Helena Hunting: Cracks in the Armor

“Nice pussy wrap,” I called after him.

He flipped me off. It was a classic evasive Hayden maneuver. He’d never win at poker because he always gave away his hand. He had tells, things he did that made it clear how he was feeling. He was pretty good at letting me know when he was pissed.

But things had changed. Hayden wasn’t nearly as explosive. Not since Tee had come back from Arden Hills. The recent shitstorm surrounding the trial over his parents’ murders had been difficult, but otherwise Hayden was less anal, more relaxed. Except right now. At this very moment he was antsy. I had a feeling there was more to his dodging the question than just letting Tee set up the electronics.

“What do you think that’s about?” I asked Jamie when Hayden was safely out of hearing.

He shrugged. “No clue.”

I didn’t have any experience with solid relationships. I was currently dating a girl who waitressed at a strip club. While she didn’t get naked on a nightly basis, there was a chance it would go that way.

It was either that, or she would quit. Again. Maybe this time for good. The alternative wasn’t something I wanted to consider. I couldn’t stay in another relationship where I had to worry about whether the girl was going to bang some dirtbag for an extra couple hundred bucks a night. Sarah wasn’t anything like Candy had been, but things could change. And I didn’t want that to happen. I liked Sarah a lot, enough that I didn’t want to be with anyone else. Candy had been the only other person I’d tried that route with, and it hadn’t worked out that well in the end.

I pushed the worries aside and moved the entertainment system away from the wall so I could get at everything. Hayden returned with more beers and grumbled about the mess. His anxiety over what was behind the TV console was obvious. It was fun to watch him get all flustered over something that wouldn’t bother most people.

“Seriously, you look like you’re going to shit a brick right now. What’s the deal? Why let her do this when you know it makes you crazy?” I asked.

“Look, man, she said she wanted to do it, and who am I to tell her she can’t? She set it up in her own place, so I figured she had to know what was going on. Obviously, I was wrong. Besides, it was that or I let her unpack the kitchen, and that sure as hell wasn’t an option.”

Jamie looked up from the magazine he was leafing through and snorted.

Hayden rolled his eyes and pointed a finger at Jamie. “Don’t even pretend you don’t cave for Lisa all the time.” He turned back to me. “If it meant the difference between getting action or not, wouldn’t you let Sarah hook up your TV?”

I blinked and thought about it for half a second before I replied, “No, H, that would never happen. Sarah knows better than to mess with my TV. I’d also like to point out that if you’d asked me to set it up when you first moved in, I wouldn’t have to undo all this crap.”

“Just fix it, please.”

He sat down and nursed his beer, as if it made it less obvious that he’d traded in his man card for a pussy. The fact that TK was still wrapped around his neck was more proof of that.

Forty minutes later, the cord extravaganza had been removed and everything rerigged so Hayden could control not only the entertainment system but his entire alarm system from his laptop and his phone.

Hayden was the most neurotic person I’d ever met when it came to personal security. He’d moved from a condo in a building with twenty-four-hour surveillance to a house with a pass code and retina display. It wasn’t surprising, considering the scene he’d walked in on when his parents were shot to death in his childhood home.

He hovered around while I finished checking things over to make sure everything worked properly. As soon as I moved out of the way, he started with the rearranging. I didn’t take it personally. It was just his way. To help, I’d bundled together the few cords I couldn’t get rid of so they could easily be hidden.

His compulsive organization was less of an issue than it used to be, though. I had my doubts that part of his personality would ever disappear. We all dealt in different ways. Organization and Tee were Hayden’s, and not necessarily in that order.

I had my own way of managing the unpleasant parts of my life, mostly by avoiding them. My stepdad had made that simple when he gave me the boot for flunking out of high school. My mom was too scared to do anything but take his side. I couldn’t blame her. I had a little sister, and my mom didn’t want me to be a bad influence on her. My mom hadn’t made the best choices, either. Her high school education had been cut short by my unexpected arrival. Now she worked as a cashier at two convenience stores. And all the paychecks went to take care of my stepdad’s habits.

Hayden’s phone rang and he paused in his quest to make sure everything was aligned.

“Hey, kitten, how’s it going?” During a stretch of silence, Hayden’s eyebrows climbed his forehead. “Yeah?” Then they went low and a devious smile appeared. He turned his back to me and Jamie. Lowering his voice, he crossed the room and disappeared into the kitchen.

I took a seat on the couch. “Not hard to guess what that’s about.”

“Good to know moving in together hasn’t slowed them down,” Jamie said.

I dug into my pocket and pulled out my phone to check for any missed messages. I was hoping Sarah might want to come over after her shift, even if it was late. She hadn’t gotten back to me, though. I tossed the phone on the coffee table and got to work on Hayden’s satellite connection.

He came back a few minutes later and Jamie asked, “The girls on their way?”

“Not yet; they’re going out to some kind of juice bar.”

“Sarah loves that stuff.” When I got a strange look from both of them, I explained, “It’s healthy. You know, veggie and fruit juice with wheatgrass thrown in. They look gross, but some of them taste all right.” I would never admit that the first time Sarah and I went out for “drinks,” alcohol hadn’t been involved. Or that I’d bought a blender so I could make fruit shakes for her whenever she came over.

“Oh. Right,” Hayden said, vaguely disgusted. “Anyway, they won’t be back for a while, so we’ve got some time.”

“Excellent.” I’d just finished hacking the remote server, giving Hayden access to more channels than he could watch, including the porn ones. I flipped through the selection of raunchy films until I found one that seemed decent.

“What the hell are you doing?” Hayden asked.

“What does it look like?”

He grabbed the remote. “You can’t watch porn. What if Tenley comes home?”

“You said she wasn’t going to be home for a while. It’s not like she doesn’t know you watch it, right?”

“That’s not the issue.” Heavy bass blared through the surround sound as a music video flashed on the screen.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“How would it look if she walked in to find the three of us hanging out watching chicks get banged? Don’t you think that comes off as a little disrespectful?”

“He’s got a point. I mean, if I’m going to watch porn, it’s either going to be by myself or with Lisa,” Jamie added.

“Thank you,” Hayden said, as if Jamie’s being on his side made it okay that they’d both had their balls cut off.

“You two are brutal, you know that?” I said, irritated that even though the girls weren’t here, they could still ruin our fun.

“Whatever. If you and Sarah ever figure out what you’re doing, you’ll get it.” Hayden snatched up one of the controllers. “Set up the Xbox.”

I ignored the comment on my relationship with Sarah, and showed Hayden how to switch from function to function. The smart TV made it simple: cursor and click.