Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Just great. I can’t go another hour without coffee, that’s assuming my car takes that long to fix.
“That actually sounds good,” I reply quietly and follow him through. He barks at somebody else to drop my car and fill his tank but I don’t pay much attention. Instead I try for a Wi-Fi signal. “Can I have the password?”
“Sure, it’s written on that yellow paper by the computer screen.” He points in the general direction and switches the coffee machine on at the wall.
I make my way over and input the jumbled letters and numbers into my phone. Then I plug my phone into one of the stray cables and let it rest on the desk.
“Make yourself at home,” he jests, his smile easy and handsome.
“You’ve still got that scar I gave you. It’s small, but it’s there.” I motion to his upper lip at the corner where stubble doesn’t grow.
“I have.” He touches it absentmindedly and his smile gets wider. “I deserved it.”
“You did.”
We share a light laugh and then I turn my attention to the few photos on the wall behind the computer. I smile at the first one, it’s of Kane and his father when Kane was an awkward teen. The next one has my smile fading because I’m in it. I look so happy and carefree, so at ease with my life. I was such a good pretender.
After a moment he hands me my coffee. It’s warm and the cup is clean and it tastes delicious.
“I’ll get started on your car.”
“How long will it take?” I ask.
He grins and rolls his eyes. “I ain’t looked at it yet.”
“Right, well… I’m going to wander.”
“In those shoes?”
Pressing my lips together, I stand and glower at him. “Go fix my car.”
“Yes ma’am.” He tips an invisible hat and backs out of the room. Meanwhile I play on my phone, answer emails and messages and search Google for cabs in the area wondering when I became a ma’am.
The temptation to go through drawers is almost unbearable. I want to search for any information on Kane and what he’s been up to all these years. Well… search for stuff I don’t know already.
I don’t. I’m not that psychotic.
I do however finish my coffee, stand and decide to go to my car, get my flats and walk until my car is fixed. I can’t be here. The room even smells like him. Like leather and car oil and sweet, musky aftershave.
Closing my eyes, I recall every time I got to inhale his scent. It was like a drug to me. He was a drug to me. A dangerous, soul destroying drug. The catalyst of all my worst moments.
With a frustrated growl, I exit the room, yanking on the door and making the open venetian blinds rattle against the square glass window. I move to my car while Ren is poking around in the engine. He looks up so I motion for him to unlock the car using my keys. He does so and goes back to his job while I open the trunk and rummage through my suitcase. I wasn’t planning on staying but it’s a long ass drive, seventeen hours to be exact. I was going to fly but I couldn’t find a flight out on the same day and securing a rental for after I landed would have been too much hassle. So I packed and took a road trip. I love road trips, it’s been a while since I went on a road trip.
Now I wish I’d flown.
As I’m pulling on my flat black pumps, a car rolls into the lot behind me and I don’t know how I know it’s him but I do. I’ve always been hyperaware of his existence on this plane, especially when he’s nearby. I swear I’d know if he died even if he were a million miles away. Though I wouldn’t come and cuss him out at his funeral, I would dance on his grave. I absolutely would. Then I’d sit back against his headstone, have a gin and tell him to go fuck his own corpse.
My soul stiffens in my body but I pretend I don’t know he’s here and I also pretend I don’t care.
No, scratch that, I don’t care, there is no pretending about that part.
“Kane,” Ren calls when a car door closes, he’s trying to give me a heads up.
I flip down my sunglasses and slam the trunk closed before turning towards the car that just pulled in and ejected its only person.
I try not to look at him, I try so hard but my strength from earlier has depleted and I can’t fight the magnet that is Kane Jessop.
He stands tall, taller than he used to be, muscular, more so than he used to be, his hair is as long as it always was and just as shiny but nowhere near as tangled. I could probably push my fingers through it now and it probably wouldn’t even snag.