Caught Up in You Read online

  Myles was still sitting at the bar nursing his beer when the last of the customers headed out the door. Tom and his friend Kyle were the only other people left. They’d moved down near Myles and the three of them were talking while I worked with Livvy, the busboy, and the dishwasher getting the place cleaned up.

  When we were done, I circled around the bar and sat a couple of stools down from Myles. “Ever heard that old saying you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here?”

  Myles looked away from his conversation and held his beer up. “I’m not done.”

  “Right, take your time—we’re not trying to get the hell out of here or anything.” I pulled out my tips and started counting.

  It had actually been a pretty good night. With what I’d made waitressing that day on top of what I got tending bar all night, I thought I might actually have enough money left over after getting my tire fixed to eat something other than ramen noodles. I pocketed what was mine and divided up the rest into two stacks on the bar.

  Again, I looked over at Myles. “Seriously though, you need to head out.” I stood up and pointed at Tom and Kyle on the other side of him. “That means you too—everybody needs to hit the door.”

  “Hey Brant, we’re done.”

  I turned around to see the two boys who worked as the busser and dishwasher standing there looking anxious to go. “You took the garbage out and the backdoor is locked up?”

  They each nodded at me.

  “Awesome,” I said, grabbing the stacks of cash off the bar. “You guys rocked tonight—thanks.” I handed them the money and said a quick goodnight.

  When I turned back around, Kyle was standing in front of me. “Liv mentioned you were down with the four of us going out one night this week.”

  “Oh, right…” I had to force myself not to shoot a death glare at Livvy as she stood smiling behind Kyle next to Tom. “You know, I actually checked the schedule and I’m on double shifts all week. Sorry…”

  “No problem,” he said, flashing me a smile as he started walking away. “I know where to find you.”

  As soon as Kyle was out of view, I narrowed my eyes at Livvy. “I’m seriously reconsidering your friend status,” I whispered.

  “You couldn’t live without me.” Livvy held her hand up and poked me in the arm as she headed toward the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I turned back to Myles once everyone else was gone. I didn’t get why he was just sitting there. “You think you’re gonna be wrapping this up soon?”

  Myles choked down the rest of his beer and got off his stool. “I didn’t wanna waste the swill you served me.”

  “Mission accomplished,” I said, leading him to the exit. “—time to go.”

  Myles leaned his back against the door and pushed it open. “How are you getting home?”

  “Same way I got here.” I’d been dreading the walk home all day. I probably could’ve asked one of the others to stay late and give me a ride, but they were all tired too and my place was out of their way.

  “Get me a real beer and I’ll wait around for you.”

  I shook my head even though my aching feet and legs were screaming at me to say yes. “I’ve gotta close the register. Puck will have my ass if he finds out I had a customer in the bar after hours.”

  He smirked and backed out the door. “Whatever—hoof it then.”

  “You have such a way with words,” I said, grabbing the door and pulling it closed. I turned the deadbolt and fastened the latch at the bottom of the door.

  I went behind the bar and started clearing out the register. I hated closing on Saturday nights. The drawer never ended up being right. It was inevitable that I’d spend at least an hour the next day in Puck’s office figuring it all out with him or Maybell.

  Since starting at the pub, I’d learned a ton from the Pucketts about running the business and what it took to keep it successful. I was the only one they trusted to close alone on the nights when they were both too exhausted to stay. They were getting older and I didn’t mind. They’d been good to me.

  Livvy always called me a kiss-ass for volunteering to do tasks that were way out of my job description. It was good experience though. I’d never told anyone before, but my goal was to have my own place like Puck’s someday.

  After working there for a few months and seeing the relationships Puck and Maybell had with their customers and employees, I knew I wanted to build something like that too. Somewhere fun people could go to be around friends and forget about life for awhile. It seemed ridiculous considering I barely had enough money to eat currently, but someday I’d make it happen.

  The walk home was only about a mile, but doing it at three in the morning after working for seventeen hours straight made it seem more like ten. I knew I was stupid for just letting Myles leave when he could’ve waited another twenty minutes and given me a ride. I was trying to make it on my own though.

  That meant not racking up a bunch of people I owed favors to along the way. If my dad had lived by that rule, my life would’ve been completely different. I definitely wouldn’t have been walking down a dark street alone at night.

  Five

  Brantley

  I could hardly breathe as I stood pounding on the door to the lower apartment with the side of my fist. By the time Myles pulled it open and spit out his typical greeting, I was ready to come unglued.

  I pointed out at the driveway. “My tire isn’t flat anymore.”

  Myles ran his hands over his face. “Again, this is information you could’ve left in a note.”

  “How?” I was on the verge of yelling and I didn’t even care. “Did you fix it?”

  He just stood staring at me.

  “Answer!” His silence was even more infuriating than his smart mouth. “Did you fix my goddamn tire yesterday?”

  “Yes. It had a nail in it—I had it patched. So fucking what…”

  I clenched my fists. “I didn’t ask for your help!”

