Nadine

That man, Mills, I could smother him in his sleep. No, maybe while he’s awake. Who knew I would move to Libby and run across a crazy man, who happens to be my neighbor who lived over the hill. I have had my share of lunatics but I came to a whole other state to study, not make dinner for two cranky Iowans.

The man he called Pops and the terrorist went into the kitchen right after a cute older woman walked into the enormous house.

“Was it something I said?” She gave a nervous chuckle but the downcast of her lips said she might have been hurt.

“No, no.” I held up my bag. “Apparently, Rogers isn’t allowed in this house.”

Her eyes her wide, then she said, “Oh no, honey. Tony doesn’t allow it. Absolutely not.” Her head was shaking emphatically.

“Well, his son is a rude tool, so, I don’t care.” My shoulders went up because I really didn’t.

“Mills?” The woman’s head jerked back.

“Yup, the very one.” I nodded.

“Oh, no.” She said. “You must be mistaken. Now J.D., Knox or even their father can be true assholes. Mills is the sweetest one of all. Troy is quiet, but he can be broody.” She giggled. “Believe me, I know. Those boys get it honest. Tony Timms is the biggest one. Why I love that man the way I do, I don’t know. Ever since his wife left, he’s been alone and I think he prefers it that way. He keeps pushing me away and I keep pushing back.”

She smiled in a dreamy way.

“But why?” I said, ignoring the first part of what she said.

“Why what, dear?” She asked.

“Why do you chase someone who isn’t interested in you or even dating?” I elaborated.

“Oh,” she laughed and shrugged. “He’s a wounded ole grizzly bear. He needs love too.”

“Well, what about you? What do you need, because these two...”? I shook my head and didn’t finish the sentence.

She seemed to be fond of the family and I most definitely was not.

“I don’t need much. I’ve lived my life, ya know.” Then she raised an eyebrow and asked, “If you were me, what would you do?”

That threw me off but I knew the answer right away.

“Make him jealous,” I said outright.

She leaned in and whispered, “What? I couldn’t.”

“Listen, people are territorial creatures. If he’s interested in you, you’ll be able to tell by acting like he’s your option and not your only choice. If he thinks you’re moving on, you’ll see his reaction. Men seem to take for granted what was available to them until it’s gone. So, I would make him jealous.”

The woman’s eyebrows went up in interest, but then the guy they refer to as Pops came barreling through the door with his son in tow.

“Ida, you here again?” Pops snarled. “They not cooking dinner over in your part of town?”

They were both rhetorical questions, but the older woman looked at me and said, “Why yes. Of course, silly. I’m having dinner here but having um...dessert elsewhere.” She looked at me. “Yes.”

I discreetly nodded my head as I figured out what she was trying to do. Awkward, but I got it.

Not to my surprise, Pops raised his head and asked, “Going out with Sheryl or Rose?”

Ms. Ida’s eyes moved to me again before she said, “N-no, an old friend.”

This had Pops’ full attention as he straightened and turned his body to face hers.

“Anyone I know?” His voice seemed deeper and stern.

Mills must have picked up on the tension and said, “Don’t matter. You’re here to eat dinner.”

Then he looked towards me and waved me to the kitchen as if to say, I could go ahead and get set up.

I went inside and began to set everything up. The kitchen was structured like any other. Large in size, mostly wood and stainless steel with a ceramic floor that was relatively new.

Ten minutes later, I came out with plates of food and put them down on the table.

Mills was over in the living room playing interference with Pops and Ida but when I came out, his head turned and those eyes pinned me to the spot.

He was up and in the dining room before I could blink.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He asked with confusion.

“Serving dinner,” I replied then I went back into the kitchen to get the last plate.

Mills followed me and said, “You were supposed to cook, not heat up food. Did you even make this?”

He was pointing to the spaghetti, like it was alive.

“You said to make a meal. I made a meal.” My hands found my hips. “Now are you going to eat it or not?”

His eyes bore into me before he finally said, “There are only three plates.”

“Yes.” I nodded my head.

“There are four of us.” He folded his muscular arms over his broad chest housed under a tight black T-shirt with the faded words that used to probably say Timms Organic Store.

Focus.

“And?”

“Nadine,” he sang in a warning tone. “Don’t have a lot of time for your mouth. I asked you to do something and you said you would.”

Why the man felt the need to pick on me of all people, I did not know. However, I’d had enough of his shit.

“First of all,” I started. “You didn’t ask me to do anything. You blackmailed me to cook for you and your Pops. You said that would stop you from harassing me and I want to be clear. That is the only reason why I am here. I didn’t move to Libby to be harassed or forced to cook dinner for two surly men. No, I did not. I came here to go to school and I want to do that without your interference.”

“You done?” Mills answered with a bored tone.

My head nodded once.

“Good, now let’s go and eat.” His arm looped around mine and he led me into the dining room, where he sat me right next to him. Pops and Ms. Ida were already seated but there was a weird vibe going on between the two.

