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FOURTEEN
Raya
“Sorry about the mess.I’m not quite moved in yet,” I said as I walked past three boxes that were all open and had things spilling out of them. “I’m not a big fan of moving, as you can probably see, so I tend to get somewhere and just toss my things around and go from there.”
I handed him a beer I’d just grabbed from the fridge, then cracked my own beverage as I sat on the other end of the couch. I didn’t have a lot of furniture, which put us both on the same couch to drink the beers. I’d briefly paused to wonder if that was too close but went with it at the time.
Now that he and I were seated on the couch together, however, I wondered if this was the right choice. I felt really close to him, and it made me nervous. Almost like that giddy schoolgirl I had been the day I had gotten my first kiss. Cole, for his own part, didn’t seem at all on edge with the setup.
He was just as relaxed as ever, extending his leg out so he could lie back more and relax with his drink in his hand.
“Thank you, don’t worry about it. I like clean and tidy myself, but I’m not going to knock on anyone who’s not as tidy as I am. Though I bet you are when you’re not in the middle of a move,” Cole replied.
I was rather surprised he’d come over to my place after he’d finished up with the horses. He said he would, but there was just something about him that wouldn’t have surprised me if he had bailed out on me at the last second. The fact that he showed up told me that he was willing to talk things over, and perhaps we could forge ahead with some sort of working relationship.
He didn’t know it, but I had tossed and turned all night on Friday.
It had been so insanely hot for him to come to my rescue the way he did, and to even get to the point he was telling the bartender to do a better job. It made me feel special. Like I wasn’t just the person who was writing his paycheck, but rather a woman who deserved to be treated with respect.
And someone wasn’t doing that, so he was a big enough gentleman to step in and let that man know he’d fucked up. It was heroic, and I couldn’t shake it from my mind. Not that I even wanted to. When he was being stern, he had such an intense look on his face that made my panties dampen. I could only imagine what that kind of intensity would be like if it was focused on me and only me.
Not in an angry way, but I could imagine a man like Cole having sex was like a work of art. Never having had sex myself, I knew I could be naïve, but I still fantasized about it. Even to the point I pleasured myself with my hands and thoughts of him before I went to sleep that night.
Then, all weekend, I wasn’t able to get him out of my head. I thought about every reason I could possibly have to text him, call him, or in some way make a connection to him just for the sake of it. I knew it wasn’t professional, but I couldn’t stop myself. Not with how insanely attractive I found him.
By the time Monday rolled around, I decided the best thing to do was to thank him for what he did for me with a couple beers at my place. It would save us both money by not being out at the bar, and I felt like we would get the chance to actually talk. I wasn’t sure how he was going to take the invitation, and I told myself it was the last time I would give it a try. If he turned me down for the drink tonight, I wasn’t going to ask him to hangout anymore. Which would probably be for the best, considering.
My heart wanted what it wanted, and it wasn’t always in the mood to listen. In fact, it rarely was, which was why I had fallen for the wrong guy too many times. I was grateful for my pact with my friends to not sleep around. Each time I dealt with a breakup, I was glad they didn’t have that kind of intimate knowledge about me.
With Cole, however, it was different. Yes, he was an asshole. I could admit that. But, perhaps he wasn’t as big of an asshole as he portrayed himself to be. Perhaps he put up a front for some reason, and being the asshole was just his way of getting through life. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I was willing to bet there was more to him than just the dickhead he was trying to be.
I tried to give most people the benefit of the doubt with that. It came with the territory of being a therapist. Working with the people I did alongside the horses exposed me to a lot of the advice that was given by therapists at the facility, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to use some of that advice and apply it to myself.
Lord knew I didn’t have everything figured out in life, and it could very well do me some good to take some of the advice that I was constantly exposed to around the clients. No one was above getting help from anyone, and if I was able to get it from actual therapists without having to pay for it, even better.
“How’s the leg?” I asked.
There was something inside me that felt bad for the way I had been rude about it the first day we’d met, but again, Cole didn’t seem to get too riled by anything. He was a dick, but he was quiet about it at times and didn’t get too upset about what I had to say.
“It’s coming along. Slowly,” he said. “Thank God I’m not in my forties. If this is how long it takes to heal being young, I would hate for any broken bones being old.”
“I feel you there,” I said. “And do you think you’re going to get through to the horse that threw you?”
“With time.” He nodded. “I have my friend working with him during the week. Maveric is his name. The horse’s name.”
I laughed. I figured as much. His delivery with such things was comical, and I sensed he liked making me laugh.
“And what about Romeo?” I pressed. “Is he as bad off as that horse that threw you?”
“No. Well, he’s fucked up in a different way,” Cole told me. “He’ll probably be able to cope better overall, but that’s not to say he’s not doing the same amount of work Maveric is doing in his own head. Therapy is therapy. It doesn’t seem to care what species is in need, or what the being has gone through.”
“I see that in helping the patients who come through here,” I said with a nod. “You can’t always see what’s wrong with someone at face value. There’s times when you do have to dig deeper and find out more about their story, their past. Although I’m going to assume it’s a lot easier with people than it is with horses, since people can tell you what the problem is going on inside.”
“That is if they are willing,” he said. “Just like with a horse, people like to hide their pain. They might not be as good at it physically, but emotionally, yes.”
I nodded, wondering how he knew that. But, I didn’t ask. I liked the way this conversation was going. We were talking freely and easily with each other about life and what we had to deal with, and I felt like I was just talking to a good friend.
All the tension that had been there the past few times we spoke was gone, and I was able to see Cole as a new man. Sure, nothing had changed about him, I was just letting my guard down enough to talk to him as a friend rather than someone who was working for me. I had to be careful.
