Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 67355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“If that happens I’ll cool down with the sorbet for dessert.”
“Wow, your mind is already on dessert. For a thin guy you seem to be able to pack away a lot of food.”
“Would you believe I used to be a competitive eater in college?”
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not. I won enough competitions that it helped pay for some of my tuition.”
“How did you get involved in something like that?”
“I was a broke college student. To enter most of these eating competitions is free or a small entry fee. So a lot of times, I joined these contests so I could eat. And I found I was good at it.”
“Wow. I leaned a new fact about you today.”
“If you’d like to know more about me, I’m an open book. And I’m very much like it if you got to know me better, Zora.” He reaches across the table and takes my hand in his.
No. No. No.
I was hoping he wouldn’t do this tonight, or at all for that matter. I snatch my hand away. “I’m sorry, Owen. I have to run to the bathroom really quick. If the waiter returns before I come back, could you order the sea bass before me?”
He pastes a smile on his face that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Of course.”
I hurry to the lady’s room to put some distance between us. There’s a sitting room, right before you go into the toilets and I take a seat on the couch.
How was I going to let him down gently? I don’t often find myself in positions to turn men down.
In fact all my past relationships, they would abruptly end and each time I was giving an excuse that didn’t pass the smell test. I figured myself to be unlucky in love. With all my training in psychology and helping others sort through their problems, I know the best way to handle this situation is to be direct and upfront.
Giving him a fall sense of hope would drag this out and make things worse in the long run.
Once I figured out my strategy I headed to the door and nearly collided with a tall, elegant brunette, whose outfit screamed money, unlike my outfit I got at a department store on sale.
She looks familiar, and when our eyes briefly lock, I freeze. I’d know those eyes anywhere. Katherine Champion.
Of all the people to run into, it just had to be this woman. I have no reason to be intimidated by her. Jackson is a grown man capable of doing what he wants with his life. I neither need nor desire her approval. But like her son, she has a way of looking at a person that makes them feel two inches small.
I’ve never had a conversation with her in my entire life but I’ve seen her in the local papers when I was growing up.
She had to be in her mid to late fifties but she didn’t look a day over 35. It was no wonder Jackson was so good looking. I had the sudden need to get away from this woman, and I didn’t understand why.
“Excuse me.” I try to walk around her, but she steps in my way.
I raise a brow.
“No, you’re not excused.”
I did not want to engage with this woman so again I tried to walk around her again. And again, she blocks me.”
“What is your problem?”
She sneers at me. “You’re my problem. You think I don’t know how my son has lowered himself to sleeping with some fat black whore? Maybe he’s scratching that itch he had for you back in high school but this is real life.”
I wasn’t sure whether to smack her in the mouth or ask her to clarify what she meant about Jackson having a crush on me in high school. But then I realize, if I take the first option, I’d end up in jail. And the second one, wasn’t worth discussing with her.
“Are you finished?” I finally ask, trying to hold on to the last bit of my patience.
“No, but you will be if you don’t leave my son alone. I can make things very uncomfortable for you if you don’t.”
I roll my eyes. “Oh please. This isn’t some soap opera where you can threaten me to get your way. I don’t give a flying fuck about what you think, and I suspect neither does Jackson. He never visits you. So I suggest you worry about yourself.
She narrows her gaze until her eyes are practically slits. “You think you’re special because Jackson is giving you attention. But he’ll get tired of you like he has the other women he’s been with. He’ll see you’re looking for a handout like most of your kind. And he’s going to dump your ghetto ass.”
I ball my fist and it takes the will of a thousand gods to keep me from slamming it in her face.