Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 29029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
“I can’t let you do that.” And please stop calling me Maxie.
“Yes you can, and you will. We’re a team now. Remember?” She places her hands on my shoulders. “Nothing is yours and nothing is mine. It’s all ours.”
She gives me a kiss on the lips, and I grab her and hold her to me.
I want to feel something—some kind of undiluted love that perhaps I’ve forgotten.
But I can’t.
I don’t.
Mimi is a wonderful woman. She’s twenty-eight, two years my senior, and she knows what she wants. She’s done so well in sales—promotion after promotion, bonus after bonus. She knows what she wants, and part of what she wants is me. Sometimes I wonder if I’m simply another check mark on her list.
And now…heading into the holidays…
I don’t know what to do.
Jenna has never felt the way I feel about her. Plus, even if she did, who knows what kind of things she needs to work through?
I haven’t allowed myself to think about what happened to her. When the women started to leave the island, their stories dominated the homepages of all the major news websites, but I had to stop reading them after a while. I couldn’t stomach it, and that was before I knew Jenna was one of them.
I pull away from Mimi. She’s lovely, with her blond hair pulled into a French braid and her lips painted pink. She’s wearing a pencil skirt and white blouse, which means she probably had a meeting earlier. She’s driven to succeed. Indeed, she’s driven in all aspects of her life, including me.
But Jenna…
I had to see her first, see that it was really her.
Now that I’ve seen her?
I can’t marry Mimi.
I don’t want to hurt the woman standing in front of me. She’s given me a lot. But I must end this before someone shows up at my apartment to pack all my stuff away.
Mimi melts against me once more. I inhale her fragrance. Her hair smells like lavender—nice, but nothing like the tropical coconut of Jenna’s hair.
“Mimi…”
She kisses my neck. “Yeah?”
“I need to…”
“Mmm. Me too, baby.” She squeezes one of my butt cheeks. “Let’s go to bed.” She grabs my hand and leads me toward my bedroom.
And I go. Because it’s what I always do.
I’m on autopilot, and I don’t stop it because I don’t know how to. I don’t know what to say to her.
“Mimi…”
“We’ll get there,” she says.
My feet finally stop at the entrance to my bedroom. “I need to talk to you.”
“Sure. We’ll talk. But I’m horny as hell right now, Max. Give me a good fucking first, will you?” She fiddles with the buttons on her blouse and smiles, her bright blue eyes shining, and then brushes her lips over mine, poking her tongue between them.
Normally I open, or I’m the one doing the poking.
This time I keep my lips firmly closed, and I step away from her. “Please, honey. I have a lot to talk to you about.”
She meets my gaze, her own troubled. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong exactly. But there have been some developments.”
“All right.” She twists her lower lip. “You’re freaking me out here, Max.”
“I don’t mean to, but something’s happened. Something that…changes things.”
“Changes what, exactly?”
I take her hand and lead her back into the living area. “Sit down.”
She drops to the couch.
“Would you like a drink?”
She wrinkles her brow. “Do I need one?”
“It’s up to you. But I could sure use one.” I walk to my makeshift bar, which is just a standing cabinet where I keep my liquor. I grab two lowball glasses and pour a few fingers of bourbon into one for me. Then I mix a Manhattan for Mimi, topping it with a maraschino cherry.
I bring the drinks to the couch and hand her the Manhattan. She doesn’t take a drink, only sniffs it.
I take a sip of my bourbon, letting the smoky warmth coat my throat. “Do you remember when I told you about Jenna? Jenna Holland?”
“Of course, baby. Your best friend who disappeared without a trace. I know how hard that was for you.” She pats my hand.
“It was. But I got past it. And you were a big part of that.”
She smiles, reaches toward me, touches the stubble on my cheek. I try not to flinch.
“I’m glad I could help.” She cups my cheek.
I take her hand and lead it away from my face, my pulse beating in my neck. “The thing is… Something amazing has happened, Mimi.”
She swallows. “What?”
I take another drink, let the bourbon swirl over my tongue and then meander down my throat, warming me. “Jenna is back. She’s been found.”
Mimi drops her jaw, nearly drops her drink, but steadies her hand quickly.
“What? What happened to her? That’s wonderful.”
That’s wonderful.
An afterthought, to be sure.
Mimi is a good and kind person, and she doesn’t deserve what I’m about to do to her.