“SOMEONE BETTER BE DEAD or dying,” I say out loud as I blindly reach for my cell phone that has now vibrated so many times it fell from my nightstand to the floor. My eyes are still closed, and I plan to keep them that way until my alarm goes off in . . . I pull one eye open as I try to glance at the clock on my dresser, but it’s not there. Whatever . . .
I finally manage to pull it up by the cord and see not only who’s calling, but that it’s early. Really fucking early. I look at the name flashing on my cell and contemplate ignoring him, but I know he’ll just keep calling until I pick up. I put my head back down on my pillow and close my eyes before answering.
“What is wrong with you? I have two hours left to sleep. Are you bleeding?” I ask, Cam, before I bury my head back into my pillow. I hear his insane laughter come through the line, and I’m tempted to press end, but like the good friend I am, I wait.
“Get up, sleeping beauty!” he says way too cheerfully for the hour. Fucking morning people. “I’m about to grab my gym bag and head out in ten. You said you’d hit the gym with me this morning before your shift. Get up, get your shit together, Callahan, and meet me downstairs in twenty.”
“Shit!” I say and pull myself up into a sitting position on my bed.
“Yeah, shit is right. I knew you’d try and back out. Not happening, man. No pain, no gain.”
I lean back against my headboard and rub the sleep from my eyes. “Listen, man, I’m not going to be able to meet you until after my shift.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“If you’d shut up and let me wake up, then I could tell you that I’m not . . . what the fuck?”
I was about to tell Cam that I have company, but it’s then I realize that I am, in fact, alone, and my bed is across my fucking room. Holy shit! Thoughts on everything that happened last night begin to flood my brain and my morning wood is double the wood from images of everything we did last night. Speaking of my cock, there is something stuck to it right below my abdomen. On my dick?
“What? What the fuck? Dude, are you talking in your sleep, man? Wake up, Niko! Get one of your nasty green veggie shakes and get ready.”
“Cam, hold on a second.” I hear him bitching through the phone, but I’ve stopped listening and pull the phone away from my ear.
I get up and flip the light on, and just for shits and giggles I double-check to make sure she’s gone. Nope. There is no Alyson in my bed. The floor is littered with my clothes having landed wherever she threw them when she ripped them off. However, hers are gone.
I pull the sheets back, ready to find her, and that’s when I see it. The thing that is sticking to me—not just sticking to me, but stuck to my dick—is a piece of paper. No, not just a piece of paper, one of those yellow fucking Post-it notes with the word “Thanks” written on it. And a goddamn smiley face?
“Are you fucking shitting me?” I say out loud. Cam is going to bitch my ass out in a minute, but I need a second to process. The fact that this girl, this sexy-as-fuck, rocked-my-whole-world-last-night woman left before I woke, stuck a fucking Post-it note on my cock to thank me for the best sex of my life, and bounced without a word.
Well, that’s a fucking first.
“Hello! Earth to Niko, what the fuck, man. You’re not what? Get your ass up and let’s go,” Cam says from the phone.
“Yeah, okay. All right, just let me grab a quick shower first.” And push my bed back against the wall, I think, but keep that shit to myself. I’m not one of those guys that need to tell my boys all about my conquests. That’s a dick move, and I try not to fuck and report if I can help it.
“Niko, it’s the gym. Don’t be a fucking girl and get all dolled up before we sweat our asses off. Shower after, you pussy!” Cam says and laughs at me through the phone.
“Shut up. I was going to tell you I couldn’t go because I wasn’t alone, but apparently, she dipped out on me sometime during the night and didn’t let me know she was leaving. I need a shower, man, so give me a few minutes, or you can go work out alone.”
“Whoa! Someone’s cranky this morning. Is big Niko pissed that little Niko didn’t get his morning nookie with his Wheaties?”
“First of all, there is no ‘little’ Niko, asshole, and there is nothing small about little Niko. Worry about little Cameron.” Cam starts cackling again, and I’m ready to throw my cell across the room.
