Текст книги "Playing for Keeps"

Автор книги: R. L. Mathewson

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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Chapter 3

"Is this 32 Long Point Road," the short husky man who smelled like he bathed in a gallon of cheap cologne and garlic asked as he climbed out of the beat up Taurus parked across Haley's driveway.

Now, normally Jason would either just ignore the asshole or give him a quick nod and continue minding his own business as he pulled the keg of beer out of his backseat, but not today. Today he was going to do his normally shy neighbor and co-worker a favor. After yesterday he was pretty sure this wouldn't piss her off and send her back into hiding.

Okay, maybe he wasn't a hundred percent sure, but he just couldn't help himself especially when the jerk actually shoved a condom in his pocket and gave Jason a conspiratorial wink.

Fuck it.

At that moment he didn't care if this sent her running for the hills and she slapped a restraining order on him, he was getting rid of the asshole.

"You're not here for Haley, are you?" he asked, pulling out the keg and setting it on the ground.

The man frowned. "Yeah, why?"

Jason made a show of cringing as he looked quickly back at Haley's house as if he was making sure she wasn't watching them.

"I really don't think that's such a good idea," Jason mumbled.

"Why not?"

He gave the man an "Are you kidding?" look and had to stop from laughing as the man shifted nervously.

"Surely you know....," he said, purposely letting his words drift off.

"No, my friend set me up with her," he said, shooting a nervous glance towards Haley's house. Did the curtain just move?

Jason rubbed the back of his neck, sighing wearily. "It's really not my place, but I'm not sure this is such a good idea."

"What?" the man practically whined.

After a pause he shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I really don't like talking about it. All I can tell you is that you really need to be careful." He gave the man a pointed look as he stressed, "Really careful."

The man's eyes widened as his mouth dropped open. He took several steps back, shooting nervous glances towards Haley's house. When he reached his car he said, "I, uh, just suddenly remembered I have somewhere I'm supposed to be." With that he practically jumped into his car and sped away.

Jason chuckled as he made his way to Haley's front door. He knocked on the door and wasn't too surprised a moment later when there was no answer. He pushed aside his disappointment and knocked again.

Just great.

It seemed last night had been a fluke and his shy neighbor was here to stay. He really liked spending time with Haley last night, more than he thought possible. Feeling like an idiot he headed back to his house and keg.

A loud wet hacking cough had him pausing halfway down her small walkway. The front door slowly opened as Haley said, "I'm sorry I took so long," another hacking cough, "to answer," another cough, "the," cough, "door. But, the doctor said I was still," several loud and disturbing coughs later, "contagious, so I–Oh, it's only you," Haley said with a relieved sigh.

His lips twitched as he took in her outfit. On her head was one of the ugliest puke green knitted hats he'd ever seen. Her oversized ratty bathrobe was worse, but the large wadded up ball of tissues in her hand was a nice touch. There was no doubt in his mind that she was faking it. Considering that he'd hung out with her last night and she'd been the picture of health. Right now she looked well enough, just frumpy in those oversized ratty clothes.

"Love the hat," he said, smiling as he walked over to her.

Laughing, she pulled the offending hat off and chucked it at him. He caught it before it hit him in the face. "What's this all about?" he gestured towards her getup with the hat.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

"Looks like date repellant to me."

With an innocent doe-like expression she said, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm sick," cough, "really sick." And just to backup her story she sniffled.

It was sad, adorable, but sad.

He couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes and chuckling. "It's just sad that you can't just admit that you were ditching the love of your life. But, as much as I'd love to listen to your sad little denial I'm afraid I have to go since you're sick and all."

"I am," she stressed. "Really sick. I might very well be dying as we speak," she said as she pushed her cute little glasses back up her nose.

With a shrug he took a step back towards his house. "That's a damn shame because I was hoping you'd come to my party today, but since you're sick......."

She pressed the back of her hand against her forehead. "Hmmm, what do you know? I'm all better. What time is the party?" she asked with the cutest little shy smile he'd ever seen.

"Eight o'clock, you little faker," he said, chuckling when she let out an excited little squeal as she ran back into her house.

***********

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, Haley thought as she stood on Jason's doorstep with a plate of brownies. With an inward groan she berated herself for being an idiot. What kind of geek brought brownies to a kegger? Okay, she was assuming that this was a kegger since she'd witnessed some rather scary behavior over the years during his little gatherings and never witnessed that type of behavior at any party or get-together she'd ever been at.

