Chapter Four
O’Shea
I pulled up to the Common Grounds coffee shop, putting my truck in park. The quaint shop was sandwiched between a vintage antique shop and a Christian novelty store along a strip containing other businesses. As small as this town was, it wasn’t hard to find. Every store and shop here was planted in what they called downtown, which only spanned the width of about four streets. I stepped out of my truck and strolled inside the coffee shop, inhaling the scent of coffee beans upon entering.
A barista behind the counter eyed me, a seductive grin pulling at her lips as I approached her. “Well, you’re a new face,” she purred, her country accent evident. “What can I get for you, sugar?”
“I’ll just take a black coffee,” I replied.
“You got it,” she said with a wink before pressing a few buttons on her register. “That’ll be $4.23.”
I handed her a five and look around the coffee shop. Despite the weathered bricks and shingles on the outside of the place, the inside was rather cozy. A few tables and chairs sat in warm corners, the windows along the front of the store filling the shop with natural light. Soft jazz music poured from the speakers as a low hum of conversation floated over me. There were only two couples in the coffee shop, neither of them looking as if they were waiting for anyone. She must not be here yet.
“Here you go, darling,” the barista mentioned, holding my cup out to me.
“Thank you.”
“Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you,” she said, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. I gave her a small smile and took a seat in a corner adjacent to the door. Pulling out my phone, I checked the last email I’d received from the ad poster.
Cool! I’ll see you there! I’ll be wearing an inappropriate graphic tee. You’ll know it when you see it haha!
I glanced down at my watch, seeing that it was already 12:15 p.m. There wasn’t much time left of my lunch break, so if this woman didn’t get here soon, I’d have to reschedule.
No sooner than the thought crossed my mind, the bell over the door jingled and three laughing women entered the shop. The moment I laid eyes on the dark-haired woman in the middle of them, I immediately recognized her from the repair shop. She wore a black tee that said “Go F*ck Yourself” with a middle finger underneath it and light blue skinny jeans that fit her curves perfectly. Her dark hair was pulled into a messy bun and light; natural-looking makeup adorned her face. The alien egg that once inhabited her forehead must’ve hatched, as it was no longer there anymore. Maybe it was witchcraft or makeup covering it, who knew. I chuckled to myself and took a gulp of my coffee, nearly spitting it out as it burned my tongue. This was bound to be an interesting meeting.
They ordered their coffee and took a table across the shop near a window, chatting amongst themselves. I watched them for a few moments, observing as my potential roomie pulled her phone from her pocket and typed on it before setting it back down. My phone vibrated a few seconds later, an email notification popping up on the screen.
Hey! Just got here. Sitting near the window. You should see me as soon as you walk in.
A smirk pulled at my lips as I quickly replied.
Yeah, I see you. I’m sitting across the shop actually.
I put the phone down and waited, the smirk never leaving my face. She put her cup to her lips as she checked her phone and then looked around the coffee shop until her eyes fell on me, causing her to spit her coffee.
“What the hell, Ashton?” one of her friends asked, following Ashton’s gaze. Her eyes widened as a huge grin settled on her lips. “HA! What a fucking plot twist!”
I laughed to myself and stood, making my way over to their table. “Looks like we meet again, ladies,” I started, taking a sip of coffee and looking to Ashton. “I assume you must be A?”
“You’re O?” the blonde asked.
“Yep,” I replied.
“You guys sound like blood types,” the other friend said with a giggle and looked to her friend. “Well, Ashton? Are you going to say anything?”
“This has to be a fucking joke. You can’t seriously think you’re rooming with me,” she muttered. The blonde patted the empty chair next to her.
“Here, sit,” she offered. I turned the chair around and straddled it, putting my coffee on the table. “Again, I’m Ava, that’s Alex over there, and you already know Ashton. I think my uncle said you're Oliver, right?”
“O’Shea,” I mentioned, focusing my attention to Ashton. Her luscious lips were pulled in a frown as she stared at me, her arms folded across her chest. “So I’ve been meaning to apologize about the whole deer killer situation. I’ll admit it was a bit childish and unnecessary, so I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she muttered.
“So can we start over or are you going to keep being grouchy this whole meeting?”
