Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 70574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
With a shrug, I answered, “I lied. It’s the fad now. I think I started it.” With a harsh laugh, I added, “I should have patented that shit—I’d be worth millions now.”
“You can’t patent lying, dick head. That shit started back in the Garden of Eden.” He kicked back and propped his feet on the coffee table, probably just to irritate me.
Baker was a slob. I was a neat freak. He loved irritating me with his messiness. I used to think it was funny. Now I didn’t think anything was funny. I shrugged again. “Anyway, there’s no way either you or Seth ever thought I was going to paint the walls. You both knew better, so stop with the lecture.”
“Yeah, we knew better.”
“How did the assignment go?”
“Good. Glad it’s over since I was needed here more than there.” He pointed to the bottom of the couch. “How long is that stupid cat going to be afraid of me?”
“Probably as long as you keep calling her stupid,” I retorted. “Why are you here, Baker? I prefer being by myself right now.”
“Uh…yeah…not gonna happen.” He took his feet off the coffee table, leaned forward, and asked, “So, what’s the plan here, Ari? Are you going to hide out for the remainder of your life? Maybe go into the witness protection plan? Donate your body to science? Help me see what’s going on and what the future looks like.”
“Those are mighty cute words coming from the man that laid up in a bed, whining like a baby, refusing to eat or bathe, pouting like a professional when you thought Seth didn’t want you. Sorry, but everything sounds hollow coming from you.”
“Ouch. That was mean, even for you. And for your information, I never went more than a couple of days without a shower. Samantha wouldn’t allow it.” He stood up, grabbed a can of paint and started shaking it. “Seriously, Ari, what’s the plan?”
“Don’t have one. I asked Eli to leave Colorado. Has he done that?”
“Nope. He’s still around.”
No more information. Great. He wanted me to beg. Well, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“Yes, he’s asked about you—called us five times a day asking how you were.” He looked over his shoulder. “Apparently you shut off your old cell and didn’t give anybody the contact information except for me, Seth, and your dad?”
“Yep.”
“Very mature, Ari,” he snipped, knowing the words would piss me off more than anything else he could have said.
“What, Baker?” I snapped. “What do you want me to do? Forget that he lied to me? Forget that when I did the same thing to him, he disappeared out of my life without ever giving me a chance to explain myself? Is that what I’m supposed to do because I’m sorry, I don’t have it in me. Actually, no, Eli doesn’t deserve it.”
“But you did deserve it?” he asked as he poured some paint into the clear plastic thing he’d put into one of the metal trays. I’d wondered what those were for. Wait! What did he say to me?
“What in the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Calmly, he picked up a roller and put it into the paint. “Just that you got mad at Eli for doing the exact same thing that you are doing to him now. Is this some sort of revenge, a way to make him suffer since he made you suffer back in college?”
The paint slid on the walls has he moved the roller up and down. I watched, hating him for stating the obvious. When he’d finished with almost one of the walls, I said, “You aren’t going all the way to the top or bottom of the wall.”
“Ummhumm, you cut in with a paint brush for that part,” he murmured. “So…about the other—is that what you’re doing? Because if it is, punishing the person you love isn’t the best way in the world to let them know your true feelings about them.” He tossed another look over his shoulder. “And, yes, I’m an expert on love, so you need to listen to me.”
“I don’t love him anymore,” I lied. “Not after what he did.”
“Surrre, you don’t,” Baker laughed. “You’ve loved him since day one, Ari. That’s how men like you and I are—we fall, we fall hard, we fall hard and fast, we fall hard and fast and forever. There’s nothing wrong with that. Actually, it’s really cool…except when we do something stupid that ends up hurting us and the people we love.”
“Drop it, Baker,” I begged. “I’m hurting enough without you adding to my torment. I thought we were friends.”
He dropped the paint roller into the tray and sat back down across from me. “We are friends, Ari— that’s why I’m here. You’re hurting. Eli’s hurting. It’s crazy that you’re both hurting and all you have to do is communicate with one another and have a bit of faith in each other. Do you love him, Ari? Tell me if I’ve read the entire situation wrong. If you can honestly tell me I’m wrong, I’ll drop everything and Seth and I will make Eli disappear.”