“I’m Toni,” I say, quickly introducing myself. “I’ve been attending these meetings for the past four years and Mon,” I glance down at her, “has been my sponsor most of that time.”
She smiles up at me and nods, “Sure have, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
“My last week has been hectic,” I admit. “And I wanted to take a load off, but I didn’t. I stayed clean. Every time I thought about stopping off for a drink on my way home, I called Mon and talked to her until I was in for the night.”
“What happened last week, Toni? How’s your laundromat business going?” Mark asks.
A short laugh escapes my throat. “Not good. I just got all of the inspections finished and found out that the bank loan will barely cover any of the repairs that I need to make in order to get the building up to code. It’s going to cost a fortune.”
“Are there any grants that you could take advantage of? A lot of times the government will give small business owner grants to help get things up and running.”
Shifting my weight onto my other foot, I sweep my hair away from my face. “I tried, but I don’t qualify for most of them. I seriously wonder if anyone actually qualifies for those things.”
“So what’s your plan?” Mark asks.
According to him, we must always have a plan; a safety net to fall back on.
“I don’t really have one at the moment,” I bite my lip. “But I’m working on it. I have an appointment with the bank manager on Friday to see if I can get a small loan. According to the inspection reports, it shouldn’t cost me more than ten grand to fix the plumbing and the gas leak that’s inside the building. If I would’ve known the building had so many issues, I would’ve never bought it.”
“Do you think you’ll get the loan?” he asks.
I shrug, “Your guess is as good as mine. I barely got the business loan to buy the laundromat, but I’m hoping they’ll say yes. I just got my credit cards paid off last month, so I’m hoping that’ll shoot up my credit score.”
“Well, it sounds like you have a plan,” Mark says. “You’ve come a long way, but it sounds like you’re moving in the right direction.”
Before the meeting is over, Mark talks about working the twelve steps and how much of an impact they can make if you stay the course. His voice drowns out to nothing but background noise as I study Lucas and his girlfriend. She seems more tentative to what’s going on in the meeting than he does, by far.
After hearing his story and watching him, I can see that he’s only here because he has to be, and not because he wants to be. If he’s serious about changing his life or keeping his business, it’s vital that he works the twelve steps regardless what the judge has ordered or he’ll be right back in the same boat.
I realize that the meeting is over when everyone stands up, and quickly scramble to my feet to join them. As soon as we say our goodbyes, I snatch my purse from the floor and leave as quickly as possible. The last thing I want is to look like I’m lingering or waiting around for him.
In the parking lot, I hear Mon calling my name.
“Toni!” she yells. “Wait up!” Running toward my car, she bends over, catching her breath as she rests her hands on her knees. “How come you took off like that?”
Glancing at the door, I make sure Lucas and his girlfriend are nowhere around. “You know the new guy that was in the meeting?” She nods, still out of breath. “That’s him.”
“Him? Him, who?”
“The guy that I told you about.” Her face twists in confusion. “The one who I had the abortion with and everything crumbled after that?” I jog her memory.
“Oh! Oh, shit!” she says. “Are you going to talk to him? Or do you not want to talk to him?”
“I can’t talk to him,” I say. “Besides, he’s clearly moved on and has a girlfriend and everything.”
“Remember step eight?” she says, in a low, sweet voice. “You need to make amends. You two went through a lot together, and it seems like you’re both hurting.”
“Remember step nine?” I counter. “You only make amends if it won’t harm the other person. I think talking to him would do more harm than good. Like I said, it seems like he has support. I don’t want to ruin anything. I remember being here even though I didn’t want to, and if he were here to confront me at my first meeting, I don’t think I would’ve come back. It’s better if I just leave things be and let him work on his recovery at his own will.”
“Do whatever your heart tells you to do,” she takes my hand in hers. “You’re a good person, Toni, and I know you’ll do the right thing.”
“Thanks, Mon. I better get going. I’ll see you around.”
She wraps her arms around me, giving me a firm hug. “Call if you need anything. Not only have I been your sponsor for the last few years, but I’m also your best friend.”
“I know,” I open my car door. “I’m going to get out of here before they come out. We’ll talk later.”
I fire up my engine and begin to back out of the parking space just as Lucas and his girlfriend walk out of the building. Whew, I think to myself, bullet dodged, but I doubt he even saw me, even though I couldn’t stop staring at him.
Want more?
Only Me is available on Amazon for only $2.99 or FREE with Kindle Unlimited!
http://a.co/drzrS1W
Twisted Steel Sample
A Sinners Syndicate MC Novel
Blurb
Some things are beautifully twisted.
I never wanted commitment.
I was perfectly content being part of the Sinner’s Syndicate.
The nights were crazy.
The girls were wild.
There were no expectations.
No strings attached.
But then I met Sara.
