“Perfect!”
He flinched when I slapped my hand on the table.
“Reformed villains are the best to read about. Too good gets monotonous. That’s why Superman always bored me.”
He burst out laughing when I crinkled my nose.
His shoulders relaxed, and he looked so handsome, and young. When I set up his direct deposit with the main office, I’d noticed his birthday was almost two years before mine, but he always seemed much older and more reserved, carrying himself as if he had a permanent weight on his shoulders. For that one amazing moment, I stole a glimpse of the carefree boy he kept hidden deep inside.
“You’re a mystery, Falco.” He shook his head, still chuckling to himself.
“Back at you, Diaz.” I squinted at him, spying relief drifting across his features as he flashed me a grin. It was the same grin I’d seen that first day when we were just two people connecting over a common interest, and maybe a little attraction.
Or a lot. At least on my side. But it was more than the full lips and stubble along his chiseled jaw that drew me to him. His talent and his quiet intensity left me breathless.
I wondered how much of him was in Noel. I yearned to know more about them both.
After chatting through the rest of the pages, Anthony stood and scooped the book off the table.
“I hope I wasn’t too forward.” I cringed at his rushed departure. “I think you have a great story going, and I’m excited to see where it goes. If you want to keep showing me, that is.”
He stilled before flashing a shy smile.
“Not too forward at all. It’s actually nice to talk about it with you. I mean,” he cleared his throat, “it’s nice to bounce ideas off of someone. Even though I just do this to pass the time. I’ll work on your suggestions and show you on Monday. Only if you don’t mind.”
“Monday is my late night at school, but I’ll be here on Tuesday afternoon. And I don’t mind. I told you, I want to see what happens.”
My lip curled into a smirk until his smile faded. My breathing hitched a moment, that initial pull between us I tried to forget was still very much there.
“I better get back. This is the first time I’ve been late coming back from a break.” A nervous laugh fell from his lips. “Thanks, Victoria.”
I was relieved that the ice between us had finally thawed. In fact, the nape of my neck had a sheen of sweat on it as I lifted my hair to cool off.
Something in Anthony called to something in me—and it was impossible not to answer.
3
Anthony
“I think Noel needs a friend,” Victoria said, tapping her finger on the page.
“A friend?” I laughed at the serious furrow of her brow. “Did he have a lonely look in his eye when he cut the dragon’s head off?”
Victoria elbowed my side.
Over the past few weeks, the afternoons and weekends that Victoria worked at the garage were the highlights of my days. I’d made it a point of ignoring her after I started working here, but I still tracked her presence. Somehow, she became prettier every time I looked in her direction, and I tried like hell to reason it away as a silly crush due to loneliness. When she’d offered to read my comic book, I’d planned to tell her no, but an all too eager yes had fallen from my lips.
My comic was for me. It wasn’t as if I had the means or money to do anything with it, and what I was sketching was personal. It was my tale of avenging my own life and making restitution to all the people I’d hurt. The important ones had forgiven me, but I carried that burden around anyway. I didn’t mind, though. The burden made me better, both in jail and when I’d gotten out.
Sharing it with her was like cutting myself open and showing her my insides, but every time I drew a new page, I couldn’t wait to show her. Her eyes would dance, and she’d get into the story and help me plan the next part. It was infectious, and I wanted more of it. I wanted more of her, even though I couldn’t have it.
We’d plot over text and sometimes over the phone, the most recent call lasting well into the early hours of the morning. Victoria even found a website with tutorials on how to create a real comic book. I was high on how much she believed in me, and that only deepened the shame of my past.
“Not a friend maybe but at least someone to help him out sometimes. It’s supposed to be dark, and I love that, but having someone back him up gives the story a little hope. No one is darker than Batman, and even he had an ally from time to time.” She lifted an eyebrow, pursing those full lips that haunted me as much as her gorgeous eyes. “Maybe he has a superpower that becomes useful later on.”
A laugh slipped out of me at her excitement. Why she was wasting her time with me? She was a sophomore at New York University, on partial scholarship, yet she was as anxious to see my new pages as I was to draw them for her.
I didn’t think she’d stop speaking to me when she found out where I was before Falco’s, but instead of that sparkle in her emerald gaze, I was afraid of seeing pity or worse, disgust.
“It all comes back to Batman with you. I never met a girl who knew comics this well. You’re something else, Falco.” I shook my head and jotted down “add a friend” to the top of the page in pencil, not that I could forget anything she said. Later, in my apartment, I played our time together over in my head, reasoning it was for the sake of plotting my comic. But instead, I was thinking about her lips and the stolen glimpses of her perfect body I’d take when she was reading.
“When you’re a lonely only child, you have time to do plenty of reading and writing.” She shrugged, a sad smile pulling at her lips.
“I thought you said you had a brother and a sister other than Chris.”
Josh’s eight-year-old son came by the shop sometimes and cracked me up. His arms were full of fake tattoos, and he trailed his father all around the garage. I couldn’t remember ever following my father anywhere since he was never around long enough.
“I do, but they’re a little younger than Chris. For a long time, it was just my mom and me until I met my father.”
“Until you met Josh?” I narrowed my eyes at her.
She laughed, nodding slowly. “It’s an unusual story, let’s put it that way.”
“You could tell me if you want.”
She lifted a reluctant shoulder.
“Until I was eight years old, I only had my mother. We had no other family. No grandparents, aunts, or uncles. When my mom wound up pregnant by a guy she’d only known for a night, her mother threw her out and never wanted to see her or the baby. We lived in a tiny apartment, and I spent most of my nights with babysitters while she worked three or four different waitressing jobs at a time. We had a roof over our heads and food, but not much else. You know how kids always want more.”
I nodded, because I sure as shit knew that. You don’t know how valuable basics like food and shelter are until you lose them. Wanting more had cost me everything.
“We literally ran into my dad one day, and he saw my weird eyes and knew I was his. He had to fight my mother to be in my life. It was tough for a while being in the middle of all of that but …” She sucked in a breath and trailed off. “I’m glad he won. He’s the best.”