Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
I try to stand when the light returns. Dizziness sweeps through me. And I feel… I feel…
Phone?
Where’s my phone?
Skye should have been here with me. She let me down. My bestie let me down. She’s too wrapped up in her billionaire boyfriend.
Bladen Brack.
Baden Back.
No.
Braden Black.
Phone. I crawl toward the couch where I left it, pick it up. Skye. Skye. Skye.
I call Skye.
“Hey, Tess.”
“Skye?” My voice sounds squeaky.
“Yeah? Are you okay?”
“Not even slightly.” I choke back a sob and then—
A-choo! A sneeze rips from my mouth. My allergies have been killing me lately. I’m on all kinds of herbal crap for them. Echinacea sometimes helps, but not today.
“What’s the matter?” Skye asks. “Why are you crying?”
“Damn these allergies,” I say. “I need you. Please.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. What do you need?”
“It’s Garrett. I… I slept with him.”
“Okay.”
Okay? It’s not okay. Why would Skye even say that? I’m not even sure why I did it. Why it happened. “Why couldn’t you come to dinner with us? You knew what was going to happen.”
“Tess, I—”
“I needed you tonight.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down.” She pauses a moment. “Where are you? I’ll come to you.”
“At my place. He left, Skye. He fucked me, and then he left.”
“Did you ask him to stay?”
“I did. He said he had an early meeting in the morning. But tomorrow’s Sunday.” My whole body heaves. “He lied to get out of spending the night with me. How could I have been so stupid as to let him in my bed again?”
“Are you drinking?”
I sniffle and glance at the bottle of vodka. “A little.”
“Tell me you didn’t take anything else. Please.”
She’s thinking of the ecstasy. The pill that said Sky. Damn Betsy, anyway. I told her specifically not to tell Skye. “No. Not yet. But I’m a mess. Can you come over?”
“Yeah. Sure. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Hang in there, okay?”
“Thanks, Skye.”
“No need to thank me. Get hold of yourself, and I’ll be there soon.” She ends the call.
I stay on the couch. Can’t move. Or don’t want to move. But I find my leggings and force them over my legs and ass. Don’t want to have my ass hanging out when…
I don’t feel right. I know where I am. Who I am. But some of it is so fuzzy, and I feel…sick. Really sick.
Rita nudges me. I pet her soft head.
Then a knock, and Rita runs to the door barking. I swallow back nausea, gather my strength to rise, walk to the door, and open it.
It’s Skye. And she brought Braden, of course. The two of them are joined at the fucking hip.
“Hey,” I say weakly. “Hi, Braden.”
“Hello, Tessa.” Braden walks straight into my apartment. “What can we do for you?”
“Braden…” Skye begins, scooping up Rita and closing the door.
“Have you eaten?” Braden asks.
Right. He’s talking to me. “I had dinner with Garrett.”
He picks up my nearly empty bottle of vodka. “How much of this have you had?”
“Braden…” Skye again.
“A few shots,” I reply.
At least I think I did. I don’t even like vodka.
Skye grabs Braden’s arm and steers him out my door, whispering something to him. Probably something lovey-dovey.
Skye closes the door and turns to me. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. I’m sorry to ruin your evening.”
“You didn’t.”
She’s lying, but I love her for it. I love my bestie. Except when I’m angry with her. Except when—
“Come on,” Skye says. “Spill it.”
I sigh. “It’s so stupid. I went and fell in love with the jerk.”
“That’s not stupid.”
“Why couldn’t I meet a man like Braden? He treats you with so much respect and love.”
“Have you forgotten he dumped me a couple weeks ago?”
“No. But things seem fine now.”
“They’re good, but it took a lot of work on both our parts. I even started therapy to get to the bottom of everything.”
“I know.” I shake my head. “I guess I just want more than Garrett wants to give me right now.”
She grips my shoulders. “So you’re not in the same place. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. He did come back to you, and he’s willing to be exclusive.”
“That’s what he says, anyway.”
“Do you think he’s lying?” she asks.
“I don’t know. He could be. After all, he lied about having an early meeting tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s Sunday, Skye.”
“Braden has meetings during the middle of the night sometimes. We flew out to New York early on a Sunday morning that one time so he could deal with some kind of contract in China.”
Yeah. I remember that well. She neglected to cancel our shopping date, and…
God…I can’t go there right now.
“So maybe he has a breakfast meeting with the boss,” Skye continues. “Or a racquetball date or something.”
“Then that’s what he should have said. But what he actually said was ‘I have an early meeting tomorrow.’”
Skye frowns and looks around the room. “It’s too late to order pizza. How about I run across the street to the convenience store and grab a few pints of Ben & Jerry’s?”