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“DoI have some sort of sign over my heart, or something?Please shit here…”
“No, honey. This isnota Winter problem. This is an Aleck problem,” Dottie says as she sets a steaming mug of hot tea on the side table next to my chair.
“Yeah, he may be one of the hottest men I’ve ever seen, but the guy is a prick.” Keith plops down next to me, laying his hand on my leg. “Want me to beat his ass?”
A chuckle bubbles in my chest but doesn’t reach my mouth. “No…” I think about my next words, trying to decide if I want to give them life. What have I ever gained from ignoring the way I really feel? “Full disclosure, I’m hurt. I liked him...”
“Aww, Win, I wish I could hug you right now,” Sondra’s voice fills the room, making my head snap up in confusion.
“Sondra?” My eyebrows dip as I volley my attention between my two best friends.
Dottie holds up her phone, showing Sondra’s name on the screen, the time clock counting on, approaching twenty minutes.
“Uhh, she’s been on the phone thisentiretime?”
“Well…” Dottie grimaces. “Yeah. When you walked through the door, I was talking to her. So I put her on speakerphone so she could hear. You just kept talking and talking, cleansing yourself of this big thing youthoughtwas a secret.”
I narrow my eyes on her. “What do you mean, this thing Ithoughtwas a secret?”
“Honey,” Sondra’s voice comes through the phone, again. “We knew you were boning the billionaire.”
“What?”
Keith squeezes my thigh. “We’ve known the entire time. Also, we saw you getting fingered from the balcony—”
“WHAT?”
“Yeah.” Dottie laughs. “As if it wasn’t obvious enough with the way you answered the door.”
“Oh, for the love of God and his disciples!” My cheeks heat to an unhealthy shade of red, no doubt, because suddenly the room feels too hot to be comfortable in.
“Also,” Sondra chimes in from the phone. “We know you guys boned in the bathroom at dinner.”
“Oh, my god!” I gasp, letting my head fall into my hands.
I’ve never done anything like this. Have an affair with someone I’m really not supposed to. Hide it from my friends. Give head in a public restroom. But Aleck swept me up and took me by storm. He entered my life like a goddamned tornado, ripping my life from its roots before I even knew what was happening.
“We didn’tbonein the bathroom…” I lift my face from my hands to see my two grinning best friends staring back at me. I can all buthearSondra’s grin over the phone. “I just gave him a blowjob.”
Laughter erupts in the room, making me follow suit. I knew my friends would make it better. They always do.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you guys. I didn’t mean to lie to you. I just… Well, saying it out loud would have made it real, and I guess I didn’t want it to be. I didn’t want to admit that I’d even give someone like Aleck a second glance, and that I actually”—I grind my teeth—“havefeelingsfor him,” I grumble the rest, rolling my eyes.
Keith removes his hand from my thigh and snakes it around my shoulders, pulling me into his side. “We know, honey, we know.”
“Thank god that old bitch’s funeral is tomorrow,” Sondra says. “I’ll be there in two days, Win. Two more days. Five more and this will all be over.”
“You can stay here the rest of our stay,” Dottie offers.
“Shit, you guys.Thisis what I didn’t want. Sondra’s getting married! I donotwant my drama overshadowing her big day.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sondra says. “The wedding is a wash, anyway.”
Keith tilts his head as an epiphany dawns on him. “Why aren’t we Facetiming her?”
“Because it was a covert-op mission.” Dottie smiles, lifting an eyebrow.
