Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
That is, of course, if I’m not already pregnant…Raising a child while going to school full-time would be quite a difficult task.
“He just wants you gone so he doesn’t get caught.” A female voice behind me causes me to turn, and to my surprise, I see Gretchen standing behind me. Her hair color is different now, a very dark brown, and she’s wearing a nondescript black dress with a pair of black heels.
“I…excuse me?” I reply out of reflex. There’s something strange about seeing her here. She doesn’t work for Jude anymore, so what’s she doing at this event? Is it possible she got herself a job working for another one of the men here tonight? But how could she after being fired by Jude? No, something else is going on.
“That whole ‘firing me’ thing? That was all just a ruse.”
“A ruse? A ruse for what?”
There’s something about the tone of her voice that has me on edge. It’s like a terrifying confidence of someone that has a terrible truth they’re about to reveal.
I glance over to the group where Jude was but see they’ve moved deeper into the crowd. I can barely even see them now. When I look back at Gretchen, she’s nearly on top of me.
“Let me ask you something, Penny. Why do you think he refuses to be seen with you at the office?”
My breath catches in my throat. “Because we don’t want people to talk—”
“And why will he only see you very late at night at his place?”
“Well, he’s very busy—”
“You’re his side piece, Penny,” Gretchen snaps, her voice filled with venom like a snake. “I’m his main girl.”
Gretchen’s words penetrate my chest like countless needles all searching for my heart. I gasp, trying to collect myself, but my adrenaline and anxiety are already high from being at this high society event, and hearing this from her has me on the verge of a complete breakdown. I lean against the table with one hand to steady myself.
“His…m-main girl?” The words burn coming out of my lips.
“That’s right,” she replies. “I wanted to tell you sooner to save you from this. But I thought maybe you were just trying to sleep your way to the top. But when I saw you were getting attached, well…”
Suddenly I remember seeing Gretchen that night when I was riding the subway home and just how awkward she acted when our eyes met.
“You…you’ve been following me?”
“I wouldn’t say following,” she replies with a slight smile. “Watching out for you. And it’s a good thing I did, too. Because I can see you’re falling for him, Penny, and that’s only going to lead to disaster. You see, Jude and I have an arrangement. He provides for me, and in return, I let him see other girls on the side.”
“You what?”
“But I can handle it.” She smiles. “The other girls he sees can too. But I can see, Penny, that you? You will never be able to handle something like that.”
She looks at me with the same pitying eyes my mother used to look at me with when she was trying to teach me a hard life lesson that I simply did not want to learn. I’m on the verge of passing out and quickly grab the bottle of cranberry juice and pour myself a glass and chug it, just to get something in my system.
“Look, sweetie, look,” Gretchen says, taking my arm and turning me. She points through the crowd, and I follow her finger to see an absolutely gorgeous woman in a white, lowcut dress showing ample cleavage chatting up Jude, who has a broad smile on his face. “You see? That’s his next you.”
Yeah, I’m going to throw up.
“I-I have to go,” I stammer, jerking myself away from Penny’s grasp. I grab my purse and race to the door. I have to get out of here and fast.
It all makes sense now. The secrecy of our “romance,” why we couldn’t be seen together at the office, why he sent a car for me so late at night, and why Gretchen put on such a convincing performance when she left the office that day.
He played me.
He took the naïve girl who’d never been to the big city and told her everything she needed to hear just to get in her pants. Just to be the first man to have her.
And I fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker.
9
Jude
When I finally escape from Jennifer Biggins and her kiss-ass pitch trying to get me to do an interview for the new online magazine she’s starting and make my way back to the drinks table, I find Penny’s seltzer glass but no Penny. Assuming she’s gone to the bathroom, I wait a few minutes, but after she doesn’t return, I start to get worried, so I go find Carlos.