Annette:Are you all right?
Brooke:Yeah, totally. Just a lot on my plate right now.
Annette:How's your father doing?
Brooke:No major changes. He's watching the original Hawaii Five-Oh and Quincy, M.E. and that's giving him something to talk about. I'm just torn between being really fucking happy I can stream these old shows and really fucking appalled at the shit that was acceptable back then.
Brooke:Also, the hairstyles. Did flat irons not exist until 2004?
Annette:I wouldn't know. They don't work on my kind.
Brooke:You curly-haired girls are all alike.
Annette:What's happening with work? Do you have any big pitches or, I don't know, whatever happens in your world?
Brooke:I have a number of SEC filings coming up.
Annette:We're not talking about college football, right?
Brooke:Securities and Exchange Commission.
Annette:Right. That SEC.
Annette:Are you sure we can't convince you to come along?
Brooke:Not this time. Have fun at trivia.
Annette:Have fun on your morning walk.
Chapter Nineteen
JJ
Margin: the difference between the revenue produced by a good or service and the cost of production.
Brooke-Ashley Markham ruinedmy life on an unseasonably warm night last September. She dismantled all the good sense I had with the simple command of "Take off your pants" and tore down the years of distance I'd put between us since high school. Since kissing her once and wanting more.
Now, she ruined my life with her hair on my pillow and my dog's affections and text messages that simply proclaimed,I want you to fuck me tonight.
As if I was just a cock waiting around for some pussy to invite me in from the cold for the evening. As if the only things we exchanged were soft and hard, yes and no. As if we weren't building a new world from the old, broken one behind us. As if we meant to stop.
And I let her do this. I asked for it. I went willingly, knowingly.
Same as I did every time she asked, I responded with,I'll be home in forty-five minutes. Let yourself in.
Brooke-Ashley Markham was ruining my life, and I didn't want her to stop.
Chapter Twenty
Brooke
Secured Debt: a debt which is covered by specific assets in the event of a default.
JJ grabbedthe backs of my thighs, pushed them to my chest. My ankles bounced on his shoulders as he slammed into me again. My body was stuffed and folded like tortellini, and all I could manage was, "What the hell kind of position is this?"
He turned his head, pressed his lips to my calf. He got what he deserved there, as I hadn't shaved my legs indays. "The kind that shuts you up long enough for me to use you the way you like."
I reached for sheets, blankets, anything to keep me anchored. "I'm not sure I requestedthis."