  “I was going there to pick up parts anyway,” he said with a sigh.

  I dug into my pocket and pulled out my cash. “How much was it?”

  “Fuck, I don’t know…” Myles tipped his head back. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Here!” I jammed the thirty seven dollars I was holding into his hand. “Don’t do me anymore favors!”

  Myles looked at the cash and then at my face. “You’re seriously fucking defective.” He threw the money back at me and slammed his door.

  For the entire one mile drive to work, I swore at Myles under my breath and cursed his name. I couldn’t believe he’d just take it upon himself to fix my tire without even telling me. If I’d wanted his help, I would’ve asked for it.

  “You’re the one being an asshole right now,” Livvy said, popping the top off a beer bottle, “not your neighbor guy.”

  “Me?” I pulled two more bottles out of the cooler and not so gently sat them on the counter. “He only fixed my tire so he’d have something to hang over my head. I told you about the house key incident—he’s totally into twisted shit like that.”

  “Or maybe he did it because he’s a nice guy,” Livvy said. “Isn’t it possible he’s just trying to be your friend?”

  “Friend?” I tipped my head back and laughed. “He’s never said a single friendly word to me.”

  Livvy raised her brow. “You ever see him in here before last night?”

  “No,” I said, prying the caps off the two bottles. “I think we’d both remember that.”

  “So a guy who’s never been in here shows up right before closing on a night you just happen to be without your car.” Livvy put the beers on her tray and took a step back. “Tell me again he’s not trying to be your friend.”

  I dumped a scoop of ice into the blender but looked up at Livvy before turning it on. “Do you honestly think he was here just to drive me home?”

  Livvy nodded. “He sat here for over an hour sipping on a god-awful beer that was getting warmer by th
e second.”

  “Yeah, the beer…” I lowered my head. “Wow, I really suck as a human, don’t I?”

  “And then you turned around and hit him with a verbal bitch-slap first thing this morning.”

  “I get it, Liv—no need to twist the blade.” I pushed the button to fire up the blender to end the conversation.

  Myles wanted to be my friend? That was the worst thing Livvy could’ve possibly said. Her single statement had me rethinking the entire situation. Suddenly I was weighed down by humiliation. Was it that obvious to everyone else my reaction to a flat tire repair was borderline psychotic? I already knew the answer. Myles had hit the nail on the head—I was just defective. Two years of therapy and counseling hadn’t done anything for me.

  Life had taught me that people just didn’t do nice things for other people unless they wanted something in return. Whether it was a few days from then, or even a few years down the road, they’d always come looking for their payback.

  The only way I knew to head that off was to always keep things even and expectations clear. I always spelled out what I wanted and expected to know what the other person would require in return. No loose strings or debts—no one could ever come back and take anything from me or force me to do something because I owed them.

  When I got home, the thirty-seven dollars Myles had thrown back at me was still scattered across the floor in the foyer. My pride wouldn’t let me pick it up even though I really needed it.

  Instead I stood there for a few moments, contemplating whether or not to knock on Myles’ door to apologize. Every single time we spoke it got ugly. I decided it would be better if I just took the non-confrontational way out—I left a bottle of what I considered to be good beer outside his door sitting on a napkin with the word sorry written on it.

  The next morning, the napkin was sitting at the bottom of the stairs with the cap from the beer. Myles had written you should be underneath the word sorry. I wasn’t sure if that meant they were square or not, but at least we’d communicated without throwing verbal daggers back and forth. I figured that had to count for something.

  Over the next week, things just went back to how they’d been before the dreaded flat tire incident. I went to work and Myles did whatever it was he did. I saw him in the hallway a few times and ran into him in the basement one night doing laundry. We were civil, exchanging hellos, but that was pretty much it.

  Curiosity about him was really starting to build. I could always hear him talking to someone late at night. I knew if I asked around, finding out what his story was wouldn’t be too hard in Baylor Grove. On the flip side, if I started asking about him, there was a pretty good chance someone would tell him about it. Satisfying my curiosity wasn’t worth letting him know I’d actually been thinking about him.

  In three weeks, my Aunt Jen and David were getting married. I was planning on taking that Saturday off. It was going to be the first Saturday night I hadn’t worked in two years. It felt like I was wrecking some kind of world record for the most weekends ever worked consecutively.

  Since the bulk of David’s family lived about twenty miles away from Baylor Grove in Masonville, he and Jen were getting married at a church there. That worked out perfect for me. Taking time off and paying for a trip to Boston would’ve made my already dire financial situation even worse. It was bad enough that Jen was paying for my bridesmaids dress.

  Storms had been rolling through the town on and off all day. Since it was a Sunday and the bar had exactly one customer left, Puck sent me home early. It was around ten o’clock when I pulled in the driveway. The downstairs lights were all on and the door to the apartment was cracked open when I went inside.

  I could hear Myles having a conversation with a couple of other guys clearly, but there weren’t any unfamiliar cars outside. By the bits and pieces I understood, it sounded like they were talking about a video game. I figured he must have picked up some of his friends.