Some of the things she'd heard and seen had scared her, but some of it had intrigued her. Not that she'd ever admit it, but on more than one occasion she'd wondered what it would be like to go to one of Jason's parties, which is why she'd jumped at the chance today. Jason's parties had to be the equivalent of the parties the popular kids in high school used to throw and somehow forgot to invite Haley, but now she was about to rectify all that.

Maybe not, she thought, worrying her bottom lip as she looked down at the overflowing plate of brownies. She was going to look so stupid bringing brownies to a kegger. Figuring that probably no one heard her knocking over the loud music, she decided a quick stop at a package store was in order. She was just about to make her escape when the door opened.

"What do you want?" the woman glaring at her demanded. Haley frowned as she quickly took in the woman's sleek black hair, perfect features touched up by flawless make-up and the killer short dress and decided that she was severely underdressed for this party in her jeans and baby pink Yankees long sleeve tee-shirt.

Haley opened her mouth to make an excuse so she could leave, knowing she was in way over her head here when the woman snorted.

"You're the next door neighbor," the woman said, sounding amused. "What do you want?" Her eyes narrowed on the plate in Haley's hands.

"I just-"

"Amy, who is it?" Jason's voice came from somewhere behind the woman apparently named Amy.

Amy rolled her eyes. "It's just your neighbor dropping off brownies." She reached forward to take the plate from Haley. "I'll just take them so she can g-"

"Brownies?" Jason said, suddenly filling the door, causing Amy to stumble back and out of the way.

"Hey!" Amy snapped, but Jason didn't seem to hear her. His eyes were glued to the plate.

"Are those," he noticeably swallowed, "brownies covered in peanut butter frosting?"

Did he just whimper?

"They're chocolate chunk fudge brownies with peanut butter frosting," she clarified automatically as her eyes caught the murderous glare Amy was sending her way. She was just about to hand the plate over to Jason and leave when everything in her stilled.

After last night she was through with getting pushed around and intimidated. She was sick of missing out on things because she was too scared to do anything about it. She was a grown woman, damn it, and if she wanted to party it up at her first kegger then she was damn well going to do it and she was going to have fun doing it. Even if it killed her, and judging by the mascara glare being sent her way that was a good possibility.

"Let me just take those off your hands so you can grab yourself a beer," Jason said, taking the plate from her, gazing down at it lovingly as he stepped back inside the house, leaving Haley to follow him.

"Hey, those look good! Can I have one?" a man she'd seen hundreds of times around Jason's house asked, reaching out to take one.

"Back the fuck off! She brought them for me, you bastard!" Jason snapped.

Haley automatically took an anxious step back, fearing getting caught in the middle of the fight that was most definitely about to happen. But instead of yelling at Jason or getting mad like she'd seen a lot of guys do in bars over less the man just rolled his eyes and turned his attention to her.

"Hi, my name is Brad," he said, holding out his hand.

After only a slight hesitation, she hoped he hadn't noticed, she took a step forward and shook his hand. "Haley."

"Haley, it's nice to meet you," he said with a charming smile. "I apologize for my friend's rudeness, he just learned how to walk upright last year," he said dryly, earning a soft chuckle from her and most everyone around them.

Jason threw him a dirty look before making his way towards the kitchen, making sure to glare at anyone that came within touching distance of the brownies.

Brad gestured towards the kitchen. "There's pizza, chips and plenty of drinks in there as long as Jason doesn't get to it first and a volleyball game going on in the backyard and of course video games in the living room until the game comes on. Make yourself at home," he said with a warm smile.

"Thank you," she murmured, taking it all in. This was it? she wondered as she took in the laidback party. Something must have shown on her face, because a few seconds later Brad leaned in. "Were you expecting Animal House?" he asked, chuckling.

"No!" she said quickly, too quickly. She had in fact been expecting something along those lines. She definitely hadn't pictured any of this. This she could definitely handle.

He chuckled. "Come on outback with me so I can introduce you to my wife," Brad said, smiling. "I promise you'll have a good time."

For the first time since she walked over here she thought she might just fit in with Jason's friends.

**************

"Who's the hottie kicking Mitch's ass?"

