Perfect Fit
IT WAS VALENTINE’S Day evening and I found myself looking across the table at my smiling dinner companion. For more years that I could remember, I had scoffed about this greeting card company holiday and anyone who celebrated its stupidity. Why did people treat each other like shit all year long with the exception of birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, and Sweetest Day? Don’t fucking get me started on Sweetest Day! I mean, what the fuck?
Anyway, I never thought I’d find myself celebrating Valentine’s Day with a candlelit dinner across from a significant other. Of course, I never thought I could love so completely and have my heart feel so full it might burst at any given moment. Love and happiness wasn’t in the cards for me. It was something I learned at a painfully young age and I knew better to even try. I had a shiny glimpse of a happy life with Chase, but reality hit me upside my head with a spiked club, snuffing out any sliver of hope I had for myself.
I used that pain to push him away, because I knew I would only drag him down and ruin his life. I still ended up breaking his heart and I still haven’t forgiven myself. Somehow, Chase forgave me and remained my best friend, my only family. He also unknowingly gave me the best thing that ever happened to me, even if it took me a very long time to recognize and accept it. It went a little something like this:
Once upon a time in a crowded bar…
MILLER AND I didn’t meet under ideal circumstances. Honestly, I’m not even sure how I even noticed him while I fought with Grayson Wright over my stupid, reckless comment to Chase about why he was promoted so fast at Wright Creations. Everything happened so fast, but when it was over and the dust had settled, I found myself looking into the lightest blue eyes I had ever seen. Those eyes twinkled with mischief and captivated me right away. I would have introduced myself to him right then, but Jack Murphy forcefully escorted me out of his bar. Damn him and his cock blocking ways.
My split lip throbbed and my heart ached painfully in my chest as I found myself walking to my car in the dark. It was a painful reminder that I still had a heart. If a person possessed a heart, then it could be shattered into a trillion pieces. That had happened to me once, and at the time, I thought the organ was lost to me forever. However, when it came to Chase it seemed like a fragment of my heart still remained.
Once again, I had lashed out at the only person in the world who meant anything to me. Why? If I was being honest with myself, and I always tried to be, I’d have admitted that I reacted out of fear. My hurtful comment was a knee-jerk reaction and a self-defense mechanism that I had been perfecting for years. I was going to lose him and then I’d have no one. So, why not push him away and get it over with?
“Hey, your wallet fell out of your suit jacket.” A deep voice with just a hint of raspy sexiness echoed in the darkness behind me. I turned to see who the voice belonged to and found myself looking into the twinkling blue eyes I had noticed in the bar. I allowed myself a minute to admire the rest of his physical attributes. He was tall and lean, as he walked towards me with an almost predatory gait. This sexy stranger exuded confidence and sensuality that I wanted to sample for myself. His blond hair shone beneath the streetlights when he walked beneath them. The strands looked like they would feel silky between my fingers and I imagined gripping his hair while pushing my cock between his lush lips. “It must have flown out when Gray knocked you off your stool.” The last part was said with a bit of snark and familiarity that let me know he was acquainted with Chase’s boyfriend fairly well. “Although, you got a few good hits in yourself, Jagger.” So, he had opened my wallet, looked at my license, and saw my name.
I had hated that name since I was old enough to realize it was odd, which was probably around the time I went to school. The other kids made fun of it mercilessly and I had heard enough snotty remarks about my mom’s character and the reason I got the name to last me a lifetime. No kid should hear “I bet his mom was a groupie and he knocked her up,” followed by “No way Mick would tap that nasty ass. God only knows where it has been.” When people remark about how cruel kids are they have no further to look than in their own fucking mirrors. Monkey see, monkey do.
Somehow, hearing my name roll off the beautiful blond stranger’s tongue made it seem less offensive to me. There was no derision in his tone or in his expression. No, I only saw the same curiosity I felt about him reflected back at me. Even in the dim light, his eyes twinkled and implored me to be a little bad. I felt the effect of his crooked smile in the pit of my stomach and in my groin. “I go by JJ.” I told him.