Page 60 of To Love the Stars too Fondly

Cliff made no move forward. “Look, my life’s not been going too well. I’m on probation after a call from my coach, and I have a feeling your girlfriend has everything to do with it. But I can let it go if you and her do a little something for me. There’s this guy—Ray. I owe him money. If she can pay off the debt, we’re square. I’ll even get over you, okay?” He shrugged. “Try to, at least. You’re not easy to forget, and neither is that pussy.” He winced. “But I need money.”

The threat was apparent. But so was his gross misunderstanding of my relationship status. “I don’t have access to Alex’s money,” I said slowly, hating how my voice quivered. Maybe I should’ve kept that stupid necklace. “How much money do you need?”

“The better question is ‘how much money is she willing to give for me to leave you alone?’”

Fear threatened to choke me. I could only breathe in bursts. “I don’t know what you want me to say,” I managed. “Maybe I can help, but like I said, I don’t have access to—”

“Well, damn. Did you two break up?”

My silence was apparently answer enough.

Cliff seethed out a sigh, glaring now like the predator he was. “Look, I’m in deep shit. Here’s what’s going to happen instead: you’re going to come with me. You fuck the guy to soften him up, I get more time to pay, and everyone’s happy. Deal?”

My lip trembled. Damn my tears; they fell silently.

“Oh, don’t give me that crying shit,” Cliff continued. “It’s not like you weren’t a whore when I met you.”

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I just stared through blurred vision, wishing this nightmare would end.

And it could, it could…. This was what saying no brought, wasn’t it?

Say yes, and it’s done.

“Look, I’m not leaving your apartment without you,” he said. “You’ve got a mom, right? It’d be pretty messed up if she got home while I was still here.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“What was that?”

I tasted bile. I tasted blood. I couldn’t breathe, but I spoke, nevertheless. “Yes, I’ll come with you.”

“That’s what I like to hear. I’ll even drive you home after, okay?”

I sobbed as he wrenched me to my feet. When I tried to reach for my purse—and, by extension, my phone—he pulled me back. “You don’t need that.”

I prayed for someone, anyone, to see him shove me out the door, to call for help.

But although it was a beautiful evening, no one was here. No one was home.

He pushed me into his passenger seat.

Cliff drove until the sun set and darkness cloaked both the sky and my resolve.

I remained silent, curled up in the front seat. The same couldn’t be said for him.

“Listen, Terra….”

There might’ve been remorse in his trailing words. I said nothing, letting him wallow.

“I-I’m not proud of any of this,” he continued. “I mean, I’d rather it be me you agreed to sleep with.”

I felt his eyes, no longer on the road. I willed him to crash. Even so, I kept track of the street signs. Maybe it was stupid; maybe it was hope.

“And, hell…if you did, I could rethink this. You know I’d never actually force you. I really am a nice guy.”

Cliff’s delusions ran deep, but he was far from the only man I’d met to think the same way. I kept my gaze out the window, refusing to give him the satisfaction of my attention.

But I stiffened when his hand settled on my thigh.