The Fallback (18+)--Sample

5. Habits Are Hard To Break

"It's gotten serious, I think," Grey told Tati grimly as his mouth turned down at the corners.

Tati blinked. They were the first words he'd said since they had started their video chat on Skype, but she didn't need any introduction to the subject they were starting out with today. It was always about Freya.

Freya. It had been about four months since she had started seeing her ex's friend, and apparently there were no hard feelings between the two anymore. Jared had moved on with someone else and didn't hold a grudge against the man Freya was still seeing, Jeremy.

"I'm sorry," she told him with her own frown. Grey just shrugged his shoulders, though the hurt was still evident on his face.

"Enough about me," he dismissed, as if trying to ward away the unpleasant thoughts of Freya and Jeremy. "How's work?"

Tati had gotten the job at the children's hospital and was enjoying it immensely. Whenever he asked about it, she always smiled. It somehow made him feel a little better when she just smiled at him. He had put that smile there with only a few words. It was more of an effort with Freya, but then again, they had known each other much longer.

"Great," she replied, her voice lighthearted and warm. "We just got a new client. Her name is Michelle. She lost her foot in a car accident a couple of months ago and just got fitted for her artificial leg. Poor thing has to learn to walk all over again. And at the age of ten!"

Tati looked angered by that fact, and her lips pursed. For one whose job consisted mainly of helping disabled children relearn basic motor functions, she never looked happy when telling him about the more unpleasant intricacies of her job.

Grey laughed a little.

"You do understand that little kids like Michelle make your job necessary," Grey pointed out. "It's really a shame and all, but this type of thing happens all the time. It also is keeping you from having to teach ballet and tap to your mother's beginner students." He knew how much she had hated that.

"Still, it just sucks," she griped, her brows bunching over her hazel eyes. "I almost hate that I have a job based solely on the fact that kids get hurt. Maybe I wasn't cut out for this type of work."

Grey raised a brow at her. "Tati, I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't be happy with any other job," he told her.

That was true. She would have miserable at a normal office job, and dancing was obviously not her heart's desire like it was her mother's. Not that she couldn't dance. She actually could. And would. A friend from work had invited her out to a new nightclub that had just opened up downtown and wanted her to come with her as her wing woman. She had precisely two hours to get ready before her friend would come knocking on her door, and she had to be ready. Tati had even bought a new dress for the occasion.

"You're probably right," she said on a sigh.

The two had become not only friends, but each other's confidants.

"So, what are you wearing to the club tonight?" he asked. "Show me the dress."

Tati got up and went into her closet to pick the spicy number up from its place on the rack. It was maroon and skin tight, and she hoped it wouldn't be a bit too much. Her friend had said it was perfect for the ambiance of the place. Dark and sensual.

She held it up for his inspection, and Grey couldn't help but to speak out his next words.

"I can't tell what it looks like until you actually wear it, Tati," he told her bluntly. "Put it on and I will tell you whether you should wear your hair up or down."