She is a beautiful, broken mess who’s getting herself into a whole lot of trouble running with a man like me. I’ll show her what happens to good girls who do bad things and when I’m done, she’ll never want to return to Suburbia again.
The thing is, I’ll never let her go back to living the civilian life. She’s my twisted angel— body and soul.
1
I knew before I pulled off the highway that something felt different. Not necessarily wrong, but more like out of place. For some reason, I’d been getting these feelings a lot and no matter what I did, I could never quite shake them.
Every time I got one of these feelings, I told myself that it was nothing. I reasoned that I was just being paranoid and to not let things bother me. Besides, it’s not like I could pinpoint why things felt the way they did.
Normally, I would have been at work at that time of day. Unfortunately, my morning appointment called to cancel at the last moment. I was annoyed because it was happening more and more often lately. A lot of it had to do with the housing market.
People would see a house with one of my for sale signs in front of it and decide right then and there that they just had to see it. They’d call the number on the sign immediately and I’d set up a showing for them. After that, they’d have time to think about it. Maybe they’d look the house up online and the inside wasn’t what they expected or perhaps they realized that the house was out of their budget and there was no way they could afford it. Regardless of the reason, I’d be sitting at the property waiting to show it and the potential buyer wouldn’t show. It wouldn’t be until I called them that I found out they weren’t going to make the showing. They’d apologize profusely, but it was still a waste of time.
I could have easily gone back to my office to field phone calls from potential buyers that weren’t calling in off a sign. We had a central phone number from advertisements and each agent in the office would take turns answering the phone each time it rang. We never knew if it would be a potential sale, so luck of the draw was the best way to do it.
The only thing that kept me away from the office was the fact that Stephanie was going to be spending the day there as well. Don’t get me wrong,
I like Stephanie a lot, but she was eight-months-pregnant and was driving everyone insane.
I wasn’t going to be able to spend an entire day in closed quarters with her talking about the reviews of all the latest cribs and the pros and cons of breastfeeding her new baby. She would literally talk to whoever would listen, but the problem was that I just didn’t care.
When it comes to babies, I don’t dislike them at all. I’ve been known to pinch a chubby cheek whenever I’m around an infant. The problem was that I’m just not the maternal type and could never see myself being a mother, no matter how much she tried to convince me that it would come naturally once I became pregnant.
Instead, I was going to spend the day at home, following up with potential leads and getting in contact with sellers who had put their homes up for sale without an agent. As I got closer to my little piece of suburbia, the feeling that something was off continued to grow. When I pulled into my subdivision and turned onto my street, it became clear what was different. Steve’s car was in the driveway.
I wondered what in the hell he was doing home at that time of day. We’d talked about what his plans were he told me that he had meetings all day in the city. Maybe his meetings got cancelled as well. That would be nice.
A warm flush started to pass through my body as the thought of him being home excited me. If we both had an unexpected day off, an afternoon full of sex and cuddling could be in the cards. It had actually been a while since the two of us had been intimate. He’d been working a lot and was coming home and going right to sleep most nights.
Maybe he would be just as happy to see me. Perhaps he would grab me, throw me down onto the bed, and take me like I dream about on a nightly basis. That was exactly what I needed.
It’s true that our sex life hadn’t been the greatest. It had certainly been a while since I’d been completely happy with it, but there was more to life than just sex. I loved Steve. He was my soulmate and I was happy that we had started a life together. In less than a year, we’d be married.
I pulled in and parked my SUV next to Steve’s BMW. It was his baby, the car that he dreamed about owning since he was a little boy. I used to think it was cute when he’d tell someone about it, but the story got old quickly. I gave my makeup a quick check in the mirror before getting out and making my way to the front door.
As soon as I stepped out of my vehicle, I could hear the sound of bass pumping. It was so loud that I could feel it in my chest. As I got closer to the door, I realized that it wasn’t one of the neighbors playing their music way too loud. The sound was coming from inside my house.
There was hip hop music blaring from my living room. Steve and I can’t fucking stand hip hop music. We’ve always been the hard rock type who would break out the air guitars when our favorite songs would come on. Maybe he was a closet hip hop fan and only played the music when I wasn’t around.
The front door wasn’t locked like it normally was so I opened it up and walked right in.
“Steve!” I yelled out of habit.
He’s always doing something in some random part of the house so I always yell his name instead of going room to room looking for him. Of course, there was no way he could have heard me. Not over the loud noises that some people call music blasting in the living room.
Determined to save my ears from the awful sounds, I set off the find the source. I grabbed the iPod that was connected to the stereo, expecting to see that it belonged to Steve. I was already planning to look through it and tease him about his hidden music. Instead, I got a surprise. The iPod that was being played belonged to me.
Oh hell no! I knew for a fact that I’d never download any hip hop, rap, country, or anything that wasn’t rock onto my iPod. Maybe he did it as a joke. Maybe his was dead and he really wanted to listen to whatever ear shattering music was playing. That was something I’d be able to figure out later.
