Fuck, maybe I should take up smoking again.
“She’s special,” he says.
I exhale and nod, watching as the smoke swirls and dissipates around me.
“You know,” he says, “when I was your age, I used to fuck anyone and everyone I wanted. I never wanted a relationship, the thought of just being with one woman was such an alien concept to me. Now I’m older, all I want is to meet someone special, settle down, I’d even want to have kids. But I have this reputation now, all the girls in there, they only see me one way. They want the biker boyfriend, they want danger… they don’t want all the other stuff. But I can’t meet someone outside the club, they’ll never understand the lifestyle, the fact that I could end up in prison after just one mistake.”
“Hmm…” I say, wondering why he’s telling me this.
“It sounds like you had the best of both worlds with Beth. Why did you let it go?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
He sighs. “Everyone has a choice.”
We finish our cigarettes in silence, his words echoing in my mind… but I don’t have a choice…
Chapter 24
Elizabeth
WhenImakemyway downstairs, I can hear Slim on the phone to Pretty Boy; it’s on speaker so I get both sides of the conversation. I know I shouldn’t, but I pause on the step to listen.
“You should have seen these girls,” Pretty Boy says, I can practically hear his grin through the phone.
“I can imagine,” Slim says.
“We all ended up in threesomes; I can’t even remember the last time I saw Tipo so fucking happy,” Pretty Boy says.
Bile rises in my throat; they all ended up in threesomes… Diablo had a threesome.
I must make a noise because Slim quickly says, “I’ve gotta go.”
“Catch up later,” Pretty Boy says, before the line goes quiet.
I hear Slim’s footsteps moving towards me, so I continue to make my way downstairs, putting on a brave face.
“Morning,” I say, hoping he can’t tell my smile is fake.
“Hey, you ready to leave?”
“One sec, I just remembered I forgot a book, I won’t be long.”
I run back up the stairs, grabbing some clothes and a make-up bag, shoving them into my backpack.
“Good to go,” I say, meeting him by the front door. “By the way, a friend from college has asked me to stay with her tonight, she’s an art major and needs a model for her photography portfolio. So no need to pick me up after class or drop me at the diner tonight, I’ve arranged to have the night off.”
“Sure,” he says, and I’m grateful he doesn’t ask any further questions.
It’s not a complete lie… I do have a friend at college who’s an art major. Christina’s in the year below me and we met at one of the campus Pride events. We’re not close, I’d never be invited to stay at her place, and she sure as hell has never asked me to model for her… but still, at least she exists.
I know the bartender, Johnny, and he keeps me company between serving drinks as I sit in my usual spot at Platinum. Even though I haven’t been here in six weeks, nothing has changed; still the same type of people, having the same types of conversations.
The word ‘threesome’ blared through my mind all day, like an alarm going off, a constant reminder that I’ve lost Angel forever. I’m clearly not even a blip on his radar if he’s busy fucking multiple girls at once. So here I am, in my lucky blue dress, which Angel has never seen… I don’t know why that’s important to me, but it is.
It’s knee length and slinky, and it makes my tits look amazing, I’ve never ‘not pulled’ in it. I kept my hair in a braidall day too, so now it’s extra curly. I’m one of those girls who flirts using her hair for sure.
Usually, I’d have picked someone out by now, but I must be feeling fussy tonight because no one is catching my eye… or maybe it’s that none of them look like the person I really want to be dragging into one of the restrooms… No. I’m not going to think about him. But typically, as soon as I finish that thought, an image of Angel with two faceless women fills my mind… Fuck it.
