by Aimie Grey
In what must have been an attempt to see just how red she could turn, he asked, “Would you be willing to have one of the nurses photograph you for our website? Within twenty-four hours, I’d be booked solid until I retired. Hell, even just a strategically angled picture of the two of us on Facebook would do the trick.”
“I know. They’re every woman’s goal,” I said, beaming with pride.
“Can we talk about something other than my boobs, please?” Juli asked, having just barely found her voice beneath an avalanche of embarrassment.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Occupational hazard—I assure you I’m not nearly as much of an asshole as Thomas,” Dad said with a grin. Thinking about my very recent conversation with Juli about assholes, I snickered a little.
“And I was just joking about the website. My wife likes to remind me that I’m not as funny as I think I am.” Dad stepped around the desk and took a seat. “How about your nose? God had a little assistance with that, right?”
That one I couldn’t answer for her.
“When I was fifteen, a family friend accidentally clocked me in the face with the business end of a golf club. My grandmother drove me to a plastic surgeon’s office instead of the ER, but it pretty much looked the same after it healed as it did before.”
“Now that we’ve established my girlfriend is naturally gorgeous…” Did I just call Juli my girlfriend? The two sets of extremely wide eyes staring at me confirmed I had. I decided to push through the awkwardness as if nothing happened. She was practically living with us, so what difference did a slip of the tongue make? Yeah, a Freudian slip. Wait a minute… Living with us? This was not the time to freak out. We had a job to do, and this was only our second stop of the day.
“We came by to deliver an invitation to the gala,” Juli said, her face having gone back to a more natural hue. She retrieved the envelope from her bag and held it out to my dad, whom I really hoped she didn’t think was a creepy old man.
“Thank you. Jeane and I are looking forward to it. It was lovely to meet you, Juli, but I have a patient, who hopefully isn’t in exam room five. It might be a while before I can go in there again.”
“See ya, Pops,” I said, not wasting any time. The sooner we left, the sooner we could finish our errands, the sooner we could fuck. Before the door closed behind us, I couldn’t help but poke her one more time. “We’ll break in rooms three and four next time.”
Having recovered from her embarrassment, she surprised me with, “Won’t rooms one and two feel left out?”
*
After delivering three more invitations, Juli and I stopped for lunch a little later than we had planned. All we had left to do was eat before heading over to the hotel to meet with the glorified party rental company. If the meeting didn’t run long, we’d have just enough time to go upstairs for a quick fuck before I needed to leave to pick up Colton from school.
“I don’t understand why we don’t just buy the crap ourselves,” I complained as I disassembled my taco. “Look at how much shit they put on this thing. Tacos should have meat, cheese, and vegetables. If I wanted a burrito, I would have ordered one.”
Ignoring the food-related segment of my rant, Juli asked, “Will you ever use it again?”
“You never know. We could always add a red carpet option to our wedding packages.”
“Sounds cheesy.”
“It’s not cheesy for a fundraiser?”
“There will be movie stars lined up halfway down the block. This will be an actual red carpet event, which is why we should let the professionals deal with the actual red carpet. They know how to set everything up to make sure the guests get maximum exposure without causing a traffic jam at the door.”
“But—” I started to whine like Colton.
“But nothing, young man. You’re not buying a red carpet just so you can pretend to be a celebrity. If you want to play movie star so badly, I’ll take you to a premier.”
“Wouldn’t that look kind of like a date?” Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t opposed to the idea. Actually, I kind of liked the thought of being seen with Juli on my arm. Everyone in the fucking world would bow down to T.J.’s incredible talent if I walked in with the hottest woman on the planet.
“Never mind.”
“I think it might be fun,” I said casually.
“You’re thinking of all the different places to fuck at the theatre, aren’t you?”
“I am now.”
“Don’t worry, I know all the best spots.”
“You enjoy irritating me, don’t you?” I asked, sitting back and giving her a hard look.
“You looked like you needed a dose of ‘boner-be-gone.’”
“You only made it worse.”
“Hearing about the places I’ve fucked other men turns you on? I didn’t realize how kinky you are.”
“I need you to make a complete list of every place you’ve ever hooked up.”
“Would you want a narrative, as well?”
“Nope, just the list.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“We’re going to go to every place on that goddamn list so I can fuck the memory of those losers out of your head.”
“It’s a really, really long list.” Had she always been so mean?
“I could make a list as well, if you want.”
Juli’s face twisted into a scowl. “No, thank you. I don’t have anything to prove.” Her pissy tone belied her confident words.
“Something wrong?”
“You’re an asshole.”
“An asshole who’s going to fuck you as soon as we sign the contract for the red carpet rental.”
“Ugh.” Before it had a chance to do any permanent damage, Juli’s evil eye transferred from me to her phone. “Speaking of assholes.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Some bitch who’s obsessed with Brady keeps texting me. I hoped she’d go away, but it looks like I’ll have to report it to security.”
