As I fled the romance section, the man followed me. I began glancing around, for what I didn’t know, until I saw it. Or him, rather.
A tall man with dark brown hair and tattoos covering both arms was standing at the outside bookcase with a coffee in one hand and a book in the other. The book was flipped around as he read the back. He was big too, muscular, but not roided up like the guy following me.
It looked like he was alone and it was time for me to test out all of those TikTok videos that I’d seen from guys saying that if women were alone and someone was bothering them, they could go up to another guy and he’d be whatever she needed to feel safe. And the guy trailing me a little too closely was definitely making me feel unsafe.
I really hoped this worked.
With a courage I didn’t normally have, I scurried over to this stranger and wrapped my arms around his waist from behind, then said, “Hey, baby.”
4
Bonham
I was standing there minding my own business when someone came up behind me, wrapped their arms around my waist, and said, “Hey, baby.”
From the voice, I immediately knew it was a woman. From her arm placement and the way she felt against my back, I knew she was rather small. Her hands were dainty against my stomach, though she was doing her best to try not to actually touch me.
There were a few people this could’ve been, but the voice sounded nothing like any of them. My gut told me that I didn’t know this woman. That didn’t mean she didn’t know me or maybe had mistaken me for Van. That had happened more than once. I hadn’t had a true incident of a crazed fan yet so maybe this was that. It was bound to happen one day.
I just hadn’t expected it to happen in a bookstore.
After dropping the book back onto the shelf, I turned in her arms, careful not to spill my coffee. Though it was half-gone anyway.
Nope. Didn’t know this woman and didn’t remember seeing her with Van at any point. She was short, as I suspected, and was almost the perfect height for me to rest my chin on her head. Though with her, I still had to bend a little. She had this reddish-brown hair and deep green eyes that were looking up at me with apprehension.
Damn, she was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that could knock a guy off his feet.
I opened my mouth to say something, but she pulled me down and put her mouth to my ear, and said, “Please pretend you’re my boyfriend.”
I snapped back up to look her in the eye. Was she serious? She quickly wet her lips and swallowed hard. Everything about her told me to go with it.
“Hey, baby,” I told her. “I’ve been looking for you.”
There was a muscle head to my right who groaned and threw his hands in the air, but I noticed he didn’t go far.
“He why you want me to pretend to be your boyfriend?” I asked quietly. To indicate whom I meant, I flicked my eyes in his direction.
“Yes.” She let out a breath as if she’d just run a mile. “Please.” But she didn’t even glance at him.
I nodded slowly and decided we were going to run with this for a bit. At least until the guy making her uncomfortable moved on.
Looking at this woman, I thought of Daisy and how I would feel if she were in this position. They had to be around the same age and I’d felt too big for my skin when Daisy had had trouble with a stalker earlier this year. Fuck that. I was going to make sure this woman got home safely.
“Want a coffee?” I asked.
She nodded, so I slipped an arm around her should casually and led her to the café. We waited in line like that and she was stiff as hell. She might not have looked for the other guy, but I sure as fuck did. He was still hanging around a bit.
“I’m Bonham, by the way,” I told her quietly, having leaned down close to her cheek. To anyone else, it would look like I was whispering sweet things to my girl. Which was exactly how I wanted it to look.
“Jurnie Evans,” she whispered back.
For some reason, that name seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It wasn’t like Jurnie was a real common name, but damn. Nothing came to mind.
Jurnie ordered a grande iced mocha. When I pulled my card out to pay, she protested.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said. “You’re already doing me a huge favor.”
I shrugged. “What kind of boyfriend would I be if you bought your own coffee?”
She pinched her lips between her teeth as she fought back a smile.
We waited for them to call her name, though she’d told them it was Michelle. Weird, but I thought maybe she didn’t want her name called out for everyone, including her shadow over there, to hear it.
The weirdest part of this was that I’d told her my first name, also not common, and she could see me, yet she didn’t seem to recognize me and she hadn’t said a word about Pushing Daisies. Now, that wouldn’t have been unusual anywhere else—we weren’t Courting Chaos yet. But locally, people tended to recognize us. Even in Detroit. Even people who didn’t listen to our music tended to recognize the names. There’d been so many articles over the years in local papers about the family band. About us making our first record. All of it.
Her indifference was kind of refreshing if you ask me.
I led her over to a small two-person table across the café on the opposite side of where the guy was lingering. Eventually, he’d get the idea and fuck off.
“So what’s going on?” I took a drink of my now not-so-hot coffee.
“I was looking at some books and that guy can’t seem to take no for an answer.”
“How do you mean?” Anger boiled in the pit of my stomach. Men like that gave us all a bad name and while I might not have known Jurnie, I was pissed off for her.
“He asked for my number. I said no. He asked for my Snap, I said no. I told him I have a boyfriend and he didn’t believe me.” She finally glanced that way without looking like she was. “And not that I’m with you, he’s still there. Frustrating.”
“He’ll go away and I won’t leave until he does,” I assured her. She gave me the most grateful smile I’d ever been on the receiving end of. “That why you came up to me?”
“Yes.” She took a long drink from the straw and all I could focus on were her full lips and the suction she was using to get the coffee. Fuck. There was something wrong with me. She was in trouble and I shouldn’t have been thinking of her that way. “I’ve seen all these videos from guys who say that if you’re in danger or whatever come up to them and they’ll pretend to be your boyfriend or brother or whatever you need.” Those deep green eyes settled on me as she shrugged. “I decided to give it a try.”
“Well, I’m glad you picked me.” For so many reasons, but damn, I wanted her safe.
“Why do guys do that?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” That was the truth. I didn’t understand why other guys did most of the things they did. Fuck, I didn’t understand why I did most of the things I did.
“I mean, look at him.” She reached out quickly and put her hand on my arms. “I mean, don’t actually look at him, but he’s still there. Now he should think I’m with you and he’s still hanging around. I wouldn’t think it was because of me, I don’t have that big of an ego, but he keeps watching.” Her eyes widened suddenly. “And now he’s coming this way.”