Looking around the living room, I froze in place with my mouth hanging wide open. Steve’s clothes were thrown all over the floor, which wasn’t like him at all. He was always very neat and clean. He always took off his clothes at the hamper before getting in the shower. But there I was, staring at the suit jacket he was always so careful to hang up snd wondering what the hell he could have been thinking.
I started to pick up his clothes and that’s when I saw them. On a neat little pile on the sofa, there was a small purple dress and a skimpy matching bra and panties set. They definitely weren’t mine as I’d never be able to squeeze my boobs into such a small bra.
My mouth hung open as the realization of what was happening was beginning to wash over me. As much as I wanted there to be an innocent explanation, I knew better.
Please God, no! Do not let them be in my fucking bed!
I started to feel dizzy. My vision blurred and my head started to pound. The music that was still playing was little more than background sound to the noise playing in my head. My stomach turned as nausea tried to get the better of me. I gathered myself, turned, and began slowly making my way up the stairs.
The amount of thoughts that went through my mind as I climbed the stairs astonished me. I was more than ready to confront whoever was in that bedroom with my fiancé.
Funnily enough, there was still part of my brain that was trying to convince me that there might still be an innocent explanation to everything. I kept telling myself that I couldn’t be completely sure until I got upstairs and found out for myself. Seven years of happiness was about to be destroyed.
2
When I reached the top of the stairs, I could see that the door at the end of the hall as closed. My bedroom door. The door that Steve always insisted we have open. I never understood that, but he insisted he couldn’t sleep with it closed. There was only one time when he wanted it to be closed and that’s when we were having sex.
There I was, slowly creeping down the hallway, staring at the closed door with a million thoughts going through my head. I’m sure they were having a blast inside, completely oblivious to the fact that I was standing right outside, ready to watch their little fun come crashing down.
Although they didn’t know I was there, I had a clear picture in my head of what was going on in the room. I was torn between whether I should slowly push open the bedroom door or slam through it and make my own grand entrance. After a bit of thought, I decided to go with option number two.
I took a deep breath, steadied myself, and tried to get prepared for an image I never wanted to see. An image that I was sure was going to be etched inside my mind forever. An image that I was sure I’d see in my nightmares for the rest of my life. Once I was mentally prepared, I turned the knob and slammed the door open as hard as I could.
There they were, right in the middle of the bed where I laid my head to sleep at night. Some skinny bitch with the tiniest bee sting tits I’ve ever seen was straddling my Steve, her hips moving back and forth as she rode him.
Even though I’d slammed the door open, neither of them realized I was there. They were so caught up in what they were doing, that they were both oblivious. Since I’d gotten sidetracked, I’d also never been able to turn off the music downstairs, so that surely drowned out the door.
Steve had his eyes closed or he would have had a clear view of the look I was giving him. If looks could kill, he would have been a dead man. As a matter of fact, they both would have been goners.
I wasn’t sure what I should do. A large part of me wanted to turn, walk out of the room, and close the door behind me as quietly as I could. I knew that if I did that, I would have eventually regretted my decision. This was something that couldn’t wait. It needed to be addressed right then and there.
Standing at the door, I kept thinking about how pathetic Steve looked lying there. His mouth was hanging wide open, completing his stupid sex face. I never realized just how stupid he looked having sex. I guess that’s the difference between being a participant in the heat of the moment and a spectator watching every detail unfold in front of yo
ur eyes.
The girl on top of him was very vocal. She was saying all the right things that Steve liked to hear, which let me know that this wasn’t the first time the two of them had been together.
“Fuck yes, Steve! Fuck me baby! Go on, do me! Give it to me! Harder!” she screamed as he started thrusting his hips upward into her.
Hearing her scream all of his favorite things was too much for me to handle. I’d had enough! I stormed over to my side of the bed. The girl noticed me right before I got my hands on her, getting her off the top of my man with one solid push.
I pushed her so hard that she actually missed the mattress and landed with a hard thud on the floor. The only things I could see were her arms and legs flailing about. The visual made me smile.
“Oh fuck,” was all Steve could come up with once his cock flopped out of her pussy and he opened his eyes to see what the hell was going on.
“Oh fuck? That’s all you have to say to me?” I replied, but he just looked down at the mattress, completely speechless. It was probably better for him at the moment anyway. It wasn’t like he was going to be able to explain away what had happened.
As I was glaring at him, trying to will him to at least look at me, the skinny bitch darted past me and into the hallway. Since her clothes were down in the living room, her only hope of getting them and not being thrown out on her naked ass was to run past me.
I had a split second to decide what I wanted to do. I could either stand there and lay into Steve or I could chase the cunt down the stairs and throw her out the way she deserved. I decided that kicking her out was the right thing to do, so I ran behind her and chased her down the stairs.
His Vegas Bomb_A Menage Romance Page 12