Kyle
“Hey, Ty, you seen Tiff?”
“She left already. Haven’t you noticed that we’re the only two in the club right now?”
Crap. “Yeah, yeah.” Jesus Christ, how much did I drink tonight?
“Are you really that drunk?”
Am I? Maybe. Yes. I could remember some parts of the night, but not all, and from what spoken words I remembered with Tiff, I’d probably screwed up. Bad. “Shit,” I whispered to myself. If only I could recall everything, but I couldn’t piece together the events of the night.
“I have to go. I have to talk to Tiffany.”
“K, wait.” I paused, turning around to hear what he had to say. “She looked pissed and it’s almost four a.m. Why don’t you wait until later this morning? Get some sleep first.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I still wanted to see her; I had to see her. There was a feeling inside telling me I had been an asshole to her. If I had said something mean to her, it could affect all of us as friends. We both knew being “just friends” wasn’t going to be simple. While I cared about Tiff as a friend, I still held my wish not to have any other strings attached.
In no shape to drive, I walked to her place, and remembered running with her almost twenty-four hours earlier. So much had happened today. What the fuck was I doing anyway? Since when did I care who I was friends with or not? The thing with our circle of friends was simple; we were tight and like a family. Because Tyler had liked her enough to let her in, we all respected his choice and tried to get to know her better. The problem with Tiff and me was that we’d met before knowing about our connection. I’d never have hooked up with her otherwise.
Knocking—banging—on her door, I wanted to make sure she could hear me. “Tiff, wake up.”
Noises came from inside her apartment, then the sounds of steps coming to the door. Good.
“Kyle, I said no. Go home, I don’t want to see you here,” she said around the edge of the door.
Not taking her “no” for an answer, I pushed the door open wider and let myself in. “What happened tonight?”
“Are you kidding me? It’s four in the morning, Kyle. Go home, and we’ll talk tomorrow, but I need space.”
“Why space?”
She groaned at me, her eyes livid. “You acted like a total ass. You say no strings, but you can’t deal with the attention men give me when I’m working. You had to mark your territory.”
I should have said something, but didn’t know how to respond to that.
“And while you were with me, trying that whole friendship thing, you let that bimbo work you right in my face.” There was a vein on her forehead, threatening to pop any second now. “Nothing to say? What a surprise.” She pushed me, and I stepped back. “Go. I don’t want anything to do with you, Kyle. Not tonight.”
“I’m sorry, Tiff, I really am. I had too much to drink and I acted like an idiot. I’m okay now—”
“I’m not,” she cut me off.
I wanted to say something but didn’t know how to handle her hating me so much. It had me lost. While we stared at each other, I waited for her to break down, to forgive me, but she didn’t. Her eyes made me weak, even when she was mad. I stepped closer to her, but she didn’t move or react to our proximity.
“Friends?” I asked, offering her my hand.
“No, Kyle. We can’t be friends.”
I hated that I’d failed her, and broken something I hadn’t even given time to grow. Tyler would probably have my ass kicked for this.
“Right. Like I need you anyway.” Words I didn’t even mean rushed out of my mouth, and the back of her hand hitting hard on my cheek told me they had been hurtful nonetheless.
“Get out now or I’m calling the police.”
There was no hope for me to fix this now. She hated me as much as I hated myself.
“Please, Tiff,” I tried anyway. Tears appeared in her eyes. She looked hurt and exhausted, and I had caused her this.
“Please, Kyle. Just go.”
“Look what I’ve done to you in a matter of twenty-four hours. I won’t be bothering you again.” This time, I didn’t wait for her to say something and I avoided looking at her. The time to leave her alone had come. I’d made an asshole of myself way too many times today. I left.
Outside, it was a matter of time before the sun rose. I hadn’t slept yet, and by then, my body had grown weak. With the lack of taxis at this early hour, I walked until I reached my loft. After a quick shower, I went to bed to think on a way to fix things. Tyler had always been protective of his friends, and I expected no less for Tiff. Fighting or arguing with one of my best friends sucked, but I knew it was going to happen. Probably sooner than later.
I woke up hours later not feeling any better.
With Nix or Bekka there were no issues, we clicked. We could all spend time together and never get in a single awkward moment. The difference with Tiff was the sex, and my fear of attaching strings or getting feelings involved.
I wouldn’t do that to Cassidy, certainly not before, and not now either. She might be gone, but she was the love of my life, and I had no intention of ever replacing her.
Mom had tried to talk to me about it, reminding me how young I was and how I had all my life ahead of me. She said that growing old alone wasn’t the way I should be living. My response to that had been that without Cassi, I shouldn’t be alive at all, but here I was.
The shop had opened its doors for the day an hour ago, and yet, I still found myself at home. I just couldn’t go on with my day. Yesterday, I’d acted like a jerk and didn’t know how to fix it. Time might help, except I hated waiting.
