Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 15945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 53(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 53(@300wpm)
“Shit.” I get out of bed and start packing my clothes.
“Ayerton?”
“Thank you for telling me, brat. I have to go.” As I am racing around the room packing, I hit my phone and try to call her. The first few times it rings and goes to voicemail. The third time it is obvious she sent me straight to voicemail. “Son of a bitch.” I have to get home now, five days earlier than planned and pray my whole life is not blown to shit over this bullshit.
CHAPTER 11
HOPE
I blocked him. I had to. He just kept calling. And calling. And calling. Back-to-back, nonstop. I am a thousand percent sure that I’ve never cried like that. All of the other guys I thought I was in love with or even liked never made me feel like this when it was over. Ayerton put a mark on my soul. I thought he was my soul mate. He made me feel things I’ve never felt before. He made me feel alive, but it’s over now.
I cried because there isn’t anything in the world that he could say that would make me forget he was making out with some other woman while on business on the other side of the globe. The image of that blonde bombshell hanging all over him makes my heart ache and it’s forever burned in my brain. When I saw the picture, I died a little on the inside. I was right, after all. Even after he said all those things to me a few days ago. He made me believe it was real. That he wanted me, but all that shit was clearly a lie. I love him, that’s why it hurts so much. I know that, logically, but I can’t help it. There’s no getting over this one. This one is going to do some lasting damage. I give myself the weekend to mourn the relationship, then I’m back at work Monday morning, still ignoring him, but I haven’t quite let it go. So much so, that I am venting about it to my work friend.
“Leighton, I just can’t believe he did that to me. I trusted him. I’m really going to miss those orgasm’s though,” Leighton listens intently while fixing her coffee the way she likes it, light and sweet.
“What exactly did he do?” she asks, testing her coffee. She wrinkles her nose and adds another spoonful of sugar. She tastes it again and smiles contentedly. I love this girl. She and usually gossip about office stuff, but this is the first time I’ve had anything real to talk about. She’s really my only friend outside of the Super Squad.
“He was making out with his ex, in another country. He told me that I’d be his wife with a belly full of his baby when he got back, but then this happened. How can I trust him now?”
“That’s so weird.” Her face scrunches up.
“What do you mean?” I ask, thinking that cheating is a pretty normal relationship problem. Or so I hear. Is it even cheating when it’s been such a short amount of time? Of course, it is. He explicitly implied exclusivity when he said I was going to be his wife, right?
“My brother just had something like that go on. It was not what it looked like. He called me from the plane.”
“He did?”
“Yeah,” she says, but before she can say anything else, I hear a commotion outside the break room we are.
“Hope!” A man shouts. I’d know that voice anywhere. I hear it in my dreams. “Hope!”
I walk out of the room and into the hallway. I am surprised to see Ayerton rushing toward me.
“Ayerton? What are you doing here?” I whisper when he gets close enough to me.
“I came to apologize.” He’s still shouting.
“You’re making a scene, lower your voice,” I say, looking around. People are looking out their office doors at us. Shit. Just what I need right now.
“Not until you agree to hear me out. Talk to me, baby,” he pleads.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” I lie. Seeing him has my mind thinking all kinds of things I shouldn’t be thinking. The man can’t be trusted.
“Where’d you go?” Leighton asks coming out of the break room. “A?”
“Brat?” he questions.
“You two know each other?” I ask, confused.
“Ayerton is my big brother,” Leighton says. “The one I was just telling you about.”
“This is your brother, with the ex-misunderstanding?” I ask, wondering why I never put two and two together. All these months, I never once asked her what her last name is. Her swipe badge just says, “Leighton L, Intern.” The L stands for Lotus and she’s his sister. I feel weird for telling her about him now. I think I even told her that he gave me the best orgasms more than once. At dinner the other night and just a few minutes ago. Who would want to know that about their brother?