Dramatic, Mushy, Complicated Love

that new client coming in to go over the plans for bringing down their nineteen-storey building. This is a big job and I need your help and engineering expertise, mate.”
As Ace told me the bloody obvious, again, all I could think about was the sexy blonde with killer curves, the hottest fucking ink all over her skin and eyes, so green, so expressive that looking into them just about took my breath away.
“Are you listening to me, or are you thinking about how you fucked up last week and cut and ran from the woman of your dreams?” Ace interrupted me, pissing me off.
“I could fix that fuck up if you would just get me her number, cocksucker,” I growled back at him, wishing that I was in the office so I could punch my friend in his smug face.
“How the fuck can I do that when I am not talking to Spring, wanker. Things got … weird between us, and I pulled your stunt and ran out on her while she slept.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to reply with a crass retort but seeing my long-time mate’s expression gave me pause. Ace wasn’t the kind of guy to let out his feelings, and never about a woman. If Ace shared, there was something serious going on.
“What happened that night, mate? What spooked you?”
I watched as Ace ran a hand over and down his face. I knew him well enough to know that there was an internal battle going on inside him.
“Fuck Luca, I don’t know, man. We were doing our thing at the pub, flirting and shit. Then we went back to her place and got into it, and it was good mate, better than good. She is unlike any woman I have ever been with before. She is so damn sensual, really touchy-feely, you know what I mean?”
Nodding, I knew exactly what he meant. I could still feel Meadow’s fingers on my skin, her taste still on my tongue and her moans still rang in my ears, affecting me a week later.
“Yeah, mate, I do.”
“Her touch burned into my skin, and every time she gave me her eyes ,I saw more than I could handle. She likes me, Luca, really likes me, and I fucking like her a lot too, but I don’t know if I am ready for something heavy yet. The business is taking off better than we expected to be at this point, plus all the side projects we’ve got going, I don’t know if I have the time a relationship requires, ya get me?”
“I get you, Ace. Business is important, but it ain’t the be-all and end-all of life. We have the demolition side of things built up enough that people come to us now. The engineering side of things is going great, and you have the crews working like a well-oiled machine,” I pointed out, giving him a knowing grin.
“There is no harm in taking some time for yourself, Ace. Spending fifteen hours at the office and job sites isn’t necessary anymore.”
“I could give you the same advice, Luca. The sizzle between you and Meadow didn’t go unnoticed by her sister or me. In fact, Spring commented that she had never seen her sister so taken with a guy before, telling me that she usually makes the bloke chase her, not fall at his feet as she seemed to for you.”
“Fuck, she was beautiful that night,” I ground out, her pretty face suddenly appearing in my head. The shade of blonde of her hair, and that fucking dress! Damn, how badly I wanted to peel that shimmery material off her body. Slowly. It would have been like unwrapping the ultimate present a person could ever get to reveal … what, I didn’t know because I had to leave her.
“Did you ever think that we would be beaten up over sisters?” Ace asked, laughing ruefully.
“Nope, never, and yet here we are. You too spooked to ring yours and me, with no idea how to get in contact with mine.” The irony of our different situations wasn’t lost on me. Both of us turned inside out but for very different reasons. Ace didn’t know what he wanted, whereas I knew exactly.
Meadow.
We sat there, our screens showing the other one silent and brooding when Ace all of a sudden let out a string of colourful curses. His sudden crazy outburst scaring the shit out of me, and I knocked over my coffee mug.
“Fuck, Ace! What the hell?”
“Damn, Luca, I forgot about the day I picked Spring up for lunch out the front of her work.”
Bending down to pick to the mug off the floor, swearing at the muddy coloured stain on the rug my mother was going to have something to say about when she saw it, I growled at Ace when I righted myself.
“And?” I asked, giving him my best are you nuts and have finally lost it glare.
Ace leaned forward in his office chair, getting closer to his computer screen, and I could tell he was about to one-up me.
“She has a secondhand store,” Ace replied smugly, and I changed my mind. Ace was definitely losing it, not upping me.
“Again, I say and …”
“And … she runs it with her sister, Meadow.” Ace smiled at me, his face not only smug but victorious. “Boom shacka lacka!”
Well fuck me!
***
I pulled my car into the side street beside the small shop front, engaged the handbrake, turned off the engine, and just sat there and took in the building. It was old, not rundown old, rather old-fashioned and aged. It had a protruding attached verandah, the kind that was popular in the fifties and sixties. The building itself was bluestone brick, and while old, it was in good shape, structure-wise. A large hand-painted sign hung from rusted chains from the eaves proclaiming the name of the shop.
A Second Chance.
If there was ever a perfect description for why I was there out