Without looking up from loading his plate with pizza he said, "Amy." At least he hoped it was Amy. Her clingy behavior was getting a little annoying and he hadn't missed the bitch act she put on for Haley or the dirty looks she'd been sending his shy little neighbor all night. He knew when he saw her heading towards his house earlier that he should have sent her away.

"No, the cute little thing with the glasses."

Frowning, Jason looked up and followed Pete's eyes towards the couch where Haley was sitting next to Mitch, playing a game on the Xbox.

"She's my neighbor," he said, not liking the expression on Pete's face one bit.

"Is she here with anyone?" Pete asked, never taking his eyes off Haley.

"No."

"Good," Pete said, looking back over his shoulder, grinning. "I won't even bother asking to use your room since we can just mozzy on over to her place."

Jason sighed heavily. It seemed he was going to have to save Haley from two douchebags in one day.

Pete turned to look at him. "What was that about?"

"What?" Jason asked innocently.

"That little sigh you just did," Pete said, gesturing lazily towards him.

"Nothing," he said with a shrug, returning his attention to piling food on his plate, "I just didn't think you were into that, that's all."

"Into what?" Pete demanded, sounding a little unsure. Considering the man's reputation there probably wasn't much that he wasn't into, which was why Jason decided he would not do for his shy little neighbor. It took him five years to get Haley to climb out of her shell. He wasn't about to let this jackass send her back there for good.

"Just forget I said anything," Jason said, grabbing a cold soda from a cooler on the floor.

"But-"

"I don't want to get involved in this," Jason said, cutting him off. He moved to step past the man only to pause. "Just....just make sure she takes her medication and you should be safe, I mean fine." Jason quickly walked away before he burst into laughter at his friend's horrified expression.

Damn that felt good. He should have done this years ago when he spotted the first asshole sniffing around Haley. Did this make him her wingman? he pondered that thought over as he walked over to the couch and shoved Mitch off so he could sit down next to his new little project. That was fine with him, he decided, because by the time he was done with her she'd be living a much more entertaining and asshole free life.

Chapter 4

Haley took a deep breath and said, “I’m gay.”

“You’re gay?” the obnoxious guy who’d been sniffing around her and bugging the heck out of her in line for the past ten minutes repeated. “Are you sure?”

She bit back a laugh. The guy looked truly upset. She hated pulling out the gay card, mostly because she wasn’t, but sometimes she had no choice. If he’d been nice when he was hitting on her she would have politely declined, but no, he had to be a complete pig the entire time.

He actually used the old line, “That dress looks great on you, but it will even better crumpled on my bedroom floor in the morning.” Yeah. It was truly sad, especially since they were in a coffee shop and it was barely half past seven in the morning. Between dirty comments, overcrowding her and staring at her breasts she was starting to get a little irritated. Plus his B.O. was really turning her stomach. If she didn’t need a caffeine fix so badly she’d leave, but she did and couldn’t or she was pretty sure she'd die.

Jason and some of the guys had been over last night to watch the game and since it went into extra innings and she was a dedicated fan she stayed up until two in the morning and of course she had to watch the post game wrap up. With barely four hours of sleep here she was practically getting mauled by the poster boy for deodorant.

After three weeks it was still funny how she went from being completely intimidated by the man to thinking of him as an oversized teddy bear. She felt silly for her behavior. Jason could still be a pain in the ass, but a really nice pain in the ass. He still “borrowed” things from her classroom, but now he left her funny notes that had her laughing until she was crying, scaring the heck out of her students.

She couldn’t help but wonder how many good friendships she’d missed over the years because of her shyness. Part of it of course was because after years of building up defenses she’d been judging people a little harshly like Jason. He was still a bit wild and a ridiculous flirt, but he was a big sweetie as well. He treated her like his buddy. It was actually rather nice to be treated like one of the guys. That being said though sometimes first impressions were dead on, like with her current problem.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, do you think the two of you would want to-“

“No,” she said firmly.

“But what if I-“

“No.”

“Come on, you won’t let me finish. I have this camera-“

“No.”

“It would be fun-“

“No.”

“But what if-“

“She said no,” Jason said as he cut in line and threw his arm around her shoulders in that lazy way of his.

“Hey! I thought you said you were gay!” the man said accusingly.