Bringing the phone closer to her face, she yelled, “I don’t want your fucking man!” Turning to me, she added, “God knows putting up with you is difficult enough.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Juli
“Did your dad specifically say you were allowed to have a hamster?”
“Yes. He wants me to have one. He just forgot to tell you.”
“A live hamster? Not a plush?”
“Yes. A live hamster. He’ll be sad if we don’t get one today. He feels bad he had to work late and couldn’t come with us.”
Of course, I wasn’t able to call Thomas to verify. The video conference he was in with his senior staff and overseas investors couldn’t be interrupted for a hamster.
“Okay. Which one do you like?” I stood back and peeked over the edge of the playpen thingie from a safe distance.
One by one, Colton picked up all six thousand of them to figure out the answer to my question. It took so long, I swear they had babies, creating an infinite supply of tiny fur balls for him to examine.
Finally, he held up the smallest one and announced, “This one. I’m going to name him Pipsqueak.”
“What else does he need?” I asked the teenage boy who’d been helping us a little too eagerly.
“A cage, bedding, water bottle, food, a wheel—we have a starter kit over in aisle three.”
The starter kit was priced slightly below fifty dollars and looked like it was worth closer to twenty. Colton, who was still holding the rodent, had his eye trained on the two-hundred-dollar cage they had on display.
“You know what,” I said to the sales associate, “just give him the best of everything.” I noticed a lot of items he hadn’t mentioned on the shelves near the food. “What about that stuff?” I pointed in the general direction of the supplies.
“Those are all optional.”
“I’ve never had a hamster and haven’t had time to research. I take it you know about this stuff?” The kid no
dded. “Give us whatever you would buy if you were going to get a hamster and didn’t have a budget. But don’t screw me over. Ten minutes on my phone, and I’ll know everything there is to know about hamsters. If I find out you took advantage of my temporary ignorance, I’ll have you fired before the end of your shift.” He paled but nodded. “Colton gets to choose colors and styles and has the final say. Understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
*
Several hundred dollars later, the three of us finally made it home. Surprisingly, we only had to make two trips to the car to get all of our purchases to Colton’s room.
“Let’s set it up in the closet,” Colton said. “Hamsters like being dark and cozy. There’s room on the shelf.”
He had a pretty big closet, so space wouldn’t be an issue. “You get started while I check on a few things.” I sat on his bed and began learning everything I needed to know about hamsters from Google. “Hey, Colton?” I called out so he could hear me from the back of his walk-in. “Are you sure you don’t want him out here? What if he gets lonely in there? And if you don’t keep the cage clean, your clothes will stink.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll clean it all the time. And don’t tell Dad. I want to surprise him when I have everything all set up.”
“I am so stupid…” I muttered under my breath.
Walking into the closet, I saw Colton assembling the cage in the far corner, which would be concealed by his hanging pants. “You didn’t ask your dad, did you?”
“Yes, I did.”
Thinking back to my mom’s playbook, I cocked a brow at him and crossed my arms over my chest.
“I did ask!” he insisted.
“And he said yes?”
“He said I could have one.”
“But?”
“But not until I kept my room clean for two weeks. He doesn’t think I can take care of a hamster if I can’t keep my room clean, but I can. I’ll prove it to him.”
“Prove you can take care of the hamster or prove you can keep your room clean?”
“The hamster,” he answered with an implied “duh” at the end.
“You get to tell your dad when he gets home.”
“Okay, I’ll tell him all about how you bought Pip for me and how you insisted on getting all of the best stuff.”
“You think he’ll fall for that?”
“I’m his baby. Of course, he will.”
“Didn’t you once tell me you aren’t a baby?”
“Whatever,” he said.
“I have five more years of sanity until you’re a teenager, don’t try to give me premature gray hair.” The doorbell rang, preempting the freak-out I’d been about to have over my last statement.
“Stay here and make sure everything is hidden.” The more I thought about it, the more fun it sounded to have a shared secret. I couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take Thomas to catch on.
Whoever was ringing the fucking doorbell was impatient, pressing the button like a junkie hooked up to a morphine pump. The distorted figure on the other side of the peephole was a stranger, but somehow vaguely familiar.
After I’d pulled the door open a crack, the woman on the stoop said, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I told you to stay the fuck away.” I’d expected her to scream, but the quiet, menacing tone in her voice was disturbing. “Where’s my son?”
Oh, shit.
“You need to leave before I call the police.” My phone was always within reach, but of course, when I needed it the most I’d left it in Colton’s room. Not one for drama, I shoved on the door to close it, but the bitch pushed back. She wasn’t necessarily stronger, but she did have an extra five inches and at least thirty pounds on me.
“Mommy? Who’s at the door?” Colton called from halfway down the hall. He knew exactly who it was. His words were meant to hurt her in a misguided attempt at revenge, but they just pissed her the fuck off.
With renewed vigor, she gave the door one final shove, knocking me on my ass.