“I don’t think this is a good idea. I don’t think we’d be a good fit—”
“Um, can you give us a second to talk to her really quick?” Alex interrupted. “You don’t have to leave; just turn around in your chair or something.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”
I grabbed my coffee and turned around, leaning against the back of the chair as they spoke in hushed tones.
“What the hell are you doing, Ashton? You literally can’t afford to turn him away!” one of them said.
“Yeah! Do you not remember your situation?” the other one said.
“Of course I remember my situation, but I’d rather move back in with my parents than to be roommates with this cocky asshole!” she spat in a low tone.
“You do know I can still hear you, right?” I said over my shoulder and took a sip of coffee. They were quiet for a split moment before one of them sighed.
“Ugh fine,” she muttered before clearing her throat. “You can turn around now.”
I turned back around to face them. “Man, you have a pretty strong name for me despite the fact that I’ve apologized,” I said with a smirk. She rolled her eyes.
“Your apology doesn’t make you any less of an asshole. I mean you were a self proclaimed one at the repair shop, weren’t you?”
“I didn’t say those exact words, but I’ll let you have that,” I said. “So about this roommate situation. What’s the deal with that?”
“Exactly what it said in the ad,” she answered. “I obviously know you have a job, so I guess I just need to look over your background check.”
“Right,” I said, pulling it out of my back pocket and handing it to her. “I can guarantee I meet your ‘not a creeper’ requirement.”
She scoffed as she unfolded the paper. “I knew you were a creep the moment I met you,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Whoa,” I stated, holding my hands up. “I can take you calling me an asshole, but miss me with the creep shit.” A sexy smirk pulled at her lips before she looked down at my background check, her friends leaning over to look with her.
After a few moments, Alex shrugged. “Looks good to me. I think you should let him move in,” she said. Ashton looked at her in disbelief.
“But you said I shouldn’t take the first offer, especially if it’s a guy,” she objected.
“Well, I didn’t expect O to be the sexy mechanic, so why the hell not?” she said. I winked at her, watching her blush before I looked to Ashton.
“So what’s it going to be, A? I’m already prepared to pay two months in advance if that’ll help your decision,” I said.
She raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so eager to pay me?”
“Why are you so adamant on giving me a hard time?” I asked with a smirk. She rolled her eyes. “I’m just ready to get out of a hotel room and eat real food instead of fast food. So if I need to pay more in advance to do that, then that’s what I’ll do. What do you say?”
“Two months in advance would be $1,030. Are you sure that’s what you want to pay?”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “I know how much two months in advance would be, Captain Obvious. I wouldn’t have offered it if I wasn’t prepared to pay that.”
She scowled at me until her friend cleared her throat. I almost laughed at her attempt to smile, which looked extremely uncomfortable for her.
“Fine,” she said. “But if you’re too much to deal with, this situation will be over as soon as your two months are up.”
“Deal,” I said with a grin, holding out my hand. She just looked at it and looked back at me, still frowning. “Right. Baby steps.”
“Exactly,” she said.
I looked down at my watch. “I have to get back to work. When will I be able to move in?”
“When I have the money in my hand,” she answered.
“So after work then?” I grinned when her eyes widened. “I mean you said when the money is in your hand.”
She looked to her friends, who only shrugged in response. “Um, sure, whatever,” she finally said.
“Cool,” I said, standing to my feet. “See later then, roomie.” I grinned when she slightly cringed at her new nickname. This arrangement would be an interesting one.
∞∞∞
Back at the repair shop, I continued working on Ashton’s car. Chris approached me and stood to the side of the car, wiping his hands on a greasy towel.
“Dad always gives you the big jobs,” he complained. I looked up from under the hood.
“Probably because you come in on your own time instead of when he tells you to,” I responded. He thought for a moment before nodding.
“You’re probably right. Plus, that’s too much work anyway. I’ll stick with the oil changes and the other simple stuff.”
“Yeah, you do that,” I answered idly, working on removing the damaged radiator.
“Anyway, I came over here to ask about your meeting. Is your roommate hot at least?” he asked.
“Yeah. It’s this car’s owner,” I mentioned, loosening a screw.
