5 • The Murderer

{ Pinky }

I hate waiting while I'm alone in a public place and even more so if I'm waiting for Cain because no matter how many times we see each other in public, he's always late. And I'm always too early, but that's something I can't help.

I also can't help noticing everyone's eyes on me, especially the eyes of that rude man who sat across from me just to judge me.

As soon as he sat down, he gave me a one-second look and his face contorted as if he had never seen anything so disgusting in his life. Very obvious and evident.

His fists on the table clenched as if he wanted to smash them into my face and he tried to look away so as to not be obvious, but he didn't succeed. Now my guard is on high alert and I'm ready for anything he might try against me.

I know I attract attention wherever I go, I'm not stupid. My hair makes me stand out from others and I usually like to do that, but not when I'm alone in a bar full of men who might commit a hate crime against me just because of the color of my hair.

I need Cain here now... but no, it would be asking too much. It's part of his charm to always be late for everything, moving through life as if there's plenty of time to stop and smell the roses, unlike me.

I have never stopped to smell the metaphorical roses, I move too fast and too anxiously to do that.

I raise my glass to finish my strawberry daiquiri and just as I'm about to order another one, ready to get drunk before someone decides to come and punch me in the face, I see my old friend walking through the door.

Thank goodness.

Tall, blond and filthy rich, Cain is the physical embodiment of the main character in any movie about a perfect golden boy with a picture perfect life. And he looks gorgeous in his formal wear, as always, which is why I don't notice the woman next to him until they're closer to me. She's a biracial woman with long afro hair and beautiful light eyes that I've seen working beside Charlie before, but never alone with Cain.

I open my mouth to greet them, but they stop before they reach me, at the table with the man who has been thinking about murdering me since he arrived.

"Hey, Beau, that's my friend Pinky right in front of you," Cain says and points at me, laughing like this is something super funny, "Come over here."

Oh, cool. The murderer is Cain's friend. Just my luck.

I force myself to put on a smile as they approach me and stand up to greet my friend with a hug, Samantha with a kiss on the cheek and then stand still waiting to be introduced.

"This is Pinky, my oldest and bestest friend. I've known him since we were babies," he explains to Beau, as I watch his face pucker with the same feeling of loathing from earlier and then put on a forced smile, ever faker than mine, "Pinky, Beau is a new employee. He just arrived from..."

"From Toronto, nice to meet you," Beau finishes, raising a hand in greeting. He makes no attempt to reach over to shake my hand or hug me, which doesn't surprise me one bit.

"Same to you," I say, and Cain smiles, not realizing how tense the atmosphere feels between us, only opening a chair for Samantha to sit in, like the gentleman he is.

Once we are all seated at the table, Cain and Samantha share one menu as if there isn't other three on the table. It was supposed to be just the two of us together today, but I can't even get mad because my friend is obviously into this girl. It's cute to see him that way, so I let it go.

The only bad thing is that it leaves me in an awkward position with Beau, who now decides to avoid my gaze, after watching me like a psycho for almost five full minutes.

After everyone orders their drinks and I finally have my second strawberry daiquiri in hand, Cain turns to bless me with his full attention and gets closer to talk into my ear.

"Did you want to tell me something in private? I'm sorry for invading our date, I wanted to be nice to Beau," he says and his voice near my neck tickles me, but I don't move, I just shake my head.

"Nah, I just wanted to see you now that I have time," I say honestly and he pulls away a little to give me a full look as if he's studying me.

"You look good, Pinky, much better than the last time I saw you. Two months ago."

"I know, I was super busy. I'm sorry," I apologize, but Cain just puts an arm around me and squeezes me to him. I can feel my future murderer's eyes glued to us, but I don't care. I'm not going to change the dynamic between me and my bestie just because he's uncomfortable, "But I'm not busy anymore, I can finally relax."

"Winky's on a roll, isn't it?"

"Totally. You know... since I made a deal with the Air Force," I comment pretending a modest tone, as if it's no big deal, although I haven't been able to sleep from the excitement and happiness for two weeks now. Even my father congratulated me and that's hard to achieve.

"Pinky created a special something for the thrusters on the propellers of any flying thing," Cain informs his friends. Sammy drops her mouth open in shock, but Beau has no reaction, "Then he called it Winky."

And I still think it's the funniest thing I've ever done, but Beau doesn't laugh, he just keeps glaring at me.

"Is Pinky your real name?" he asks with a disgusted tone and a grimace he can't hide, speaking directly to me for the first time since he introduced himself.

"No, my name is Timothy. Cain started calling me Pinky when we were kids because pink is my favorite color, clearly," I finish, pointing to my hair.

"Not only is it his favorite color, he's obsessed. Everything in his apartment is pink."

"Not everything," I correct, rolling my eyes. A grown man can't have some pink decorations because he's obsessed, "Winky was the first word that came to my mind since the device is phallic shaped, so I decided to keep it. The Air Force pushed me to call it something more serious, but I didn't do it. Now they're going to have their soldiers saying Winky every time they're fixing their planes."

Beau lets out an involuntary laugh for the first time and finishes the beer he ordered, suddenly looking a little more relaxed. I don't know what's wrong with him, I thought Canadians were nice.

Sammy eventually relaxes too, she asks questions about my company and I answer even though it's not very interesting. It's basically a big factory with two offices for me and my partner, Elias. My employees take care of production, Elias takes care of quality control and I take care of talking to customers. It's boring to me, but everyone seems to think otherwise so I smile towards them.

And then Cain starts talking about Beau's invention as if it's the best thing since someone invented fleshlights. And it does sound kind of interesting. A ring to monitor your personal safety at all times, with 24/7 access to Lambert's team. Soon every kid in the country is going to have one, or at least my future kids.

I try not to look impressed.

"Sounds like something Charlie would come up with," I comment and Beau's eyes narrow at me as if I've offended him, "I'm just saying. The personal safety of each client has always been his major focus, hasn't it, Cain? I think it was only a matter of time before he came up with this himself."

"Yes, that's why he was so impressed with Beau," he replies and raises his glass to toast with the aforementioned, "We're all impressed."

"It was nothing, I just had the idea. Cain is the one who will make it happen," Beau murmurs, shrugging his shoulders like he's modest.

I feel he's hiding something. I don't trust him.

They bring us the appetizers we ordered and as we eat, I can't help but stare at Beau, against my sense of survival.

He is handsome.

Black eyes, dark hair and pale skin with a few moles sprinkled across the masculine features of his face. It's a beautiful contrast, honestly. If he wasn't acting so weird since he arrived, maybe I'd be attracted. Maybe I'd even ask Cain if I have a chance or not, but I won't.

As I analyze the moles that start on his face and go down to his neck, Beau meets my gaze and frowns, instantly annoyed. That's what convinces me he's homophobic and was watching me with hatred, but had to hide it when he realized I'm friends with Cain.

It's a big waste of an attractive and apparently intelligent man, but I'm not going to cry about it.