Chapter Eight
High School
“What are you staring at?” Vincent asked.
Cole averted his gaze and looked down at the magazine that Danny had thrown at Vincent. Of course it was a porn mag. Danny seemed to think it was cool, as did some of their other friends. “Nothing.”
“The only bitches I see are those chubby girls. Elena and Juliet. You got a thing for fat girls?”
“Fuck off, Danny,” Cole said.
Vincent looked at him, and Cole ignored both of his friends, pretending to be interested in the magazine in front of him.
“I found this in my dad’s stash.” Danny burst out laughing. “Said to me it was okay to be attracted to either men or women. I was like, Dad, seriously? I love the pussy.”
This was why he could only handle Danny in small doses. Out of all of his friends, Danny was the brash one, the bad mouthed one, and at times he pissed Cole off to the point that Cole wanted to beat the shit out of him.
Still, he chanced another glance over at the far table where Elena was eating her lunch with her friend. The had just started high school that year, and he’d been getting glimpses of her now throughout the weeks. He was three years ahead of her, and at times, he found it frustrating that he only could see her, not that he knew what to say to her. They’d never really talked.
She was beautiful, at least to him, that he couldn’t deny. Without her even trying to gain his attention, he always seemed to be drawn to her.
“You know what, I’m out of here. I see a girl that needs my dick,” Danny said.
Cole wrinkled his nose, and was actually pleased when Danny took the magazine back.
“I need to head inside. Catch ya later,” Vincent said, and then a few of his other friends disappeared leaving him alone.
With no one around Cole was able to watch Elena freely, to observe her without anyone getting in his way.
Whatever Elena and Juliet were talking about was making her smile. There was this twinkle in her eyes, and just seeing it brought pleasure to him.
She probably had no idea that he watched her, looked out for her.
Still, he didn’t mind.
While his friends always talked about the girls they’d been with, he’d listen, and wait to catch a glimpse of the girl that in his mind had been his since he’d been eight years old.
Elena threw her head back and laughed at something Juliet said. It wasn’t long before the two were finished, and heading back into the high school.
His friends would think him a pussy for wanting Elena. They also liked to call him “chubby chaser”, which had followed him to high school. When they’d been eight years old, they’d had to say who they thought was the most beautiful girl in school, and he had said Elena James without even thinking. His friends had burst out laughing saying he liked fat girls.
Anyway, what they didn’t get wasn’t the fact he didn’t like “fat girls”. He liked one girl, Elena.
Still, he’d decided he wouldn’t let his friends know his feelings anymore.
Entering the high school, he was rounding a corner when someone plowed into him. He worked out every single day, and so his body was like that of a rock.
“Ough!”
He looked down to see Elena sprawled on the floor, several of her books dropped on the floor.
“Sorry,” he said, bending down to gather them up.
“No problem. It teaches me not to look behind me as I’m walking straight ahead. Wrong move, totally wrong.” She was crouched down, gathering the books up along with him.
Standing up, Cole wanted to say anything, something to keep them in this moment, and yet there was nothing to be said. There were no words, and as she smiled and said thank you again, she was gone.
Glancing behind him, he watched her curvy ass in the jeans she wore, and knew one day, if he was patient, she would belong to him.
****
Present day
It had taken a long time to make his boyhood vow an actual reality. Three years stood between them. Those three years had made a hell of a difference.
He’d graduated high school while she still had time to go. Leaving town, he’d gone to college for an entire year, dragging out one semester’s worth of classes. When he returned she’d still been in high school and so far away from him. There was no reason for him to hang out at the school. Even he wasn’t that kind of perv.
Over the next few years, he’d become a professional plumber, and then bought his house, spending every available second renovating it. Elena had left high school, and was dating someone else. Their paths rarely crossed, and he just wasn’t ready. Every time he was close, he’d always found another reason not to ask her out on a date.
Then finally, it was like the fates just couldn’t handle them apart any longer, and there she was, in his DIY store, looking for a job. It had been too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Cole stood in the doorway of his office and watched as she served the customers. Deuce was in one of the aisles showing what the best kind of tool was to fix a treehouse. Cole’s gaze was only on Elena though, her bandaged hand upsetting him as he’d not meant to hurt her. All he did was leave the damn knife in the water, which he felt responsible for.
He didn’t know how long he stood there, but all too soon, five o’clock had come, and he was bolting the front door.
Elena was counting the money in the till and placing it in bags.
“Today was a long day,” Deuce said. He stretched out his muscles, and moaned. “Damn, I need a beer, a massage, and good meal.”
Cole thought all of that sounded good.
