Chapter Seven Vincent

I don't know why I'd gotten my hopes up for my meeting with River. It was a na?ve and foolish thing to do. To think that the first man who moseyed into town looking for a piece of ass was going to fall in love with me was fucking stupid. Of course I knew that wasn't going to happen, so why the hell did I let myself get excited?

Idiot.

I spent most of the night not sleeping as I tried to forget about River. Then, when I finally did fall asleep, it felt like my alarm went off less than a minute later. So, when I got up to head to the coffee shop to complete my morning ritual, I was not only exhausted, but grumpy as fuck. And that's not how I wanted to start my day.

As I stepped into Amarok Cafe, I saw Andy raise his hand to greet me, some form of verbal abuse pulling at his lips. But, before he could get the words out, he stopped. Instead, he traded his insults for something worse.

"You look like shit," he breathed as I stepped up to the counter. "More so than usual."

I growled at him. "Remind me why I'm friends with you again?"

"Because I give you free coffee and donuts every morning? "

"So not only are you annoying, but you're making me fat too."

He smiled, but gave me a serious once over. "For real though, you okay?"

"I'm just tired," I replied, trying to dismiss his concern. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about it.

"You're a bad liar," he replied, dragging me around the backside of the counter. He called out to his barista, a younger girl who'd just started there a few weeks ago. "Can you handle things for a bit? I need to help my friend."

She lifted an eyebrow, but didn't comment on how sexual that sounded. "No problem. Take your time. I got this."

"Thanks."

Andy dragged me through the swinging kitchen door and over to the other side of the bakery where his office was. He plopped me down in the chair across from his desk.

"Shit," he muttered. "I forgot your coffee. Just a second."

"Andy, I don't want to–"

But he was already gone. He was a good friend, don't get me wrong, but the man had zero patience. If there was a problem, it had to be fixed right now. Waiting was not an option, even if that meant making people very uncomfortable. And people, in this case, was me.

He returned a moment later, placing a cup and a fritter in front of me. Taking a seat at his desk he laced his fingers behind his head and said, "Alright. Spill it."

"Andy… I don't want to talk about it…"

"Come on. I don't like seeing you look like this. It's not natural. Whatever it is, just get it off your chest and be done with it. You'll at least feel a little better."

"Are you my therapist now or something?"

"Considering I just bribed you with a donut to talk to me, I'd say no. But if you wanna put a twenty in the tip jar on the way out, that's fine too."

I grumbled, shaking my head.

"Vince," he said, leaning forward. "Seriously though… Ar e you okay?"

I sighed. I hated it when he did that. "Yes," I groaned. "I'll fucking live. It's not like this hasn't happened before."

Andy lifted an eyebrow. "Care to explain?"

Another sigh. There was no getting out of this. "You know that guy I told you about? The surfer?"

"The one you didn't think was gonna come back?"

"Yeah."

"He came back I take it?"

"Uh-huh."

"And it… didn't go well?"

"It didn't go anywhere."

Andy sat there for a long moment. "Well?" he shrugged. "Tell me what's up."

"Fine. But I'm only gonna give you the short version."

"Just don't leave out the juicy bits."

"Don't worry. There aren't any." I took a sip of my coffee and grabbed the fritter. "So that guy came to the pizza shop yesterday and basically asked me to go on a date with him after work. I had him meet me at the beach. I brought the food, you know, just trying to be Midwestern and hospitable."

"Right."

"Well, we're doing pretty good. He's laying it on real thick and of course, I'm lapping it up because I'm so fucking pathetic." Andy made a sound of disbelief through his nose, but I ignored him. "Then, when I tell him I was surprised he asked me out on a date, he got all quiet."

"Uh-oh."

"Right?" I ripped a piece of my fritter off with my teeth, chewing and gesticulating wildly. "Then he tells me that he's not into dates and that he has to leave at the end of the month."

"Which you already knew."

"Yeah, but get this," I said, leaning forward. "Then he tells me that after he leaves here, he can never see me, speak to me, or even text me again. And he says that he'll never come back under any circumstances. Now what does that say to you?"

