Addiction

CHAPTER TWO

I woke up the next morning feeling super guilty about the whole Ryan thing. This was not the way I planned to end the year with everything going so good for me lately. The worst part of it all, was that I was going to have Ryan over for dinner today to meet with Kyle so we can all talk about this wonderful town. Great.

I looked over to the left to notice that Kyle had already left for work this early morning. It wasn't even 8:00 am yet and he was already gone, so much for him having the day off today. I remember when Kyle used to be cute and romantic with me. Every morning he would have a cup of coffee on my nightstand with a note that had something whimsical and romantic. Those were the days.

I finally got up and dragged my feet to take a shower and get ready for work. I was usually there on time, but everyone knows I like to wake up late.

Today was going to be a ... nerve-wrecking day. I had to get dinner ready for tonight, I had to figure out a way to not look suspicious with Kyle and Ryan around, and I had to figure out how I was going to get through this day without killing myself in the process.

I rushed out the door and started walking to work and looked at my phone to see if there were any messages. Just as I figured, none.

"Hey Scarlet!" I looked up and saw Ryan running up towards me. Bad call. What is he doing here?
I waved lightly and pulled my sweater closer to my chest due to the weather being chilly, "Uh, Hey." I felt awkward with him, even though we had sex just last night. Must be the guilt.

"I knew I would catch you walking to work, you're that type of girl." He pulled me in to grab my hand like he did yesterday. I took my hand back. "You Okay?"

"Ryan...I have to get to work." I ran towards work which was already a minute away. Phew, aborted that crisis. I opened the convenience store and picked up the shipment that was stored in the storage room in the back.

DING. I looked over and saw that Ryan walked in confused. Gosh. That man was looking so good this morning, I hadn't even noticed the casual clothes he had on. His muscles were ripped through the red shirt he was wearing and I blushed my head down to make sure he wasn't looking at me directly.
"Did I do something wrong?" He came towards the front of the desk to ask me the question.

"You're not my boyfriend!" I shouted as a customer walked in before hearing the most embarrassing and stupid thing I could've said all day.

"Scarlet, so good to see you!" Mr. Erickson came over to the front desk and hand-shaked me, "Where do you have the pasta stuff?"

"Aisle 6." I smiled back.
"Oh, who's this young man? New in town mister?" He hand-shaked Ryan's hand and started introducing himself. They kept on talking even into the aisle that apparently Ryan had already memorized by now after just one day.
Whatever. I started stocking up stuff and putting returned items away.

"Oh so you were in 'Nam?" Pssht, so they were comparing war stories and what not. Wait, Ryan was in the war?
"Scarlet, have you met this Ryan fellow, he seems like a good fit for our town, don't you think?" I agreed with Mr. Erickson whom I checked out his items. "Nice to meet you Ryan."
"Likewise Alfred." I glared at him as if I knew he wasn't doing all of this socializing on purpose. Mr. Erickson walked out of the store and Ryan came back around the counter.
He didn't let me take a breath before placing a huge kiss on my lips and letting his tongue swirl around with mine. "Ryan" I pushed him back so nobody would see, even though it was always slow around here.

"I want you to know that I don't give a fuck if you have a boyfriend, I'm not letting you out of my sight Scarlet." Woah . Ryan made me feel so secure and fragile, but wonderful all at the same time. He placed another soft kiss on my lips and I smiled back at him.