AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It won’t be long before he pulls me into the deep with him.
I close the door between us and fall against it, sinking to the floor in a puddle of feminine emotional overload.I’m in trouble.
twenty
Wrenlee
Cash’s music is growing on me—ish. Devils Heartbreak is good. Actually, by the crowd they amass every time they play, they’re more than good. Probably great, even. But they aren’t my style. I’m not really drawn to songs with lyrics about bad family drama, a son never measuring up, a mother never present, never loving. Of cutting words that haunt deep in the night, slicing clean, a wound bleeding. I don’t want to connect with family trauma. I’d prefer to shove my head in the clouds with a romantic country song, or maybe even someCarrie Underwoodgirl-power, then the angry-sad I feel when I let myself listen to Cash’s lyrics.
Still, I can appreciate the following they’ve garnered for themselves. I can also appreciate a night out with Candace. She’s quickly becoming a friend. Maybe even a good one.
I wonder if when this game between me and Cash is over, I’ll be able to keep her for myself.
Sitting back in my seat, I set my hand over my stomach, swallowing hard. It’s not the first wave of nausea that hits me, but it is the strongest so far. My stomach is cramping hard, and I’m starting to feel warm.
“You good, girl?”
“Honestly?” I press my lips tight against another roll of nausea. “I don’t think so.”
Concern twists Candace’s expression. “Flu?”
“I was fine earlier.” A cramp has me pitching forward, elbows slamming on the table as I catch my head in my hands, wincing. “I don’t know, maybe the flu.”
“Are you going to be sick?”
“I can’t tell,” I moan. “Probably.” Gathering my strength, I pull myself from the booth. Sweat slicks my spine even as I shiver. “I’m going to get a taxi home.”
“Not in your state.” She follows me from the table, flinging her purse over her shoulder. “I’ve got Ian’s keys. We’ll take his car.”
My belly pitches and pebbles rise on my skin. “I might get sick in it.”
She waves me off. “He has the money for a detail.” As we pass the bar, she snaps her finger at the bartender and calls, “Mindy, babe, can I bum a few paper bags from you?” Candace winces at me. “Just in case.”
Mindy, a stunning girl with pixie-like features and bright violet hair cut short tosses a stack of paper bags onto the bar. Candace snatches them between deep blue painted talons as Mindy appraises me with one brow raised. “She okay?”
“Probably the flu.” Candace studies me again, then asks, “You eat anything weird? Could this be food poisoning?”
I shake my head. “Just a latte at the library with a girlfriend.”
But if this was from the latte, Alice would be just as sick. I’m suddenly annoyed with myself for not getting her number so I could text her and check in.
“Before coming here?”
I nod, grip the bar, and fight another wave. Every part of me feels weak and hot. “Yes.”
“Cash her man?” Mindy asks.
“Yep,” Candace replies.
“Maybe you should tell him. I think she might need, like—a doctor or something.”
I wave off the mention of a doctor. “I’m just sick. A flu.” I blink hard. My vision iswonky. I want to lie down. “Maybe food poisoning. Doesn’t matter. Can you take me home?”
Candace holds eye-contact with Mindy for a beat before she agrees, “Sure, babe.”
“We’re calling an ambulance if you don’t stop vomiting!” Candace shouts through the door I’ve closed and locked.
I’ve been sick in my life, but neverthissick. There’s nothing in my stomach left to vomit, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still trying. My body is bent over the toilet bowl and I’m heaving small amounts of bile between dry convulsions. My head is pounding in a way that is not natural and I just want to lay down on the floor and absorb the cold from the tile into my overheated body, deep into my bones.