“You said there is nothing little about little Niko! Bro, you called your dick little Niko!”
“Shut up, Cam, you’re giving me a fucking headache.” I rub my temples to try and relieve the tension building in my head, between Cam and his ribbing me before the sun is even up and then a Post-it on my fucking cock thanking me for sex.
“Suck it up, buttercup! Welcome to the mortal world, Casanova. Sometimes you can’t always get laid twice in twenty-four hours.”
“Listen, I’m not letting you screw with me today, you ass. Let me wake up first,” I say. Cam laughs and then just as fast as he began to, he stops and is eerily quiet.
“Hello?” I pull the phone away to see if we’re still connected when I hear him on the line.
“Dude, you just said that she left in the middle of the night.”
“Yeah, and?”
“And . . . She didn’t wake you up? She didn’t ask for a ride, nothing?”
“That’s what I just said. What the fuck, are you a parrot now?”
“Did you check the rest of your apartment? What if she ripped you off or something? Did you check to make sure your wallet is not missing?”
“I didn’t think of that, but I’m honestly not worried about that. She didn’t seem like that type of girl—”
“What type of girl?” He cuts me off, and I’m seriously thinking about kicking his ass today. “The kind that goes home with a strange guy she just met in a bar, has sex with the guy, and then leaves in the middle of the night without a word?”
“No, dumbass, she left a note!”
“Ohhhhh! Well, that explains it! You’re right! She doesn’t seem like that type of girl at all if she left you a note!” he says with nothing but sarcasm, and I want to put my fist through the phone. I’m kicking his ass today. “What did it say?”
“It doesn’t matter. Just shut up, would you? She didn’t steal anything, and she’s gone. Mind your own business.” There is no way I’m telling him what the sticky fucking note said. I’ll never hear the end of it, and he’ll run his mouth to the rest of the guys at the firehouse.
“Open the door.”
“What?”
“I’m at your door, Princess. Open the door, I’ll make you a protein shake while you wash the smell of pussy off yourself, and then we can go hit the gym.”
I don’t bother with a reply, and I hang up on him, throw my boxer briefs on and head to my front door. Cameron is standing outside with hair wet from being freshly showered himself.
“So it’s cool for you to shower before the gym, but if I do it, I’m a girl?” I smirk at him and turn to head to my bathroom. “Unless you got caught in the rain, I’d keep your bitch-ass mouth shut while I take my shower,” I say, only to have Cam flip me the bird before throwing his bag on the floor and closing my front door behind him. “I’ll be out in ten.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just hurry up!”
I’m rinsing the soap from my hair when my bathroom door slams open, causing me to jump out of my skin. The shower curtain pulls back, and for a minute I contemplate screaming like the chick in that psycho movie, but my eyes now have soap in them, causing me to reach for the towel to my right to wipe my face.
“What the fuck, Cam? Get out!” I yell at him, but he doesn’t budge. No, what little I can see of him with the shampoo and water dripping into my eyes isn’t right.
Cam, who is now standing in front of me, is grinning ear to ear. When I clear my eyes of shampoo, I look down at his hand where, sure enough, he’s holding the yellow Post-it note that Alyson left on my fucking dick this morning. Great. I try closing the shower curtain so that I can finish my shower, but Cameron isn’t going to let this go. He pulls the shower curtain open again and with all his pearly whites showing, finishes my fucked-up morning off, Cam-style.
“Dude! Is this the note she left you this morning?” he asks with the Post-it stuck to his fingers. “Looks more like she was telling you that last night was barely passable if you ask me.”
“I didn’t ask you,” I growl at him.
“I mean, this note she left doesn’t even qualify as a note. It’s one word and a smiley face, dude. I’d say it was rather insulting your dick skills,” he says, and as usual, I want to hit him. Only Cam can pull shit like this. We’ve been going back and forth like this since we were teens. He probably won’t stop, even when we are both old and fucking grey.
“Give that to me, asshole!” I reach for it, but he pulls his hand back and the Post-it is too far away for me to grab it without busting my ass in the shower.
