AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mikayla orders for both of us. “The largest caramel sundae you have on the menu with extra cherries on top and two spoons, please.”
The guy behind the counter grins and punches in our order while I wander to the booth in the very back corner.
Sliding onto the shiny red seat, I wait by the window, my leg bobbing under the table.
Mikayla sits opposite me, her sigh heavy, her expression sad.
I wince. “Please don’t look at me like that. I don’t want to be some victim.”
“How do you want me to look at you?” she murmurs.
I shrug and nearly say, “The way Liam did,” but I don’t want to rub in the fact that I told him before her. Or the fact that I had no intention of ever telling her.
“How did this happen?” She shakes her head. “I thought Theo was Mr. Sweet and Lovely.”
“Me too.” I purse my lips and hope the burning sting in my eyes doesn’t turn to tears. I really don’t want to be blubbering into our caramel sundae. “It wasn’t just him. His friends were over and they were drunk, and Matt—” I shrug. “—was an asshole.”
“So Matt did this to you?”
I nod.
“Who’s Matt again?”
I sigh and dive into the story, rushing through it as quickly as I can. The ice cream arrives just as Theo’s dragging me down to our bedroom. I clamp my lips together and force a smile at the waiter.
As soon as he’s gone, Mikayla hands me my long-handled teaspoon and murmurs, “Eat. Just take three big mouthfuls of goodness, and then you can tell me about your douche nugget ex.”
I do as she says and have to admit this is the best caramel sauce I’ve ever tasted. She nudges the extra two cherries toward me with the tip of her teaspoon, and I accept them with a smile.
She knows me so well.
Once the story’s done (minus the fact that I stole Theo’s money, because I can’t admit that to anyone), she sits back with a heavy sigh. Licking the back of her spoon, she looks thoughtful for a moment.
“You need to report this. What those guys did was illegal. You can’t beat up a woman for not getting you a fucking beer.” She tuts and scoops up another mound of ice cream. “You can’t beat up a woman ever, for fuck’s sake!” Her voice starts to rise, and I quickly shush her.
She scowls into the bowl of slowly melting ice cream, swirling the caramel through the vanilla and making patterns while I lean closer so I can keep my voice down.
“It’s not that simple.”
“Why?”
Because I stole three thousand dollars from the guy. Oh yeah, and…
“His dad’s a cop.”
“So?”
“So… there’s no way he’ll let me press charges against his son, or his son’s best friend. Besides, Theo’s uncle is a top defense attorney. The most they’ll get is a little slap on the wrist, and then I’d be living the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”
“You’re already doing that,” Mick mutters.
I glance at her, about to deny that claim, until she proves me wrong.
“I knew you were lying about your phone. You didn’t leave it at a truck stop accidentally. You would never do something like that. But I couldn’t figure out why you’d be so careless until tonight.” Her expression pinches. “You threw it away because you were scared Theo would somehow track you down. Lemme guess, you haven’t touched your credit card either, have you?”
I dig my spoon into the ice cream, a metal flag on top of the mound. It slowly tips to its side like a sad, tired soldier.
“You don’t want to leave a trace or trail for him to follow. Because you’re terrified he’ll find you. Does he know where I am?”
