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“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “Maybe his mom got sick and he had to go take care of her.”
“He still could have called.”
“I know.”
“You know what, though?”
“What’s that, hon?”
“I’ve got you, and I’ve got June, and I’ve got some amazing friends, and I don’t need to be sad about this anymore. In a couple of weeks, I’m starting graduate school. I’m pulling myself up by my boot strings and I’m doing something incredible for myself. I think that’s something to be proud of. Don’t you?”
“You know it, Odessa. You know it.”
I have a feeling that this wound is going to hurt for a very long time, but somehow, I think it’s going to be okay. I’ve had plenty of one-night experiences and it’s almost always been with people from Anchored, but usually there’s some follow-up. Usually, there’s aftercare. Maybe we’ll have breakfast or meet up for lunch a week later. We always text and we’re always polite to each other at the club. There’s a certain code of conduct that comes with sleeping with someone at Anchored, and I think I had expectations tha
t simply weren’t met.
And that’s the problem with not communicating.
He might not even know that I wanted a text.
He might honestly just not have expected any of that, so can I really be mad at Jasper for that? Do I really want to spend the rest of my life being upset over some random guy?
No.
I don’t.
“Okay,” I say to Piper. “I’m ready to get up and face the world.”
“That’s my brave girl,” she says, and somehow, when it’s Piper who says it, it doesn’t seem like she’s being condescending or mean or rude. She’s just being herself. She’s just being the sweetest damn girl in the world, and I am lucky to call her my friend.
I stand up and Piper smiles.
“Breakfast?” She asks.
“Shower first,” I say.
“You know where it is.”
I nod and head out of the bedroom and down the hall to Piper’s guest bathroom. I close the door behind me, start the shower, and climb in. The water hits me, but I don’t cry. Not anymore. Not today.
I’m done crying over Jasper.
It’s a new day, and I’m ready for a fresh start.
Everything is going to be okay.
Chapter 4
Jasper
Three Months Later
Spring break is always a really quiet time at Anchored. All of the professors and college students who are members are gone, but so are the members who are parents. They all have these incredible vacation plans for the week, which means that Anchored is basically empty, save for the two dozen or so members who actually show up.
It also means this is when June has everything deep cleaned, repaired, and new equipment brought in, new classes designed, and new employees brought in.
Tonight, she’s training a new bartender she’s bringing in. While June has been the bartender at Anchored for years, she wants to move into other aspects of the business. She loves owning the sex club. We all know that. Now that it’s grown so much, June wants to be able to be a little more hands-on when it comes to training, recruiting members, and even performing, and to be honest, I think she wants to do a little bit of playing herself.
