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1
FYRE
The pub’s bathroom stinks of urinal cakes and the piss it’s supposed to mask. After seven whiskeys, it’s difficult to ignore the smell, but the thought of breathing through my mouth makes me sick.
I should go home.
Lizzy is waiting for me to tuck her in. Read that bedtime story about the bear who gets lost in the woods.
Stupid fucking bear.
I zip up, glance over at the sink. My dick’s cleaner than any of those surfaces, so I take my chances and leave without risking an e-coli infection.
Gotta get home. Read Lizzy’s story.
One stupid bear. A horde of wise woodland creatures to teach it a lesson about asking for help when you need it.
Not a bad message, but what kid would stick up their chin and chance it alone in this world?
Lizzy would. My daughter is brave, and stubborn, and smart, and adorable…just like her mother.
I spot my work colleague, Matthew, and veer over to him. I was already headed for the door, but…manners. Lizzy and Emily will still be there in a few minutes. Matthew, however, might take offense if I vanish into thin air.
“Gideon!” Matthew waves me over with a sloppy grin on his face. He’s had two tequilas for every one of my whiskeys. And he’s probably going to drive home.
Fucking idiot.
But Matthew is my boss’s nephew, and if I can find a way to climb this slippery career ladder any faster, I’m going to take it. Lizzy might need braces. And I’ve been promising Emily a proper two-week vacation since our adorable, brave, stubborn little darling was born. If it doesn’t happen this year, there might be a divorce in my near future. Then it would just be me and Arrow, the third lady of the house.
Matthew blinks at me, his expression dropping. “Wha’s so funny?”
I wave away his concern. “Not you,” I say, and I’m marginally impressed that I’m not slurring.
Emily won’t divorce me. I wouldn’t let her. I love her too much.
I rub a hand over my chest at the pang the thought brings. “Gotta go,” I tell Matthew, reaching out automatically to pick up the whiskey someone left where I’d been sitting, and down it. “Family needs me.”
“But you haven’t told me about Amanda yet.”
It’s my turn to blink at him with glassy eyes. “Amanda?”
Matthew nods enthusiastically, emptying another tequila between his lips. He looks away, motions at the bartender, and then focuses on me again. With difficulty. “Yeah, Amanda. You said she was a cheerleader?” Matthew’s gaze becomes nostalgic. “Always wanted to fuck a cheerleader. So cute. So flexible. So fucking slutty with their short little skirts and—”
“No, no, no,” I say, resting my hip against the bar. I should be leaving, but I won’t have disinformation about me floating around the office. “You’re thinking about Amber, and she wasn’t the cheerleader. She was the chick from the catholic boarding school.”
Matthew lets out a leery chuckle. “Damn, Fyre, that’s even better.”
“The cheerleader was Brittany, and she was—” I pause to swallow down the tequila Matthew hands me “—one of the best fucks I ever had.”
Except for my wife. Sex with Emily is mind blowing. Intimate, sensual, erotic…I feel like I’m leaving my earthly body when I’m with her. And I’ll never admit this to anyone, but the sex isn’t even the best part.
It was what comes after, when she’s nuzzled against my chest, staring up at me with her big blue eyes. Our connection is otherworldly.
I clap a hand on Matthew’s shoulder. “I really gotta go.”
Matthew checks his watch. I don’t know why, but there’s something about the gesture that doesn’t sit right. He’s plastered, sure, but the way his eyes narrow, it’s like he’s calculating something. I check my own watch. “Almost nine,” I tell him, in case he’s struggling to read the time. “Long past my girl’s bedtime.”
“Yeah, guess you’d better get home,” Matthew says, turning away to motion at the bartender again.
