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Essie said, "I saw him day one. I'll ask."
"We've been waiting and there are other guys here willing to do stuff." Kiki was all upset about it.
I snickered but four steps out that door something registered in my brain. She was on the fifth floor. Oh my God. No. Essie's cousin? Shit.
He was her cousin, and he was coming to the wrong room. But...why...I needed to call someone. I needed to fix this for both of us.
I drove past the bakery that always smelled so good, but then got that taste in my mouth and almost wanted to vomit. "Yuck."
My body and mind made no damn sense to me. Hadn't since I was a kid and loved it. Then...when did it start getting gross and... puberty. That's when I... no.
Sometimes, it was like nothing made sense anymore. Like I lost entire chapters in the book of my life. That thought scared me to the core. Maybe I had dementia already. My great gran had it. Could I get that at nineteen?
Storm
This woman was making me straight-up fucking crazy. I went to the staging room and straight to that bathroom, turned on the water. In the shower at OBD, I did what I needed to do right away this time. I would need to unload the chamber next time. Maybe if it wasn't like a loaded gun, I could pay more attention to her, figure out what clue I was missing. She just...dismissed me again. Got hers and time for me to go. There was a soda can and candy wrapper in the trash again.
One much needed release and my personal clothes on, I looked at the contents and decided maybe I was supposed to bring her a refill. Maybe she was a real mystery. Still didn't know her name, but damn, I knew she tasted like...nothing I had tasted before. I put my catch me, fuck me shorts in my backpack. I had to wear them for this job one more week before we could ask permission to wear real clothes to work. I headed down the stairs with the trash bag in hand and found Essie and another girl in a heated conversation. I tried to side-step that, but Essie grabbed my arm and said, "Where have you been?"
I felt the brow arch, looked down at that grip and she loosened it. Yeah, when we were little, she could boss me like that. She was not my boss in this house. Room 405 was. I requested that, too in my contract. One girl and she had to be faithful to me if I was going to be faithful to her. We both had the right to move beyond that, but with written notice. I said, "Work."
"With who?" Busty, bleached-blonde girl put her hands on her hips and said, "Not in 504 for damn sure."
My brow went way up. Essie blinked, looked at her and she said, "We've waited for him for almost a month. Iesha is on cycle now and you know I will fall like dominoes."
So gross. Still, I looked at entitled girl and said, "No. And no plans to be there next week either." I held up the bag and said, "See, I'm working." I took it over to the larger trash and then wiped my hands together and glared at them as I said, "All done."
"Tor, wait." Essie was following me out the door as busty blonde went to that trashcan.
I turned. "What?"
She settled next to me, looked up and said, "Um...so...apparently, I made a mistake when I wrote the room number down." She gave me that oops smile. "So..."
"I'm settled. She fires me, I'm done. I can get pussy, Essie." I looked her up and down and said, "We both know that, right?"
She blushed, gulped, sighed a bit. Yeah, she wanted me. A part of me still responded to her. She was my first everything and she made damn sure of it. "Right."
"I have other shit to do this weekend. Find someone else to tend to them. Winston. He's here during the week, right? Put him with those bitches. They'll eat him alive." I smiled at her. Sure, day one, I would have been all about those two tag-teaming me if it meant I could pick one and settle the fuck down. Now. No. Now, I had something to prove to someone else. I was about to ask her name but realized that would give too much of my own feelings away to Essie. I had given her enough of me. I decided to go talk to someone else about it. My real boss.
"Are you coming to dinner after the game or..." Essie looked down because I was sure she could see it in my face. No. Hell no. After what we did. No fucking way. I went to college three states away to avoid ever spending more time than absolutely necessary with this woman. She said, "Mom told me to ask."
"I hope to be in 405 after the game, but if not, I'll be there Saturday morning for sure." I gave her a slight salute and headed off to my jeep. Psycho. No wonder Ripley left her crazy ass. I could not leave Essie. We were family after all. I tried to get away from Essie, but when my other grandpa died, my mom begged me to come closer, come to Crossbow. With Ripley's turmoil with football last year, stopping, then starting again, they eagerly accepted me as a transfer. It wasn't so bad on the team. With Titus as QB, we might get some real scouts this year. I still had a chance to go pro.
I drove away from Crossbow's fraternity row with one sorority house, the old XIX frat house that was now the OBD sorority house. When I arrived at Sophomore House, which was actually filled with juniors, I looked up at my home for the next two years. Guess they didn't think that shit through when they had the names engraved on the buildings. Whole frat filled with smart people doing stupid shit. Story of my whole life.
I dropped my bag in my room and headed to the Bunny House, which was actually now the equivalent of an office that Harper Harrington, the head of this operation worked and the upstairs rooms were rented to grad students and temporary guests. All XIX legacy, of course.
I knocked on the door leading into the kitchen and Ripley answered it. "Hey, man. What's up?"
I cleared my throat and said, "I need to speak to Harper...Ms. Harrington...what?"
He glared at me and looked me up and down and asked, "Why?"
"Because I have a situation and she's the boss." I was bigger than him. About two inches taller and at least thirty pounds heavier, probably more. Ripley was strong, fast, and excellent at his job on that field, but so was I.
"Daddy." My eyes went wide, but he smiled as the woman of the hour touched his arm and said, "Let him in."
He glared at me but stepped aside. I had no idea what his problem was today. I looked at her and she smiled up at me and giggled. "He's being—" He popped her on the ass, and she yelped, swatted at him and said, "Bad. Ripley, seriously. This is business." To me she said, "Come on, Stormy, is it?"
