“I'm 30, April is 29. Why?”
“I feel like I just need to know everything. Every little detail. If you want to know, I’m 24 and Mason is 32.”
Shane drank some beer. He didn’t give a flying fuck how old Mason was.So, Tinkerbell was 24. That’s okay. That’s not a big difference, 30 and 24.Why was he even thinking of this?
“Tinkerbell, I did some digging today. I should have done this ages ago, but you nudged me out of my rut and I’m grateful to you for that. I’ve got messages between April and ‘Tina.’ Tina is the name of her cousin but the Tina in the messages is clearly a man, and I’m guessing it’s your man. They don’t use each other’s names, but yours comes up. And mine. There’s photos and one video. You don’t have to look. I can summarize for you if you want,” he offered, hoping she’d choose the less painful option.
Anna looked up. She sipped her drink and straightened in her chair.
“I want to know everything. He obviously deletes the messages from his phone. Bring it on,” she said.
Chapter 9: Shane—King and Queen Petty
Anna was silent for what seemed like an hour but was probably less than a minute.
“I want to know. Don’t sugarcoat it.”
Shane pulled his phone out and scrolled to the folder that contained the screenshots, photos, and video. He slid the phone over the table.
Anna flicked through the images, her face morphing from steady neutrality, to anger, to clear heartbreak.
“Oh, I just love this one Shane, don’t you?Babe, this is getting harder and harder to hide from Anna. I feel so guilty. (April) Don’t feel guilty. You’re allowed to change your feelings and move on. You’re bright and ambitious; it’s ok to not want to be tied down to a small-town, minimum-wage earning dance teacher with a high school diploma.”
Tears slid down her cheeks.
“He doesn’t even defend me. He just saysI guess,” she wept.
“He’s an asshole, Tinkerbell.”
Her face tightened and he knew she’d come across the nudes.
“Ugh, you’d think he’d at least get hard before taking a dick pic. It looks like an uncooked breakfast sausage that’s been left on the counter for four days,” she scoffed through her tears.
“Wow, I guess his type is athletic. She has great ... pectorals. We’re so different. She’s tall and elegant, I’m fucking dumpy. I guess he really did want some strange,” Anna said bitterly.
“There was absolutely nothing wrong with what he had at home. April never sent me nudes. She was so self-conscious about her tits. She’s been begging for a boob job for ages now, but I told her she was perfect the way she was and to take some time to think about it,” Shane muttered.
“Well, clearly Mason doesn’t mind. God, how can he be with two women at once?”
Shane stilled. The asshole was definitely still fucking Anna.I wonder if April knows.
Anna’s finger moved across the screen just as loud screeches and moans filled the cozy silence of the restaurant. A middle-aged couple at the next table snapped their gaze to Anna, who appeared to be watching a very second-rate Gonzo porn.
Anna’s tears turned into a strange bitter bout of laughing. She looked at the couple and smiled.
“Sorry, just watching my fiancé giving head to another woman.”
The couple shifted their eyes uneasily and returned to their meal. Anna stopped the video and returned the phone to Shane facedown.
“She often fake it like that? She sounds ridiculous. Even if she wasn’t moaning like a bad porn star, I’d know it was fake. Mason can’t eat pussy for shit. I used to run through choreography in my head while he was down there.” Anna laughed again, but it was lacking any warmth.
It was the bluntest he’d seen Anna. In all his interactions with her, he’d seen brief signs of anger and tough talk, but she was really laying it all out now. In that moment, he hated Mason even more for throwing away what he had. For not giving her pleasure. For not taking every opportunity to worship her body, because Shane knew that he would. He’d take her in every way. He’d make her moan for real.
“I love how she thanked him for the ‘rage fuck’ he gave her a few weeks ago. I’m so fucking stupid. He never rage-fucked me. Always calm, always vanilla, always a ‘gentleman.’ No passion, I guess, just duty. What if I wanted to be tossed around a bit? See a bit of enthusiasm and aggression?” she snapped.
Oh baby, I’ll fuck you any way you want. I can definitely throw you around.
“And what’s with all the ‘babes’ and ‘sweethearts’?” She continued. “He never used a pet name for me. Not once.”