My thoughts were disrupted by the ring of my phone. Tyler. Here we go.
“Hey, Tyler.”
“What have you done?”
Well, shit. He already was aware. “I messed up. Big time.”
“You did. Tiff came back here, to Seattle, to have a good time. Because her life in London has been tough for years. So, what the fuck did you do to her that made her so angry she came banging on my door at six a.m.?”
Words. I had to find the words to explain to him, but knew no matter how I explained it, I would be the asshole in the end.
“We… um… had sex before I ever knew she was your friend. We kept that going for a while. No strings, no friendship, only sex. Then, two days ago she showed up at the shop and asked if she could train with me in the morning. That got me thinking maybe we could try to be friends. Yesterday, we went for a morning run together and then to the gym. She was playing around and started doing ballet shit, and I lost it. She left, but later I went to her place, to explain and tell her I was sorry.” I paused knowing this was the moment I’d fucked up.
“That’s it?”
“No.” I cleared my throat. “While she was working last night, I had a few drinks too many and don’t remember much. Apparently, though, I acted like an asshole when guys flirted with her and I let a girl buy me a drink. So, Tiff told me she didn’t want to see me after her shift, but I ended up at her place anyway. It didn’t go well.”
“What the hell, Ky?” He sighed. “She’s my friend. Friends are family. We don’t treat them like shit.”
Fixing this would be near impossible, considering she’d made it clear I wasn’t welcome at her place anymore. “How am I supposed to fix this?”
“You better find out.” He hung up then, and I slammed my phone back on the nightstand with an enthusiastic, “Fucking hell!”
This situation sucked. I liked Tiff. She had an energetic personality, beautiful eyes, and there was something different about her which made me feel like, maybe, she understood my burden. That last part might be the reason I was so frustrated over how bad I’d fucked up.
Climbing out of bed, I started my day with a round of push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, and planks. No time for a run, I jumped in the shower and then got ready to head to work. Levi probably had his hands full, plus I had an appointment due in forty minutes. The whole time I felt like shit, and couldn’t stop thinking about a plan to fix my non-existent friendship with Tiff.
After grabbing coffees, sandwiches, and dessert, I entered a laughter-filled shop to find Nix sitting at the front desk while Levi was working at this station.
“Hey, Kyle.”
This was perfect! Nix was a woman, and as such, would be able to help me with my issue. “Hey, lovebirds. I got some food but didn’t know Nix would be here. You can have mine, if you want?”
“No, no. That’s fine. I’m not hungry.”
The laughter had stopped and I started wondering why. Until I noticed both of them watching me as if I had grown an arm on my forehead.
“Is there something wrong with me? Do I have toilet paper stuck under my shoe or something?”
Nix looked to Levi, waiting for him to answer, and Levi shook his head slowly. “I don’t want to be part of this, but Tyler is pissed at whatever happened between you and Tiff. You have to do something, man.”
Fuck, if only I knew what. “I’m trying to come up with a plan, but it’s not easy. She threatened to call the cops if I ever show up at her place again.”
Levi started laughing. “Do you really think she would do that?” Hm, yes.
“She wasn’t kidding when she spat it in my face, trust me.”
The door chime interrupted us then, and I heard the footsteps behind me.
“Speaking of the devil.” Levi shook his head in disbelief. “Eastwood is in the house!”
What? “Lennox?” Happy for the first time in hours, I turned around to see for myself. “What the hell are you doing here?” He hadn’t stopped by the shop in a long time. Lennox got along with us all right from the start. We met under sad circumstances but in my heart, he was part of us. Levi liked him too.
“Well, I’ve been itching to get a new tattoo, so I thought what the hell. I brought my friend Matthew with me.”
“How long are you staying in town?” I asked, cursing that my schedule was already full for the afternoon.
“Long enough to get some ink done by you.”
I nodded checking my schedule, and then was shocked when I saw the block: Len, four hours. “Len?”
Laughing, he nodded back. “Yeah, I wanted to surprise you.”
Lennox and I shared some kind of awkward friendship. Being the police officer who’d tried to catch Cassidy’s murderer, I always gave him the utmost respect. He saw me at my lowest and tried to help me back up. We’d kept contact and he’d became a good friend of mine.
“So, what’s up with you?” he asked.
“Trust me, you don’t even want to know.” I didn’t want to talk about it, but, hey, he was a cop. Tiff might talk to me again, if I were to bring him with me.
“Girl problems?”
Nodding, I dropped my pen on my schedule. “Not like you think, though. It’s complicated, of course. I’m in trouble now, and I have to fix things. She’s a friend of Tyler’s, and I’ve been acting like a complete ass with her.”
“Fix it, Kyle. If she made it into your circle, then she’s worth the fight.”
Worth the fight!