Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“Yeah, I’ll have one of my guys come pick up my car later. Enjoy yourselves.” I leave Nancy and Robert to whatever the two of them are doing. This night was planned as something between the two of them. I’m going to need to get a straight answer out of him about this.
But that’s a problem for another day.
I go outside and wait for the car I called. It arrives quickly. I hop into the car, and we are on the way to my apartment. Pulling out my phone, I look at the last text I received from Tammy. I know I said I would wait until tomorrow to talk to Tammy, but I’m in a talking mood now, so I call her.
“Come on, Tammy. Pick up,” I mumble.
The phone rings and rings until it goes to voicemail. As I listen to her message, I think about what I want to say. The beep happens, and I no longer have time to think. I’ve got to talk.
“Hi, Tammy. I know it’s late, but I wanted to say hi. There’s something we need to talk about. We’ve needed to talk about this for a while. You felt the tension. Let’s talk about it. Also, I love you, so there is that. I want you to know I do want you in my house, in my life. I’m worried you don’t want to be with me anymore because of all the bullshit. Because you blame me for the thing with your parents. But I love you, so don’t leave. Please. Call me back, or I’ll see you tomorrow. Hanging up now.” I exit the call, stuffing the phone into my pocket. Looking outside, I can see we’re almost at my house.
The driver pulls into the parking lot to drop me off at the front door.
“Thanks for the ride, man,” I say while pulling out a tip. I hand him quite a few bills. I think it’s a lot because he gives me a huge smile.
“No problem. And good luck with your girl. I’m sure it’ll all work out.”
“Thanks,” I drunkenly salute him before heading upstairs. The plan was to take a shower when I got home, but instead, I go straight to my bed and flop down on top of it, coat and all. The drinking got to me a lot more than I expected, and all I want to do now is sleep. I’ll wake up before Tammy gets here and make myself presentable.
I just need a little baby nap is all. A quick shut-eye.
I don’t know how many hours later it is when I wake up, but there is light streaming through my windows.
“Shit,” I groan, turning myself over in bed. I sit up, and there is instant pain.
“Fuck!” I am hungover. Jesus Christ! How much did I drink last night? I rub my hand over my forehead, willing this god-awful pain to go away, but it’s punishment for all of the stupid mistakes I made last night.
“Brick?” The bedroom door opens up and reveals Tammy. She looks beautiful standing in the doorway. I’ve never felt so happy to see someone, even with the nails scraping in my head.
“Hey.” I stand up and immediately feel sick. I rush to the bathroom and throw up last night’s contents. I feel Tammy behind me, holding onto my back.
I finish puking up my guts and take the glass of water that Tammy already has in her hands for me.
“Thank you.”
“Of course.” She looks at me for a few seconds before putting her hand on her mouth and rushing over to the toilet. It looks like it’s her turn to puke. I gather her hair and hold it back as she aims for the bowl. When she’s done, she takes a drink from my glass of water before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
“I think we need to talk,” she says, looking me directly in the eyes.
“I agree.”
24
Tammy
Brick and I are sitting across from one another at the kitchen table. After we cleaned up from our joint puking session, we went straight here. It felt like the right space to have this much needed conversation. I spent so much time avoiding this very moment, and now that it’s here, it is every bit as uncomfortable as I’d imagined. The air between the two of us is thick with all of the awkwardness.
“So,” Brick starts. “I’m guessing you got my voicemail?” Looks like we’re going right for the gut immediately. No playing around.
When Brick initially called, I couldn’t bring myself to answer, so I shoved my phone even farther away. Like I said, I was avoiding talking to Brick with everything in me. But this morning, I knew I had to listen to the voicemail before coming back. The second I heard Brick talking about tension and needing to speak with me, I cut it off. I wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say. I was so worried it was going to be something I wasn’t ready to accept, and now that we’re sitting across from one another, I am barely able to talk.