Chapter Seven
Ezra
Ihadn’t left my apartmentin four days. I was hardly sleeping, uploading saved content to my OnlyFans, and lying on the couch all day watching Christmas movies. This felt worse than when I hadn’t spoken to CC for months. Like a part of me was ripped out of my body without permission. I knew I could reach out to him, but I kept hearing what he had said to me.
“Maybe one of your fellow camboys can use it the next time he comes by to pay you a visit.”
Did he think that I was some sort of whore? Did CC think so little of me? Was that why he wanted to mess around? Because he thought I was easy? It wasn’t like CC couldn’t get with some pit bunny at the track, although I knew he wasn’t like that. This whole thing made me sick to my stomach.
Speaking of my stomach, it grumbled, reminding me that I skipped dinner last night. I hauled myself up to go see what I had left to eat, and there was a knock on the door. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and most of my friends knew better than to just show up. I couldn’t think of who would just show up unannounced, so I was leery about who it would be. Afraid to even get my hopes up that CC would come back to me.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“Seth.” Well, those hopes were crushed.
I moved to unlock the door to let him in. “Could you have not just called?”
“Babe, please.” He waltzed past me in a huff, leaving the scent of Chanel N°5 behind him. “Like I didn’t try that. Are you ignoring—You look terrible. Your bruises look worse than the last time I saw you.” His blue eyes zeroed in on my face.
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks. It’s so nice to see you, too. You look great, by the way. Did you do something different with your hair?”
Seth started to shrug off his coat. “So, how’d it go with your original bestie? Did you kiss and make up? Are you friends again? Please tell me yes, because I need some good tea today.”
“No.” I felt my eyes burn with tears as Seth moved into the living room. “Wait!” I tried to warn him, but it was too late. I heard his gasp before I caught him.
“Why does it look like Christmas threw up in here?”
I dropped my head back. Fuck. “Uh, I was going to decorate but lost my mojo.” I dragged myself into the room as he spun around to face me.
“Let’s try that again.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Because I don’t believe for one minute you lugged all these boxes out here. You’re obsessed with the holiday, but you can’t lift all these.” He nudged a box of decorations with his foot.
I gasped. “I work out.”
“Not enough to carry this,” Seth pointed out. “He was here, wasn’t he? Your NASCAR driver.”
I rolled my eyes as I flopped down onto the couch. “Maybe.” I watched as Seth sat down next to me. “It was good until it wasn’t.”
“I’m going to need more information than that.” He waved a hand at me. “Also, these movies are so bad. How can you watch them?”
“Are you sure you’re gay?”
“Since I was born, babe.”
I snorted. “Do you want some coffee before I launch into this? I think I have some stale-as-hell cookies we could eat.” I suddenly wished I was dressed in something other than a pair of pajama pants and the Brooks Racing shirt CC gave me. I still wasn’t bothering with makeup, but at least I had managed to take a shower this morning.
“Just the coffee will be fine.” Seth tilted his head. “Are you really okay, though? Your eyes are telling me a story I really need to hear.”
I stood up. “Peachy keen.”
As I went into the kitchen to start the coffee, I realized how much I didn’t want to talk about CC again. If I started this conversation with Seth, I would start crying. He would drag it out of me one way or another, and I had already been doing that for the past four days. Seth knew all about what had happened with us that night at the club, how I ran away, and how horrible I felt about it. He was the one who’d suggested I talk to CC after I’d ended up in the hospital.
