibility of the Annie problem going away should fill me with relief, but I’m unaccustomed to trusting good news. Eyeing Oz, I’m unaccustomed to trusting him too.

“Do you plan to tell the club bros that I didn’t fuck Annie?”

“No.”

“I don’t care if you do,” I lie.

“Then why ask?”

“To prepare for the ribbing that I’ll get if you did tell them.”

“Uh-huh,” Oz says, smirking again. “You don’t have to worry about me telling them. Of course, I have to tell Ginger, and she’ll have to tell the crew. So if the club bros find out, it won’t be from me.”

Nodding, I size up the TV hanging on the wall. “Looks good.”

“Seriously, man, a pink elephant?”

“She wanted it.”

“Still.”

I roll my eyes as he starts laughing. Even if Oz keeps the Annie thing under wraps, I know he’ll tell everyone and their mother about the pink elephant on my wall.