Page 70 of Wild Thing
Twenty
BRAX
Sliding my hat on backwards as I arrived at the Studio Pase worksite, I couldn’t stop thinking about how fucking good the night before was.
I finally had a taste of her.
My Wild Thing.
But, fuck, I needed more.
I couldn't think straight, my thoughts we jumbled, confused almost, as I tried to navigate how to live with the guilt of betraying one woman and withholding from the other.
“Morning Brax,” Greg said, slapping me on the back. "You good?"
“Yo. Morning,” Squinting, I looked up towards the bright blue sky before putting my sunglasses on. “Yeah, all good. When’s Steven getting here?”
“Any minute.”
I was pissed off at Steven after his performance in the hotel foyer. Something was off with him, like he had an ulterior motive or an obsession with Dylan or something.
“Do you get a good vibe from him?”
Greg shrugged his shoulders. Clearly he hadn’t given Steven much thought, but he also hadn't seen Steven drunk off his ass and acting a fool.
“Don't know. Haven't thought about him too much, honestly. Why’s that?”
I shook my head and shoved my hands in my pockets. “No reason.”
As we waited for Steven in the early morning sun outside the worksite, Greg and I chatted about the project for a while before the conversation swung to my personal life.
“How’s things with Ally?”
I really didn’t want to be having this conversation with Greg, but I decided to answer him truthfully. “Not good.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. He took a moment, before he asked, “Still arguing?”
“Yeah."
"What about?"
"Pretty much everything. I’m not present enough, I work too much… all that type of bullshit.”
“Maybe you need some quality time together.”
“We don’t have anything in common, Greg. Not one thing.”
Truthfully, we were a strange pair. I loved to surf, she hated the beach. She loved cats, I’m allergic to them—yet she got one anyway. She was used to getting her own way, which wasn’t entirely her fault. Her family spoiled her.
“Well, you must have at one point. Relationships take work Brax.”
“Honestly, I should have ended things with Ally after… you know,” I admitted, not wanting to get intothat. “We’re not right for each other.”
I felt Greg’s eyes burn into me. He crossed his arms over his chest and rocked backwards on his heels. “These feelings don’t have anything to do with a certain dark haired interior designer, do they?”
Even though I had sunglasses on, I tilted my head and looked at Greg dead in the eyes. “No.”
I didn’t like lying to Greg. In fact, I desperately wanted to tell him how I felt about Dylan showing up in my life. I could have used some guidance.
