Page 90 of Run
“I’m gonna hang that asshole by his testicles if I ever see him.”
I smile. “I support that.”
After another pause, he asks, “You ever see Axel?”
“No,” I respond immediately. I don’t want to lie to him, but I know he will never understand. Getting to the closet, I open it and find a bra. “Look, Ethan, I don’t mean to cut this conversation short, but I have to finish getting dressed before Sophie comes barreling down here to get me.”
“Wha— Have you been naked this whole time?”
“I guess you’ll never know.”
“Oh, that’s cold. Were you in a towel? Just in your panties? Give me something here!”
“Oh, big boy, you’re just going to have to use your imagination.”
He curses under his breath and grumbles something about me not wanting to know what’s going on in his imagination, and then I hear the front door open upstairs and Sophie bellowing my name.
“Gah! Gotta go!”
“Wait! Send me a pic!”
I laugh. “Bye, Ethan.”
I hear a sigh. “Later, gator.”
CHAPTER 30
ETHAN
“It’s OK that I’m not wearing a suit, right?” I roll up the sleeves on my dress shirt. “I mean, it’s not a wedding. They’re just calling it a celebration. Celebrations aren’t that fancy, right?”
Ari is expecting me to pick her up soon to go to Knox and Lizzie’s house for their party, and I feel like a teenager getting ready for prom, stalking back and forth from my bedroom to the bathroom, then back to the bedroom closet as I change my shirt, then belt, then tie, then shirt again.
Fonz is sitting on the bed laughing at me.
The final outcome is a pair of charcoal gray slacks and a light gray dress shirt. I had a white shirt on, but you could see my undershirt beneath it, so I switched it. Then I was going to weara thick black belt, but I swear it didn’t look like it was the same black as my shoes, which made Fonz roll his eyes. Now I have a skinny black belt that looks better anyway.
I freaking hate getting dressed up. For this occasion, I’ll add a tie, but no way will you find me in a suit jacket.
Fonz shakes his head at me again as I storm into the hallway and duck into the bathroom one last time. I shake some aftershave into the palm of my hand and slap it onto my jaw, wincing at the bite it leaves on my skin. “Hey!” I call out. “You think Ari will like my face?”
“Ethan, any girl who doesn’t like your face is not worth your time, you hear me?!”
“I need new friends,” I grumble, turning my face this way and that, checking myself in the mirror to make sure I didn’t miss any spots when shaving earlier. After our make-out session last weekend, my beard got trimmed way back. I want to be able to kiss and nuzzle and rub my face all over Ari’s pale, soft skin without worrying about scratching her.
I may still chafe her because I couldn’t bring myself to shave my face bare, but hopefully this will help.
She hasn’t seen it yet because we haven’t been able to get together all damn week. I worked every night, and one day she was busy with Sophie, then she and Meg went to look for a dress. Another day I had to go help my mom with something at her house, which Ari said was fine because she had an errand to run anyway as well as a visit to her therapist. And every other day this week she met with the trainer.
Needless to say, it’s been a long, lonely week.
I power walk back into the bedroom, passing Fonz. “You’re not helping my stress level.”
“I don’t get why you’re so stressed anyway,” Fonz says to my back as I enter the closet and emerge with three ties dangling from my two hands. “It’s just Ari.”
I stare at him deadpan, holding my hands with the ties out in front of me. “There is nothingjustabout Ari, Fonz. She is steeped in every cell in my body. Every memory, every experience was either with her, or compared to what it would be like if I were with her.” I shove my hands toward his face. “Which one?”
Fonz studies the material in front of him. He points to the cherry red tie on the far left. “Definitely not that one.” I toss it over my shoulder and wiggle the remaining two ties in front of him. His eyes pass between the skinny black tie and the one with gray stripes. “Ummm …” His pointer finger ping-pongs between the two before landing on the black tie. “That one.”
