10. Rhys

CHAPTER TEN

Rhys

I fucking hate him.

As I grumble my way through work, getting ready to open the bar, all I can think of is Everest and the way he gets under my skin.

It’s been a few days since the whole headbutting incident, but I’m still stewing over it. My nose remains swollen, an ugly bruise forming on the bridge where the majority of the impact was. People at work have asked me about it, earning them a sharp look and a growl.

I’m not this guy. I’m reasonable, even-tempered, and calm. I’m not volatile and I’m certainly not violent. But of course, Everest is the one who brings it out of me. He makes my blood boil and bubble. Every single explosive urge I didn’t know I had comes out around him. He drives me crazy by invading everything. My life, my apartment, my mind. I’m slowly losing it because of Everest fucking Hill.

I curse him in my mind, slamming a glass on the bar top with way too much force. As he’s walking by, Butch raises a questioning eyebrow at me. When I shake my head in response, he simply shrugs and goes along his way.

Skylar and Britt, however, don’t have the same common courtesy.

“You finally going to tell us about that shiner you got there?” Britt asks, throwing me a look as she starts helping me set up.

“No,” I snap, then gently shoulder my way past her to get some more bottles of vodka.

Skylar scoffs and hops onto the bar, legs swinging as he props his chin in his hand. “Oh, come on . Cass and I got to taking bets?—”

Cass walks by. “I didn’t participate.”

“And I bet on you getting it on with a daddy dom.” He winks at me. “All consensual, of course.”

Shaking my head, I snort. “You know I’m straight.”

He rolls his eyes. “They always are.”

Britt shoots him an incredulous look before turning to me. “Believe it or not, I’m actually concerned.” She leans in to where Skylar can’t hear her. “You’re not in any sort of trouble, are you?”

I sigh, knowing they’re not going to let up. “No. Nothing like that.”

“Then who did it?” Cassius asks as he rejoins us, stepping between Skylar’s legs.

I wait a beat but then decide to fuck it. “Everest.”

“Woah.”

“Seriously?”

“Not the baby!”

Again, we all turn to look at Skylar, chuckling at his theatrics. Cassius shakes his head in humor, leaning in to nip at Skylar’s neck in a manner that’s way too intimate for someone who has a boyfriend.

“Rhys.” Britt snaps my attention away from Skylar and Cassius. “Are you going to elaborate?”

“He…” I trail off. I’m not one to go broadcasting my shit, not like Skylar and Britt. While I hate Everest with a burning passion, no one needs to know that but him and me. “We got into it and things got out of hand.”

Skylar wags his eyebrows. “In a sexy way?”

“No,” I deadpan. “Like in a I-fucked-around-and-found-out kind of way.”

“And you think that was smart?” Britt presses. “He’s Elton’s brother, right?”

“Yeah, he is, and no, it probably wasn’t, but the situation called for it.”

“You want to fuck him.”

Once again, all our heads whip toward Skylar. “Excuse me?” I ask, eyes wide as my jaw drops in shock.

“It’s so obvious that there’s all this hot, sticky tension between you two,” he explains. “Maybe what you really want is to just tear each other's clothes off and go at it like horny animals.”

I scoff because I have no idea where Skylar got that from. It must be wishful thinking on his part—the forever matchmaker—that thinks I’m going to find my happily ever after in a forbidden romance. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so stupid. “Doubtful.”

“You’re reaching, Skylar,” Britt teases, which causes him to frown.

“Nobody ever takes me seriously,” he whines, shrinking into Cassius’s waiting arms.

Cassius scoffs gently and runs his hands up and down Skylar’s back. “Come on, sunshine. Help me pick out my set for tonight.”

When Skylar nods, Cassius helps him off the bar top, grabbing his hand as they walk toward the stage. I watch them walk away, furrowing my brow. “Do you ever wonder why they’re not together?—”

“You’re not changing the subject, Rhys,” Britt says. Shaking her head, she hands me some fruit to chop alongside her. “What’s really going on with you two?”

