Page 76 of Wrecked
“I'll get it tomorrow. Can you drive me here?” He trips a little and then straightens himself against me again as I blow a puff of air out at the struggle.
“I can, but it won't be until late afternoon. I have to work.” I manage to glance at my watch. “In a couple of hours, actually.”
“Sorry,” he winces. “And it doesn't matter what time. I have nowhere to be.”
And that brings everything around full circle for me, back to what he said at his apartment. After abusing my lower lip, I carefully ask, “What happened with your job?”
I'm banking on the fact that he seems to be more chatty when he's drunk and much more likely to answer and not freak out.
An irritated groan rumbles through his chest to my shoulder, where he's leaning. But it doesn't seem to be at the fact that I asked, but more so because of whatever happened at work.
“It was all a misunderstanding. The supervisor has been giving me shit since I started, and he's just been waiting for something to get me fired.”
“Why didn't you tell me?” I ask, with a touch of hurt in my voice. The fact that he's been going through that and didn't feel he could tell me is upsetting. Am I not approachable? “I assumed you were loving it.”
“I don't know,” he mumbles quietly. “I didn't want to disappoint you.”
A fissure forms in my heart, leaking pain into my chest. I reach up and squeeze the hand dangling over my shoulder before threading my fingers with his. “I wouldn't have been disappointed, Cam.” He only grunts in response. I'm not sure if he believes me or not. “Anyway,” I say, clearing my throat. “It doesn't seem very fair that he had it out for you and then got you fired.”
“Well, no. But that's not all. I wasn't handling it very well and just needed something to help with it, so I–”
“Cam!” some guy calls from nearby, interrupting us. “We gonna see you again this week?”
Turning us in the direction of the guy, I try not to stiffen at his question or grimace at the fact that he's snorting a line of coke from the hood of a car with pupils that are practically swallowing his eyeballs. I don't want Cam to come back here.
Not when someone was out to cause trouble for him when they didn't end up winning.
Not when people like Brandy are here, trying to get their claws into him and influence him in a bad way.
And definitely not when this guy offers Cam to do a line off the car's hood with him.
“Nah, man. I'm good,” Cam replies to the offer. I'm relieved he declined, but I can't silence the little section of my brain that wonders if it would have been different if I wasn't here. What would have happened if I had never turned up?
Cam never replies about whether or not he's coming back this week, but the guy seems to have forgotten he asked it anyway when his attention turns to me.
“Haven't seen this one before. You want some of this, sweetheart?”
I cringe but try not to react externally and prepare to decline when Cam's grip on me tightens. “Don't fuckin' offer her that shit, man.”
The guy looks absolutely offended. “You think I'd bring the garbage stuff here to share? I'dnever.This is the good shit,” he scoffs, totally misunderstanding what Cam's saying.
When Cam makes a move as if he's about to get into his second fight of the night, my eyes widen, and I panic.
Grabbing at his arm, I tug him back, almost making him stumble over again. “Come on, let's just get home, okay?” He looks down at me, fury in his gun-metal eyes. “Please?” I plead.
I watch as the anger dissipates from his face, the storm brewing behind his gray orbs settling to a fuzzy softness as he gazes at me, and I feel my shoulders loosen.
With a quick kiss on my lips, he gives a nod. “Let's go.”
CHAPTER 32
JASMINE
“Again, I'm so sorry,” I rush out, apologizing to the charge nurse once again after thanking her profusely, still a little breathless after running. This isn't the first time I've come barreling into work this past month, with time as my enemy. Thankfully, she's not writing me up for it.
“Just don't let it happen again, Jasmine. I like you, but there's only so much I can do after you're late three times within a short time frame.”
“I know,” I reply, pushing to my feet. “It won't happen again.”