“What do you say, Elena?” Deuce asked. “You want to serve all of those needs for me?”
Cole’s hands curled into fists, and he was ready to take Deuce down, only Elena burst out laughing, cutting through any anger he had.
“You’re a sexist pig, Deuce. You’ve got no chance. Find yourself someone else willing to do all that crap.”
She was still chuckling as she left them.
“Don’t ever ask her to do that again,” Cole said, staring at Deuce. “You’ll be out of a job so fucking fast, I will make sure you don’t get another one.”
Deuce held his hands up. “Sorry, dude. I had no idea that she was taken. Besides, I was only joking around. Honest. You saw her. She was laughing. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Cole didn’t back down, and he went in search of her. He found Elena in the staff room. She was at her locker, and her hands were on her shoulders, stretching her head from side to side.
Moving up behind her, he gripped her shoulders and began to massage them.
“That feels good, Cole,” she said.
“How did you know it was me?”
She chuckled. “I just did. Have you finished telling Deuce off now?”
“I wanted to do a lot more than that.”
“You really didn’t have to, Cole. He was just joking around. There was something I wanted to ask you actually,” she said, grabbing her bag, and turning toward him. “Martha came back today. She wanted to talk about possibly re-hiring me on a part-time basis.”
“The library?”
“Yeah. It would seem I’m actually a credit to them.”
Cole didn’t like the thought of her working anywhere else, but he also wasn’t going to stop her.
“What is it?” she asked. “You’ve looking at me strangely.”
“I don’t want you to go. I’d like you to stay here, but I’m also incredibly selfish.” He smiled because the truth was, he really didn’t want her to go.
“It’s a part-time thing, Cole. I don’t want to give up my job here either.” She tucked some hair behind her ear. “I like working for you, and being close to you.” She closed the small distance between them. “But I do enjoy working at the library.”
He cupped her cheek, and tilted her head back. “Then if it’s what you want, I’m happy for you to do it.”
“Thank you, Cole.” She pressed a kiss to his lips. “Stop threatening every single guy, okay? It’s really not good.” She winked at him, and this had him laughing. “I would have to start threatening every single woman that came your way, looking at you, wanting you.”
“There is no other woman for me, Elena. Never has been. Never will be.”
She kissed his lips again, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth. “And there’s no one else for me.”
****
Date three went better than Elena expected, only as they came out of the movie theater, Cole got a call. There was an urgent job that he needed to go to, so dinner was a no. She offered to go with him, and instead he dropped her off at home.
Again, she didn’t mind at all.
Date four was back at the hospital to remove the stitches in her hand. She was good as new.
By the time the second week rolled around, Elena was back at the library and working there. She took over from Claire for the reading, and kids slowly began to come back to listen to her. She did love being in the library, and she also loved working with Deuce and Cole. Of course, it meant that he had to hire another person. David seemed nice enough as well. He got the work done, and he knew a thing or two about DIY, which always came in handy.
Two weeks into being back at the library, and Elena was sitting on her sofa inside her apartment, eating chocolate ice cream.
Juliet entered at around seven in the evening, and paused. “Do I need to be worried?”
“Why would you need to be worried about anything?” Elena asked.
“You’re back on the sofa eating ice cream. Where’s Cole? Wasn’t he attached at your hip?”
This brought a smile to Elena’s lips. “Nope. I think he’s upset with me.”
“Why?” Juliet collapsed down onto the sofa, and took the spoon once again. This was not the first, the second, or probably the last time this would ever happen. Her best friend was always stealing her ice cream.
“He’s been off with me since I told him I wanted to go back. One of our dates was to get my hand fixed. Since then … nothing. We’ve not had any dates.”
“Wow.”
Elena shrugged. “Maybe he’s bored or something.”
The apartment doorbell rang. Both of them turned toward it.
“Ignore it,” Elena said. “I’m going to feel sorry for myself, and eat this entire carton of ice cream.”
The doorbell went again, and this time Juliet sighed. “There are times I find you so depressing.” She slapped her hand down on her knee, and got up.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding out who is at our door, and trying to pull myself from depressive land.”
Elena didn’t like feeling this way either, and she didn’t know how to pull herself out of it. Cole was distant, and she hated that. The library was fun, and she loved being there. In a weird way, she also missed Deuce, and his sexist comments. Of course she missed catching glimpses of Cole, and then there was the office sex. They had done that one time, and since then, it was like he’d been way too busy to give her the time of day.
When she was at the store, he wasn’t there.
It was crazy, and now she was freaking out a little.
“Erm, Elena, I think you should come here,” Juliet said.
