Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 32105 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32105 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
I clasped my bra and stared at the phone, waiting for her to finish that sentence, trying to ignore the sting of what she’d implied. I wasn’t sure if it was unintentional or if she was seeking a reaction, baiting me into a discussion I refused to have.
“Get some rest and call me before or after you’re done tomorrow.” I ended the call before she could say anything else and braced my arms on either side of the sink.
The headache I’d been trying to ward off was back in full force. I really should have sent her to voice mail. It would have been nice if she acknowledged that I was at least leaving the house for something other than work, or a grocery run. I’d been nothing but encouraging when she told me she wanted to reconnect with her estranged family, even if they weren’t my favorite people. But if her motive for doing so was to replace what she’d lost, she would be wasting her time. No one could ever replace that.
I stepped into my dress and shimmied it down over my rear. The stretchy, velvet fabric hugged me like another layer of skin. I checked my reflection and was okay with what I saw from the neck down. My body hadn’t changed much the past year—since high-school really. That’s when my breasts rounded, and my slender frame developed a subtle curve.
I’d always been a bit of a tomboy, so I suppose it was fitting that I blossomed so late.
I hung my towel on a hook and had just placed my toothbrush in the holder when a soft thud carried from down the hall. Straightening immediately, I turned my head and listened to see if the sound would come again, but the house remained silent.
I stepped into my heels and grabbed my phone off the sink before going out into the hallway. There were only three doors up here. The one leading into the bathroom, Molina’s to my left, and the spare room full of boxes that the old tenants had chosen to leave behind. The noise had come from there. I moved closer and stopped to see if I’d hear anything else.
And I did.
It sounded like wind.
Brow pinched in confusion, I flung the door and softly swore.
One of the windows was wide open. I flipped the light on and set my phone on a box. As I moved towards the window, I noticed an overturned ashtray on the floor. Some ashes and cigarette buds were peppered across the windowsill, soaking wet because there wasn’t a screen in this window.
“Goddamnit, Molina.” She wasn’t supposed to smoke inside.
I fought with the window to get it back down. It took some pressure and both hands, but eventually, I got it to shut. Afterward, I cleaned up the mess and then swapped my purse with a silver-chained clutch before locking the house up.
All in all, the entire process took me less than thirty-five minutes. As I was getting into my car, I looked over at the house across the street to see if there were any signs of life aside from the one light that never seemed to be shut off.
There were only three houses on our road, mine being the sole fixer-upper. I liked the peace that came with it. I’d only met one set of my neighbors so far, The elderly couple that lived at the very end of the road. They were a sweet pair and kept to themselves.
I looked towards their home and noticed the truck was missing from the driveway. As I got into my car, I wondered where they’d be at this time. Maybe James played poker like Grandpa used to. The thought made me smile.
Instead of going to one of the finer establishments as I normally would, I was coming straight for the dive bar that sat at the edge of town. I’d clocked it on my radar within the second week of moving here when I was trying to learn the layout of the town.
I figured that anyone after the same thing I was and wanting some discretion would be at a place like this versus the more popular hangouts. The last thing I wanted to do was cause issues or become a staple for town gossip. I needed a scandal like I did a hole in the head.
Molina and I had chosen Black Pine because it was small and widely unheard of. It was supposed to be our last move. At this stage in our lives, we desperately needed to establish some kind of stability. For the past year, we’d been all over the place and I think that’s what contributed to everything feeling so unendurable sometimes.
Readjusting to what most people’s everyday normalcy was hadn’t been a cakewalk for either of us when all we’d known was an inconspicuous lifestyle of wealth and havoc, but I was confident we could live semi-average lives if we truly tried.