Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
For a moment, I’m rooted to the spot, fascinated and unable to look away. Watching other people in this kind of intimacy has never been my thing, but I’m starting to realize that maybe I don’t really know what my thing is. Ares is proof of that.
“If you’re waiting for the money shot, you’ll be waiting a while, Ghoul can fuck for hours,” comes a voice from behind me.
I swing around and find a girl leaning against the wall further down the hallway. She must’ve been in the bathroom when I entered the hall because she wasn’t there earlier.
Immediately, my cheeks flush.
“I thought I heard someone crying,” I say, taking a few steps toward her.
She scoffs bitterly. “You probably did.”
As I get closer, I notice her mascara has run down her tear-stained cheeks.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
The girl can’t be any more than twenty-one.
“I’m fine.” She tries to light a cigarette with shaking hands but gives up and stuffs it back into the packet. “Stupid, but fine.”
Because I look puzzled, she holds up a pregnancy test, and clearly, the positive result is anything but positive.
I’m not a girlie girl and don’t have many girlfriends, so I’ve never come across this before. But I immediately empathize with her because she looks like her whole world has crashed down around her.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask.
“Not a lot to talk about. I’m knocked up and an idiot because the father and I aren’t together. I mean, I’ve always hoped it might turn into something…” She looks down the hallway. “Oh hell, who am I kidding… I’ve been in love with him since I first laid eyes on him.”
“Does he know?”
“No.” She looks horrified by the thought. “He’d run a mile if he knew how I felt about him. Let’s just say he likes women. Lots of them.”
Hell, what am I supposed to say to that?
“I’m sorry, you deserve better than that.” I feel sorry for her. I’ve never been in love, but I can imagine it hurts like hell when it’s unrequited.
Girl, you felt like you’d be hit in the gut when you saw that ChapStick.
She looks like she has thick skin, but she’s emotionally worn out and lets her façade drop and her tears flow. She nods toward the bedroom, where the sound of two women orgasming floats down the hallway. “He’s the father.”
“Ghoul is the father of your baby?”
She hugs her arms and slowly, she slides down the wall. “Do yourself a favor and don’t fall for Ares.”
“Why?”
“Because falling for a King will ruin you for any man who follows him.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you give him your heart, it’ll never be whole again.” She shakes her head. “You can also kiss goodbye your common sense. I mean, look at me, I’m sitting here in a hallway crying because I’m pregnant while my baby daddy is fucking two other women a mere two yards away.”
I think about the first time with Ares. How all common sense left me, and we didn’t use any protection. How I shouldn’t think about him all day, but I do.
And how I shouldn’t be here now, but I am.
“He doesn’t know you’re pregnant, and from what you’ve said, he doesn’t know how you feel about him.”
“Like that would make a difference.”
“Why wouldn’t it?”
“Are you kidding me, lady? If you didn’t notice, he’s down the hall with one girl bouncing up and down on his balls and another on his face. Where the hell do I fit into that equation?”
“Maybe if he knew how you felt about him, only you would be in that bed with him. But if you don’t tell him, you won’t know.”
Dolly appears around the corner looking like a million bucks. Ares says no one really knows how old she is, that she’s somewhere in her sixties, but she looks two decades younger.
“Good morning, ladies,” she says with an effervescent smile, the rhinestones on her denim jacket winking under the hallway light. When she sees Roxy’s tear-stained face, she frowns. “Baby girl, what’s going on?”
Roxy holds up the pregnancy test and does her best to fight off another wave of tears.
Dolly crouches down. “Does Ghoul know?”
“He’s a bit busy right now.”
Roxy gives into her tears, and Dolly puts her arms around her shoulders and gives her a warm motherly hug which only makes Roxy cry more.
“I love him so much, Dolly. What am I going to do?”
“Well, first of all, you’re going to pull yourself together, wash your face, and then you and I are going to figure out what comes next over some coffee.” Dolly helps Roxy to her feet. “Come on, I just put a fresh pot of coffee on and some pastries in the oven.”
Because Dolly’s got this, I decide to leave them to it. “I’ll leave you two alone.”