“Bro, wait till I tell the guys. You are never living this one down. This,” he says, waving the Post-it note back and forth in front of my face, “is total payback for all that ball busting you and Bishop did to me when that redhead I fucked left me cuffed to the back of Engine Two. You didn’t have to tell them that shit! I’m still dealing with Bishop and Jenkins and the beginner’s bondage set they keep leaving in my fucking locker once a week.”
“You called me while I was upstairs playing cards with both of them, dumbass. I didn’t know you were downstairs on your night off banging some chick that wanted to play spank-your-ass dominatrix on the truck.”
“That’s not what she was doing, fucker!” he yells, and I want to laugh all over again because he was the dumb fuck that brought her there on his night off knowing one or all of us could have walked in on him at any time. Did he think that we wouldn’t notice him fucking some chick if we got called out on a job?
“Cameron . . .” I growl. “Cut the shit already. I’m not in the mood for your crap today. Just get out.”
“So, what did you do, leave her hanging? Forget that you’re supposed to let ladies go first? Come on, man. You can tell me,” he says with that stupid smirk on his face. “Might as well fill me in now because if you don’t, I’m just going to make shit up as I go. You know that I’m going to run my mouth regardless, so might as well get the story right about how you performed so badly that the chick you brought home ditched your ass in the middle of the night and left you a cheap-ass version of a Dear Niko letter.”
“Sticking a Post-it on my cock doesn’t qualify as a Dear Niko letter, you moron. If anything, it proves that the night went well for her because she thanked my cock and not me directly, you dumbass. I was sleeping. Maybe she couldn’t wake me up. You think of that? Now get the hell out so I can finish my shower!”
“Wait, wait. What did you just say?”
“Cam. Get. Out!” He looks down at his hand, the one with the Post-it stuck to it, and starts waving it around trying to get the Post-it to unstick from his fingers. Finally, he takes his two fingers on the other hand and peels the sticky paper from his hand.
“That’s not cool, man. That shit was on your cock, and you’re just now telling me?” He gives me a disgusted look before saying, “That’s just rude,” and then walks over to my sink to wash his hands.
I let out a sigh and shake my head. “I’m rude? You do realize you just barged into my bathroom where I’m talking a damn shower, right, but I’m the one that’s rude? Maybe next time you won’t go looking into shit that’s not your business.” He stops and stares at me through the mirror, so I close the shower curtain. “Close the door on your way out.” As soon as my head’s under the spray of the water, the curtain is once again ripped open.
“What is your problem?” I yell at him. “This is beyond fucking weird, man. Even for you.”
“She left you a note saying thanks? She stuck a fucking Post-it note on your dick, a thank you for fucking her?”
“Get out, Cameron. Get the fuck out!” I yell louder while I rub at my eyes. “Now, Cam, or you’re on your own today!” He ignores me, and his annoying laugh just pisses me off more. I’m tempted to choke him with the shower curtain, or better yet beat him with the pole.
Why, God? What did I ever do to you? I think to myself as I listen to him cackle.
“This has got to go in the Guinness book! This right here is fan-fucking-tastic! I can’t wait to let everyone know what happened to the great Niko Callahan last night!”
“That’s it!” I lunge for him, trying to grab the damn sticky note, but he moves before I grab him and I end up slipping on the floor, shower curtain and all crashing around me. Cameron laughs so hard, he sits down and holds his stomach. Tears are starting to stream down his face. I get up and turn the water off, saying nothing else. Grabbing a towel, I wrap it around my hips and walk out, leaving Cam’s laughing ass on my bathroom floor. “Fuck you, Cam.” He lets out another belly laugh.
“Oh, come on! Don’t be like that, Princess. I was just playing with ya!”
“It’s like your religion or something.”
“What is?” he asks.
“Instead of saying you’re a practicing Catholic, you should tell them your religion is assholian. As long as I’ve known you, I should know better by now. You’re an assholian prick.”
