Three's Company

34. Thoughts

It was way too easy for Heath to be emotionally unavailable.

"This, and a 20 pack of camel blue." Dropping two bottles of Hennessy down, he felt around his trouser pockets and sighed. "Shit, and can I get a lighter."

"Of course, you can. What colour did you want, handsome?" The girl with long blonde hair and makeup lightly dotted on her freckles face asked.

Handsome?

The older man shrugged, muttering lowly. "Surprise me."

Clearly, his sarcasm wasn't registered and the girl let out a sweet laugh. She blushed, looking over at Heath through her lashes. Turning around, she made it a entire show of trying to reach for the locked cigarette packs behind the counter.

His eyes didn't stray once, a frown placing on his features. He had come back to Chicago for this bullshit?

God, kill me now, he thought. The girl looked like she was still in high school kid, it was enough to make him cringe.

She eventually turned around, holding the blue packet and a matching blue lighter. Whilst she rang up his every limited items, she offered small talk.

"Crazy Monday night?" Yep, this wasn't going to cut it.

Giving young flirty cashier a blank stare, he pointed down at his items. "Shouldn't there be someone over twenty one serving this shit? You look about sixteen at most."

"I'm seventeen, actually. I don't suppose that would be an issue for you though?" The girl rose a brow, amusement etching onto her face. "I know men your age secretly fantasise about fucking underage girls. I'd fuck you, you're really good looking."

That comment was alarming enough, but since he could easily dish it out, he hummed. "Your father doesn't love you, does he? That why you're so desperate for a slither of male attention. I don't suppose Vladimir Nabokov is on your little tumblr page, huh?"

Immediately, her face fell at his mocking and she let out a prickly scoff. "Asshole."

"Just ring up my items already, Lolita."

She didn't waste time shoving his items into a paper bag, pushing it towards him. Thankfully, the small talk was well and truly over so he was putting his wallet into his back pocket and walking out of the shitty little convenience store after paying in record time.

Although the second he made his way out, he saw many bystanders walking past with umbrellas in their hand. He cursed mentally, feeling the heavy rain droplets pelting down on him.

For fuck sake. Lolita it was.

He took a u-turn back into the shop, the bell chiming above his head, signalling that he had entered.

The teenage girl looked bored, picking at her finger nails when she lifted her head up to see who the new customer was. But when she saw him there, she groaned loudly.

"If you're here to lecture me again, my freaking uncle owns this place. I'm allowed to be behind the counter, he gave me permission."

Heath blinked. "Oh, okay. He gave you permission and that makes everything perfectly legal." Looking around the small shop, he asked. "Where are your umbrellas?"

"Why would I tell you?"

He rolled his dark eyes, merely shaking his head. He walked through the couple aisles until he got to the miscellaneous section and found the last umbrella.

It was a bright pink barbie umbrella, quite obviously for tiny person and the opposite gender. Well, actually, he stopped in his thoughts, any gender—who was he to judge, right?

Once he came back to the counter, the girl could do nothing but snicker at his choice of umbrellas.

"That must be your karma for being such a pedo." She mused, beeping the item through and opening her hand for him to place the cash in it.

He did, though not without replying to her in the same patronising way.

"Damn." He falsely winced, knowing her name calling was meant to make her feel better about herself. "Daddy must've messed you up pretty bad if you're projecting onto random men."

"My father is dead."

Heath's eyes danced, unable to stop himself from retorting.

"What a shame. He's probably rolling over in his grave as we speak at how desperate his daughter has become."

This time as he left the shop, a magazine was hurled at his moving back and a string of curses were shot at him.

Despite her being half his age, he found the entire situation funny and walked outside now with a new umbrella protecting his head from the rain.

He had been back in Chicago for three days, with Mona on his mind like a broken record, he came to the conclusion that he could not watch Theo and her start anything.

They were going to, he knew it.

His friend never did anything without a ulterior motive, and him taking her out for coffee proved that he was not going to stop.

He had barely seen the guy since he got back, however, now it was going to be tense since the whole thing was strange.

He walked back to his penthouse at a slow pace, he wanted to start drinking already but the rainy weather forced him to worry about one thing at a time.

When he did get to his place, dropping his keys on the coffee table and sinking his body into the sofa, he was able to drown the noise out with the alcohol and smokes.

Mid swig, the sound of the house phone ringing echoed throughout the empty home and then it was being put straight to voicemail.

Heath listened with his head back against the plush cushion, hearing the familiar voice he had just been thinking about.

'Hey man. Heard your back in Chicago, and I'm thinking of visiting for the weekend. Was wondering if you wanted to go for a drink and maybe a game for old times sake? Call back when you get this.'

Old times sake.

He could hear the remorse in his tone, figuring he probably felt bad that they had spent little to no time together.

If the lawyer was being honest, he missed his best friend. T and his family offered him what he missed out on in his childhood.

Fuck it. If it was going to happen in front of his very eyes then he couldn't stop it, but that didn't mean he needed to make any more enemies.

Reaching into his pocket, he retrieved his mobile phone and unlocked it. He found his contact, letting his finger slide over the call button.

It rang, once, twice and then he heard the concerned voice say, "You got my message, bro?"

Heath hummed in response. "There's a bulls game on Friday. You down?"

"Yeah," relief instantly filled his tone, "yeah, sure. I'm down."

That was all that needed to be said for the two of them to be fine again.

It was that easy. Or, so he thought.