Without missing a beat Jason said, “She is. I’m just her bitch.”

The man sent a narrowed glare at Jason’s arm and then to her. He sent another glare at Jason and she could tell the man was deciding whether he wanted to push it any further. Based on the man’s small size and Jason’s large muscular build he wisely chose to drop it.

“So, what are you buying me this morning?” she asked Jason.

He scoffed. “Me? Why am I buying?”

“Because I helped you win fifty dollars off Brian last night.”

He rolled his eyes. “I would have won it without your help.”

“Uh huh,” she said absently, stepping up to the counter to place her order. She added a chocolate chip muffin, knowing Jason was going to steal hers. He seemed to have a thing for stealing her food.

“I would have. I didn’t need your help you know,” he said more firmly.

She grabbed her order while he was waiting for his and headed for the door. “See ya.”

“I won that bet on my own!” he called after her, making her smile. Sometimes he was like a big child. It was rather cute.

**************

Jason bit back a smile as he watched Haley tell Headmaster Jenkins that she couldn’t chaperone the dance tonight. A month ago his little shy friend would have simply stared at her coffee and nodded no matter what her plans were. Now, she was telling the man no, firmly yet gently.

He took some pride in it. It was because of him after all. It took some work, but she was coming along rather nicely. Who knew there was a little tigress beneath all that cuteness? He sure hadn't, but it was nice to see her stick up for herself for once. The staff might bitch at his methods and his easy going relationship with the kids, but at least he never ganged up on a woman like Haley and took advantage of her making her chaperone this or organize that.

“But, Haley, we really need you to chaperone. John has tickets to a play tonight.”

“I’m sorry, Tom, but I have plans already tonight. I really wish I could help you out, but I can’t break my plans at the last minute. You understand,” she said politely yet firmly.

Her self-esteem was clearly on the rise and it made the whole package even better and he wasn’t the only one to notice either. Other teachers were showing her more respect and the men were definitely noticing her. Oh, he took a hundred percent of the credit for his little protégé. Yup, he was the master. It was probably about time he used his greatness for good.

He spotted the table where she left her coffee and muffins as well as three men, losers in his opinion, who were eying the seat next to hers. Without any hesitation he sauntered past them and sat down at her table, earning killing glares from the other men. Too bad. In his opinion if a man didn’t have the balls to make a move he didn’t deserve the woman he desired. Not that he desired Haley. He didn’t. She was his buddy and turning out to be one of his best friends. No, what he desired was that piping hot chocolate chip muffin with extra butter he saw her buy earlier.

He sighed happily as he fished the muffin out of the bag. “When will she ever learn?” he mumbled as prepared his ill-gotten muffin.

“Please, help yourself,” Haley said dryly as she sat down and added a sugar to her coffee.

“Thank you, I think I will,” he said happily as he slathered more butter onto his muffin.

“What are these amazing plans you have for tonight?” he asked between bites.

“Date,” she said.

“I guess that means our love affair is over,” he said with a pout.

“I guess so.”

“I’m hurt.”

“You’ll survive….with therapy of course,” she said with a wink and a grin.

“Is this another loser?”

She looked away and mumbled something.

“I’m sorry I don’t speak mumble,” he said while eying the piping hot apple muffin with streusel topping that she just took out of the bag. Hell, how had he missed that delicious little morsel?

His hand seemed to have a life of its own as it crept towards that tasty little treat. With a gasp, Haley’s hands came down to protect her muffin.

“Control yourself!” she hissed as she broke off a small chunk and ate it. His eyes went back to the muffin. He knew he was pouting when Haley rolled her eyes and continued to eat. Damn it, where was the love? He was a hungry man. With a sigh he opened his bag and pulled out one of his three coffee rolls and began eating all while keeping his eyes on that muffin.

“You’re pathetic,” Haley muttered with an eye roll. She pushed the last half of her muffin over to him. With a huge grin he popped the large half into his mouth and savored it. It really was as good as it looked.

“So, what is it that you don’t want me to know, my little grasshopper?” he asked, stirring his coffee. The last date she had was a loser in his opinion at least and really wasn’t that all that mattered? The loser was not worthy of all his work. They’d work on that until she dated guys that he approved of. Someone cool with a cabin in New Hampshire for fishing trips or a house down in Florida would make him very happy. He really could go for some deep sea fishing in the winter.

