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“Mr. Whit—”
Arching a brow, I placed the drink down in front of her.
“James, sorry, and thanks for the water.” She wrapped her fingers around the glass.
Leaning back on the cabinets, I folded my arms.
“I guess we better get this out in the open.” She groaned. “I really didn’t mean for those pics to go to you. I can show you the text with Eliza.”
“You’ve been here a million times. Shit, you practically live here every summer in a bikini.” I shrugged. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
Before, when she was just my daughter’s friend, she was only that. I’d never looked at her any differently. It wasn’t until we started having more interactions at her job that I gradually noticed how much she’d become a woman now. She wasn’t just Elizabeth’s friend any longer. We’d become friends as well.
To say my cock didn’t stir when she sent me those photos would’ve been a lie. I tried my best to get the images out of my head. Something about her pose and the way her shiny, tanned body contrasted against the teal and pink bikini, made me realize it’d been way too long since I was inside a woman.
Alicia and I stopped having sex nine months ago, three months before I even found out she was cheating. I hadn’t been touched by anyone other than myself since. For those three months leading up to the reveal; she always made excuses. I’m tired. My head hurts. My stomach hurts. And like a good husband, I respected that and even took care of her as much as she allowed. When in reality, she’d committed to her new boyfriend. The irony.
“Besides,” I continued, “I closed out of the text as soon as you told me they weren’t meant for me and to delete them.” Turning around, I took a beer from the refrigerator and twisted off the cap, laying it on the counter.
“Oh.” She sat quietly for a moment. “Beer so early?”
“Would a mimosa be any different?” I smiled, placing the bottle to my mouth, knowing how much she loved them.
“Touché.” Sighing, she rolled her eyes. “So, did you?”
With my lips to the rim, I paused mid-swig. I set it on the island with a small clank. “Did I what?” I asked, though I knew exactly what she meant.
“Delete them?”
“Maddie, I don’t think we should talk about it any longer.” I took another drink.
“Agreed.” She huffed, pushing her water back, and folding her arms on the island. “So then, let’s talk about how the vacation went other than that.”
Curling up my lip ever so slightly, I shook my head.
“That fun, huh?”
“God, it was horrible.” I let out an exasperated laugh. It was all I could do now. “But now everything’s in the open and I can start over, I guess.”
“It’s for the best.” She wanted to say more but was biting her tongue.
“It really is.” I respired. “I just want to thank you for listening to my shit for the past few months. I needed someone to talk to who wasn’t going to just tell me to kick her out on the street. Which is exactly what my other friends did the minute I told them when we got back in town, except Vinny.” I chuckled. “In true Vinny fashion, he offered to kill her.”
It was tough to admit I wanted to kick her out, but she destroyed me. So much so, that I’d become numb to it all after being sad. Still, people forgot she was the mother of my children and that would’ve been a dick move on my part, or maybe not. At the time, I did what I thought was right.
“Other friends?” She leaned forward with a wide smile. “So, we’re friends now?”
“I’d hope so.”
She lifted her glass in the air, beaming, “I can live with that,” before gulping her water down, only leaving the ice in the bottom.
“What about you?”
“What about me?” She twisted back and forth on the stool.
Leaning forward on the island, I propped on my elbows. “Your job.”
“Okay?” She arched a brow.