“Holy fuck,” Chris exclaimed. “Ashton’s your roommate? You lucky son of a bitch!”
“I wouldn’t say lucky. She still hates me.”
“Fuck that! You get to see her walking around in cute little nightgowns and panties and all that. You could even ‘accidentally’ walk in on her in the shower,” he said and chuckled. I looked up at him with a raised brow.
“Yeah…you’d be one of those creepers she mentioned in her ad,” I said flatly.
“Hey, I’m just saying. You’d be a fool not to try to get a peek,” he said.
“Chris! God dammit, I told you to rotate the tires on this car and to do the oil change! The owner will be back to pick it up in almost an hour!” Rocky barked from the lobby door.
“I was getting to it!” Chris said in a huff and walked away. I shook my head and focused on my own task. Sometimes I wondered how in the hell they survived before I got here. With Chris’s work ethic, I had no idea how anything managed to get done around here.
As soon as I finally got the radiator out of the car, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Irritation filled me when I fished my phone out of my pocket and saw Kayla’s name on my screen again. I sighed. She’d just keep calling until I eventually answer. May as well get this over with.
“Yeah,” I said upon answering, leaning against the side of the car.
“O’Shea! Hey! I’ve been calling you forever,” she rushed out. “I’ve been worried sick about you—”
“What do you need, Kayla?” I asked.
She released a soft sigh. “Shea…I think we really need to talk about what happened. I thought we would’ve been able to talk about it when I got home, but you were already gone and—”
“What more is there to talk about? You said we were over.”
“I know, but…I’ve had a lot of time to think about things and maybe I was a bit irrational.”
“A bit irrational,” I repeated, letting out an airy chuckle. “You have an answer for everything, huh?”
“Shea, I’m serious,” she said.
“Kayla, it’s one thing to not be ready for marriage. But you claimed that we were just fooling ourselves to think that we could work since we came from two different income classes. That didn’t sound irrational; it sounded like something you’d given a lot of thought to,” I reminded her, suddenly feeling bitter as our last conversation filled my mind.
She was silent for a moment before she sighed again. “Look, maybe we should meet up and talk about this face to face instead of over the phone. Maybe we can do lunch sometime?”
“I’m not in Virginia anymore, Kayla. I haven’t been since that night.”
“Then where are you? I can come to you—”
“That’s not necessary. I have no interest in talking about this anymore. I’ve accepted the fact that we’re not together, so I’d rather keep it that way.”
“O’Shea—”
“I gotta get back to work. Later,” I said and hung up before she could utter another word. I tried to focus back on the work before me, but now I was too distracted. My heart was conflicted with my mind in regard to anything that had to do with her. My heart still wanted to love her and attempt to give her another chance. I loved that woman with everything in me and a part of me wanted to think this whole thing was a mistake. On the other hand, my mind still wanted to be angry at her, constantly reminding me of the embarrassment and rejection she’d dished to me. Sometimes the mind always knew what was best in the long run, but it still didn’t stop the heart from asking why not.
“Maybe I was a bit irrational,” she’d said. Gotta love how rich people loved to downplay their actions. Even though I thought she was being quite ridiculous that day, she seemed that she was making a rational decision for herself at the time. Now she’d know what life was like without me, and as far as I was concerned, it would remain that way.
∞∞∞
Around closing time, a Jeep rolled down the gravel driveway, coming to a stop at the opening of the garage. Ashton and her friends hopped out, walking over to her car.
“Have you found anything else since the last time we talked?” she asked, looking under the hood. I wiped my hands on a towel and shook my head.
“Nope.”
“Good,” she said before meeting my gaze. “Well, I figured I’d come here so you could follow me back to my place if you’re moving in or whatever.”
I placed my hand over my heart. “Oh, that’s so nice of you! Maybe you’re not a demon spawn after all!” I exclaimed in faux shock.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t push your luck,” she said. “But first, do you have the money?”
I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the banking enveloped I’d gotten this morning before meeting with her. “I do.” When she reached for it, I pulled it out of reach. “Not so fast. How do I know you won’t run off with it?”
She smirked and folded her arms across her chest. “How far can I get when you have my car? It’s not like I can avoid you,” she said.