Mills placed the plate in between the two of us, grabbed two forks and slid one to me.

“I’m not hungry.” I commented.

“You ain’t planning to eat?” Pops chimed in.

“Maybe she has another dinner date,” Ms. Ida chimed in with a smile.

All heads turned towards the older woman who seemed to enjoy this whole making people jealous thing. However, that was lost on me because I had no intentions of getting involved with a class-A jerk. I can do bad by my damn self.

“No,” Mills said with utter confidence. “She’s going to eat.”

This had me turning all the way around to face him in my chair.

“Excuse me?” I said through gritted teeth.

“Son,” His father warned.

Mills simply turned around and said under his breath.

“You think I’m annoying now. I invite you in my house to eat with my family and you come here to insult us after I try to make peace with you.” He shook his head. “You haven’t seen nothing yet.”

My eyebrows had to be resting with the moon at that point. I stood up because my hand ached to slap him right across his face. Mills stood up with me and met me head on.

“You have the dirty nerve to say I insulted you or your family when you blackmailed me.” I tried to let that sink in. “Blackmailed me to come and cook y’all dinner!”

At that point, I was yelling and it wasn’t until I finished that the room was upside down and moving all at the same time. Mills had me over his shoulder and was walking me towards some stairs. By that point, I was pounding on his tight ass with my fist.

“Put me down!” I kept hitting him. “You, barbaric beast.”

When I finally was able to see upright again, all I saw was his back and then heard the deafening click of a lock.

“I insulted you!” I screeched.

More words of anger were about to come out of my mouth but the speed of which the man crossed the room and his lips landed on mine was at the speed of light. The tightness in my chest increased as my fall from wherever I thought I was, ended with soft lips moving against mine and the man’s slippery tongue moving in my mouth.

My hands didn’t mean to slide around his shoulders and my legs weren’t supposed to wrap around his waist just because his hands lifted my ass towards him. None of that was supposed to happen.

Shit.

I gasped after I pulled back and pushed him away. This forced him to let me go and I took several steps back.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” I said as I touched my lips.

A quick look of regret crossed his face and that was all I needed to make my exit. Quickly and I’m almost positive I ran down those steps. Pops and Ms. Ida called but I snagged my purse and left for home.

None of that was supposed to happen. It damn sure wouldn’t happen again.

***

THE NEXT FEW DAYS, I immersed myself in work. There would be no thoughts of things that shouldn’t have happened or why I probably needed to move after getting such a great deal with my landlord. Maybe he had other properties.

The weekend went by, which was good since it was distraction free. I cooked and froze some of my meals in an effort to save money.

I was also trying to stay busy so my mind wouldn’t wander to what could have been.

Mills’ hands on me everywhere. Mine on him, ripping his tight shirt so I could caress each bulging muscle.

Dammit.

It was Monday and I had my agriculture science lab. This was exciting because we planned to cross-breed some vegetables to see what we would get.

When I walked in the room, the professor who led the course was standing with his back turned with two other tall and bulky men. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought one was Mills.

I should have known better with the type of luck I had.

Once the professor turned around, nobody but Mills and a guy who looked just like him stood with those million dollar smiles and God, they both looked good. A groan left my mouth as I stared so hard until Mills' eyes rose to connect with mine. I took that time to turn my head and find a seat in the back of the class.

Once everyone in our cohort was in the class, the professor announced, “Folks, I have excellent news. The Timms’ brothers, local and quite successful business owners around here, specifically in the agricultural department agreed to teach part of the hybrid course again this semester. Not only do they have the first-hand experience with the techniques in this unit, many organizations, including CAN-IT, owned by J.D. here, use it. Miller Timms, himself, is here to teach the course for the next three weeks.”

The man was beaming and I nearly fainted. What had I done to God in order to deserve that sort of treatment? It was my luck and my life that this sort of thing happened!

Why!

I refused to look up and I absolutely made no eye contact with the asshole of the man. As a matter of fact, I planned to see if there was another class offered because this was not happening.

As soon as class was over, I bolted out of the door and went to the scheduling department. They looked bored and irritated to see me, but I was beyond pissed.

“Hi, I would like to change a class.” I approached the frowning woman staring at a computer screen.

“Fill out the add/change form.” She replied without looking at me. 

“Where is that?” I asked.

“On the forms table.” Her eyes didn’t move.

I looked around and there were five tables against the wall. After inspection, I saw no tables that have signs stating ‘add/change forms’, so I trotted back over to the woman and asked, “Can you tell me which table contains the form? There are five and each of them has papers on them.”

This made her eyes turn to view me.

“It says forms above the table,” was her only reply.

I turned again and irritation cloaked over me within seconds.

Raising my voice, I sternly stated, “Clearly, none of these tables have forms written over them, on them or around them. I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t have a need. Now, can you show me the forms or tell me which table they are on?”

This caused a few people to come out of their offices and one guy who probably was in charge looked at the two of us and asked, “What seems to be the problem?”

