Chapter 23

Kate

My right foot and leg are bouncy, my nervousness way too obvious. I keep swallowing. I can’t focus for shit. My eyes look outside over and over. I’m giving myself away, but I can’t stop it.

“Too much caffeine?” Mary Beth asks from across the small table.

“Yeah,” I say way too loud, my eyes way too wide.

Mary Beth inches back in her chair. “Whoa. What are you hiding?”

My face burns hot. Red hot.

“What?” I cry out.

“Ever since Chad was here, you’ve been acting suspicious.”

“Me? What? No. Not at all. I’m in shock. That you’re here!”

“Okay, tone it down,” Mary Beth says.

“I’m being serious. We haven’t seen each other in years. I miss you. I hated the way things went with us. It was bad. When you left. That was all my fault, Mary Beth.”

“That’s the past. Look at the present. You’re the one doing great in life. You’re getting married. Do you have a date yet?”

“No,” I blurt out, again, way too fast.

“Oh. Should I ask?”

I swallow hard.

“Oh,” Mary Beth repeats. She takes a deep breath. “Damn. I know it’s hard to have someone show up unexpected and just want back in your life…”

I’m actually used to it right now.

Corbin got out of prison. Guess what he did? He showed up to my house. He’s been in command of me since then, telling me what to do, when to do it. You should see my left boob right now, Mary Beth. I know I would joke with you in the past about liking guys getting rough with me. You always laughed at me. You always made it out to be a weird thing. Or a bad thing. That’s just who I am. What I always wanted. And now I have it.

It’s so wrong. So incredibly wrong.

But, Mary Beth, I feel so alive!

And, yes, I’m being weird.

Chad took my car. Corbin fucked me in the back seat last night!

“Hello?” Mary Beth asks.

I shake my head. “Sorry. Oh God, you must think I’m insane right now.”

I sigh and touch my forehead.

“No, you’re not insane. Just guilty as sin.”

“Guilty?” I ask. “Of what?”

“You tell me. You don’t want Chad driving your car. I wonder why. Are you smoking again? Is that what it is?”

“Maybe,” I say, quickly finding a possible lie to grasp onto.

“Ah, I get it. You think he’ll smell the cigarettes. Or find them.”

I nod.

“He means well, right? Taking your car to get checked out after he noticed something with the bumper. That’s romantic, isn’t it?”

“I guess so. I’m more than capable of doing it myself.”

Mary Beth meows and hisses at me.

“What?” I ask.

“That’s a little bitchy, isn’t it? Or is Chad just like that all the time? Hovering and smothering?” Mary Beth leans a little closer to me. “Weren’t you into that though? You wanted someone to… you know …”

She wiggles her eyebrows.

As though it’s a game.

“ That does not happen with Chad,” I say.

My tone is evil.

I have to be careful.

I take a deep breath.

“Okay, Mary Beth, let’s just change the subject,” I say.

“No, I get it. Relationships are hard. That’s why I’m so bad at them. I had to get out of that city because of a guy. A guy name Chris. If you want me to talk about him, we’re going to need to take this from a cafe to a bar.”

I smile and swallow hard.

A drink sounds really good right now.

Because my fiancé showed up unexpectedly to point out some damage on my car and insisted on taking it to a local garage to get looked at. Just in case.

Right now, there’s a really good chance my fiancé is talking face to face with the man who fucked me last night.