“An assholian prick?” Cameron stands there for a second pretending to consider what I just said. “Where do you come up with these sayings?”
I’m already feeling frustrated as hell, and I got laid last night. “Same place you go to get your ass spanked, that’s where.”
“Oh, come on! It’s funny shit, and you know it. Stop being a girl. It happens to the best of us, man.”
“Shut up, Cameron!” I yell from my room while I get dressed. He’s never going to stop. This day just gets shittier and shittier.
“Can you spot me?” Cam asks just as I’m getting off the treadmill. I’m not trying to get huge, but I stay toned, and I love getting my heart rate up with a good run. Usually, I head outdoors, but Cam has this thing where he doesn’t like hitting the gym alone, so here I am.
“Yeah, I’ll spot ya. Might be worth it. I might accidentally drop the bar on your neck. That way I can watch you struggle to wiggle out from under it in front of the chick over there.” Cam’s been watching this chick for the last thirty minutes. I saw him watching her in the mirror. Part of me was secretly hoping he’d drop a weight on his toe and embarrass himself in front of her, but with Cam’s fucking luck, she’d be a nurse and kiss it fucking better. I smirk and shake my head at the thought.
“You wouldn’t do that to me, now, would ya?” Cam says, and I give him a look that says otherwise. “Niko, you wound me, brother. Stop being a baby and let’s get this done. Good thing today isn’t leg day. I’ve got that training this week with the rookie, and I need to be able to walk.”
“Better you than me.” Cam snorts but ignores me for the most part, lying back on the weight bench while I grab the weights for him.
“So Ev was delayed last night. She stopped by the station late last and grabbed my keys to my parents’ house. When she’s ready to move her things, she’ll need some help. I told her I’d grab a few of the guys from work. You on board to help?”
“Of course. As long as it’s not a day I’m scheduled to work a double, I’m in.”
“Thanks, man. I’ll let you know when.”
“Shit. I can’t believe little Ev moved away to California and stayed away for eight years, bro. I don’t know if I could be away from home that long.”
“I know. Me either, to be honest. I might complain about the weather here, and the snow in the winter, but New England is my home. She loves it out there, though. She always said she wasn’t leaving her paradise.”
“So then why did she move back?”
“She got a new job. I guess they offered her more money and a better position at the company she works for or some shit like that. There’s more, but we haven’t had the chance to sit down and talk yet. I’m meeting her for dinner this weekend before she starts her job on Monday we both get too busy to see each other. If you’re off one night this weekend, you should come. I’m sure she’d love to see you after all this time.”
I laugh because I remember little Everly Hayes had a crush on me way back when. I thought it was cute, but Cam hated it. He always said it was because he didn’t want her following us around, that it put the girls in our high school off him when Everly’s little awkward self would bounce behind us. She was everything the word dork or nerd had after it in the dictionary.
“Yeah, maybe. It would be nice to see Everly again. See how much she’s grown up and shit.”
“Dude, you have no idea. I told you she’s not the same girl you last saw.”
“Still shy and awkward?” I ask, chuckling. I haven’t thought much of Ev over the years.
“Not at all, man. Everly is very different from the little pain in the ass you remember.”
“Nah, bro, she always bugged the shit out of you. She didn’t bother me. I always wanted a younger sibling.”
“She bugged me because I knew she had a crush on your fucked-up ass! Plus, she was always cockblocking my game with Cassidy Rollins.” I laugh because Cam is dead serious.
“Cam, she was a baby if anything. She was never even close to being on my radar at her age. I never understood you back then.”
“If it were your sister, you’d have understood. Speaking of fucked-up guys.”
“Hey! I’m not fucked up, asshole. If I am, then like equals like, fucker.”
Cam shrugs my comment off and continues his reps. “She’s been with this guy, Tate, for a while. I can’t stand the guy. I met him last Christmas when the folks and I went to see her for the holidays. He just rubbed me the wrong way.”
“She’s got a boyfriend, then?”