“Stop calling me that!” Haley hissed softly. “For the hundredth time I am not the Daniel-son to your Mr. Miyagi.”

He simply shrugged. “If that’s what you want to believe…”

“It is and I do.”

“If I could get everyone’s attention before you head off to homeroom?” Jenkins said, holding up his clipboard to get everyone’s attention in the teacher’s break room. “We need one more volunteer for tonight’s dance,” he said, throwing a hopeful glance Haley’s way.

“Wax on…..wax off….” Jason whispered, earning a rather indelicate snort form Haley.

“Did you say something, Miss. Blaine?” Jenkins asked Haley, drawing everyone’s attention to her.

Jason leaned back in his seat and watched Haley as the blush crept up her cute little face. She nervously pushed her glasses up her nose. Ah, seems his protégé still hated drawing attention to herself. Well, she’d have to get used to that if they were going to be friends since he had a rather nasty habit of drawing attention to himself pretty much everywhere he went.

“Yes, Miss. Blaine, did you have something to say?” Jason asked in an amused tone.

She shot him a narrowed glare before turning to look at Jenkins. The glare was gone only to be replaced by a rather sweet and innocent smile. He was so focused on her smile that he almost missed what she said.

“No, Mr. Jenkins, that wasn’t me. Mr. Bradford was volunteering to chaperone tonight,” she said cheerfully.

“What?” he said, too late.

Jenkins grinned at him. “Well, that’s excellent! Very good. Make sure you’re here by seven o’clock and it goes until eleven. Thank you, Mr. Bradford.” Jenkins said. It didn’t escape Jason’s notice that the man didn’t bother double checking with him and that he practically ran out of the room before Jason could refuse.

His attention immediately turned to the little traitor. “You betraying bitch,” he gasped.

Her smile went from innocent to wicked in less than a second. “Have fun at the dance.” She stood up and placed her hands together in front of her as if she were praying and bowed.

Smartass.

She betrayed him. Damn that hurt. He couldn’t help but grin. She really was coming along rather nicely.

*************

“Oh my god, I love him!” the girl, Cindy or something, wailed loudly, making Jason shift nervously. He’d never dealt well with emotions, especially female emotions. He looked around nervously and damn near sighed with relief when he spotted a small group of girls descend on the girl.

“He’s such a jerk!” one of them said.

“Don’t say that! I love him!” Cindy cried.

“Oh, I know you do. He’s not good enough for you,” a slightly chubby girl said as she put her arm around the girl.

Good. Everything was fine. He could go back to chaperoning a bunch of hormone driven teenagers to god awful music. Yup, he was truly going to kill Haley. He stepped away.

“Mr. Bradford, why would he do this to me?” the girl demanded.

He froze mid-step and looked around nervously, hoping another Mr. Bradford was standing close by and willing to handle this. No such luck.

He cleared his throat. “Do what exactly?”

She scoffed at him with a look of utter disbelief that told him she thought he should be very aware of everything in her life. Considering he’d never paid much attention to any woman’s life she was in for a hell of a rude awakening. Thankfully one of her friends took pity on him.

“Marc Griswold. They ate at the same table two times in the last two weeks, he talked to her during study hall, and asked to borrow her notes. Now he’s here with her,” she said with such distaste that he couldn’t help but follow her glare.

He spotted Marc dancing with a very pretty brunette. Her name he remembered, Janie. She was a smart girl and funny as hell. If memory served him correctly Marc had been in love with the girl for the last two years. The poor guy who was normally so sure of himself and easy going turned to a stuttering fool when the girl was around. He’d been wondering when the kid was going to work up the courage to finally ask her out.

“Hmmm, good for him,” he mumbled, earning a collective gasp of outrage.

“How could you, Mr. Bradford?” the girl wailed even louder, making him cringe.

Oh, he really was going to kill Haley for this shit.

************

“I had a really nice time,” Jonathan said, probably for the tenth time.

Haley forced herself to smile and of course lie. “I did, too,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t ask her to elaborate on what she found nice, because she would really be hard pressed to find something nice about this evening, except of course that it was nice that it was ending.

This was absolutely the very last time she went on a date with any man Mary, one of her oldest and dearest friends, suggested. One would think after Mary set her up with the taxidermist who crossed dressed she would have learned her lesson, apparently not because somehow she agreed to go out with this loser.

