Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Caleb aims for a quick getaway by whispering farewell into Octavia’s ear, but she foils his endeavor by asking him to introduce his date to her guests.
By ‘guests,’ she means me. Her eyes quick dart to me exposes this, not to mention the vein in Caleb’s neck that works overtime when he notices the direction of her gaze.
The room is plagued by uncomfortable awkwardness when Caleb shifts on his feet to face me. “Jessie, this is Tash.” He thrusts his hand at the blonde cozying up to his side like we’re in the middle of winter. We are, but come on, the tension radiating out of Caleb makes it seem like a summer day in Florida. “Tash, this is my neighbor, Jessie.”
“Jess,” I correct him before accepting the hand Tash is holding out in offering. From the angle of her hand and the weakness of her shake, I can’t testify that she wasn’t expecting me to kiss her hand. “You can just call me Jess.” I keep my eyes locked on Caleb during the last part of my greeting. I loathe nicknames in general, and although I once liked Jessie, it rubs me the wrong way now.
“That makes sense,” Tash says with a giggle that replicates a hyena being mauled by a shark. “Imagine if someone lengthened my name to Tashie?” She pierces my ears with a shrieking laugh before shoving her finger down her throat and making a barf face. “Gross.”
“Yeah.” I match her maturity by rolling my eyes. “Gross.”
Confident I won’t have to fake the face she pulled if I sit across from Caleb and her for a second longer, I excuse myself from the kitchen before merging into the lion’s den of single men in the living room, certain the maim of a man in heat will be nowhere near as damaging as the lifeless look in Caleb’s eyes when I forced them to lock with mine.
No one wants to be looked at like they’re hated, especially not by the man they once regarded as higher than a friend.
“That wasn’t too bad.” I shoot Octavia a riled look, forcing her to say, “Okay. It could have gone better.” While knotting the rubbish we collected from her living room in a big black trash bag, she murmurs to herself, “But you can only work with what you have, and that was all we had.” Her whine makes me smile when she asks, “Isn’t Seattle meant to be full of hot, successful entrepreneurs?”
“I thought so, hence me moving here.” I accept the bag of rubbish from her and head for the door. “But I’ve yet to find one.” Caleb made a killing his first month of stripping, but I’m not exactly sure if you can call strippers entrepreneurs, so I left him out of the equation. “I’ll be right back.”
I’ve galloped down the first flight of stairs when Octavia’s “thank you” reaches my ears, then even quicker than that, I merge into the alleyway where the industrial bins are housed.
With the clock only striking twelve twenty minutes ago, I’m not surprised by the number of voices in the alleyway. However, two aren’t giving the happy, cheerful vibes you’d expect of a young couple bringing in the new year.
“Why do we have to come back here again? All my friends are at Franks.” Over-glossed strands of flawless hair fall away from Tash’s face when she lifts her head to peer at the kitchen window of Caleb and Octavia’s apartment. “Everyone up there is boring.”
Caleb laughs. It isn’t his happy laugh. He sounds pissed. “Your friends think opening beer bottles with their butt cheeks is entertaining.”
Completely missing the annoyance in his tone, Tash laughs before playfully slapping his chest. Mercifully, Caleb moves her hand so fast, I don’t have to disclose my stalking stance.
“Octavia is also my cousin—”
“And the most boring of the bunch.” My mouth gapes when Tash continues, “A wet blanket has more personality than her.”
“I’d rather be a wet blanket than have people thinking I’m a slut.” My hand shoots up to cover the gaping hollow in my face when Caleb’s grumbled reply has Tash’s hand harshly connecting with his cheek.
After waiting for Caleb’s head to return to its original position, Tash shouts, “You’re an intolerable ass, Caleb Henslee.”
“Never denied it,” I murmur under my breath, anticipating Caleb’s reply, so you can picture my utter shock when he neither denies Tash’s claim nor stops her from racing for the cab idling at the end of the darkened alleyway.
He watches her leave before he heads for the open foyer door of our building. I halt, swallowing mid-gulp when he suddenly stops walking. A second before his head cranks my way, his hand falls from the back of his neck, and the vein I mentioned earlier tonight thuds into overtime.
He can see me lurking in the shadows. I can feel his eyes boring into mine, but just like he let his Tash leave without protest, he lets me stalk off scot-free as well.