His second chance at a happy life

shopping

"Sammy, Sam!" Ellie stood in front of her brother's car and waved me over from the parking spot across the street from the alley entrance. My morning shift at the bookstore was over, and it was time for the mall. I wanted to do something else instead of being in a crowded place. There were more eyes watching in public. The cold air coming from the ghost that stood in front of the window watched me as I made my way to the car.

"Just ignore them, I do." She whispers, glancing at the black blob. She had an easier time dealing with the ghost thanks to her having siblings that saw them too. When I first saw them, I was living on the streets by myself. The thought that I was going crazy like my mother scared me every day until Gigi told me about our family's ability to see through death vale. I sigh and go to open the back door when a hand gets to the latch before I could. I followed the arm to make eye contact with Trevor. I take a deep breath and inhale his spicy oak scent. He grins at me then ushers me into the car. Ellie was hopping in the front, so Trevor came to sit next to me at the back. His long legs bumped into mine as we rode. Ellie talked and sang the whole time while Trevor stared at me with a look that made me puddle where I sat. 'I rather deal with spirits right about now.'. As if on que whole waiting for the red light to change, I shuddered slightly as the cold grew the closer a spirit got to the car.

I heard Trevor sigh. I turned away from the ghostly being walking around the car and watched as he made this little movement with his hand in the air as if he was a conductor of his own little band, but instead of music I felt the regular summer heat coming back. I let out a small breath I didn’t know I held. I looked over him, eyeing him up and down. He is as gorgeous as ever; his clean dark brown hair shinning in the natural light is pushed back from his face. I was caught off guard as he looked back at me. A jolt hits my heart and sends a wave of tingles through my whole body. He smiled. I watched as his eyes shined, the surrounding air turned a slight purple. I blinked a few times and the car jerked forward as we moved again, leaving no trace of the dead behind for the time being. His gaze softened and the way he stared made me squirm in my seat. I wanted to look away, but I was memorized by his green fixated stare. It was like I had been hit with an intense heat, and it was pulling me to him. He pats my head,

“Your hair was sticking out,” he says with a smile, his hand creasing over the frizzy mess caused by the nasty heat I took him in even more. He was wearing a plain black shirt, under his biker jacket. His gaze doesn't leave mine even after he moves his hand back until we're both pulled towards the driver who was turning almost chokes in the air.

"What!!! What!" I didn't know what the conversation was, but whatever Ellie said almost shocked him into an accident.

"You two have been dating for how long?" She asked as I glanced over to the driver and his short passenger.

"Five years," he mumbles.

"Five years, mi Hermano, Cinco anos! Grow some balls and ask us both know she'll say yes, she's ready, you're ready, come on!" He sighs. The tips of his ears go red as he mumbles.

"Your right." Then he smiles to himself almost, "Gracias bruja." She just laughs and patts his shoulder.

"Come on, let's go." She hops out of Emilio's truck.

"Are you guys going to look at the rings with me?" He asks parking, and he gets out from behind the wheel. She laughs.

"Sales first!" She cheers happily. I rolled my eyes. Ellie and I head to the women's part of the store, and they head to the opening to the rest of the mall, to a jewelry shop, I assume. She heads to the sales area and starts shifting through the shirts.

"Sooo, how long have you been in loveeee with Trevor?" She asks, not looking at me but a smile plaster on her face. I gasp, a slight blush rushes over my cheeks from embarrassment,

"I don't know what you mean." I smile as she gives me the f*ck you look. "Not doing it." I shake my head, admitting but not going to go into it.

"Come on, you haven't dated anyone since Derrick in college. It's been years, girl!" I roll my eyes, not wanting to talk about Derrick. "Don't try to ignore it." She huffs, tossing me a shirt. When I don't answer, she just stares at me. "Is this because of what happened to Derrick? Sammy, I know he isn't anything like that a*shole Trevor is sweet, flirty, but sweet. He is smart, exciting, caring, charming, and has a motorcycle. How much hotter can he get for you?" I snorted.

“That’s the thing he is flirting with me because he is bored, he doesn’t like me like I like him. Plus, I can't get over how suddenly flirtatious he is. No one has ever been interested in me like that since Derrick and that didn't end well.” She laughs.

"I’ve known him for a very long time, and I can tell you, he is a great guy. He's nothing like Derrick. I truly think he likes you. If you need proof, go talk to him. I just want you to have happiness. So, try living your life a little and don't let these things bother you too much. Isn't that why you went and got your own place, right? And how long has it been since you've been on your own? Five or six years, things aren't perfect, but it's getting better, you are stronger than you think." I nodded. "You should try and trust someone."

