Ride: An angsty enemies to lovers romance Page 4
She was like a bitch in heat.
Prying open my other eye, I press the heels of my hands into my eye sockets to try and bring my vision into focus.
When I open them, I see an unfamiliar ceiling.
When did it change color?
Am I imagining things?
Opening them wider, I look at the walls to see all kinds of car and band posters hung up around the room. By the window is a guitar just resting on its stand.
This isn’t my room.
Where the fuck am I!
Turning back towards the person next to me in bed, I gasp out loud when I see Jared.
Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I almost weep when I see the corded muscle wrapping its way around his biceps. The bed cover is riding so low on his hips, showing his wide muscular back. His Calvin’s are just peeking out the top of the cover and I pray to God that I didn’t end up sleeping with him last night.
I would remember something like that, right?
I’ve still got my crop top on, but my shorts are missing.
Searching around the room with my eyes, I spot them resting over a chair sitting by the dresser.
As silently as I can, I get out the bed and tip toe over to them and slip them over my thighs.
Looking over at his sleeping form, I try and rack my brain to remember how the hell I ended up in his bed, but I draw a blank.
Spotting my purse on the dresser, I grab it and quietly make my way out the door.
I want to know how I got here, but I could do without the awkward encounter of the morning after.
Especially since he acted like I was the spawn of Satan yesterday.
Why would he even want me in his bed?
I would have been less surprised if it was Cam next to me.
I thankfully make my way out the door and close it as silently as possible so not to wake him.
I need to find Angie.
Hopefully she didn’t leave last night.
Walking down the stairs I find I’m having to hold my breath against the smell of the front room. Beer and vomit assaults my nostrils, threatening to empty my stomach at any given moment.
Tiptoeing past the stragglers who seemed to have passed out wherever in the room, I keep a look out for any sign of Ang.
“Sara” someone whisper hisses.
Seeing Angie on the other side of the room on a couch, I walk over to get her and get the hell out of here.
As I get closer, I can see she feels about as good as I do. Her normally bright blonde hair lies in a limp messy plait down her back.
“You look how I feel” I croak.
“Yeh, maybe we over done it” she says smiling at me.
Rising from her seat, I hold onto her as she gets up on wobbly legs.
Once I’m sure she won’t fall over, I let her stand on her own as we walk towards the front door.
“How did you sleep” she asks waggling her eyebrows at me.
“Erm, fine I guess”
“How was Jared’s bed!” she cackles
“You knew I was up there! How the bloody hell did that happen” even my own yelling is hurting my ears. A few people moan at my raised voice, so I take it down a notch.
“I’ll explain in the car” she says quietly as we open the front door.
The walk to the car feels like a five-mile hike. I’m not drunk anymore, but my limbs feel like I’ve run a marathon.
Feeling a sense of relief when I find her undamaged and where I left her, I unlock it and get in.
“Right, we’re in the car, so talk” I tell her turning the key in the ignition, I chuck it in reverse before pulling out the parking spot.
“After you and Cam had your second game of beer pong, you dragged us all to the strip poker table, I saw you two making out by the way. I must say, I like the drunk you, she doesn’t give a fuck about anything” she snickers.
“I have never played strip poker in my life” I’ve played beer pong; I mean who hasn’t. “And I don’t like Cam like that, I just got lost in the party for a bit”
“We could tell, once you’d lost your shorts and shoes, Darren came over and started being…. Well, Darren” she says rolling her eyes making me cringe. She’s choosing to ignore my comment about Cam also.
“Just as you were about to lose your top, Jared came storming in. He swiped you out your seat and all but run upstairs with you two steps at a time. I barely had any time to react before you were gone. I wanted to chase him to make sure you were okay, but Cam said you were as safe as could be, and to be honest, I somehow knew Jared would look after you” she says sounding a little guilty.
Fuck.
Thank God he took me out of there before I did something even more stupid.
I don’t remember any of this.
Sitting in silence for the rest of the ride to my house, Angie seemed to understand that my mind was on overdrive and gave me the quiet I needed to try and start processing it.
Why would Jared care if I took my clothes off in front of anyone?
I mean shit, I’m grateful as hell, and I’ll have to thank him. But I don’t understand why he would care.
And another thing, why put me in his bed?
That house had at least ten bedrooms, surely there was a spare room he could have dumped me in.
All these questions still roll around in my head as we pull up to my apartment.
All of them I have no answer for.
