Maybe I’ll rescue cats.
I have enough money; I don’t need to work. Maybe I could just rescue cats from shelters or the streets and give them a nice life until they go on to cross the rainbow bridge. Maybe I can steal Hugo, and we can move to Hawaii, live on the beach, and eat all the fresh seafood until we both weigh two hundred pounds.
But that doesn’t solve my current predicament. I have to get out of here, because I cannot face King again. He doesn’t love me, and I get it. I’m not going to wait around to become his crazy ex-girlfriend. Not to mention it would be humiliating to have him dump me while he’s supposed to be protecting me. I never should have fallen for him. Or slept with him. I’ll admit to my mistakes. But now I have to get out of here.
I’m actually beginning to panic, when there’s a knock on the hotel room door. I look through the peephole and see Bobby. God, I need a friend right now. Anyone who can get me out of here. I know Eric won’t help me, and he also won’t let me go off on my own. Not to mention he has a bad habit of reporting my whereabouts to the man I need to get away from.
Bobby will help me get out of here. I grab onto that idea with both hands and pull open the door like I was shot out of a cannon.
“Bobby!” I greet him with just a shade too much enthusiasm. “What a nice surprise.”
Eric is standing behind him and giving me a look that asks,Did you start dabbling with pharmaceuticals in the last hour and not tell me?I very subtly shake my head so he will let it go.
“Addie, are you okay?” Bobby asks.
“Of course I am,” I lie. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know. You just seem weird,” he says.
“I’m fine,” I wave his concerns off. Eric is openly scowling at me now. He’s not happy at all.
“Okay,” Bobby says. “If you say so.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Eric mumbles, but it’s loud enough for me to hear it.
“Anyway,” Bobby says, changing the subject. “I came to see if you want to sneak out and go get an ice cream cone with me like we used to when we were kids.”
Thank God my friend is back. I could kiss him. Although maybe not. That seems to get me into a lot of trouble with King, and until I’m sure he’s gone for good, I need to take heed and stay away. But also avoid scenarios that will get me spanked—in a good way or a bad one. So no kissing Bobby. Probably ever. Not that I want to.
“That sounds great,” I reply. “Let me just grab my bag, and we can go.”
“Sure,” Bobby agrees.
Eric, on the other hand, follows me into the hotel room and shuts the door behind me. We’re both awkwardly slapped in the face with the rumpled sheets on the bed and the smell of sex in the room. My face heats instantly. I hate that he knows I do it again and again. That I’m weak and let King walk all over me.
“Do you know what you’re fucking doing with this guy?” Eric snaps, and I want to cry.No!I want to shout, but I don’t.
“Moving on?” I ask sarcastically.
“Don’t be glib,” he retorts. “This is me you’re talking to.”
“And?”
“What the fuck, Addie? What are you doing? Running scared? I never pegged you for a coward.”
“Well, I guess today’s the day we can all be wrong about our instincts,” I snap back.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means I’m fucking weak, Eric,” I reply and let it all hang out—my anguish, my heartbreak, my stupidity. “I can’t say no to him. Over and over, I let him come back.”
“Addie—”
“And he does. Oh boy, does he,” I add. “And everyone kept saying he was going to hurt me, and I knew it too, but they said he’d be worth it. Don’t give up on him. And I hoped. I fucking hoped, when I shouldn’t have, because I knew. I fucking knew!”
“Honey—”
“So what did I do?” I ask no one in particular. “I let him in again, and I lost my mind to the orgasms—”