"I trust you." I meek out, taking a shirt from her hands and putting it back. "No, no way in hell. Do you not want me to trust you anymore for Christ's sakes?" She grins at me, suppressing a laugh. There was nothing to the shirt but a thin cloth holding it up. I could see right through it. I shake my head

"Other than me, you need some love in your life. You know, good old-fashioned bang, bang dang, f*ck me holy damned love.” I laughed,

“F*ck off Ellie, you know how I am. Trevor might not be like Derrick, but he is not the type I’m looking for. No matter how hot he is, looks mean nothing when you are a hoe bag.” She shakes her head,

“Don’t you think it would be different if he was with you.” I looked at her moving to another rack,

“Honestly no, why would he? He only wants s*x with those he dates.” I made finger quotation marks in the air, “Plus, I am not the type he goes for, I’m fine with being friends.” That way I wouldn't lose him and wouldn’t get hurt.

“Your thirty and you've never even had a real relationship since high school. I really think Trevor loves you too and has for some now."

"I tried a few times in college and those didn't go well either." I mutter, she laughs and shook her head,

"You went on dates, but you didn't date any of them. Not seriously." She looks at the pile of clothes in my hands, "Let's go have you try these on. I'll find some more cute jeans or something to go with them after you find which you like." I nodded and headed to the dressing room. I tried the first one on. After ruling it out, I started to take it off, but a knock came at the door. I quickly pulled on the next shirt without really looking at it, just knowing it was black.

"I've only looked at two shirts dang, can you..." My voice stops as I open the door to see Trevor, "I thought you were.... Never mind." I started to explain myself but stopped rambling like an i***t before I started. "What do you want?" I asked after clearing my throat. He doesn't answer, kind of just staring at me or more like my shirt? I looked down, and it was a lace shirt that needed a serious undertop, meaning a full front view of me and my pink-red lace on white bra. Quickly turning around and semi-closing the door behind me, I hear him clear his throat, but when he speaks it comes out more of a growl.

"I like the bra." I gasp, and I heard him laugh a little before saying, "Emilio is freaking out, so Ellie is calming him down and told me to come get you."

"Let me get changed. I'll be right there."

Ugh, I can't believe that happened. Fuckk, why me? f*****g Ellie! Always pick the craziest sh*t out... I hear a knock pulling me back from my own rambling thoughts.

"Samantha?" He pauses, "Are you dressed?" I jumped a little at his voice. It was deep and luring.

"Umm, yeah." I mumbled out, reaching out to unlock the door. He was waiting for me and once I placed the clothes on the rack, he held his hand out hesitantly. I took it, and he rested it in the crook of his arm and led me out of the store. His closeness makes my mind a bit hazy. How can a man be so beautiful and yet intimidating? His smile widened as his hand traveled down my arm ever so lightly, setting my skin on fire where he touched it. He stares at me for a second, trying to look over my face, then smiles and turns to my side.

“Well, what do we have here?” Ellie asked, crossing her arms with a grin when she spotted us coming out of the store. I flush a bit but don’t comment. Emilio, however, is sitting head in hands on one of the many chairs scattered around the mall. My brows come together questioningly at her as she smiles at us.

"Shall we go to the food court?" She asked, smirking at us.

"So, what's wrong with Emilio?" I asked as we walked, ignoring her looks and trying to remove my hand from Trevor. He lets it go with a small pouting look. I almost laughed out loud.

"He doesn't know her ring size, so he is freaking out." She laughs. I shook my head at her,

"You are loving that? Aren't you?" She smiles at me wickedly with a shrug. She knows Avila, Emilio’s girlfriend's ring size. They have talked about engagement rings for weeks.

"Whatever, what are we eating?" She says, looking at all the food places.

"I want...." I hmmm as I scanned over the food.

"Chinese food." Trevor hums, resting his head on my shoulder. I roll my eyes and shrug him off, but he puts it back from the corner of my eye. I see him smile. I almost smiled back but kept it hidden. "You love Chinese food, right?" This time the smile showed,

"I think I'll buy some pizza." I moved forward to the pizza stand. I hear him laugh, Ellie and I walk away, deciding to share a medium-sized half-and-half. We get our food then look around to find a table. We start chowing down moments later. The guys show up, one with Chinese food and the other with a sub. Trevor is the one with Chinese food. I can smell the delicious Generals Tso Chicken, stir-fried rice, egg rolls and crab Rangoon's. I took a bite of my cheesy, veggie, meaty pizza slice, trying to focus on that, but the Rangoon kind of called me and I ended up taking one from his container.

