Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“Simone completely seduced me,” I tell Xander, just like a kid trying to get one up on her. Xander is loving this and he’s got out a pad of paper, scribbling notes furiously.
“Van leaves his dirty underwear on the floor and it’s fucking gross,” she snaps with a raised finger pointed at me.
Xander snickers.
“Seriously?” I turn to Simone to ask her dryly. “You’re boiling our relationship down to dirty underwear?”
Simone makes a slight screeching noise in frustration and her eyes are flashing with anger. “We don’t have a relationship. You made that clear last week.”
“Well, we could have one if you’d get over your snit for two seconds so we can sit down and talk about this,” I point out calmly.
She gnashes her teeth at me and points to Xander. “Sit down with a reporter. A stranger. And hash this out between us?”
“Yup,” I say, but I’m seriously wondering how stupid this idea actually was now that I’m seeing her reaction. I thought she’d be charmed. I also thought she’d be proud of me for opening up so thoroughly.
“Simone,” Xander says as he holds his pen over his notebook. “Without thinking about it, when did you realize you were falling for Van?”
My head twists fast to catch Simone’s answer. I know I told Xander I’d prefer he not ask her direct questions, but I’m apparently failing and need the help. She blinks once but says, “When he pulled me out of a strip club I was dancing at. Wait…you can’t print that. My parents will die.”
“What about that made you fall for him?” Xander presses.
Simone grimaces and places her fingertips on her temples, where she rubs what I’m thinking is a pretty big headache by the look on her face. When her hand drops, she shrugs. “Um…I don’t know. I guess because he was jealous and I realized it was more than sex between us. Shit…no, wait…you can’t say that either.”
Before Xander can ask another question, Simone turns to me and I wince from the censure in her voice. “This may have been the dumbest idea you ever had.”
My heart flops over at the frustration in her voice. She sounds perilously close to tears, and I don’t want her crying over me ever again.
So I step into her, palms to her cheeks, and I bend so my nose is almost touching hers. “Fine. But will you please sit by my side while I let Xander interview me then? I want to tell my story, and I’d really love it with you sitting by my side.”
For a moment, Simone just stares at me with veiled eyes. I can’t read a damn thing. But to my immense relief, she finally nods and leads us over to the chairs. I sit down on the couch and pull her down right beside me. I resist the urge to wrap my arm around her.
Xander takes a chair adjacent to us and pulls out a recorder. “Do you mind if I record our conversation?”
I shake my head and Simone remains silent. He turns it on anyway, and then sits back in the chair, crossing one leg over the other.
“Where should we start?” Xander asks me.
I look back to him without an ounce of fear, shame, embarrassment, or hesitation. “Start at the most important part. Ask me when I fell in love with Simone.”
Chapter 28
Simone
I jerk sideways and my eyes fly from Van to Xander.
Xander is chuckling. “Okay, Van…when did you fall in love with Simone?”
My jaw drops as I turn to look back at Van. He settles into the cushion, crosses one leg casually over the other, and flips his arm across the back of the couch behind me.
“There were feelings always there,” Van says, and my jaw drops further. I feel like I’m dreaming, or maybe I’m in some even weirder version of The Twilight Zone. I’m listening to Van bare his soul about me to another man.
A reporter.
For a magazine.
And I’m hearing it for the first time as he tells this reporter.
I shake my head, hard enough I hope to perhaps jar things back into perspective.
“Take for example when Simone nearly got crushed under our kitchen refrigerator. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more scared in my life, and well…you know a lot about my life. There was a lot of scary shit in it.”
I let out a quavering breath, realizing that Van is actually talking about how his feelings developed for me. And while he’s answering another person’s question, I also get he’s telling me this as well.
“Or maybe I started to fall for her when she kissed me in a dive bar to shake her brother up, to prevent him from making a mistake. I was pissed she did it, and I never told her this, but I also admired the hell out of her for doing it. For doing something out of love for her brother.”