Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
“Wow. Congratulations, I guess?” I thought about it and asked, “Aren’t you worried, though, since the crowded club is where he probably caught it?”
“No.” She shrugged. “The chances I take every day are riskier than some virus. You know?”
No, I didn’t know, but I could understand her point of view.
The night of my welcome party had opened my eyes to just how different the worlds we lived in were. Ruen was very much the queen of her realm while I was still searching for a place in mine.
“VIP or not, I don’t know how I’ll feel partying all alone while you work,” I confessed.
“You won’t be alone,” she reassured. “I invited some people.”
That didn’t make me feel any better. Meeting new people? Gross.
“I don’t have anything to wear.” I gestured to my work clothes, which wouldn’t pass for club attire in any kind of light.
“Way ahead of you.” Ruen pointed to the outfit I’d watched her put together. “We’re about the same size, so it should fit. What size shoe do you wear?”
“Eight.”
“I’m a little bigger than you,” she said before disappearing inside her closet and returning with spiked silver boots. “Throw on an extra pair of socks, and these should fit.”
“Okay.”
My phone rang again, so I silenced it without looking at the screen. I already knew who was calling.
“Seriously, is everything okay, Twinks?”
I shook my head while staring at the floor. “Not really. My room got broken into last night, so Owen took me home with him after our date. It was only supposed to be for one night, but now he seems to think we’re ready to move in together, and nothing I say will persuade him otherwise. I can’t afford a room outside the Cove, and even if I could…he’d find me anyway.”
“So stay here,” Ruen offered easily. My head shot up, but before I could form words, she shrugged. “We’ve got a guest room Rem would love to put to use, and I’ve got no problem helping you kick your boyfriend’s ass if he tries to drag you back to his cave.”
I didn’t bother to correct Ruen’s assumption that Rowdy was my man. Instead, I said, “Ruen, I…I can’t ask you to do that.”
My loyal but crazy friend sighed. “You didn’t. I offered.” Without warning, Ruen stripped down to nothing but her thong, giving me a naked view of her perky tits and tight belly before sitting at her cluttered desk and powering on her laptop. “Feel free to use the shower if you need it,” she offered with her back to me.
I sighed before standing and wordlessly disappearing inside her ensuite. I shut the door, and after being real with myself for once, I locked it just in case. A moment later, Kehlani began to sing her woes about her lover choosing to be with a man over her.
I’d learned shortly after turning legal that clubs weren’t for me.
Dressing up to be herded into a shoebox-size room with no air-conditioning to stand around for hours in heels designed by someone who hated women just to be groped by men blowing their rent money for a chance to fuck and having random crotches shoved against your ass?
Yeah, no thanks.
After Dark made those hole-in-the-wall hot spots around my old campus seem like after-school programs in comparison.
The lounge had an entry age of twenty-one and up, so the crowd was more mature and less rowdy. Thanks to Ruen’s connections, I hadn’t been carded at the door or when the two waitresses brought over the free bottles to our VIP section as promised and agreed to mix any cocktail we wanted.
I was even able to dance the night away without being pressed by some broke loser looking to cop a few feels.
A girl could get used to this.
Ruen’s friends…not so much.
“Oooooh, guuuurl,” her most annoying friend drunkenly slurred. “Where did you get them boots?”
Breana, I think her name was, had taken advantage of the bottomless mixers and had gotten sloppy drunk. Her dress had long ago risen above her waist from stumbling all over the section. None of the friends she came with seemed to notice or care that their friend’s bare bottom was on display for the entire club to see. Their carefully painted faces were glued to their phones as they filmed and took pictures of themselves sitting in the high-dollar section for Instagram.
“I don’t know,” I replied as I swayed to the music. “I borrowed them. You’d have to ask Ruen.”
Realizing the guys in the section next to us were ogling and filming her bare ass, I reached over—no longer caring if it was my place—and yanked her dress back over her ass.
Some of those creeps sucked their teeth and called me a bitch under their breath, but I flipped them off and continued vibin’ to the music.