Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 118459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 474(@250wpm)___ 395(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 474(@250wpm)___ 395(@300wpm)
The drink looks all too good and I fight the urge to drink one.
“I’m supposed to figure out what music you want to come out to and what color trunks to order you. Apparent-fucking-ly, I’m your bitch.”
“I’ve said that for years,” I say, putting my feet up on the coffee table. Will rolls his eyes and settles back into his chair by the window.
“Funny. Real fuckin’ funny.”
The television is on, but I’m not watching it. None of it matters anymore. Nothing they say, nothing going on in the world, no home runs or funny commentary really fucking matters.
I just got home from the hospital and Ever is still not well. The chemo is destroying her faster than it is the cancer. Today was her last day in the cycle, so she should come home tomorrow.
Home. Funny how this place just started feeling like a real home since the girls moved in. I loved being a bachelor, living in my own space, and now I just want their shit strung everywhere. I want pink globs in my shower from Ever’s bubble bath. I want house slippers by the sofa, dishes in the sink, dark locks in the bathroom drain. I want all of it. I want all of those things that turn a house into a home.
“So?”
“Get me black trunks. Black shoes. Gold hand wraps. Get us black shirts with . . . ‘Believe’ on the front in gold writing. Put whatever you want on the back but don’t make it fucking stupid. And no intro song on the speakers. Just the one I’ll listen to in my headphones.”
“What?” Will asks, sitting up. “Come on. That’s the best part of the entire fucking event. I’ll just pick something for you. Maybe a little Eminem or—”
“No song, Will.”
“You seriously suck the fun out of everything. Lame.”
“So, help a lame ass out. I don’t want to talk about fighting tonight. I don’t want to talk about anything that’s gonna give me a headache. Entertain me.”
“All right,” he says and tips the rest of his beer back. He sets the empty bottle on the coffee table. “But I do want to point out that you are, indeed, lame. It’s like I don’t even know you anymore. You have responsibilities. Morals. Considerations.” He shivers, making me laugh.
“Who you fucking these days?” I ask.
“There’s the Crew I know. I’m actually still banging Macie.”
“Macie?”
“Yeah, I’ve fucked her for a few weeks now. She was in the bar the other night, remember?”
“Oh,” I say, teasingly. “The one that walked out with the Tap-Out King. I do remember.”
“I don’t wanna go there, asshole.”
I laugh. “You a little fuck foundered?”
“I just don’t get it. The only one I’d ever think, ‘Oh, I just kinda wanna fuck her’ is the one that is like, ‘Oh, I’ll fuck you if I have time.’ What. The. Hell?”
My chuckle turns into full-blown laughter. “She’s giving you an economics lesson, Will. Supply and demand.”
“This is so not funny,” he says, smiling. I know he’s telling me this to take my mind off of everything else and I appreciate it. “What do you do in this situation?”
I shrug. “Hell if I know. The only girl I ever felt that way about before is Jules.”
“Well, we know how messed up that has been, so maybe I need to get advice elsewhere.”
“Probably so.”
“How are things between you these days?” he asks carefully.
“Fine. Good. I mean, despite the circumstances. You know, here we are, building this relationship together again. Some days it feels like we’re seventeen again and things are like they should be, you know? And then reality hits and we look around and I know she feels guilty to be enjoying any part of her life when Ever’s so sick.” I blow out a breath. “I feel that, too, sometimes. But what do you do? Do you stop completely living? Do you stop feeling? Do you stop loving? Do you stop needing someone else?”
I run my hand across the top of my head, feeling the loss of hair driving home my point.
“So you two aren’t together, together?”
“Oh, we’re together. Don’t get confused,” I warn. His innuendos were funny when she was married to Gage. Now? Not so much. “I’m just saying that if things were different in our lives right now, that maybe we would be further along than we are. That’s all.”
“Before all this happened with Ever, she didn’t even like you much.”
I laugh. “That’s true. So who knows . . .”
“Who knows.” He rises from his seat, stretching his arms over his head. “I’m going to head out. I have this asshole friend that trains early and I think I’m going to head over there and figure out what to do about his trunks. Since I’m his bitch.”
I stand and grab his shoulder. “I appreciate everything, Will. Seriously, all joking aside.”