Once I’m showered, I start to feel a little more human. Albeit a hungover one. Joining Angie on the couch, I flick on the tv to some gameshow they have reruns of all day.
“Never drinking again” Angie groans out.
“I hear ya” I reply with a groan of my own.
“When’s your mum back?” she asks sitting up to grab her coffee off the table.
“No idea, haven’t heard from her” no texts, calls, nothing since yesterday morning.
As if by magic, the key turns in the front door and she appears in the entryway.
“Maybe we talked about her too much, it seems to make her appear” Angie hushes giggling.
Yeah, I may have ranted about my mum one or two times, once I did, Angie decided from then that she wasn’t a massive fan of my mum. I couldn’t bring myself to care really.
“Morning Sara. Oh, who’s this?” mum says rolling in her suitcase.
“Mum, Angie. Angie, mum” I droll out with a wave of my hand.
“Hello dear, nice to see Sara with a friend over” she says with a smirk.
“Mrs. Monroe” she replies sarkily.
Covering up my smile with my hand, I try to keep the laughter from bubbling up at her disdain.
Pursing her lips, my mum moves over to the kitchen and grabs herself a cup of coffee. Apparently, she either didn’t notice Angie’s dislike to her, or she’s chosen to ignore it.
“What have you girls been up to?” she says bringing her cup to her lips. Taking a longer look at her, she isn’t as put together as she normally is. Frayed bits of hair stick up in all directions as if she’s had a crappy night’s sleep. Her pant suit crumpled and creased.
“Er, we went to a party last night, nothing special”
“Well, I’m going to get washed up. I’m back at work later, so don’t wait up” she says walking towards the hallway.
Now why doesn’t that surprise me.
I can’t keep the grimace off my face as she walks away, and Angie notices.
“You don’t think she’s working, do you?”
“No”
She has a new fella, I’m betting on it.
We seem to just be stuck in this infinite cycle of new guys who turn out to be shitheads. And I’m sick of it.
“She’s seeing someone. This is pretty standard for her”
“You’ve only been here a week though? How does she move so
fast?”
Rolling my eyes with a look.
You don’t even know the half of it.
Rolling out of bed the next morning, I finally feel like the hungover has been purged from my body. After spending most of the day on the couch yesterday, Angie ended up going home by the evening. Mum had left shortly after, freshly showered and back to her pristine self. I didn’t even get a chance to ask why she looked so disheveled when she got home, she hightailed it out of there as soon as she was packed to go again.
Not wanting to sit there alone, I hooked up the Xbox and messed around playing games until I couldn’t keep my eyes open and went to bed.
I need to go to the grocery store today though. Living off take out and ramen noodles wasn’t going to do me any good long term, and I was desperately craving fresh vegetables for once.
Opening up the browser on my phone, I scope out the closest store where I can grab everything I need.
Getting showered and changed doesn’t take me long, I have no desire to put make up on or make an effort today. I have a rule about no makeup on Sunday’s. today was made for lounging around doing nothing. But the call for a homecooked meal beats out my desire to be lazy.
Writing myself a quick shopping list so I don’t forget anything, I drag my ass out the door down the lift to my car.
Saying a quick hello to a neighbor grabbing her mail, I unlock my car and make my way to the store.
Luckily there is one only ten minutes down the road and the traffic is light for once. Finding a spot all the way at the back of the parking lot, I groan when I see how busy it is. It seems every fucker does their shopping on a Sunday around here.
Grabbing a trolly, I have to fight my way through the aisles to get everything on my list. Grabbing some brownies off the middle shelf, I make my way to the tills. The queues must be eight people deep, I’m going to be here fo
rever.
After what feels like an age, I finally get back to my car with a cart full of bags. Loading them up in the back seat (because as much as I love my car, the trunk space sucks) I return my cart, more than ready to get the hell out of here.
Turning the key in the ignition, I widen my eyes at the clunking noise coming from the engine.
No baby, don’t do this to me.
Popping the hood, I lift it to see if I can see what’s going on.
If I was back in Colorado, I could take it to my grandads to have a proper look. But here, I don’t have anything to work on her with, only the small toolbox in my trunk.
Shutting the hood dejectedly, I google the closest garage. This needs to be fast if I don’t want to ruin my groceries. Trust this to happen on a hot day.
Finding a local garage just down the street, I get in and crank the engine to follow the gps. Hearing the clunking even worse as I accelerate, I wince every time I push down on the pedal.
This is just my luck really.
I have a little savings I can use to get her fixed, but I was saving that for when I finish school.