"That he just wants a piece of ass?"

" Exactly !" I waved the donut again, driving my point home. "He couldn't just say that from the beginning? Instead, he's calling me all these cute pet names and buttering me up with all this romantic shit just so he can fuck me?! I don't think so!" I took another bite, crumbs flying. "Like just be fucking honest with me, dude! What the fuck?"

"It does sound a bit bait and switchy," Andy nodded. "Asking you out like that feels like he set some false expectations."

"Right?!"

"But," Andy said, glancing my direction. "Can you honestly say you're not interested now?"

I looked up at him, my mouth full of fritter and my brows furrowed.

"Just hear me out," he replied, holding his hands up. "There's a hot guy that's interested in you. And an Alpha. You know the dick is gonna be good and there's absolutely no strings attached. Obviously you like the attention from him or else you wouldn't have given him the time of day. So there's definitely chemistry there."

"Yeah?" I muttered, swallowing hard. "What's your point?"

"My point is that you have an opportunity here."

"To get my heart broken?"

"To get fucked!" Andy seemed a bit more excited about the prospect of that than I expected. "When was the last time you got laid?"

"I don't see what that has to do with–"

"Exactly," he interrupted. "It's been forever ."

"Fine," I sighed. "It's been a while. And?"

" And this is your chance to get some long-term, no strings attached, Alpha cock. You know that guy is packing a damn hog in those shorts. When's the next time you're gonna get to do something like this?"

"But… what if…"

"What if what?" Andy scoffed. "You're a male werewolf. You're not gonna get pregnant or and STI. What could you possibly have to lose by doing this?"

"I don't know if I'm interested in casual sex…" Of course, that was a lie. If River was involved, I was super down with casual sex. I'd wanted to fuck him from the moment I saw him. "This feels… weird."

"Look, I'm not saying you have to do it," Andy replied, leaning back in his chair. "I'm just saying think about it. You and I both know that guys like him don't come through town very often. If I were you, I'd ride what I could while the getting was good. Because you don't know when you're going to get the chance again. And I'm sure I speak for both of us when I say that downloading apps for hookups is a fucking nightmare. At least this way you know what you're getting, for how long, and when the expiration date comes, you can go back to things just the way they were. At least you'll have the memories."

I stared at Andy for a long moment, the fritter's glaze slowly melting down my fingertips.

"And," he added. "If you decide you don't want him, send him over to me, huh?"

My brows dropped as I glared at Andy. "Really? That's your advice?"

"Yep. I'm not ashamed of it either."

"I mean… I guess you sort of make a point."

"Yeah. I made a few of them. So what are you going to do?"

"I don't fucking know," I huffed, taking another bite of the donut. "I'm still working it out!"

"Well, don't waste all damn summer figuring it out," he said, pushing himself up from the desk. "The clock is ticking."

Andy walked out of the office. Pans rattled in the bakery as he got to work, leaving me to finish my coffee and sit alone with my thoughts.

I mean, he had a point. I couldn't deny that. River was gonna leave whether I liked it or not. And while I wasn't happy that he hadn't been totally up front with me, I realized that part of the misunderstanding was my own. I'd placed my own expectations on him, assuming that we were on a date and not just some sort of casual outing.

But did I want to fuck River? That was a resounding yes. But could I keep my emotions out of it? That I wasn't so sure of. Getting that intimate with someone took a level of trust that seemed far beyond the reaches of a casual acquaintance. However, maybe that was the key. I didn't need to trust him like I would a lover or a boyfriend, I could merely trust in our mutual need for release. He wanted to get his dick wet and I wanted to get fucked. It was simple.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and opened the texting app. Flipping into the deleted section, I scrolled down until I found River's messages from the night before. Before I could think about it too much, I started to type.

Me: I thought about what you said and I want to talk.

I paused, then held the backspace key down until the message was gone. It was too personal. My emotions didn't need to be explained and I'm sure he didn't care what they were, anyway. Instead, I started to type a new message.

Me: When can we meet up?