Free WILD (Naked, Book 3) by Kelly Favor Page B

hands twisted together as her stomach began churning in anticipation.
    “I quit my job,” he said.
    She felt her stomach drop into what seemed to be an endless black hole. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
    “It was only a dumb line cook job, Caelyn. It paid like fourteen bucks an hour.”
    “But we don’t have any money, Elijah. Why did you quit?”
    He stood up, wiping his hands on his jeans and pacing. “Listen, I went in there with a really good attitude. I seriously did try.”
    “Okay. But what happened?”
    “These guys were total assholes, Caelyn.” He looked at her as if trying to convey it that simply. “They treated me like a complete chump. Everything I did, they made fun of it. The head chef kept saying that I was a monkey, that he didn’t have time to train someone as slow as me. He didn’t stop.”
    “Maybe it was like…hazing or something. Trying to make sure you had what it takes.”
    “Well I don’t take shit from people, if that’s what you mean. I nearly knocked him out, but I didn’t want to get my friend in trouble. My buddy who worked there did me a solid by vouching for me in the first place, so I kept my mouth shut and my hands to myself, and quit at the end of the day. It wasn’t for me, Caelyn.”
    Somehow, impossibly, tears were coming again. Caelyn bit them back. “I understand.”
    He looked at her suspiciously. “Don’t tell me you think I should have kept working there and let them treat me like a loser. I’m not a fucking loser, Caelyn.”
    She shook her head. “I didn’t say anything.”
    “No, but I can read it on your face.”
    “I applied for a job at Starbucks today.”
    He seemed puzzled at her switching of subjects. “Congratulations.”
    “I didn’t tell you the other part, though. I didn’t tell you how it was humiliating, because the girl who hired me was someone I used to tutor back in high school. She was so happy to see me there, knowing that I needed the job and that I wasn’t in college anymore. This girl absolutely rubbed my nose in it, Elijah, but I took the job anyhow.”
    Elijah looked at her, his jaw getting that twitch that told her he was angry—really angry. “I knew it. You think I’m a quitter because I didn’t let them kick me around.
    Well fuck that, Caelyn. I’m not that guy.”
    “But what about money? You need to make money, just like me. Are you going to find another job? Or are you going to go back to the same old stuff that got you in trouble and made you want to leave town?”
    Elijah stared at her. “I’ll figure it out,” he replied, his voice soft.
    “I hope you do.”
    “I will.” He turned to leave the bedroom. Before leaving, though, he looked at her. “I’m sorry about what happened with your parents. But don’t lay your shit on me, Caelyn.”
    And then he left the room and shut the door as he went.

    ***
    She heard him on the phone with his brother not long after.
    He sounded like he was pacing out in the living room and his voice was soft, but Caelyn pressed her ear to the door and listened the best she could, catching fragments of the conversation as he walked around the apartment.
    “Jake…Jake, can you talk?”
    “I…need a little cash…”
    “…yeah…”
    “…just to keep my head above water for a month…”
    “…thanks bro…”
    She hated that he was asking Jake for money, because Caelyn knew that Jake wanted Elijah to continue doing whatever illegal stuff they’d been doing together before he’d left town.
    Elijah had tried to escape, but now that he was back, she sensed that he was quickly losing his will to fight for a normal life.
    After some time had gone by, she came out of the bedroom. Elijah wasn’t on the phone anymore—he was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching a basketball game on TV and eating some potato chips.
    “Hey,” she said, standing beside the hallway, not sure she was welcome in the living room.
    He gave her a slight smile.