Page 19 of Embriagado

“The fridge is fuckin’ empty, bro.”

I tsked. “Did you think about going to the store yourself?”

“With what money?”

Gritting my teeth, I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “You have a job, don’t you? Or did Ángel already fire your lazy ass?”

He clicked his tongue, and I knew the brat was rolling his eyes at me.

“Changing tires doesn’t pay much. Besides, it was mine and Tess’s anniversary last week, and I wanted to buy her a li’l something. You know, gotta keep my woman happy.”

Clenching my phone harder, I was seconds away from breaking it.

“Your woman?”

“Yeah, got issues with that?”

More than I can count.

I checked the time on my phone, then brought it back to my ear. “Gotta go, my break’s over. You find a way to take care of yourself.”

“But—”

Before he could continue complaining like a little bitch, I hung up. He immediately called me again, but I switched my phone to silent and pocketed it.

“See you later,” I told Imani before leaving the bar.

What a spoiled brat.

And to think my mood was good until now.

I tried taking some short breaths to calm down and stop thinking about smashing my little brother’s face against a wall, for no use. No matter how much I worked my ass off here, taking double shifts and all, in the end, it changed nothing. We were still low on money, and my stupid brother, instead of using his salary to help around the house, wasted it on a girl.

“Mr. Rivas,” someone called, and I looked up from the floor, ready to bite their head off for even speaking to me, when I saw who it was.

I immediately stopped in my tracks, nearly tripping forward.

“H-hey,” I blurted, eyes locked with Ariyan.

“I know you’re on parking lot duty today, but could you please help me move some luggage to a few rooms?”

He didn’t need to ask twice. First, working in the parking lot was shitty. Second, it was him asking me for help. He could ask me for just about anything, and I’d say yes.

“Sure.”

“Perfect.” He pressed his hands together, flashing me a big smile that made my heart race faster. “Come with me.”

Doing as he said, I followed along, walking with him to the luggage room.

“Didn’t know you did stuff like that yourself,” I said as Ariyan checked out the small note attached to a suitcase.

Not looking up, he hummed, “What do you mean?”

“You know, getting your hands dirty with common-people work, like us.”

He held still for a moment.

“I do whatever needs to be done,” he said as he continued picking out the right suitcases. “There.” He tapped a big leather suitcase, and as he did, the sleeve of his jacket rose enough to show me his wrist, and I noticed some scratch marks around it.