“See, that’s the thing, I don’t know. She didn’t tell my mom anything, and she hasn’t mentioned Tate coming here. I’m waiting for her to let one of us know. Mom didn’t want to seem nosy, but fuck that. I’m going to ask her when we have dinner. I’m hoping she kicked his sorry ass to the curb.”
“Well, for his sake, I hope she did too.” I laugh at Cam’s protective streak for his little sister. “Let me know what the deal is. If he’s coming soon, maybe you and I can go invite him out for a beer. You know, be all manly and shit. Scare the fuck out of him.” I smile wide because Cam is thinking about it. So much for being the big thirty. He still acts like he’s twenty.
“Whatever, bro. I’m going to hold you to that. Ev will be pissed as hell, though. She’ll probably cuss me out before she throws me out if I do something like that. She raked me over the coals when we spent Christmas with them last year.”
“I can’t see that. I still see Everly with braces on her teeth and those big-ass Coke-bottle glasses she wears.”
“Wrong. I told you, Ev is different. No more Coke-bottle glasses. Plus she’s got this friend of hers, Aly, that has rubbed off on her in not so good ways. Now that one is a piece of work.”
“You’re ridiculous, but you usually are, so whatever. I need to grab a shower before we head out. You about done here, or do you need me to stay and spot you so you don’t break a nail?” I’m done talking about Cam’s little sister. All I can think about is Alyson and everything that happened last night. I can’t believe I didn’t get her number. Not a last name, nothing.
“Screw you, asshole. You’re the pretty boy, but no. I’m going to stay and work out a little longer. You go on ahead, and I’ll catch up with you later,” he says to me, but he’s looking at the chick that was eyeing him earlier.
“All right, then. Later.” No use in cockblocking my boy. After all, I got some last night. Maybe if he gets laid he’ll leave me alone. I head toward the men’s locker room so I can hit the shower before I head out, walking past the girl that has been watching Cam and me since we walked in on my way to the locker room. No way can she compete with the hot-as-hell woman that rocked my world last night, but she’s cute. Cam will probably hook up with her a few times, and then the awkwardness will begin once he ends it. I shake my head at the thought. I don’t usually do second dates with the women I fuck. Once is often enough, or I’ll cause problems for myself. Happens every time I’ve allowed a woman to overstay her welcome. Feelings get involved, and not mine.
I don’t like disappointing the women I’m with, and I sure as fuck never intentionally set out to hurt anyone. It’s better for us both if it stays casual. Just hook up and be done. No strings. It sounds cold, but it’s honest, and it works for me.
I’ve had more than a few that claim they’d like a more extended arrangement, but it’s too risky. Time equals talking, and talking leads to getting to know more about the other, and knowing more leads to catching feelings. I just don’t have the time for that right now. It’s hard not to come off as a dick, but I’m up front, and I tell them from the jump that this is how it is.
The last thing I need is some bunny boiler showing up at the station. The guys wouldn’t let me live that shit down, ever.
Now . . . Post-it note girl, on the other hand. Well, I’d let her stalk me anywhere she wanted. How the hell did I not hear her leave? I’m a light sleeper—I should have heard her. I rub my hand down my face in the shower, letting the water run down my body. I’m hard as a rock just thinking about her, and I don’t like it.
I should just pull up one of the chick’s numbers from last week, call one of them, and get Alyson out of my head, but that would break my rule. Not only that, but I don’t want to. I want to know why she left without saying anything. I know she had a good time. Hell, I know she had a great damn time. There is no doubt in my mind about that. I made her come at least five times. There is no fucking way that was it.
Maybe Cam is right. Perhaps it’s just because she left me before I got up and had the chance to let her down. I know I have an ego, but damn if I’ve ever had a woman bruise it before. It sucks. I’m sure there are women out there that don’t find me to their liking, but I have yet to approach one where the attraction wasn’t mutual. It just is what it is. So why the hell can’t I get this chick out of my head? I let out a puff of air, shutting off the water. This is going to be a long-ass day.