Megan Hart - The Space Between Us

“If you had to pick one,” Chance said after I’d used the tiny bathroom and come out with my face washed, mouth rinsed, hair brushed, panties replaced, “which one of us would you choose?”

Chase had already gone upstairs. Chance was the one who would wait and walk me to my car, the beat-up piece of junk that I still drove now, nine years later. Chance was the one who put his hand on the driver’s side door so I couldn’t open it, who peered down at me with a solemn look. Chance was the one who really wanted to know.

“I can’t choose,” I told him, even though I knew it was a lie. “I’m into both of you.”

“Yeah, but …”

I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him, thinking, as he probably wasn’t, that his brother’s taste still lingered on my tongue despite the rinsing. “Not into the boyfriend scene, okay? It’s all cool. Right?”

He nodded. What else could he do? He was getting regular, slightly freaky sex. Was he going to turn that down just so we could hold hands and go to football games together? Maybe homecoming, and later, the prom?

“Not my thing,” I told him, and meant it.

He didn’t move his hand even when I gave it a pointed glance. “Why not?”

I didn’t have an answer for that. I couldn’t explain to that nice boy whose mother was still way too attached to him all my reasons for not wanting what every other girl I knew seemed to want. So I didn’t give him an answer. I kissed him again, and when I pulled away he put his hands on my hips to hold me closer to him.

Later, I would break that boy’s heart and not care, because my own would have already been shattered. But we didn’t know that then. At that moment, we were sneaking kisses in the turning-cold fall air.

I thought about them now as I pulled into the parking lot of Capriotti’s Auto Sales and found a space for my car. I got out, still thinking about it. I was looking for Cap, but found Vic instead.

“Hey. What’re you still doing here? Where’s Cap?”

Vic looked tired again. The garage closed at seven, but the car lot stayed open until nine. I didn’t see Dennis, the sales guy who usually had the later shift.

Vic shrugged and yawned. “Had to send him out on a run for some parts that didn’t come in on time.”

“And Dennis?”

“Went home sick. Upchucked all over the men’s room.”

I grimaced. “Yuck.”

Vic smiled. “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you eat someone else’s lunch and don’t bother to check how long it’s been in the fridge. Maybe next time he’ll learn.”

“Still, gross.” I tossed him my keys. “It’s the clunking again, left front end.”

Vic nodded and pocketed my keys. “Can’t do anything about it until tomorrow. You got a ride to work?”

“Cap said I could use his car. He’ll get a ride from Lyndsay or walk.”

“Cap’s letting you use his car?”

I laughed wickedly. “Bwahaha! Of course he is. He loves me.”

Vic snorted. “He’s easily manipulated.”

“Is that what you think of me?” I said with a frown. The words came out sounding catty. Snide, even. “Nice.”

Vic gave me a surprised blink before frowning himself. “Huh?”

“Never mind.” The dream had unsettled me. It wasn’t Vic’s fault, though maybe he’d prompted it by his unexpected little drive-by through my room. “Listen. What’s going on with you?”

“What? Me? Nothing. Why?” He sounded genuinely confused.

“You’re not sleeping,” I pointed out, adding, before he could jump in, “and yeah, I know. I’m not your mother. Or your wife. Old news. Your mother doesn’t live with you, and poor Elaine’s so exhausted she’d have no idea if you were in bed next to her or not. So I’m the only one who knows you’re up at all hours of the night.”

“It’s not all hours.”

“I hear you walking back and forth. I hear the floor creaking.” I paused, thinking about whether or not to mention him being in my room. “What’s going on?”

“Insomnia.”

“Uh-huh.” I gave him a narrow-eyed glance. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

Before he could defend himself or agree, my brother came into the office on a cloud of cold air and the faint smell of oil and gasoline. He stopped short at the sight of us. Then he sighed.

“Damn, he already gave you the keys, huh?”

I gave Vic another look, but the moment had passed. “Yep. No wrestling them away from me now.”

“Can’t you just hang out here and wait while I take a look at your car?” Cap asked.

“With Dennis gone I could use an extra set of hands,” Vic interjected.

He couldn’t have known, of course, about the dream I’d had. Or how it had made me feel. “Nah. Errands to run before I get to work. I promised Elaine I’d go to the store for her. Apparently we’re out of a lot of stuff.”

“Can you pick me up some stuff, too?” Cap asked.

I raised a brow. “Like what?”

“Toaster pastries. Half-and-half.”

The other brow went up. “Really? What the hell for, Captain?”

My brother winced at the use of his full first name. “Lyndsay likes it in her coffee, and I like them for snacks.”

I laughed, trying to get at him to poke his side, but he was so much bigger he fended me off without a problem. “You want me to pick up stuff for your—”

“Don’t say it,” Cap warned in a fierce enough tone to keep me from continuing. “She’s just my roommate.”

I was pretty sure that despite their every action designed to prove otherwise, Cap and Lyndsay were fucking like bunnies. No, not like bunnies. Like ninjas, all secretlike and only in the dark. I tempered my laughter. “Sure. I’ll drop it off here. Without Dennis around, it should be safe in the fridge. Hey, Cap … listen, you want to check out that new zombie flick sometime next week? The Risen , or whatever it’s called?”

“How come he gets to go and I don’t?” Vic asked, only half listening as he texted something.

“Because he’s single and you’re an old married fella with a pregnant wife at home, duh.” I turned to my brother. “You up for it?”

“Yeah, sure.” Cap shrugged his broad shoulders. I paused, deciding how deep to stick the shiv. “You don’t have to ask Lynds first?”

Too far. Cap scowled. I backed off, hands up, an apology on my face and tongue, but not really in my heart. He’d have to own up to it sometime—that he was crazy in love with his roommate and she wasn’t so far from looney for him, too, even if neither would admit it.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow, then.”

“In my car,” Cap said, with a resigned sigh that made Vic laugh.

“Unless you fix mine sooner.” I managed to get in a poking pinch my brother could’ve easily batted away, but allowed because I was older than him.

“It’ll be fixed,” he promised.

I punched his shoulder and waved at Vic, but he was too engrossed in his phone call to pay attention. In the parking lot, I revved the Mustang’s engine a few times just to get Cap all worked up. I refrained from spinning the tires or doing a doughnut, though, just to prove I didn’t have to be a total dweeb. By the way he flipped me off as I left the lot, I figured he wasn’t that impressed.

At the grocery store I pushed my cart through the aisles and tried to remember what was on the list I’d left on the kitchen table at home. I wasn’t paying close attention to where I was going, which was why I nearly ran over a little kid who was spinning out of control in the candy section.

I recognized a tantrum in progress and meant to steer my cart past him, but stopped when I saw his mother. “Mandy?”

She turned. “Oh, my God! Tesla? Wow. Long time, huh?”

Mandy had been one of my best friends in Lancaster before my parents dropped their mutual basket and my life had spun into something else. I hadn’t seen or heard from her in years. To find her here now, with a child, was surprising—but good, I discovered, when she clung to me in a hug that left her kid staring with goggle eyes.