"I thought you wanted pizza?" Trevor laughed as I placed it on my plate.

"What? You buy five of them, you don't eat five, you only eat three because it's too "creamy" for you. Hmm, which means I got two." I smiled and took the other one. He laughs again, picking up his fork,

"You two are something special," Ellie's eyes between the two of us grinned. I just rolled my eyes and ate the rest of my pizza slice. After eating, we headed to the jeweler to look at the rings again one last time,

“Okay, it’s been an hour. Ellie stops being so mean!” I elbow her as we watch Emilio have a mini panic attack in the shop. Trevor is trying his best to help to no avail. She laughed with a sigh. “He’s your older brother.” I hissed. We were standing by the entrance whispering to make sure he couldn't hear me.

“Fine.” She huffs, then set off to help her brother. I shake my head,

“Angel blood my ass.” I muttered as she looked back at me with a smirk that was less than sweet.

“Mi harmono, her ring size is a 5. And this,” she scrolls through her messages with Avila, “this is her favorite style.” She holds up the phone. Both Emilio and the jeweler glanced at it. He gasped, pulling her into a big hug.

“Wait, when did you learn that?” He moved away, eyeing her with suspicion.

“While you were panicking, I messaged her.” She shrugged with her wicked smile again. I rolled my eyes, ‘Yeah, weeks ago.’ I shook my head, moving to browse around the shop as Emilio really started to get into the shopping. As I wander, a necklace catches my eye, it is a short gold chain with a single diamond dangling from it.

“That is a beautiful piece, elegant.” Trevor's voice was suddenly in my left ear. I turned my head and was eye to eye with him. He was so close. I didn’t even hear him walk my way. I quickly looked back at the necklace. His breath tickles my neck as he speaks again, “It would look good on you.” I laugh, then he rests his chin on my shoulder, leaning on me slightly, his heat radiating from him.

What is he an oven. To regain my focus, I shrugged him off and muttered,

“Yeah, right, but it is lovely.” He doesn’t move, and it is intoxicating being so close to him. I groan internally.

“If you want, I can...”

“No.” I cut him off before he could even finish. I looked over to see Emilio and Ellie looking at the rings set on the counter. Trevor moves from behind me and, to my side, I steal a glimpse in his direction from the corner of my eye, he is grinning with a warmth in his eyes.

“What?” I asked, not looking at him, perplexed by his stare.

“Nothing, you're just cute.” I looked at him, shocked by how easily he said those words, cheeks flushed red; his grin turned into a smile. I look away feeling a little frustrated by how easily he is getting to me.

“Could you not,” I muttered. I shuffle over to another case, not really looking at anything. I glanced up at the sound of shuffling next to me. I moved my eyes to Ellie the second I saw Trevor moving as well, hoping I could get her attention. To no luck, she is engrossed with a male jeweler probably talking about the style of the ring, but she has an annoyed look on her face. I started to move towards her when Trevor took hold of my wrist gently,

“They’re fine, she is just talking about football.” He laughs, shaking his head. I look back at Ellie when she gets a bit noisy saying something about her favorite team but lowers her voice the second, she notices she is getting loud. I smile, she can always talk to anyone about football to those who will listen and always get passionate about it. I go to another case, staying away from that conversation. I can never keep up, nor do I care too much about football to begin with. It was never my cup of tea.

“I’ll just look over here then.” I chuckle, continuing to walk along the cases slowly, “Her rants are always too intense.” As I walk, I can still feel his warmth seep through my hand and up my arm. I try to slightly remove my hand, but his grip tightens a tad, holding mine in place.

“So...” He started making circular motions on the back of my hand as he spoke. That little of a gestor can be so harmless from anyone, but as he slowly moved his thumb over my knuckles, I felt like I was melting, wishing his hands could touch more of me. Feeling embarrassed at my thoughts, I pulled away. This time he let it go without a fuss. I sighed internally, then steal a peek at him; he was smiling at me.

If I had done that to Derrick. She thought absently. He would have either held on with a very tight grip with a glare at me, then when we were alone, he would defiantly yell at me, telling me how ungrateful I was being, ending with a smack across the face.’ I winched at the thought Trevor sees the small movement and his face changes he looked worried; I turn so he can’t see my face.

“Samantha.” Her name came out softly off his lips.

“Hmm?” I hummed in the tender way he said my name had my body tingling; a shiver of pleasure runs down my spine. He is still close, and his heat is coming off him in waves, my stomach flips and my mouth goes dry. I lick my lips.

