“Kent Bryant. If you ever get a ticket for noise violation, give me a call. I’m on Yelp.”
“You’re a lawyer?”
Zoey wanted to hang her head at the revolting way Stump was looking at Kent. Her neighbor didn’t look like he appreciated it either.
“You have a problem with lawyers?”
“They have their uses, if anyone is stupid enough to get caught.”
Kent gave Stump a scathing once-over. “That explains your disdain. I imagine you have to keep one on retainer.”
Zoey had been intent on getting to her car as fast as possible, but she was being unexpectedly treated to the sight of two aggravating men getting on each other’s nerves as much as they did hers.
“I can talk myself out of trouble without paying a two-hundred-dollar-per-hour suit to do it for me. I’m also smart enough to know when a woman isn’t interested. And I don’t need a law degree to figure that out.”
“Are you talking about Zoey?”
“You see any other woman around here? You need to keep to your side of the grass, because I can guarantee you’re not going to find greener pastures over here.”
Zoey flushed scarlet at Stump saying what she had wanted to say since she met Kent, but the way he was doing it was mortifying. She hated confrontation where feelings could be hurt when it could be done just as easily by being nice.
“Stump, Kent is just being neighborly,” Zoey tried to intercede between the building argument.
“He’s being a pest. There’s a difference.” Stump disregarded the attempt.
Instead of Kent getting angry as she expected him to do, he got just as cuttingly rude.
“There certainly is a big difference between class and being a low-life.”
“You know, if you don’t like what I’m saying, it’s simple. Walk away, which is what I’m politely suggesting you do.”
“I have a suggestion for you too….”
Zoey began walking away. If they were going to start fighting, she had no intention of being a witness when her other neighbors called the police.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Zoey,” Kent called out.
The longer she was acquainted with Stump, the more Zoey realized he had the same effect on other people as he did on her. She might maintain a distance from others who had bad vibes by using excuses and meditation, but Stump did it by being obnoxious.
Stump was still arguing with Kent when she drove away, flicking the volume on high when she was out of her neighborhood. She had another long day and night ahead of her.
She was treading to keep herself afloat between juggling her clients and Mrs. Combs. She had no time to spare dealing with the egos of men who didn’t hesitate to flaunt in front of her. A little too easily, now that she thought about it, away from their powerful energy blasting her more vulnerable pink aura. Two strangers wouldn’t normally react the way they had, unless they had an invested interest in what they were fighting over.
Stump couldn’t care less if another man flirted with her. The only thing that brought jealousy out of Stump had four legs and was covered in fur.
What really had raised her suspicions was Kent’s reaction. He had been as insulting as Stump and hadn’t been shocked at being put on the spot by Stump’s behavior. Only one thing could explain it, and it was familiarity. They knew each other. They would have succeeded in keeping that from her if a master hadn’t schooled her. Her father could have a crowded room believing the sky was orange, to the extent that, when she tried to tell the truth about him, no one would believe her.
Looking in her rearview mirror, she saw that Stump had caught up with her. When she had to slow down for a stoplight, Zoey looked in her mirror to see a woman talking to him from her car. That he had raised his helmet visor to talk to her with a flirtatious expression had her eyes going back to the car in front of her, unable to watch.
Why couldn’t he act that way with her?
“Because he thinks you’re a kook,” she said to herself, and then became angry for caring.
She had to admit to herself she was. During her childhood, she continuously tried to make her father proud of her and had made herself sick trying. Those old feelings were coming back to torment her whenever she had to deal with Stump.
In the parking garage, she parked in the same spot she always did. And when she got out of her car, Stump had already parked and was waiting for her behind her car.
“You need a bigger car.”
“I love my car.” Zoey caressed the roof of her car.
“You drive like an old woman without her glasses. Someone is going to rear end you for going too slow. I could go faster than you on a skateboard.”