Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
But the truly messed-up thing was that despite the abject failure, she had learned something new about herself. After the powerful orgasms she’d experienced with Spencer, she now doubted that she’d ever climaxed with a man before. She had never felt anything nearly as intense.
She now understood why Daisy looked like the cat that got the cream whenever she was around Mason. To think she’d pitied Daisy after learning her sister had been a virgin at twenty-seven. Now Daff envied her somewhat. Daisy had scored the jackpot with her first (and only) lover, while Daff would have been better off without hers.
She checked her phone to see if Spencer had responded to her text. The message had been read, but he hadn’t responded. Not even with a dumb emoji. Her heart sank, and she realized that she was going to miss him. Maybe keeping him as a friend was worth considering.
She wasn’t sure. It wasn’t a decision she was ready to make, not when everything below her waist was still clenching after his unselfish pleasuring earlier.
She scrubbed a hand over her face and tiredly made her way to the bathroom for a shower. She fell into bed after that but couldn’t get her roiling thoughts under control. So many bad decisions had led to this moment in her life, and she was buried beneath years of regret. So much regret.
She tossed and turned, going over every mistake, every stupid decision, every wrong turn, but she still couldn’t pinpoint exactly where everything had gone so very wrong.
She knew she had to change something, had to better herself and her life. Find clarity and a way to rid herself of these pervasive feelings of inadequacy and hollowness. She wished that she could just wake up tomorrow and find herself living the perfect life. But she wasn’t entirely sure what constituted a perfect life, and she had no idea what would make her happy. It was a grim and disturbing awareness.
“Hi, there.” Lia waltzed into the boutique just before twelve the following afternoon, and Daff glared into her middle sister’s cheerfully smiling face.
“Daisy sent you, didn’t she?” Lia’s smile wavered slightly before she righted it and blasted Daff with an even brighter one.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I thought I’d join you for lunch.” She lifted her little strawberry-shaped lunch box and glass bottle of orange juice as proof. Daisy had chosen the worst possible spy; Lia didn’t have a duplicitous bone in her body. But since Lia had given up her job as a minder at the local day care center last year, she had a flexible schedule until she found something new. So Lia was really Daisy’s only choice in whatever recon mission she’d cooked up to figure out who Daff’s mystery man was.
“Lia.”
“Okay, fine. She told me to find out whatever I could about the”—she blushed and cleared her throat delicately—“the Dick. Why would you call him that? Why not Mr. McSexy or Mr. Big or something? Why refer to his anatomy?”
“Firstly, those references are so dated I’m embarrassed—and cringing on the inside—for you, and secondly, it wasn’t so much in reference to his anatomy as to his personality.” Not that she thought of him in that way anymore.
“Why would you date a guy you think is a . . . a . . . you know?”
“We’re not dating.” Daff shrugged. “And really, you’re wasting your time. He won’t bring or send lunch today. It’s over between us.” She forced down the pang of regret at the words.
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was nothing.” Daff averted her eyes, not wanting her sister to see the lie in them.
“Well, I’m here now. I might as well stay for lunch. What are you having?”
“I brought some fruit and a packet of chips.” She was really going to miss Spencer’s lunches.
“Ugh, that’s not a proper lunch. You can share my—” The bell above the door interrupted her words, and they both looked up to see young Alton from SCSS walk in, carefully carrying a large-ish brown paper bag.
“Afternoon, miss. The boss asked me to deliver this to you.” Shocked that Spencer would still do this, despite everything that had happened last night, Daff accepted the bag. “Careful, miss, there’s soup in one of the containers.”
“Okay. Thanks, Alton.”
“My pleasure, miss.” He grinned at her and retreated with a jaunty wave.
Daff carefully placed the bag on the counter and tore the note from the folded top. Ignoring Lia’s shocked expression, she turned her back and read the short note through a haze of tears.
I’m sorry. I hope we can still be friends.
S
PS: And even if we can’t be, don’t expect me to stop sending your lunch.
Oh God. Why was he apologizing? The man had been nothing but amazing since this all began. He was right, she was always apologizing to him, but only because he deserved those apologies.