Sex was simply a release for me as it always had been since I’d started hooking up with guys at sixteen. I’d never had any lingering feelings outside of that and certainly not after a fucking handjob.
I squeezed myself again.
But...
Oh, fuck me.
My phone’s ringtone went off again, Lila most likely calling back to pep talk me up about this date. No matter how enthused I tried to sound on the phone when she’d first called, she probably saw right through my bullshit.
That was the problem with having sisters. They were too good at calling things out that my brothers would’ve simply left alone.
Dragging myself up from my bed with another sigh, I shuffled over to my dresser to retrieve my phone. The number that flashed across the screen wasn’t my sister’s however, and was some random one that I didn’t have saved in my phone.
Curiously, I answered. “Hello?”
“Hey.”Avery.
My heart jumped. “Hey...”
“Sorry, I got your phone number from the shop after they told me you went home early. Hope that was okay.”
“No, no. It’s fine. Everything okay?”
“Uh.” There was some noise in the background, the sounds of voices and something like a pager going off that passed by rather quickly. “Yes and no.”
Was it my place to ask?
I’d had this man’s cock shoved down my throat not even two days ago—didn’t that award me some kind of privilege?
Fuck it.
“What happened? Where are you?”
“The hospital. My ex-wife’s daughter had a really bad fever that wouldn’t break, so she brought her in. She’s hooked up to a bunch of machines right now that are helping her breathe. They think it’s RSV.”
My eyes widened. “Jesus. That’s rough.”
“Yeah. She’s being a little trooper, though.”
I could hear the pride in his voice, sending another dagger through my chest. I tried to ignore it, knowing that having a sickkid far outweighed my own insecurities at the moment. I could dwell on my own feelings later when I wasn’t listening to the sounds of a hospital in the background.
“Glad to hear it. You with her mom right now?”
“Yeah, we—” Some kind of alarm went off near him, causing him to curse softly under his breath. “Hold on.”
As the other line went silent, I found myself wandering back over to my bed and sitting down on the edge of it. It was only a few more long seconds that passed by before the other end clicked and I could hear Avery’s soft breathing again.
“Sorry about that,” he said. The background sounded much quieter, his voice mirroring it. “This place is a madhouse today.”
Such was city life. There was no rest for anyone, let alone the medical staff at a hospital.
Avery running off without a second thought to be with his ex and her (their?) kid showed the type of man he was. And as much as it pained me to think about, those were the markings of a great father. That little girl was lucky, as was his ex.
“Hey, I’m sorry about all of this,” he said, surprising me. “I didn’t—I wasn’t planning on leaving you like that.”
“No worries,” was all I could think to say to that. I wanted desperately to read between the lines, but refused myself from going any further than what was at face value. “I’m glad you’re there to support them.”
He scoffed. “Yeah, well the fiancé’s not. He had all sorts of things to say to my ex this morning when she called to update him. He’s a good guy, don’t get me wrong, but he has a tendency to get jealous whenever I’m in the picture.”
