Chapter 20

I was a sitting at a table on a Sunday morning while Josh tried to sell vinyls. He also had old books that were collector items if you knew anything about it.

I didn't really understand why he kept coming to the flea market. It wasn't like he needed to sell any of these things. And he wasn't really making any money out of this. He never sold enough vinyls to make it worth it. It wasn't a full day's job pay.

I think it was partly out of habit and partly out of doing something specific on a Sunday.

But it wasn't exactly the most riveting way to spent a weekend. I'd grabbed Josh's copy of Paradise Lost from his apartment before coming here, and was trying to read that now.

Josh wasn't having it.

Standing beside me, he kicked my foot. "Are you just going to sit here, or are you going to be useful for a second?"

I closed the book, rolling my eyes, and looked up at him. "What do you even want me to do?" I asked gesturing around us at the lack of clients standing in front of his table. "There's no one interested in your vinyls. They're a dying form of consuming music."

"Mark my word, vinyl records are going to make a comeback," Josh said, shaking a finger at me.

I snorted. "Suuuure, suuuure. So, if they're going to make a comeback than why are you selling yours?"

"I need to reacquaint people with records if I want them to make a comeback," my best friend replied like this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Just admit the only reason why you come here anymore is to see if Daphnee is going to be there," I said with a smug grin.

Josh glared at me. "I'll have you know that I came here long before the Beatle lover came into the picture, and I'll keep coming here long after she's gone."

"So you really haven't started a vision board with your future children's names on it?"

"Go in the corner and think about what you just said," Josh said, pushing me around, making me laugh.

We sort of wrestle like that for a second, laughing all the while.

Finally, when Josh had enough, and let me go, I returned to my seat and asked, "What are your plans this week?"

Josh suddenly yawned, proof that I had probably woke him up too early and said, "I'm going out of town with Todd, we're meeting investors for our app."

"Already planning work trips when you're going through a rough patch? Cheating is not the answer Josh Gilligan Torres."

Josh rolled his eyes, unimpressed. "I really want to complain, but at the same time, I kinda raised you, so this is all my fault."

I nodded. "Good, take responsibility for my idiocy."

"I should have raised you better."

"Indeed," I agreed, nodding again and then looked at my best friend more seriously. I wanted to be here for him more. So that meant asking the dreadful question, "How is it going with your father?"

His relationship with his father was always a touchy subject.

It was something he had in common with Daphnee. I didn't know all the details of her life, but I knew both of them definitely had daddy issues.

Josh snorted. "It's going great. We haven't talk in ages, so it's really been swell."

"Have you talked with your mom?" I asked softly.

She was often the mediator between the two.

"Yeah. She keeps trying to excuse him, but I honestly don't have the patience or even the will to act like I care about his bullshit anymore," Josh said, playing around with a pile of vinyls like he needed to keep his hands busy, while not looking in my eyes. This was probably hard for him to admit. "He's not sorry. And the second I see him he's going to give me shit again. It's always been like this. I'm never going to be what he wants me to be, and I'm not going to keep trying to act like I can be it, or like I even want to be it. It's my life, not his."

I sighed. "I never really understood his reasoning. Why does he even care? Shouldn't he just be happy that you're doing things and not being a bum in his basement."

Josh shrugged. "Yeah, but explaining what I do to his fancy friends isn't glamorous enough. Telling his friends that his son dropped out of college isn't a good look for him."

"All of this just really feels exhausting to me."

"To me too."

"Do you ever regret? Dropping out of college I mean?"

Josh snorted. "No, never. I was miserable in college. I'm not built for academia. I'm like Diogenes."

"Didn't he like, masturbate in public?"

Josh sighed, unimpressed with me again. "He threw a chicken at Plato!"

Antagonizing my best friend was just too irresistible for me to drop the matter. "But I think he also like... masturbated in public."

"You're not seeing the bigger picture. He would ruin Plato's lectures by crashing them and just bringing food and eating."

"And masturbating."

Josh threw his hands in the air in defeat. "Yes Blake, and masturbating."

"Are we interrupting anything?" someone asked, making me turn around.

Not just someone. My Pumpkin. Surrounded by her friends, specifically Daphnee, Alex and his boyfriend.

I wondered how she'd found me.

"Ah, Lexi, perfect. Your boyfriend has a one-track mind, so please take him with you and take care of that problem," Josh said, trying to whoosh me away.

"What have I missed?" she asked me, chuckling.

I leaned closer to her like I was about to share a secret. "He compared himself with a Greek philosopher that used to masturbate in public."

She nodded, making a sad face, "Yeah, that adds up."

"What are you doing here?" I asked her. I hadn't told her I was here. Had she just figured it out? Did she have some kind of tracking device on me?

I really wouldn't hold it against her.

But given her company maybe the only reason for her expedition had been for Josh.

"Can't friends hang out at a flea market on a Sunday?" Lexi replied with a cheeky grin.

"Just so we're all clear, she's the one that dragged me here. I didn't ask them to come here," Daphnee felt the need to announce.

