Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Core took his hand from mine but only to slide his arm around my shoulders, holding me right where I was pressed to his side.
“This is Hellen,” he introduced.
She tore her gaze from him and looked at me.
One could say, he had a type.
She had ass, she was brunette, she was average height, but her eyes were dark brown. She was either only a few years older than me, which would be impossible if they broke up five years ago and he was with her for three, or she took care of herself. She looked twenty-five but was probably closer to thirty or even older.
Oh, and it was worth a repeat, she was really, very pretty, which would stand to reason because Core was gorgeous.
Still.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi,” she replied, cutting that short word off so it sounded like a clipped “hiyee.”
I didn’t get ugly vibes, I got pained ones.
“You doing good?” she asked Core.
He lifted up the basket that held precisely four baubles we’d agreed on, and that was it.
“Getting ready for Christmas,” he told her.
He wasn’t rubbing it in, he was being informative.
Even so, I feared those baubles would sprout wings like a golden snitch cursed by a Slytherin and attack her, such was the way she was staring at them.
I nearly reached across Core to make him lower his arm.
“Uh, great, uh…yeah. Christmas,” she stammered.
“You good?” Core asked, finally dropping the basket.
“Yes, uh…” She pulled herself together. “Yes. Real good.”
Core’s eyes moved over her head through the store. “Where’s your man?”
In a small voice, she said, “We broke up.”
Oh boy.
This was around the time I kicked him with the toe of my boot, just a tap, but he needed to get with the program.
She was rethinking her decision of letting him go.
I wondered if she’d heard the direction the club went after what happened, and now she wished she’d stuck it out.
I wondered if he just gave good boyfriend, like he did with me, and she missed him, regardless.
I’d never know, and I was grateful for that.
“Well, I should get to it. Lots of presents to buy,” she said.
“Nice to meet you, Kiki,” I put in quickly, trying to sound low-key and genuine, not snarky.
“You too,” she replied to me, then up to Core. “Good to see you…” She swallowed. “Good to see you happy, Dusty.”
Oh man.
She called him Dusty.
Dusty, straight up, was a cool name. It was kind of cute, kind of cowboy, the first Core was only rarely (such as, when he was winning at pool), the last he just was a modern version of, considering his bike riding and vigilante ways.
I realized in that moment that I’d unconsciously vowed to myself never to use it because his mom called him that.
However, right then, I got peeved because now I couldn’t use it since that was what Kiki had called him.
“You too,” Core said.
You too?
She didn’t look happy.
I didn’t indicate that to Core in any way.
I pasted a smile on my face when she glanced at me before she walked away.
Core turned back to the fluffy Christmas trees.
He then repeated, “No,” took my hand and started to guide me to another display.
“Are you okay?” I asked, watching him closely.
“Sure,” he answered.
“I…well, when you first saw her, you looked stunned.”
“Haven’t seen her in a while, used to see her every day. She kicked me when I was down, even if I deserved it, it still hurt. So, yeah, I was stunned.”
He stopped us, let me go, and picked up a little polar bear who would look adorable wandering through some fluffy trees and snowmen.
“Do you want to go get a coffee and talk?” I offered. “Or maybe bag this and come back out tomorrow?”
He ignored my questions completely.
“Not the feather trees, the white cone ones, the snowmen, and these,” he put the polar bear in our basket, grabbed another, smaller one (momma and baby, perfect!), and finished, “And some candles.”
He had an eye for Christmas décor. That would work, it was both of us, unlike those fluffy trees, which were just me.
I was impressed.
It was hard to focus on the impressed even as he dragged me to the snowmen.
“Core,” I called.
He looked down at me.
And growled, “Babe, let it go.”
Okeydokey.
I didn’t like that much, but I wasn’t going to cause a scene in CB2. Furthermore, CB2 was not the place to have this conversation.
Core grabbed the snowmen, pulled me to the trees, picked three of varying sizes (and threw a clear one in with the white, which was rad, since they were hollow and I could put a string of those tiny LED lights in it and the whole arrangement would sparkle), and then off we went, him leading, me following, so he could add some black candlestick holders and white taper candles.
It was going to be a sweet arrangement.