The lazy woman jumped out of her chair and jabbed her finger at me, yelling, “She barged in here demanding that I show her the forms. I told her where they were and she starts raising her voice.”

The manager looked at me and I shook my head since I couldn’t believe this was how my day was turning out to be.

“That’s not what happened,” I said calmly. “I asked her for the add/drop form. She told me they were on the forms table and that it was marked.” I waved my hand in the direction of the tables and said, “It’s not marked and when I told her this, she proceeded to tell me that it was. I just want to change my course and I’ve had a rough day. I apologize for raising my voice, but I can read and none of these tables says forms.”

The woman smirked and after the man looked around me, he said, “Gretchen, the form sign isn’t there.”

She huffed and stomped over to the tables then said out loud, “Where did it go?”

After turning over some papers and looking on the floor, she slowly turned around and said, “It’s not here.”

“Right,” I nodded.

Then she slammed her index finger on the table and said, “Here are the forms.”

I shook my head and proceeded to walk out while saying, “Never mind.”

“Gretchen, my office.” The man said. “Now.”

I was done.

Like literally done.

I summoned Chris, the only Uber driver, and went home, shut off all the lights and got in bed. No sleep would come anytime soon but I’d had about enough. Tears threatened to fall but I kept thinking about where I’d come from, why I was there, and my ultimate goals. No man, ignorant employee, or anyone for that matter would keep me from achieving that goal.

The next morning, when I left for class, on my porch were two sheets of paper being held down by rocks.

On one sheet it had the scribbled word dinner and the other read breakfast with an arrow pointing to my black box that was sealed to the porch.

Son of a bitch.

I opened them both and saw Tupperware containers with food. One looked like it had a fried pork chop, string beans and mashed potatoes and the other container which was still hot, held country sausages, omelet and a slice of fruit.

I needed to move.

***

ODDLY ENOUGH, MILLS didn’t engage me in class but breakfast and dinner were on my porch daily for a week. I thought he would stop but when I saw he had no plans to, I marched over there and instead of encountering Mills, I was greeted by Pops.

“See you got the food.” He noted my bags of empty and clean containers.

“Yes,” I nodded. “Can you please tell your son to stop cooking food for me? I don’t need his charity or his hospitality. If he was hospitable before this, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Mills ain’t cook nothing, I did.” He eyed me with curiosity. “That boy got a thang for you when he got other shit to be worrying about. I didn’t like the way things ended when you were first here or your last visit and that’s not how the Timms do. Wanted to show my apologies. I figured you’re a working woman and may not be able to cook or can’t cook. That spaghetti didn’t taste too good.”

No, the man didn’t apologize and insult me all in the same sentence.

“I can cook.” I corrected him. “That was from a can.”

Pops head reared back as if I’d just slapped him.

“A can?” He asked. “You had us eating food from a can. Nobody that can cook would serve food from a can.”

The older man looked like he just swallowed a lemon.

“Sir, I can but your son was beyond disrespectful. He’s rude, arrogant and I didn’t move here to deal with an ass. I just want to live my life and mind my business.”

“Go ahead then.” He nodded as if he understood. “Mills means well. All my sons do but sometimes it just doesn’t come out right. They get that shit from me. Stubborn as hell but they got good hearts. All of ‘em.”

I smirked but he smiled and I swear I was looking at an older Mills or the one they called J.D.

I saw what Ms. Ida saw in him. The man was handsome and so were his sons.

“So, you can cook, eh?” He asked.

“Yes, sir.” I replied with a lot of pride.

“What can you cook? Fried foods and breakfast!” He doubted my skills.

“Actually, I can cook just about anything.” My hands found my hips. “What do you like?”

“Meatloaf!” He declared. “I like meatloaf and everybody can’t cook it.”

“You’re right, but you haven’t had mine.” I mimicked his tone. “I’ll cook it for you tomorrow if you want.”

The older man raised his eyebrows at me before he answered. “Darlin’, you got yourself a date. But I’m telling you now, bring Rogers in my home and we are going to have a problem.”

“Well, I don’t know where else to shop for food.” I explained.

“Horse shit.” Pops hissed. “You shop here. My son’s an ass but he ain’t mean nothing by it. His girlfriend giving him hell and well, he has decisions to make. None of that has to do with you. It just so happened, you crossed him at the wrong time. He’s actually the nicer one out of the bunch.”

My heart sank.

It felt like a dagger just pierced right through it when I heard the word girlfriend. Mills had a woman and he wrapped those luscious lips around mine.

Heat radiated from my face as I’m sure even the brown tint of my skin turned orange as the blood flowed to the place that was visible. I felt hurt.

Betrayed.

Insulted.

And most importantly, angry.

“You know, Mr. Timms,” I forced out. “I will cook you that dinner tomorrow.”

I hoisted my bag on my shoulders and nodded towards the man.

“Yup,” I continued. “Tomorrow.”

The very same day that I hoped I saw his arrogant ass because I was going to give him a piece of my mind.

A bad piece.