His friends would think him a pussy for wanting Elena. They also liked to call him “chubby chaser”, which had followed him to high school. When they’d been eight years old, they’d had to say who they thought was the most beautiful girl in school, and he had said Elena James without even thinking. His friends had burst out laughing saying he liked fat girls.
Anyway, what they didn’t get wasn’t the fact he didn’t like “fat girls”. He liked one girl, Elena.
Still, he’d decided he wouldn’t let his friends know his feelings anymore.
Entering the high school, he was rounding a corner when someone plowed into him. He worked out every single day, and so his body was like that of a rock.
“Ough!”
He looked down to see Elena sprawled on the floor, several of her books dropped on the floor.
“Sorry,” he said, bending down to gather them up.
“No problem. It teaches me not to look behind me as I’m walking straight ahead. Wrong move, totally wrong.” She was crouched down, gathering the books up along with him.
Standing up, Cole wanted to say anything, something to keep them in this moment, and yet there was nothing to be said. There were no words, and as she smiled and said thank you again, she was gone.
Glancing behind him, he watched her curvy ass in the jeans she wore, and knew one day, if he was patient, she would belong to him.
****
Present day
It had taken a long time to make his boyhood vow an actual reality. Three years stood between them. Those three years had made a hell of a difference.
He’d graduated high school while she still had time to go. Leaving town, he’d gone to college for an entire year, dragging out one semester’s worth of classes. When he returned she’d still been in high school and so far away from him. There was no reason for him to hang out at the school. Even he wasn’t that kind of perv.
Over the next few years, he’d become a professional plumber, and then bought his house, spending every available second renovating it. Elena had left high school, and was dating someone else. Their paths rarely crossed, and he just wasn’t ready. Every time he was close, he’d always found another reason not to ask her out on a date.
Then finally, it was like the fates just couldn’t handle them apart any longer, and there she was, in his DIY store, looking for a job. It had been too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Cole stood in the doorway of his office and watched as she served the customers. Deuce was in one of the aisles showing what the best kind of tool was to fix a treehouse. Cole’s gaze was only on Elena though, her bandaged hand upsetting him as he’d not meant to hurt her. All he did was leave the damn knife in the water, which he felt responsible for.
He didn’t know how long he stood there, but all too soon, five o’clock had come, and he was bolting the front door.
Elena was counting the money in the till and placing it in bags.
“Today was a long day,” Deuce said. He stretched out his muscles, and moaned. “Damn, I need a beer, a massage, and good meal.”#p#分页标题#e#
Cole thought all of that sounded good.
“What do you say, Elena?” Deuce asked. “You want to serve all of those needs for me?”
Cole’s hands curled into fists, and he was ready to take Deuce down, only Elena burst out laughing, cutting through any anger he had.
“You’re a sexist pig, Deuce. You’ve got no chance. Find yourself someone else willing to do all that crap.”
She was still chuckling as she left them.
“Don’t ever ask her to do that again,” Cole said, staring at Deuce. “You’ll be out of a job so fucking fast, I will make sure you don’t get another one.”
Deuce held his hands up. “Sorry, dude. I had no idea that she was taken. Besides, I was only joking around. Honest. You saw her. She was laughing. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Cole didn’t back down, and he went in search of her. He found Elena in the staff room. She was at her locker, and her hands were on her shoulders, stretching her head from side to side.
Moving up behind her, he gripped her shoulders and began to massage them.
“That feels good, Cole,” she said.
“How did you know it was me?”
She chuckled. “I just did. Have you finished telling Deuce off now?”
“I wanted to do a lot more than that.”
“You really didn’t have to, Cole. He was just joking around. There was something I wanted to ask you actually,” she said, grabbing her bag, and turning toward him. “Martha came back today. She wanted to talk about possibly re-hiring me on a part-time basis.”