Pulling into Al’s Motors, I see a few guys milling around working on cars.
Getting out, I make my way to the door marked reception. Seeing an old man behind the counter, he looks up as I enter, giving me a warm smile.
“Hey darlin’, welcome to Al’s” he says standing and reaching his hand out for me to shake it. This guy is adorable. His blue overalls are covered in oil stains including his matching hat. he reminds me a lot of my grandad with his kind eyes and warm smile. Taking his hand in mine, its rough and calloused, you can tell he’s worked most of his life on cars by the roughness of them. “Hey, I’m Sara” I say returning his smile.
“Al” he says returning the introduction. I’m guessing he owns this place then.
“What can I do for you today Sara?”
“My girl’s making some noise. Normally I would just work on it myself, but I don’t have any tools with me since we moved here” I hate having to rely on someone else to work on my baby. Me and my grandad have always been the ones to fix her up.
“Ah well, my boys would be happy to take a look at it for you. Bring it round and I’ll go out and collar one of them” his southern accent coming through.
Giving him a smile, I wall back over to my car to bring her round to the garage door.
Getting out, I look up and see a car I recognize. Jared’s mean looking boss sits in the garage parking lot.
I panic a little internally that he’s here somewhere. I remember Angie telling me he worked at a garage in town some days.
Shit, I forgot all about it.
I force myself to swallow the lump in my throat when I look by the garage lift to see him talking to the old guy from reception.
Al choses that moment to point at my car, making Jared look up and lock eyes with me.
Fuck.
My mind is telling me to get back in my car and drive home. But my body won’t move. He doesn’t take his eyes off me as Al talks to him, and I can’t look away either.
Finishing his conversation, he makes his way over to me. Looking even hotter than normal in overalls. I embarrassingly almost dribble.
“Bring it over to this bay” he says pointing at the one in front of me.
Turning back away from me, I’m a little taken back by him. No “Hey, how you doing” nothing, just barking orders.
Biting my lip, I do as he says and drive it into the bay.
Getting out, he rounds the car and pops the hood.
Seeing him looking at my pride and joy, I thought I would feel anxious about a stranger looking at it, but all I feel is incredibly turned on.
Five.
“I think your clutch disc is worn” Jared says shining a light under my car “It’s the most common reason for noise when accelerating”
Crap, I was hoping it wasn’t that.
“Okay, so how long am I looking at? I got groceries in the car”
I try to keep the animosity out of my voice, but ever since he came over, he’s been a bit of an ass. Hardly talking to me, and when he does, he sounds cold. Not what I expected after spending the night in his bed.
“I can sort you out a hire car, but it won’t be until tomorrow. The company we use isn’t open on Sundays”
Great. I’ve got a little cash left, hopefully it’s enough for a cab.
“Okay, thanks. Can I just grab my bags, then I’ll go get a taxi home” I say folding my hands over my chest.
Today of all days my baby chose to die on me.
Stalking out of the office without a word, I stand at my car with anger in my eyes. He’s being a rude asshole, and he has no reason for it. I’ve done nothing to piss this guy off, so why is he being such a dick to me.
Coming back out, he presses a button on the lift to lower my car. Grabbing my bags of shopping and my purse, I heave the four bags up ready to get the hell out of here.
“I’ll give you a ride” he says to my retreating form. Stopping in my tracks, I surely must have heard him wrong.
“Sorry?”
“I said, I’ll give you a ride” he says with an irritated expression.
“Well don’t do me any favors” I breathe the word asshole at the end of my sentence. I swear I see his lips twitch with a smile.
Feeling the ache already starting in my arms, I look over to his car and debate actually taking him up on it.
It’s a sweet as hell ride. I’ve been dying to see how it runs since the first day I saw it in the student parking lot.
Chewing my lip, I finally make up my mind.
“Okay, sure. Thank you” I say grinding out the final words.
Waving his hand in the direction of his boss, I must spend a full minute just looking at it. It’s so damn pretty. The sleekness of the diamond black paint job just adds to the appeal.
Finally breaking out of my fan girling over his car, I put my bags in his back seat, knowing the boot on this is just as bad as mine.
Climbing in the passenger side, I take in the interior. It’s all black leather seats and polish wood. It’s actually surprising clean for a dudes car.
Grabbing my seatbelt, I buckle up as he turns on the ignition. Feeling the car rumble beneath me, I have to hold in the groan of satisfaction at hearing it up close. It sounds like heaven.
“You like cars then?” he says ruining my dream.