"Hi, I don't think we've ever been officially introduced," Josh started to say, staring at Alex, ignoring Daphnee's comment, "I'm Josh."

"Nice to meet you Josh. I'm Alex, this is Travis," Lexi's ex boyfriend replied.

It was kind of weird to be in his presence now and not feel seething rage and jealousy.

It was a nice alternative.

"Tell me, Lexi's gang, what are your opinion of vinyl records?" Josh asked.

"Their a cheap birthday present option for Lexi," Alex replied automatically.

Ah. There is was. The twinge of jealousy. Why did I feel it, even if it was juts a tiny bit? Because her ex knew what to get for her birthday without hesitation. I should have thought about that first.

Why was my mind completely blank when I was trying to figure out what to get my girlfriend? When Alex knew right away?

"Disappointing answer," Josh replied, and pointed at Daph, "You? Anything pertinent to add? I mean, with your musical opinion in general, I should assume you have nothing intelligent to say."

Daphnee just grinned. "Keep talking like that babe. I still have hostages."

"AH! You just admitted to your crime in public. I have witnesses!" Josh announced loudly, shaking his hands around.

Lexi had kinda of walked around the tables and came to stand beside me at that point, so I let Josh make a scene, while Lexi's friends humored him.

Lexi grinned at me, my arms going around her. "Hi."

I grinned back. "Hi."

"Did you miss me?" she asked.

I kissed the top of her head. "I thought I'd made it clear you needed to stay away from me for like forty-eight hours."

"I'm clearly not good at listening to instructions."

"So, whose idea was it to come here?" I asked my girlfriend, while looking at my best friend and her hippie friend arguing.

"Alex's. I think he wanted to see some drama."

Alex heard his name being said and grinned at us, a goofy smile.

I chuckled.

"Oh, so you didn't want to see me?" I teased my girlfriend.

I kinda wanted to kiss her properly. I kinda wanted to be back in my car, in the dark again.

I kinda wanted to stop the horny intrusive thoughts.

My Pumpkin rolled her eyes at me. "I had no idea you would be here, Blakey-Boy."

I pressed a hand to my chest. "Hurt, I am absolutely hurt."

Lexi ignored me, and asked, "When do you close-up shop? Do you want us to all eat together afterwards?"

I looked at Josh and Daphnee who looked like they were either about to punch each other or kiss each other. "I don't know. You think weird and weirder are going to be able to stay in the same room together for any amount of time without making an embarrassing scene?"

"Highly doubt it, but when can you ever take out Daphnee and Josh without being embarrassed," she replied.

I nodded. She had a point. "Hey, Josh, you want to join them for dinner later?" I asked my best friend.

"I have no desire to spend any more of my precious time with a thief and a Beatles' lover," he glared at Daphnee while replying to me.

"That's perfect because I have no interest in getting Rolling Stones cooties by spending any more time with one of their delusional fans," she shot back.

"When you guys get married, the toasts during the dinner are just going to write themselves," Alex just said.

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing, while Josh and Daphnee just glared at everyone around them.

"I think you're going to have to forget about adding us to your little gang for now," I admitted.

"Things are going to be so much easier when they just stop fighting it and get it on," Lexi replied, sighing.

I snorted. "I think they're already getting it on."

That did not seem to please either of the parties concerned.

"Anybody not buying anything can just shoo! Shoo! SHOO!" Josh said, shaking a record around, like he was trying to scare away wild animals.

"Alright, alright, we're going," Lexi said, laughing, and took a few steps away from me. "Call me later?"

"Not for another... oh, fifteen hours at least."

My Pumpkin laughed. "Little bitch."

"You know it," I called after her, grinned.

She waved as her other friends said goodbye, leaving Josh and I alone.

Once they were gone, I just stared at Josh, my turn to be unimpressed.

"What?" Josh said. I just stared at him, making a face, shaking my head. "What?"  

___________________

Happy Monday my little Pumpkins! :D

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! We'll have a lot more chapters with different characters next. You're getting Drunk-Lexi again! ;P I tried having chapters that had more of an I Sold feel to them. I hope you're getting that vibe too. I know some of you felt like the last chapters weren't doing justice to Blake and Lexi, so hopefully, I'm able to fix that. :D (if you want drunk-Lexi right away it's here: patreon.com/kariannegiard)

And if not, I'm always happy to take your suggestions.

In other news, my daily uploads have slowed down for the last couple of days. Because it was my birthday and I allowed myself to be useless. XD I shall be back to the "normal" schedule now. Also. I'm at like almost 25,000 words for my NaNoWriMo project. Aaaaaaaaah. Think Blake and Lexi, but historical romance setting. ;P I can't wait to eventually share that story with you guys. 

But in the meantime, Weird and Weirder, Life in Paintings, Virgin and the Whore and Family Crown chapters are coming. 

And if I want to be able to upload all of these. I gotta go back to writing. ;P

Thank you so much for coming back to this story, for you comments and just generally being amazing readers! I love you guys! See you all next week! <3