Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 147136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 736(@200wpm)___ 589(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 736(@200wpm)___ 589(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
She had a point. I owed her a lot, and since I did the shitty thing by keeping this from her, the least I could do was share a few details.
Even the private ones.
“Remember that guy I accidentally dialed thinking he was Wes?”
Her eyes widened.
“Him?”
I nodded.
“He texted me the next day and it just …went from there. Quickly. Texting and talking, every day, sometimes multiple times, for hours.”
“You gotta be kidding me,” she murmured.
“It was fast but it was easy,” I continued. “Like, really easy. I could talk to him about anything. He knew about Marcus, I told him, and he was good about taking my mind off of it, making me laugh and stuff. And the things he would say to me, Tori, it was like he really cared about me, like he wanted me to be happy more than anything and it just got to me. You know? I started really caring for him, thinking about him all the time, what he looked like, where he was, if he was thinking the same way about me. I know I had feelings for him. A lot of feelings, especially after we started doing stuff on the phone together.”
I gave her a look then, indicating my meaning, and it came across loud and clear, Tori’s mouth pinching together thinly and her cheeks flushing.
“It was sudden and probably too fast, I know it was, which is why I kept it from you, but I really wanted to know him. Like …know him. Talk to him in person and do all the other stuff we were already doing but really do it. More than anything, I wanted that. More than I wanted to patch things over with Marcus.” I swallowed thickly, eyes lowering. “But Brian didn’t. Told me so Thursday night. Said he didn’t want to know me. That’s the last time we spoke.”
“He actually said that to you? That he didn’t want to know you, he said those words?”
“Yep.”
“Did he have a reason?” she asked, tugging my hand a little and raising my eyes.
When I caught hers, I replied, “Did he need one?”
She frowned.
He didn’t. Tori knew it and so did I.
Having a reason wouldn’t change anything. It could be the noblest reason on earth and it wouldn’t lessen the pain I was feeling or make any of this better. Besides, whatever it was, if Brian had something driving his decision to keep me out, it still had everything to do with me.
He didn’t want to know me.
Tears filled my eyes as I mumbled, “I really really liked him, Tori.”
“Oh, hon. I’m sorry.” She gave my hand a squeeze. “I really wish you would’ve told me. I never would’ve thought anything making you that happy would’ve been wrong or too fast. Not ever, okay?”
I gave her a weak smile, sniffling.
“That being said, you know how crazy this is, right? I mean, aside from the fact you’ve been engaging in phone sex with a man you’ve never met before, you totally asked him during that first conversation if he liked to get fucked hard and deep, not to mention requesting he take the dildo out of his mouth you figured he was sucking on, and he still wanted to talk to you again.” Her eyes bugged. “You must’ve really made an impression, Syd.”
I had. In hindsight I believe Brian thought I was amusing, even though I was going for total badass bitch that night, one who shouldn’t be messed with.
Tori thought I was badass, so I felt good about it.
“I don’t think he’d been talked to like that before,” I offered. “I’m guessing it intrigued him.”
“I don’t think a lot of men have been talked to like that before,” Tori countered. “Seriously. You were scary.” She twisted her body a little until her back was touching the cushion.
Eyes directed at the bay window, she let out a heavy breath and kept hold of my hand, resting the pair of ours between us.
“He made you my Syd again,” she murmured.
I nodded, even though she wasn’t looking at me, curled my fingers around the back of her hand, and tightened my hold.
“Since we’re sharing stuff, I guess I should share with you a decision I made yesterday that I kept to myself because you were so sad over Marcus, which”—Tori turned her head and looked at me—“I’m guessing now, your sadness might’ve had more to do with the other guy and not the man I’ve been plotting to kill?”
“Probably,” I answered, blinking tears away.
Definitely.
My marriage was over, yet I was mourning the loss of Brian’s voice more than my united in holy matrimony relationship.
He had the best voice. Hands down, best I’d ever heard.
And he chose the most perfect words to manipulate with it.
“Should’ve told me,” Tori stressed. “I could’ve been plotting two murders and saved myself the time. Now I have a dilemma on my hands because I kind of like the other guy, seeing as he gave me back the old you and, thus, has potential. Marcus never had any potential so his death is an easy choice.”