“Okay, we have a serious fucking issue on our hands right now.” Jolie sighs.
“What is it now?” Brooke rolls her eyes.
We are at a café just around the corner from work. Jolie called an emergency lunch meeting and they came and met me.
“I can’t stop thinking about him. I literally can’t stop thinking about him.”
“Oh, this is bad.” I sigh.
Brooke frowns as she looks between us. “Who are we talking about?”
“Santiago.” I huff.
“Oh God.” Brooke winces. “Why? I’m trying my hardest to forget that shit.” She fake shivers. “I’m scarred for life.”
Jolie’s eyes come to me in question.
“I get it, Jo. He was hot. And those movies… they were hot too,” I say to comfort her. “I totally get it.”
“I’ve called him, and we are going out,” Jolie announces.
“What?” Brooke gasps.
“Why?” I ask. “What could you possibly achieve from that?”
“I want to be fucked like that,” she blurts out.
The people on the table next to us look over, and I giggle. “Will you keep it down?” I whisper.
“It’s all I think about, it’s all I dream about. I need this fuck.”
“Are you kidding me?” Brooke whispers. “He’s going to film you having sex and show it to other women.”
“I don’t care.”
“Oh God.” Brooke and I roll our eyes.
“We are going out.”
I shake my head, unable to believe this situation. “What’s that code for?” I ask.
“Let’s make a porno,” Brooke mutters dryly.
I get the giggles. It feels good to be with the girls. Everything is so normal.
I desperately want to talk to them about Nathan, but he is their friend too, so I can’t. It isn’t my story to tell. This is his. If he wants anyone to know, it has to come from him.
I would dearly love to dissect my feelings with them on the whole thing though. I feel like I’m battling with this just as much as he is. I’m jealous and hurt, and to be honest, I just want Nathan for myself. I don’t know why, but for some stupid reason I always assumed that if Nathan were straight, it would be me he would want.
Guess not.
Ugh…. I hate feeling like this. I’m annoyed that I do.
He was gone when I woke up this morning. He left a note saying he had something on and won’t be over tonight. That, in itself, is weird, he normally won’t stay away from me.
He’s going to see her.
So, what if he is?
“How’s your guy going?” Brooke asks, interrupting my thoughts.
“Who?”
“The guy.” She widens her eyes.
“Oh, Samuel,” I say with a curl of my lip. “He’s okay, I guess.”
“Not feeling it?” Jo asks.
“Nope.” I sigh as I pick up my coffee. “Not in the least. I have to go out with him tonight.”
“Just don’t go.” Brooke frowns.
“He’s so keen and calling me all the time. I kind of feel like I have to explain why I don’t want to see him, you know?”
“Ugh.” They both wince.
“This is why it’s easier not to date.”
“Well, I don’t know about what you boring bitches are doing tonight, but I’m sexting Santiago.”
“Great,” Brooke mutters dryly. “I look forward to seeing you on Missing Persons as a murder victim.”
I chuckle.
“But, what a way to go.” Jolie smiles darkly. “Fucked to death.”
“At least the police will have footage as evidence, I guess.” I smile.
Jolie gets out her phone to message Santiago, and she does a little dance in her seat. “This is so fucking exciting. Okay, what will I say?”
* * *
I pace back and forth in my living room as I talk to April on the phone.
“He said that?” she asks. “He actually said that he likes another woman?”
“Are you listening to me at all? Her name is Stephanie.”
“Well, fuck me. I did not expect that.”
“You think I did?”
“How do you feel about that?”
“Pissed off. I always thought that if Nathan wanted a woman, it would be me.”
“Same.” She sighs. “I actually don’t know if I believe it.”
“Oh, come on April.” I throw my hand up in the air. “Why would he lie about that?”
“I don’t know. Why do men do anything they do?”
“Right?” I agree.
“Anyway, poof to him. If Nathan wants Sonya then he can have her.”
“It’s Stephanie.”
“Whatever her fucking name is.” She huffs. “We don’t like her, regardless.”
I love April. She always knows just what to say. “I guess I’m just feeling territorial.”
“I would be, too. I’d be fuming mad.”
“Hey.” I frown as I remember what I wanted to ask her. “Are you okay for money? Do you want me to transfer you some? Because I can. I’ve been saving really hard.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“April, I don’t want you struggling over there alone.”
“I’m not struggling. I’m budgeting hard.”
“Isn’t that the same shit?”
She laughs. “Probably.”
“Why don’t you call Roy and demand for all your money that the bastard took? You own half that fucking house, you know. It was your money used for the deposit.”
“I don’t want his slutty money. I want nothing to do with him ever again.”
I exhale heavily. “Why are you so stubborn?”
“Because I’m not giving him the satisfaction of asking that prick for anything, least of all money.” Just the mention of Roy’s name sends her raging mad.
“Okay, okay. Well, you can ask me for money.”
“You’re going to need your money too, soon, now that you don’t have Nathan to spoil you.”
“God, don’t remind me.” I hang on the line. “Do you think they’ve slept together?”
“I don’t know. Did you ask him?”
“No.”
“Would he tell you if they had?”
“I don’t know.”
“See, that’s weird, don’t you think? If he didn’t have feelings for you, wouldn’t he just tell you? Why would he hide other people?”
“The girls think he’s kept his apartment for booty-calls.”
“For sure.”
I frown. “You think?”
“Eliza, have you seen how gorgeous that man is?”
“Yes. I saw him naked just the other day.”
“Oh my God… and?”
I exhale heavily, that’s private between him and I, the term packing heat runs naked through my mind. “No comment.”
She laughs. “That means its too good to elaborate on.”
I chuckle. “I’m going.”
“Come on, more info.” She teases.
“Goodbye.”
“Have fun on your date.”
“We both know I won’t.”
“Maybe you need a hot one night stand. Fuck Nathan out of your system, so to speak.”
I giggle. “Maybe. Bye.” I hang up before she can try and talk me into having sex with Samuel. That is not happening.
It’s Monday night, and the buzzer sounds at my door. I close my eyes. Here goes nothing.
I’m going to try and let Samuel down gently. I’m just not feeling it.
“Coming down,” I say into the intercom.
“Okay.”