“I’m not going anywhere. I want to sit here and wallow in self-pity.”
Juliet stormed over, took the ice cream from her, and the spoon. “Door, now!”
“You’ve only just got home from work, and you’re being really bossy. I don’t like you right now.”
“You love me. You know you love me. Stop being a pain in the ass, and go and see.”
Getting to her feet, Elena vowed that if it wasn’t for a good reason to be at the door, she was going to take Juliet’s vibrator, and throw it in the trash.
She stood in front of the door, and froze. Cole stood there with a bunch of red roses and a smile.
“Cole,” she said.
“Hey. Erm, so I saw these at the florist, and I thought of you.”
She leaned against the door and stared at him. “You thought of me.”
“Yes, I did.” He glanced at the flowers and then up at her. “I’ve been … busy. Words are not my strongest thing, and I do struggle. I’ve not been ignoring you, and I’m not angry at you for going back to work part time at the library. I know you’re really good at it, and I’m so happy for you.” He stopped, took a breath, and smiled. “Will you go out with me tonight? Just for a walk and we can talk.”
“Yes, I will.”
Juliet handed her a jacket.
“You want rid of me?”
“No, I just want you to be happy, and we can’t afford another carton of ice cream every night. Go, have fun.”
Elena closed the door behind her. Cole handed her the flowers, to which Juliet opened the door again. “I’ll put these in water for you.”
“Thank you.”
Cole took her hand, and together they left her apartment building.
“I didn’t know what to think,” she said. “I don’t know what we are, and if I should be expecting anything from you. I’m sorry. I don’t … there’s a lot I’m not sure of.”
She felt crazy just putting her own doubts into actual words. This wasn’t because of him at all. This was her own fault, no one else’s. Cole was perfect in every single way.
He stopped, and took her hands. “Just ask me, Elena.” He cupped her chin, and tilted her head back. “You can ask me anything, and I will do my best to answer.”
“What are we?” she asked, blurting the words out. “I don’t know if we’re dating, or having fun. What are we doing exactly?”
This time, he smiled. “Is it too childish to say we’re boyfriend and girlfriend? Should I write it on a piece of paper? Will you be my girlfriend, Elena?”
At first she thought he was mocking her, but she saw he wasn’t. He was being serious.
“If you sent me a piece of paper like that with boxes, I’d tick yes. I’ll be your girlfriend. What about you? Would you be my boyfriend?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I guess I kind of have to. I mean, I did cut your hand, give you stitches and all. I guess I can make it up to you like that.”
This time she did chuckle.
He grabbed her waist and pulled her close. “I don’t know how you could have any doubt that I wanted you.”
“So where were you then?”
“I was actually called to the city. Someone there had heard of my work, and for some reason, they decided to give me a go. It turns out, the guy is a friend from high school. He’s now a big time CEO guy. It was a pretty big job at one of his buildings. One of the floors was leaking. I got it fixed but ended up being there most of the day. I wasn’t ignoring you. Every time I tried to catch you, it was late. I’ve been wanting to do this all week.” He pulled her close, and slammed his lips down on hers. All of her doubts left her with his kiss. “I don’t know how you could think that there’s nothing something between us. I can’t go a moment without thinking about you.” He pressed his lips against hers again, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I’m kind of insecure. I don’t have a good track record with men, and we didn’t really put a label on this thing, and I didn’t know what to call it. I guess I was just … confused.”
“Don’t be. Any time you have a question or you have something you need to say, say it. I’ll never hold anything against you.” He kissed her again.
He opened his mouth as if to say something more, only he didn’t finish what he was saying. Nothing came out of his mouth, and she frowned. “What is it?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
“You can tell me anything.” She squeezed his hand. “Anything at all.”
“I missed you, Elena.”
“I missed you, too.” She winked at him. “Shall we go to your place and we can show each other how much we’ve missed each other?”
“Are you just using me, Elena James? I’m surprised.”
“You want to use me, too, so don’t go pretending you’re perfect. We both know you’re not.”
He twirled her around and lowered her gently. He held onto her tightly, and she was laughing.
“You’re right, I want to use you. I want to fuck you, and make you forget everything else in the world.”
His lips pressed against hers, and Elena knew that she didn’t need sex to forget about everything else. Just being in his arms helped her to forget.
Damn it!
She was falling in love with Cole, and that wasn’t even funny. He was going to break her heart, she was sure of it. Her doubts were ruining her happiness again.
Still, she forced a smile to her lips, and knew no matter what, she was just going to enjoy her time with him. There was no way he’d want to be with her. He could have anyone he ever wanted. Why would he want her?