I don’t have many friends apart from Elton, but you could say that Britt is the closest thing to one. Skylar is great too, but he can’t keep a secret to save his life. Britt, on the other hand, understands the concept of staying quiet.

I take a deep breath, trying to sift through all the complicated and intense emotions I hold for that guy. I know she won’t let up until she gets something , so I give her a bread crumb. “We have…history. He did something in the past that affected me but left him free and clear.”

She nods pensively. “And does that have anything to do with why you’re here and not graduating college?”

I freeze with the knife halfway through a strawberry. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t give me that shit,” she chastises, rolling her deep brown eyes as she hip checks me. “You’re, like, the smartest guy I know. You could be off curing cancer, but instead you’re here.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being here,” I say through gritted teeth, feeling defensive.

“Of course, not. But…I don’t know, you could be doing something different,” she insists. “Is Everest the reason you’re not?”

I don’t answer her because I don’t think I have it in me. I could go into all the gory details of the night my life officially went off the rails, but I don’t care to revisit it. Instead, I continue to cut fruit silently, knowing that all the while Britt still has her eyes firmly trained on me. After a few minutes, it gets to be too much, and I sigh. “Maybe.”

She hums thoughtfully. “Right. Look, I don’t know what happened, but things are different now, right? If this really is history, enough time has passed that you don’t have to be a complete asshole to him.”

I raise an eyebrow. “And how would you know I’ve been an asshole?”

“Have you not?” Cocking her head at me, she smiles.

Touché.

“Maybe you could just try?” she suggests, and I gawk. There’s no way she fully knows what she’s asking. She must read my expression because she snorts. “Come on. You can try to be nice.”

After the things I’ve said? After the things we screamed at each other in the heat of the moment? I don’t think so. But maybe, just maybe , Britt has a point. Ugh, I hate to think that it’s true, but I could at least try being cordial, for fuck’s sake. I’m twenty-three years old. I’m the adult here, right?

And Everest, even when he was cursing and headbutting me, really did seem like he wanted to make amends. What kind of person would I be if I didn’t give him a chance? I’d be just as bad as he is.

“I guess,” I grumble under my breath, sounding more like a child than anything else.

With another kind smile, she pats my arm before turning back to her task. “Good. Maybe you could even bring him around for one of our hangouts? You know, since it might be the only time we can convince you to come out.”

I snort. “Yeah, just try.”

“Fine,” she concedes, huffing as she hands me a plate of cut limes. “Put these in the tray and finish getting everything ready. I’m going to check in with Davis.”

With Britt gone, I have time to think as I mindlessly continue cutting up garnishes. Fuck, changing my entire dynamic with Everest is going to be tough as shit. I’d like to think I’m a good man, but I’d have to be the better one to put everything aside to try to be… friends with him.

Once again, questions I’ve ignored start to arise. Is he really a bad guy? Have I even gotten to know him the way Elton hoped I would? Are all the memories I have of him as a sweet, shy kid completely false? It could be that I haven’t given him the chance, and maybe I should.

Suddenly, my brain calls back the last time we spoke, that violent interaction where he practically broke my nose. I had lost my shit, getting all over him, invading his space, just to prove a point. And what I’ve been really trying to forget was his reaction to it.

He got hard.

So unbearably hard that I almost felt bad for him. I can still vividly remember his flushed face, the way his pupils dilated, the breathy little huffs he let out as I pressed against him. At the moment, I was just shocked. I didn’t know what to say or what to do, so I just ignored it. But something stirred inside me at the sight of him like that, completely at my mercy, his body obviously begging for something he didn’t know. It was almost like…

I shake my head, banishing all thoughts of Everest and his firm, warm body underneath mine and cut the mangos, slicing them perfectly, giving all my focus to making sure my lines are clean and precise.

Because if not, I’m afraid of what I might find in my own head.