  It was pouring rain outside and I really didn’t want to go back out there to move my car. I started up the stairs, hoping Myles wouldn’t need to get his truck out of the driveway to take anyone home.

  As usual, I laid with my blanket and pillow on the floor, struggling to get comfortable enough to doze off. It was a little after midnight and the storms were raging outside. Lightning flashes followed by house-shaking booms of thunder made it impossible to sleep.

  One particularly bright flash outside was immediately followed by what sounded like an explosion. Immediately the hum of all the electric items in the house stopped. An instant later Myles could be heard firing off a slew of swear words through the floor.

  I smiled to myself, thinking what a shame it’d be if he’d lost all his video game progress. The grin I was wearing fell off when the tornado sirens began blaring outside. I stood up with a pounding heart and walked over to the window. It was pitch black out when the lightning wasn’t streaking the sky.

  A faint glow coming from the window in the kitchen caught my eye. I ran across the room and looked out, discovering exactly what caused the power outage. A utility pole was arcing on the next street over.

  Between the claps of thunder, I thought I heard Myles calling my name. I really hoped he wasn’t screaming at me to go outside and move my car because that absolutely wasn’t happening. By the time I got to the apartment door and pulled it open, he was at the top of the stairs. I could only make out his silhouette in the dark stairwell, but I swore I could hear his heart thumping.

  I didn’t even have a chance to speak before he had me by the wrist, dragging me down the stairs. When I started yelling at him and tried to pull free of his grasp, he picked me up like I was nothing and carried me.

  I grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt to hang on. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “We’ve got tornados on the ground…” He hurried through the foyer and stopped outside the door to the basement. “I was on the phone with my parents but we were cut off…”

  I was roughly dropped to my feet and watched in horror as Myles bolted for the front door.

  “Get downstairs,” he shouted over his shoulder at me. “I have to go check on my family!”

  “Myles—wait!” I hurried after him into the dark foyer. He was already at the front door by the time I caught and grabbed a handful of his shirt. “Please don’t leave—”

  Sharp sounds of shattering glass filled the house as a branch came crashing through the window. My scream was stifled as Myles lunged at me. He ran with me wrapped in his arms away from the flying glass and whipped the door to the basement open, moving down the steps two at a time.

  Myles lowered me to the floor against the wall. “You hurt?”

  I shook my head and tried to answer when something caught my eye that made the pulse pound in my ears. “There’s blood…”

  “Yeah,” he said, looking down at his forearm, “fucking glass…”

  Bright flashes through the small basement windows were like strobe lights, revealing streams of crimson running down his arm and dripping onto the floor between us. It was a scene I knew well—one that haunted the edges of my dreams.

  I began trembling at the sight and the memories it threatened to awaken. I scooted away from him and covered my face with my hands, trying to force it all away. If I let the visions out, I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to rein them in again.

  Myles

  Brantley didn’t look hurt but there was something wrong with her. She had the side of her body against the wall with her arms wrapped around her legs and her head buried in her knees. Even through darkness I could see her shaking.

  It wasn’t the storm she was afraid of—it was the blood. She was whimpering and cowering like a scared animal. My first instinct was to move closer and somehow comfort her. She looked small and frail though—as if at the slightest touch she’d shatter.

  I sat quietly next to her waiting for the storm to end. The minute I was sure it was safe to leave her alone I headed up the stairs. I n
eeded to check on my family—more than that I desperately needed to get away from Brantley.

  There was a ton of blood on my arm and I didn’t want her to freak out. Outside of the blood, my need to get closer to her was almost unbearable. The part that scared the fuck out of me was that it wasn’t even sexual—I just wanted her in my arms.

  I wanted to tell her everything was alright—that I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her. I hardly knew her yet I felt like she needed me—even worse, I felt like I needed her.

  The girl who’d never once backed down no matter how terrible I’d talked to her was defeated by the sight of a little blood. If I’d stayed with her any longer, I was going to have to know why. I wasn’t in a position to let myself be dragged down that road.

  Six

  Brantley

  The sky was clear blue and the sun was shining brightly as I sat on the steps of the front porch. The weather was already hot and humid and it was still early—we were going to be in for a sweltering day. It didn’t seem possible that just a few hours earlier we were all cowering in the lower levels of our homes for our lives.

  Myles and I had been lucky. The damage to our house just consisted of a broken window and some blown off shingles. The residents on the neighboring streets had been hit much harder. Some even lost their homes. Power, natural gas, and telephones in the entire town were out with no restoration time in sight.

  A couple of trees had been uprooted a few blocks over, causing a major natural gas line to rupture. The faint smell still hung in the air even hours after the utility company had been out to turn it off and assess the damages.

  The power company had been up and down the street all morning shouting at people to stay inside and wait to start clearing the broken tree limbs until they were sure there were no more live wires down. Not many of my neighbors were listening to them and chainsaws could be heard coming from every direction.