“Hmm,” I pondered. “You make a fine point.” I handed her the envelope, watching her as she took the money out and counted it.
“Thank you kindly,” she said, tucking the cash into the back pocket of her jeans. “So how much longer are you going to be here?”
“I just need a few minutes to clean up and I should be ready,” I said.
“Do you need to go back to your hotel to get your things?”
“I already have them in my truck.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”
I smirked at her. “Don’t even look at me like that. I always bring my stuff with me when I leave. You can’t trust anyone with a master key to your hotel room to just leave your stuff there all day,” I stated. She simply nodded and walked out of the garage and back to her friend’s truck.
“So that’s the roommate, huh?” Rocky asked as he came to stand beside me.
“Looks like it,” I answered.
He nodded. “She’s a good girl. A little rough around the edges, but a good girl.”
I looked over at her to see her joking around with her friends, her beautiful smile illuminating her face. When she noticed me watching her, she cleared her throat and turned her back to me.
“I take it that she’s still pissed?” Rocky asked.
“Yeah,” I answered idly before looking at him. “Wait, how’d you know about that?”
He let out a light laugh and put his hands in his pockets. “She told me when she came in to do her paperwork. She thought your behavior was a fireable offense. You're lucky I like you,” he said, giving me a light jab in the ribs with his elbow.
“I was just messing with her.”
“I know, kid. Just…take it easy on her. She’s had a rough few months lately,” he said, patting me on the shoulder before finally walking away. I sighed and cleaned my workspace. Between what Chris had mentioned and Rocky’s last statement, I was more and more curious about this woman’s story.
∞∞∞
After work, I followed her and her friends to her apartment. The complex was only ten minutes from work, tucked down a small side street off the highway. It looked fairly nice, seeming as if it was a recently built community.
“Do you need us to come up with you?” Ava asked her when Ashton hopped out.
“Nah, I think I’m good. If he tries anything, he’ll meet the end of my baseball bat,” she said, looking at me as I got out my truck. I grabbed my bag from the bed of my truck and walked around to meet her.
“I feel like I already need to call the police,” I joked. She smirked at me before turning back to her friends.
“I’ll call you guys later,” she said.
“Have fuuuuun!” Alex called from the passenger seat in a sing-song tone.
“Whatever!” Ashton replied in the same tone before waving me along. “I guess I should show you to your new home.”
“You make it sound like I’m a pet you just adopted,” I mentioned.
“I’m trying to be nice,” she said over her shoulder. We walked up to her building and climbed up the stairs to the second level. I fought to keep my eyes from settling on her ass. The last thing I needed was for her to catch me staring and throw me into the creep category.
“Here we are.” She unlocked the door and pushed it opened, gesturing me to go inside. Everything looked as it did in the pictures. A plush black sofa and love seat sat in her living room with a glass coffee table in the center of the floor. A flat screen TV sat on top of an entertainment center across from the couch, pictures of her friends and family decorating the wall.
“Nice place,” I finally said. “You only pay $730 for this?”
“Yep.”
“Hmm.” I stroked my chin. “Maybe I can just get my own apartment and not have a roommate.” When she looked at me in slight panic, I smiled and shook my head. “I’m kidding. I’d rather split bills than try to juggle all this by myself right now.”
“Oh.” She relaxed a bit. “Well, now it’s time to lay down some rules,” she said.
“Rules?”
“Um, yeah, rules,” she repeated as she rolled her eyes. “So don’t touch anything in the fridge that has an A on it. I bought that specifically for myself.”
“Nothing with an A; got it.”
“And don’t bother me while I’m working.”
“You work from home?” I asked. “What do you do?”
She frowned. “Very important work that requires me not to be disturbed,” she clipped. I held my hands up.
“Okay, no bothering you while you’re doing your important work. What else?”
“No touching my strawberries and cream body wash. I’ll know if you do.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, because I’d love to smell like a pink Starburst,” I mentioned sarcastically. “Woman, please.”
“And of course, clean after yourself. I’m no one’s maid and I don’t want bugs.”
“Of course,” I said. “Anything else, your highness?”
