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I finished it by drawing my signature heart with a ‘B’ in the middle. Fully satisfied, I headed back toward their antique fossil of an elevator, only to realize I didn’t know the first thing about working it.
Uh oh.
Luckily I didn’t have to. There was a metal security door with a push-open crossbar leading to a set of stairs, which I took all the way down to the street. As the lock clicked behind me, there was a fleeting moment where I imagined the bottom door locked too. I’d be trapped in the stairwell. Embarrassingly frozen in the middle of my escape, needing to be rescued from my walk of shame.
Shame?
Maybe it was like that, but it also wasn’t. For some reason I wasn’t the least bit ashamed at the night I’d just had. Yes, I’d had sex on the first date. But hadn’t most women? So what that it had been with three guys instead of just one. It was the same principal, just different… quantities.
I laughed my way out into the snow-filled street, fully confident I could probably convince myself of anything. The angry voice in my head was uncharacteristically quiet. Maybe it had just needed to get off.
Not far from the curb my Uber was already there, chugging away. I verified the driver, smilingly introduced myself, then settled back into the leather seat for the five-minute ride back to the coffee shop.
I tried telling myself it was all for the story. That last night had simply been part of the most intensive research I’d ever done. But already I knew it was more than that. I could feel it in mind, my body, my soul.
And as much as I didn?
?t want to admit it? I could feel it in my heart, too.
I knew right then that I would’ve done it anyway. That the way they’d wined me and dined me, and charmed me from beginning to end? Even without the importance of my looming deadline I would’ve jumped each and every one of them, pinning their hard bodies beneath me as I impaled myself on them with a breathless sigh.
Adam. Dante. Trey. They were all so goddamn perfect. And not just physically either, but in ways that made them fun and instantly likable. Any one of them would make a fantastic boyfriend. It was almost a shame I’d met them like this, hiding behind white lies and a false persona.
The car slowed to a stop in front of my own. I paid, got out, and hopped into my little ride. It wasn’t much, but it was mine, and that was all that mattered.
For the next minute or so I debated the merits of getting coffee, since I was already at the scene of last night’s crime. I decided to save the money. I could brew a nice pot at home, while I took a long, steamy hot shower.
I can still feel them, I thought to myself. On me. In me…
It was all true. I could still smell the scent of their bodies, pressed against mine. Feel the heat of being sandwiched between them as they rocked me back and forth, sharing me in every which way…
I turned into my apartment complex, parked, then walked to the door on two shaky legs. Halfway there, I stopped abruptly.
Something had caused me to look up. To pause, mid-step.
There was something taped to my front door.
A message?
It didn’t look like a message. Not at all.
Maybe a pick-up slip, from the post office.
It didn’t look like that either. Instead, it looked long and dark, maybe black. And it looked crumpled. Corroded…
Brushing aside my fears, I gathered the rest of my courage and took the final few steps toward my front door.
Then I saw what it was… and dropped my keys to bring both hands up to my mouth.
Eleven
BROOKE
It took me ten minutes to search out the number. I hadn’t dialed it in half a year. I’d deleted from my phone months ago, after a thousand unwanted phone calls and unanswered text messages.
“Hey baby,” the voice came through, smooth as a midnight DJ. “I knew you’d call…”
My nose wrinkled. I wanted to reach right through the phone and strangle him.
