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“Thank you, friend. You have helped me much this day.”
“I’m here for you anytime. Good Fortune to you.”
“Good Fortune.”
The phone pings several more times in quick succession. Frowning, I looked down at it. Little bubbles pop up, but they are not from Juliet. They are all from someone named Bull.
Where the hell are you brother?
If you don’t fucking get back to me soon, I’m going to skin your ass alive.
WHY THE FUCK AREN’T YOU ANSWERING??
I pull back in distaste. It seems the people Robbie associated with were just as distasteful as himself.
“Computer, disconnect phone.”
The phone goes black and I toss it back into the pile of earth junk.
Chapter Seven
Juliet
I stare back down at the message on my phone, barely able to believe it. Is it really that simple?
After three years of hell, Robbie just lets me go?
A joyous laugh bubbles up and I fling my arms out and spin in a circle in my kitchen. Oh God, am I really free? Really, truly?
Then I look back down at my phone, stricken. What if he’s just fucking with me?
What if it was a test of some kind and I was supposed to beg him not to leave me?
My joy turns to dread, sinking like a stone in my stomach.
I hurry over to my front door and lock the new lock. Robbie doesn’t have the key. Then I give a short, bitter laugh. Do I really think that’ll keep him out for long?
I’m breathing heavy, my heart racing in my ears as I back away from the door.
The text did say he wanted to see other people. Not that I imagine he really ever stopped. But what if a new woman really caught his eye? I certainly haven’t been any fun to live with these past couple years.
It’s terrible to be happy about the thought of him with someone else. To be happy that some other woman will be trapped in the hell I just escaped.
My forehead sinks against the door.
You can’t control what he does. You never could.
I can sit here feeling guilty about things I can’t control or… The joy starts to bubble up again.
What if it really is different this time? It already has been different. This is the first text he’s sent in days. And he hasn’t been around at all.
None of that is like the Robbie I know.
He might have really moved on. He hated making the drive down to my place. It’s an hour away from the MC compound. And he was always complaining that my cooking was shit, that I never dressed sexy enough for him, that I was shit in bed. He constantly called me boring.
Honestly, there was no reason for him to stick with me as long as he did except I knew he got off on the power of having me under his thumb.
I sit down and try to get some work done, but I’m too giddy to focus.
And before I can really think it through, my feet have carried me downstairs and across the street.
I get there just in time to see Shak at the door of the flower shop, flipping the sign at the door to Open.
“Hey,” I call out. “Are you closing early?” Maybe he was just accidentally flipping the sign the wrong way.
His face lights up when he sees me. “No, I just had to step out for an errand. I am back now.”
“Oh.” I laugh a little. “And you didn’t just close early for the whole day? It’s only thirty minutes until five.” He usually closes at five.
He’s still just smiling at me, that gorgeous white-toothed smile of his. He shrugs. “Some people like to come by at the end of the day. I’d hate to disappoint them.”
Why do I have the feeling he’s talking about me?
Just the idea makes me brave and crazy. Absolutely certifiable. Because the next words out of my mouth are, “So, that drink you mentioned the other day? My boyfriend and I broke up and… I’d actually really like to go get that drink with you.”
If I thought he was smiling before, it’s nothing to the breathtaking grin he shoots me now.
Chapter Eight
Shak
My plan worked. I have been full-grown for 281 years yet I feel like a child as I eagerly wait out the half hour for Juliet to return to the flower shop. She said she would be right back, that she just needed to go up and change.
I told her that she did not need to change, that I liked her just as she was. She laughed and said I was sweet and then still left.
I stand beside the door, eyes trained on her apartment. Every time someone exits, my heart quickens. And every time I am disappointed.
But then, just when I feel like I cannot stand another turn of the spinner around the clock, she emerges. The leap in my chest is such a foreign sensation. I put my hand to it and rub at the same time I swiftly exit the flower shop, flip the sign to Closed, and lock up.