“I guess that’s all. I’ll show you to your room then,” she said. I followed her down the hall, almost bumping into her when she stopped abruptly.
“My bad,” I said, taking a step back when she turned around.
“There’s your room,” she said, pointing to the closed door, “and there’s the bathroom.” She pointed to the opened door beside it.
“And I’m guessing that’s your room?” I asked, pointing to the door at the end of the hall. She looked over her shoulder as if she didn’t know what I was talking about.
“Yes, which is off limits,” she said.
“Of course it is,” I said. She shook her head and walked around me, leaving me alone in the hallway. I entered the bedroom and saw that the room was already made up for me. The bed was covered with a black comforter with white sheets underneath. A smaller flat screen sat on top of a tall black dresser near the foot of the bed and a small desk sat on the other side of the room.
“Not bad,” I mused to myself, placing my single suitcase on the bed. Unzipping it, I pulled out a change of clothes and walked back into the living room to find Ashton sitting on the couch.
“Where can I find the towels? Need to take a shower,” I said.
“In the cabinet over the toilet,” she replied without looking up from her magazine. I made my way to the bathroom and found what I needed, stepping into the shower and turning the water on.
Just as I was finishing up, I spotted her body wash in a metal rack mounted to the wall. A devilish grin formed on my lips as I picked up the bottle. I doubt she’d notice, I thought, as I put a tiny dab of it in the palm of my hand. It wasn’t even enough to lather up my hands, but it definitely smelled a bit stronger than I’d expected. I rinsed the body wash off and then rubbed some of my own in my hands, hoping to mask some of the smell. I’d better chill out; I didn’t want to be kicked out before even being here for an hour.
After throwing on a tank top and sweatpants, I finally flopped down beside her on the couch with a sigh. “Man, I’m tired,” I mentioned out loud.
“How terrible for you,” she drawled sarcastically, pausing in her page flipping. She sniffed the air a bit and glared at me. “Did you use my body wash?”
“Who, me?”
No, fucking Megatron. Of course you!” She sniffed again, moving closer to me and smelling my arm. “It’s somewhere on you.”
“Whoa, back up, Snoopy,” I said with a chuckle. She grabbed my hand and sniffed the back of it before pushing it away.
“You did use it!” She threw her hands in the air. “You haven’t even been here that long and you’re already breaking house rules!”
“Just wanted to smell it to see why it was so important,” I said with a shrug.
“And you couldn’t smell it from the bottle?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.
“Not really. All I could smell was my own body wash. You can use mine if it makes you feel any better,” I offered with a grin.
“As if,” she mumbled and turned back to her magazine.
After a few moments of awkward silence, I let out a loud sigh and looked to her. She ignored me and kept her eyes on the magazine.
I sighed again, a bit louder this time. Though she looked up, she still didn’t look at me. I grinned.
“Man, I sure am bored,” I said out loud. She didn’t say anything, going back to her magazine without a word. When I sighed again, she slapped the magazine closed and narrowed her eyes at me.
“You’re annoying, you know that?”
“Hey, I’m bored. What’s there to do around here?”
“You haven’t found anything to do in town by now?”
“I’ve literally only been to work, the hotel, and a couple of places to get food. It’s not like you guys have a bunch of options here,” I noted.
“Aren’t you friends with Chris? Ask him to take you somewhere,” she mumbled.
I scoffed. “If you want to call someone a creep, it would be that guy. I don’t want any parts in his nonsense,” I said. She giggled but quickly cleared her throat.
“Yeah, well, whatever. I don’t know what to tell you. I have to work in a little bit.”
“What do you do?” I asked.
“Customer service.”
“Like a call center or something?”
“Something like that,” she mumbled.
I raised an eyebrow. “So what kind of calls do you take?”
“Just customer service calls.”
“Uh huh,” I said and stood up. “Well, since you want me to be bored to tears, I guess I’ll take a nap and then figure out something to do later.”
“That’s the best thing you’ve said since you’ve been here,” she replied, picking the magazine back up.
“Try not to miss me too much,” I said as I walked down the hallway.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she responded. I smiled to myself. This woman was probably doing everything she thought would push me away, but she was doing nothing but making me more interested with each response that came from her mouth.
This was going to be fun.