Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 89978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
When I shut my journal, I attempt yoga for the first time. It’s harder than it looks. By two in the afternoon, I get a delivery—an infrared sauna that fits nicely into the spare bedroom now that I’ve disassembled the bed and shoved it against the wall.
I sweat my balls off for thirty minutes, hydrate, and shower. Then I order a ride to the gas station to pick up my car with its new battery—just as Koen suspected. The general store is on my way home, so I stop to visit Scottie.
“Showing up at work on your day off makes you look like a loser with no life.” She grins while climbing down the sliding ladder on the wall of canned goods.
“Guilty.” I tidy up the produce area, restacking the sweet-smelling apples before they tumble with the next customer who decides they want one from the bottom of the pile.
“I saw your car got towed this morning. Is it fixed already?”
“It is. I just picked it up. I’m really sorry about interrupting your evening. I clearly walked in on something, and I felt like a total ass.”
Her face turns pink as she slides the ladder into the corner. “We just started seeing each other. It’s no big deal. He finished the puzzle, and well …” She curls her lips between her teeth.
“That blush looks stunning on you. I’m glad you’ve found someone who does the impossible by making you look even more radiant than you already are.”
She messes with her hair before flipping her bangs away from her eyes. I’ve made that blush a few shades darker. “This … you … him … it’s all unexpected and a little weird.”
I organize the mangoes and fix their crooked sign. “You make us sound like a threesome.”
Scottie coughs a laugh. “That’s not my style.”
“No? A shame. I’ve heard they can be fun.”
“Price Milloy.”
I chuckle.
“What did you two talk about?” She steps beside me, picking out the stray pieces of lettuce and kale that have fallen into the bottom of the cooler.
“I never kiss and tell.”
She shoulder-checks me. “Stop. You’re so ornery today.”
I glance at her. I’ve missed her, even when I didn’t know what I was missing. “We stuck to first-date conversation. He asked me about my job. I asked him about his. He asked me about my relationship with you. I asked him about his relationship with you. And when he pulled into my driveway, we compared dick sizes and called it a night.”
“Who had the bigger dick?”
“You tell me.”
She shakes her head. “Can’t. Someone needed a ride last night, so I got no D.”
I bark a laugh. “I’m an asshole. An unsuspecting cock-blocker.”
Scottie eyes me while trying to look upset, but I see through her facade.
“I didn’t allow Koen to ask me much of anything. I grilled him. Your father would be proud of me.”
She heads behind the counter, depositing the leaves in the trash. “What did you find out?”
“That’s confidential. If you’re too busy trying to get into his pants to take a few seconds to get to know him, then that’s on you, Scottie Rucker.”
She rests her arms on the counter. “Is this weird?”
“This conversation?”
“You and I talking about my sex life with another man.”
“I think it would be weird if we talked about our sex life.” I meet her at the counter, leaning onto it, mirroring her pose. “Even though it was really good. At least I know I was good. I don’t remember your part that much. You pretty much just laid there.”
Scottie glares at me but loses, covering her mouth to muffle her laughter. She’ll never know what this means to me.
The smiles and laughter.
The banter.
The tiny nudges.
The chance to live in her world again.
Her budding romance complicates things, but I see it in her eyes. She’s happy I’m here. I like to believe that, in some small way, I’m something positive in her life, too.
The door chimes, and I glance over my shoulder at the two teenage girls, taking a quick right toward Scottie’s gemstone and jewelry display.
“I noticed you’ve been wearing your bracelet,” she says.
I pull up my sleeve. “I wear it every day. It’s magical.”
“Ya think?” Her eyes widen.
“I do.” I knock twice on the counter. “I’ll let you get back to work. I just stopped by to …”
“Tidy up the produce?”
“Exactly.”
“Have you been to the salt room?”
I shake my head.
“It’s a little pricey.” She shrugs. “But we should go.”
This feels like our summer together. Scottie would find something new to do, and we made Philly feel new again, despite having lived there our whole lives.
“Funny you brought it up,” I say. “I was planning on going to one this week.”
“Let’s go after work tomorrow. Are you still working?”
I twist my lips. “I suppose.”
“Do you have this with tiger’s eye?” one of the girls asks.