It didn’t start off badly. In fact, he was on time and she thought he was rather cute in a nerdish way. He was tall, a bit thin, but still, he looked nice. His clothes were clean and he smelled good. The first clue that something just wasn’t right occurred when they made it to the restaurant.

That’s when his mother called for the first time. Yes, first time as in there was more than one call from his mother. In fact, during their four hour date, it lasted that long because he took so long to eat, she called a total of twenty-three times. Yes, she was very sure it was his mother since he sat at the table when he took the calls and the speaker on his phone was rather loud.

The reasons for the calls ranged from, she missed him, wanted to know if he’d rather come home and eat what she cooked, reminded him to clean his room tomorrow, and her personal favorite, she wanted to know if he was still with “her”. Judging by her tone and the amount of calls, his mommy was not a happy camper about her little boy dating. Granted her little boy was thirty-five years old and according to him has never lived on his own. Why would he when he lived with his best friend? Meaning, mommy dearest. Of course he did spend a good time complaining about how unfair his mother could be. Who knew a thirty-five year old man could still be grounded for not picking up his dirty socks? She certainly hadn’t.

She could not wait to get inside her house and change into a pair of jeans and a tee shirt and have a good laugh about this with Jason. That is of course only if Jason had forgiven her for her little jest earlier. Hence the large piece of chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting in the doggy container she was currently holding. Jason was a big baby, but a big baby that could be bought with food.

“Well, here we are,” she said brightly as they pulled into her driveway. “It’s been fun. Thank you again,” she said quickly as she practically ran from the car.

“This is a really nice house,” he said close, too close. Haley looked back and bit back the curse that threatened to leave her lips. The man was following her to the door. She wanted to cry, really, she did. When would this nightmare end?

She walked up to her door and plastered another fake smile on her face. “Well, thanks again.”

“You’re welcome.” He gave her a shy smile before he leaned in to kiss her. Thankfully she saw that one coming and turned her head in time to receive a rather wet kiss on her cheek. Ew….

She barely stopped herself from wiping her face. She’d scrub that off in a matter of minutes in a scolding hot shower.

“Oops. Sorry,” he mumbled as he leaned in to give her another kiss.

Faster than even she thought was possible, she had the front door unlocked and opened. She stumbled back saving herself from more slobber.

“Well, it’s been nice but-“

“Can I come in for a cup of coffee?” he asked eagerly and then of course had to add, “I can stay out as late as I want tonight.” Oh, she knew he was lying. Someone was going to be in so much trouble when he got home. She mentally tsked him.

She opened her mouth to politely refuse when the yelling began.

“Help me!”

Haley jumped. What the hell? It sounded like Jason was right in her house.

“Help me, please! Somebody please help me! Why won’t somebody help me?”

“What’s that?” Jonathan asked nervously.

Haley didn’t stop to answer. She was already running towards the direction of the screaming. Her room? She threw the door open and nearly tripped as she came to a halt five feet into the room which put her right in front of her bed.

“What the hell….” Jonathan stopped behind her.

“Oh, thank god you’re here, Haley!” Jason said, sounding happy for someone who was tied to her bed, wearing only a pair of boxers. “I know you said it turns you on knowing I’m tied to your bed waiting for you, but I really need to use the bathroom and stretch my legs before we begin….,” his voice trailed off when he caught sight of Jonathan.

Jason sighed dramatically. “I thought we agreed that you would tell me ahead of time before you added someone to our bed.” With a roll of his eyes he said, “It’s fine this time. Lucky for you I think we have plenty of lube.” He looked thoughtfully at Jonathan who was still staring at Jason dumbly. “I hope you’re not a screamer. The last guy screamed his head off every time I-“

“You’re sick!” Jonathan cried, cutting Jason off. “Stay away from me and don’t try to call me either. I’m telling my mother about you!”

Haley didn’t spare Jonathan a glance as she glared at the man with the huge shit eating grin tied to her bed. She was vaguely aware of her front door slamming shut and the sound of tires peeling out of her driveway.

“Is that for me?” Jason asked, looking pointedly at the styrofoam container in her hands.

“Mmmhmm,” she said as she walked around the bed and placed the container on his chest and opened it. She didn’t miss his eyes widening in pleasure.