Fuck, that’s hot, too.
“Maybe I want you to,” I tease, taking a lick off the top of my cone this time. Slowly and deliberately.
“Maybe you want...” His eyes darken as he trails off.
I laugh, then wink at him, turn, and jump into the front seat of the truck. “Come on, hurry up, let’s go!”
With a sigh and a dramatic eye roll, Alex closes the truck door. Then he shakes his head as he jogs around the front of the truck to the driver’s side.
Theriver.
We usually come here a few times every summer and then sometimes in the fall, too, when the summer heat lingers into late September and early October. There’s this one spot that’s secluded, off a short trail through the trees, and we’re lucky that no one else ever seems to come to this specific spot, even in the summer when there are a bunch of people on the river.
It’s quiet and calm and exactly what I need after a day like today.
I’ve been hiding, pretending. The whole last hour or so since I got home from work, changed my clothes, went to Harley’s with Alex, flirted and teased him with the ice cream—I’ve been hiding how fucking awful my afternoon actually was.
God, I’m lucky I didn’t get fired. Yet.
I should have told him already—because honesty and communication and all that. But we were having such a good time, and I didn’t want to ruin it. Plus we’ve got plenty of other stuff we’re supposed to talk about.
I’m tired, though, and I can feel my resolve crumbling as all the energy it’s taken to keep pretending all day drains from me.
From his spot in the sand next to me, Alex shifts a little so his shoulder bumps mine. “You’re quiet. Everything okay?”
I close my eyes and laugh without humor. “You’re reading my mind now.”
“Huh?”
“I was just thinking about how I’m reallynotokay.”
He’s quiet for a moment, then he says, “Do you want to talk about it?” He sounds hesitant, though, as if he’s not entirely sure he wants my answer to be yes.
It’s a bit jarring.
I lean forward so my elbows are resting on my knees, and I stare out at the shallow water in front of us, flowing slowly at the edge of the sandbar. When I’ve finally worked up the courage to talk, I drop my eyes to my hands.
“My mom came to the library today, after you left,” I say, and my jaw clenches as I remember the conversation. The anger in her eyes. The resentment in her tone. The way she didn’t really let me speak while she berated me, loudly, in front of my colleagues.
The way Caitlin had to step in and ask her to leave when she started to raise her voice.
The way Sharon scowled disapprovingly at me and told me to get back to work.
Without meaning to, I ball my hands into fists and shove them down into the sand. It’s warm and dry, and maybe that should help me a little. But it doesn’t, really. The pain’s been gnawing at me for hours, and rather than go away, it worsens, knotting up my stomach and stabbing into my chest.
Alex clears his throat and scoots closer, his shoulder now touching mine. “What did she want?”
“Money.”
“The money for your car?” he asks softly.
I nod and force a couple of breaths. “She said she wanted it right then, like I just had five hundred dollars burning a hole in my fucking wallet and could just hand it over, there at the library.”
“What the hell?”
It was actually worse than that, and I clench my jaw again and let myself lean against him as I continue. “I told her I wouldn’t have it until Friday, and she said no, that’s not good enough anymore. She yelled at me in front of everyone and then threatened to report the car as stolen. And then she threatened to—fuck—” I’m shaking now, and I only manage to not panic more when his arm wraps around my shoulders. Tears slide down my cheeks, though,and I screw my eyes shut. “Sh-she threatened to send Patrick over to pick it up,” I force out, “because she said Patrick would know ‘how to convince me.’”
“Jesus.” I feel him shake his head, and then he presses a kiss to my temple and tightens his arm around me. “That’s horrible. What... or like, why?Why?”