“Would you like to go walk around just the two of us?” I looked at him, his lips curved into a smile. It was a small, inviting look that had my brain only thinking of him. “Come on.” He placed one hand on my waist, gently ushering me out to the entrance. A look back at Ellie, slightly panicked, she turned in our direction as we started to leave but, instead of what I was hoping, I got what I expected from her, a smile with a wave, and she mouthed ‘GO!’ Then turned back to her brother.

“So where are we going?” I asked, looking down at where his hand still rests. We didn’t pause in our step as he answered,

“Not a clue.” He looks around, “Where should we go?” He mutters to himself with a hmm. “That looks promising.” He grins, setting course for one of the places to our right. In a swift motion, his large, calloused hands move from my hip to my hand holding it lightly. I looked down amazed at how it practically engulfed my hand. Tearing my gaze away, I spotted the place we were heading.

“The bookstore?” I asked. Looking at me, he nodded.

“They have the best drinks; coffee, tea, smoothies, plus their pastries are amazing.” His face glows, giving him a child-like feature. His grin is so infectious that I feel my lips curve into a grin to smile back. We walked through the bookstore to the small, almost invisible café in the back where we ordered.

“This green tea really is good,” I said, setting my cup down after my first sip.

“I told you so,” he responds, resting his cup on the table, then leaning back in his seat. We are in the back next to the window of the shop further into the bookstore. “Try the cookie,” he says, gesturing with his hand to the giant ass chocolate chip cookie; It covered my entire plate. I tear a piece of it and pop it in my mouth. Eyes widen,

“Oh, my goodness, it just melted in my mouth.” I practically moaned, taking another bite.

“Maybe I should have bought two.” He laughed, taking a drink of his black chai tea. I laugh,

“There is no way I can eat this entire monster. Why would you get two? In fact, you should help me eat this, here.” I held out a piece. He reaches out and, instead of taking the cookie, he takes hold of my wrist and inches it closer to his mouth. His lips brush the tips of my finger, and my heart jumps out of my chest. My eyes locked on to his mouth over my fingers, he slipped his tongue between them to move the piece into his mouth, causing my legs to go weak, and I heard myself suck in a low, soft breath, as he suckled the small amount of chocolate off my thumb. The sensation was instant, as if a shock of electricity was shooting up my arm and making its way to making a wet mess between my legs. I quickly pulled my hand away. Our interaction was mere seconds, but it felt like hours under his touch time froze. I took my hand into the other one and hid it under the table, shifting in my seat. I inhale some of the cookie-scented air. My heartbeat racing a mile a minute, I let a steady breath out, reaching for my tea, gripping the handle to gather myself back together. I pushed the plate into the middle of the table, cursing myself for not doing that from the start.

“What? I like you feeding me.” He chuckles, making me flush a brighter red,

“I wasn’t trying to, I was merely sharing, you know, sharing is, caring about all that jazz.” I rolled my eyes.

"Well, thank you for sharing." He was staring at me with a starry look in his eye that did not match his intimating demeanor. “You are really an amazing woman.” He says, resting his head on his fist.

“Mmm-hmm, just like you found all your girlfriends amazing.” I muttered before sipping my tea. “How many have you had this week?” I hummed looking over my cup. I don’t know why I feel like bringing this up now. It just came out. I sigh, then silently curse Ellie for her spectacular friendship that has me thinking like this and apparently saying them to his face. I set my tea down, wanting to run away.

“Hm, what’s this? Jealous?” I rolled my eyes,

“Why would I be jealous? You are just a friend, more so Emilio’s friend.” I sipped some more tea.

“But I want to be more.” He stretches his hands out to mine midway to set my cup down. Once the cup was down, he took both of mine in his and gently brought them to his lips, brushing them softly along my knuckles. My heart jumps. I slid them out of his grasp,

“No, you’re just bored.” I stood abruptly from my seat banging a knee on the table, spilling the rest of my drink. I stare down at the liquid flowing down the table. I sigh, reaching for a napkin from the container they have on every table. My hand collides with his as he also reaches for it.

“Why would you think that? Is that how you see me?” He was cleaning the mess before I could even start. I nod as he motions for me to have a seat again as he tossed the dirty napkins in the trash. I didn’t speak again until he sat down,

"I know you're not a bad person, Trevor. However, I am not looking for a one night nor am I looking for anything casual. There are many females around you. I am sure one of them will be able to fill your fancy when you are bored, but I know where this will go, and I will not be one of those women." My voice goes low, and I hold his stare. The few memories I have of my mother surfaced and I shudder. They are cold memories I do not want to revisit; his look softens as if he was reading my mind. Her track record with men was not something I was going to follow. Derek might have been my only boyfriend, but he was a clown and after a few months his real nature showed.