Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 185785 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 929(@200wpm)___ 743(@250wpm)___ 619(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 185785 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 929(@200wpm)___ 743(@250wpm)___ 619(@300wpm)
“Let’s decompress tonight after work. T.G.I.F.”
“Killian is picking me up and told me we would eat together tonight,” I say, getting into the elevator and pressing the button for my floor. Two other people slip in, one from my office – a guy named Josh in tech support who got me all the cardboard boxes for Ray, and the other a courier with a stack of packages.
“Oh, re-e-eeeeally?” She sounds positively delighted.
“I have to find out some stuff. Figure out what happens if Ray can’t…you know…”
“Maybe it’s better you don’t ask any questions. Maybe it’s better you just watch and see what happens. I tell ya, I’d like to be a fly on the wall.”
“I don’t know: all this is so, so strange. And I’ve done such a bad job at self-preservation, and-”
“I’d say. I’d also say, go with it for now. He got you away from Ray, he’s got you in his swanky pad. It’s swanky, right?”
“So swanky. Not that it matters remotely.”
The doors open. My floor. I get out after Josh, the tech guy. He smiles over his shoulder at me. I smile back and then we part ways as I head down the hall toward my cubicle, setting my coffee down.
Cammy pops up with a smile and a wave.
“Anything is better than the hell I’ve been living in.” I wave back.
“Violet.” Susanna’s voice has gone sad.
“I know. Onward and upwards.”
“That’s right. One step at a time and I’m here for you, every step of the way. You promised me the other night that we wouldn’t let anything come between us again and I’m tellin’ you, sister, I won’t let it even if you do. I’m not ever sitting back and saying nothing again. Okay, you gotta go. Call me tonight afterwards,” Susanna requests. “Let me know what happened. Okay?”
“Okay,” I say.
“Love you, girlie. I have a very good feeling your Ray days are over.”
“I hope.”
“Believe it, Violet. He’s done screwing with you. He was done when you told me you needed my help because I am determined to help you and he’s more than done now, because you’ve got tall, dark, rich, powerful, and gorgeous on your side and it looks like your ex man is afraid of him, so… yeah. You’re on the other side of this.”
“I hope so,” I breathe, hooking my handbag over the hook inside my cubicle.
Cammy is still smiling at me and my eyes are filled with wet. I do my best to hide it.
She notices and flinches, looking concerned.
“And best of all, I got to zap that motherfucker and fuck did it feel good to watch him hit the floor and do the funky chicken for a minute.”
Laughter bursts from me.
From Susanna too.
We laugh for a solid half a minute before she adds, still laughing, “Should’ve seen him. I don’t know how you could turn away and not watch that. You’re too pure for this world, bestie.”
“I love you,” I say, dashing tears off my cheeks. Tears that were very nearly spilling out of sadness are spilling with laughter instead. That’s what a best friend does for you. They turn the sad tears into laughing tears.
More than one set of eyes are on me with curiosity, so I sit down in my cube for a bit of privacy, trying to get my coat off with my free hand.
Cammy sits back down. I’m sure she’s all ears though.
“Call me,” Susanna orders. “If I don’t hear from you, I’ll know you’re getting a little something… or, hoping – a lotta something from Killian Coulter.”
“I’ll definitely be calling you.”
I end the call with a smile. If only she knew just how interesting things had gotten the night before.
But I won’t talk about that. It’s not like Killian meant to do that grinding against me thing, or pulling me against his body and nearly getting into my pajama pants. And I don’t want to say anything to anybody, even Susanna, because it feels like it’d be a betrayal of sorts.
And I don’t know enough about Killian to know if he deserves that kind of loyalty from me, but he’s done nothing but nice things for me so far, even if the whole thing is really weird and could be construed as me being held hostage. If it were that much of a hostage situation, wouldn’t he have taken Susanna, too, knowing she knows who he is?
I shake that thought off as I turn my computer on and sip my coffee. Best coffee I’ve had in a long, long time.
Weird that he had that creamer I love in his fridge, though. He didn’t use it that morning in my apartment. Maybe he has a girlfriend who also likes it.
“Nice to hear laughter from those lips,” Cammy greets, popping her head up from her cubicle once again. “It’s been a while, girlie.”