Chapter 2—Hard Times

Joe's pov

"Dammit, Stephanie, why can't you stop all this nonsense and find a real job?" I stood in my living room, gritting my teeth, trying to control my anger. My stomach was killing me. I really need to buy some stock in Maalox and Rolaids. They're making a fortune off me.

"You're going to get killed one of these days," I went on. "You're damn lucky you didn't drown yesterday, or end up a vegetable on life-support." Stupid skip had thrown her in the river and she had to get fished out by Manoso.

Manoso. Grrrrr…

"And I'm sick and tired of hearing all the rumors about you and Manoso." I was on a roll. "Did you know that out on the streets they call you Manoso's woman? You need to stay away from him. He's dangerous. And he doesn't really care about you, anyway. All he wants is to get into your pants."

If he hasn't already, I added to myself. Oh, God, please let her not be sleeping with him. Maybe I should add Tums to my future stock portfolio.

Stephanie's hands were on her hips and sparks were flying from her bright blue eyes. "I like my job. I have no intention of changing things. And Ranger is my friend. He cares about me. We work together, and there's no way I'm going to stop seeing him."

Even with a scowl on her face she was so beautiful standing there in the dim lamplight that my cock stirred. Maybe we can have hot makeup sex later…

Then my mind came back to the problem at hand. Manoso.

"I've had it with him always sniffing around you. You're mine and he has no right to butt in. He needs to find his own girlfriend and stay away from mine."

Uh-oh. That might have been taking it a bit far. She really looked pissed now.

"Do you think you own me, Morelli?" she spat out. "What the hell kind of caveman attitude is that? I'm not your property. I belong to me! You have no right to tell me who I can or can't be friends with."

"Okay, maybe not, Cupcake, but I've had enough. You're going to have to make a choice. If you're with me, you need to stay away from him. I just can't handle this situation anymore."

I could see her mind working, every thought she had flying across her expressive face. And I didn't like what I was seeing. But I couldn't just let it go this time. We had been here so many times before. If she truly loved me…

"This isn't going to work, Joe," she said, looking down at her feet to avoid meeting my eyes. "We're not going to work. I thought we could get past our differences. I thought all the fighting, your disapproval of my job and my friends, the on-again off-again thing, would ease up and we could maybe, just maybe, have a life together."

Then she looked up at me, and her beautiful blue eyes were filled with pain. "But now I can see that it's impossible. I'm sorry, Joe."

I could feel things shifting, as if my life was receding into the distance, as if night was falling over me. Oh, God, what have I done?

"Wait, Cupcake. Don't do this. Don't turn your back on me. You can't do this."

"No, Joe. It's over. For good. Don't call me. We're finished. I hope someday we can be friends." She turned toward the door.

"Cupcake… Stephanie…"

"I'll pick up my things tomorrow." And she was gone.

Fuck.

Life without Stephanie. The world suddenly seemed darker, colder. How did I end up like this?

oOo

6 weeks later—Steph's pov

I parked the piece-of-shit vehicle I was driving this week, grabbed the box of donuts from the passenger seat and headed for the bonds office. I wondered if today was the day I would see Ranger. Damn, no sign of any shiny black cars on the street outside the office.

Goddammit, he was avoiding me. I just knew it. I hadn't seen him one single time since the breakup with Joe, and I knew he was back in town. Connie had mentioned him stopping by the office for files last week.

I thought back to the last time I saw him, almost two months ago. I thought about feeling the hard wall against my back and his hard body against my front, my knees weak, a moan escaping from me. He'd responded with a slight moan of his own, and the vibration of his chest against mine made my nipples stand up. Batman showing emotion. Not something I'd seen much of, with the exception of our night together… No, I'm not going there, not thinking about that night. That way leads only to heartache.

His mouth had touched mine very gently and then his tongue parted my lips. Omigod. The memory of his kiss and the feeling of his erection pressing against my groin brought a flood of wetness to my lower region.

Pulling my mind back to the present, I walked through the office door and dumped the Tasty Pastry box on Connie's desk. She and Lula just looked at me.

"What?" I snapped, frowning at them.

"Jeez, white girl, just 'cuz you ain't getting' any is no reason to take it out on us." Lula was looking very smug. Obviously she was getting some. She and Tank had been hot and heavy lately, and I was sick of hearing about it. Not that I begrudged Lula her happiness. If anyone deserved it she did, after all she had been through. It's just that her abundance of what she referred to as "good lovin' " made the dearth of my own so much more painful.

"Don't you have filing to do?" I muttered, and then turned to Connie. "Any skips for me today?"

"Sorry, nothing new. Things are quiet lately. Nobody's jumping bail this month," Connie replied, inspecting her nails and then looking appraisingly at several bottles of nail polish she had lined up on her desk.

Shit. I really needed some money. Rent was due in a few days, and paying it would leave me completely broke. Things really had been slow.

I turned back to Lula, who was sitting on the cracked leatherette couch sulking. "Lula, I'm sorry. I'm just in a bad mood today."

"Yeah, lack of good lovin' will do that to you," Lula replied darkly. Then she perked up. "Why don't we truck on over to Macy's and try on some shoes?"

"Fat lot of good that'll do me," I grumbled. "No skips means no money. My credit card is almost maxed out."

"You need to get with Batman," Lula advised. "That man could put a smile on your face fo' sure."

"Yeah, well, Batman is MIA. I haven't seen him at all since he got back. And besides, it's not like that between us. We're friends."

"Yeah, right." She shook her head in disbelief, the beads on the ends of her microbraids rattling. I don't know why she thinks there's something between us. Well, it might be Ranger pulling me out into the alley every time we're both in the office. And me coming back all flushed and mussed. Yeah, that could be it.

But really, there's nothing between us. If I keep telling myself that maybe I'll be able to forget about him and move on. Sure…

I shook my head to clear it of disturbing thoughts. "Okay, then, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Connie, call me if anything comes up this afternoon."

I turned my pos toward home. I needed to do some laundry and clean up my apartment.

"Hey, Rex," I greeted as I walked into my kitchen. He poked his little hamster head out of his soup can and twitched his whiskers at me. Wow, it's been a while since I cleaned his cage out.

After taking a load of laundry down to the basement and getting it going, I returned to the apartment and scooped Rex and his soup can out of his aquarium, dumping both in the bathtub. Fifteen minutes later he was back in his clean cage, with new wood chip bedding, a new soup can, and a grape and some peanuts to help him get over the trauma. He stuffed the grape in his cheek and scurried into the can, wood chips flying.

"You're welcome, buddy," I told him, and then pulled out my vacuum cleaner.

Two hours later, laundry done, folded, and put away, and my apartment sparkling, well, not really sparkling, but as clean as an old rundown place can get, I decided it was naptime. I stripped off my clothes down to my cute little lace panties and pulled a t-shirt on. Well, not just a t-shirt. It was one of Ranger's.

Somehow I'd managed to acquire several of his shirts, a couple Ts, the hooded sweatshirt, and one charcoal silk dress shirt. Some I'd stolen from his apartment, others he'd left here at various times. There was also a pair of his cargoes folded on the closet shelf, plus a couple pairs of socks. Occasionally he'd change here when we were coming or going from a job.

I snuggled into the black t-shirt, inhaling the scent that still clung to it. Ranger always smelled terrific. Trying not to think about him and why I hadn't seen him for so long, I closed my eyes and drifted off.

TBC