“Colton!” I shouted as I scrambled to my feet, letting him know I meant business. “Get back in your room, lock the door, and dial nine-one-one. Now!”
He wasn’t quite fast enough to outrun Natalie’s longer legs. She skidded to a halt in his doorway.
As an eight-year-old, I would have been scared as shit of the look she gave him, but any fear he might have had would only be temporary. A couple of seconds behind, I ran toward her at full speed. From my lower vantage point, I led with my shoulder and tackled her to the ground.
“Lock the door!” I yelled again. Straddling her and fighting with more strength than I had, there was no way she’d be able to overpower me—physics be damned. Not until Colton was safe. I wouldn’t allow it.
While struggling to keep the crazy bitch down, the only things I heard were muffled sniffs, rapid breaths, and finally the clicking of the lock. “Everything’s going to be okay, sweetie. Use my phone and call the police.”
How would calling the police on his own mother make him feel? He obviously didn’t like her very much at the moment, which he’d proven when he called me Mommy, but I knew it had been a defense mechanism. He had been hurt so badly and was lashing out. But even as upset as he was, would he be able to send his mom back to jail?
Natalie used my split-second of distraction to her advantage and flipped us over. In defense mode, I swatted her hands away as she fought like a toddler with slapping and hair pulling. If I tried to get the upper hand, it could lead to a stray elbow or knee in the face. If this was all she had in her arsenal, I’d just keep her busy. Waiting for the cops would be easy, and no one would get hurt.
“Hurry, Daddy!” We both heard Colton clearly through the door, which seemed to spark something even nastier in Natalie. Before I could prevent it, I was flipped onto my stomach, and my head was pulled back by a fistful of hair.
As she slammed my face into the hardwood floor, I had a flashback to the golf club incident all those years ago, which just pissed me the fuck off even more.
Somehow creating leverage, I shoved her off of me, switched our positions, and straddled her hips again, using my anger to pin her arms to the floor. My face hurt like a bitch, but I got a small sense of satisfaction from watching her squirm as I bled all over her.
“He’s mine, you fucking whore!” she screamed. “You can’t take him away from me!”
“You stopped being his mother when you chose to hurt him,” I said in a much quieter yet furious voice, hoping Colton wouldn’t hear.
She spat in my face and said, “You can have the kid, but Thomas is mine!”
“He most certainly is not.” The deep voice came from behind me, and in an instant, I was pulled to my feet and pushed behind a familiar, solid body. I didn’t need Thomas’s protection, but just this once I didn’t mind his macho need to shield me.
With Thomas towering over her, Natalie hadn’t moved from where I’d had her pinned to the ground. Now calm, she had a creepy-ass smile on her crazy-ass face.
The handle on the door to my right rattled. “Stay in there, sweetie,” I said as calmly as I could. “Keep the door locked.”
“Are you okay, Juli?” Colton’s muffled voice asked.
“I’m all right. Your dad is here to take care of us. Why don’t you go check on Pip and make sure he’s not scared?”
Thomas glanced over his shoulder and the sight of my bloody face sank in for the first time. “I said I’m fine.”
Thankfully, the police showed up a minute later, and after an hour or so, Natalie was on her way back to the precinct.
“You need to go to the hospital,” Thomas said once the three of us were alone. All I wanted to do was shower and pass out for the night. “With that much blood, there’s no way your nose isn’t broken.” There was something off about his tone.
“It stopped bleeding. I’ll go tomorrow.”
“You really should g
o tonight before it starts to heal.”
My nose didn’t appear to be crooked, so there wasn’t much they could do about it until the swelling went down. And based on prior experience, I knew it wouldn’t heal that quickly—I wasn’t Wolverine.
Then it hit me. Thomas was trying to get rid of me. Did he think I was meddling again?
“Is it okay if I take a shower before I go?” I’d cleaned up the best I could in the sink but was still disgusting. Visual aids were a powerful thing, so I hadn’t wanted to get completely clean until after the police left.
“Of course. You don’t have to ask.”
Then why did it feel like I did?
I showered and changed as quickly as I could, avoiding looking at my already blackening eyes in the mirror as I tied my wet hair up in a knot.
After I had grabbed my phone from its spot on the counter and my purse from where I’d taken to keeping it on the floor of the coat closet, I checked to make sure I had my car keys and a pair of sunglasses. For some reason, I couldn’t help but think I should be collecting the rest of my things from around the house as well.
“Are you okay to drive?” Thomas asked, looking me over but not coming closer. “I can call a car service.”
“It’s not my first rodeo. I’ll be fine.”
“I would take you, but Colton—”
“I know. It’s late, and he’s had a rough night.” Didn’t change the fact he was kicking me out. He and I both knew I could have waited until the morning to see a doctor. Under different circumstances, Thomas would have called his dad for medical advice by now. He probably also knew I wouldn’t be going to the ER when I left.
If things weren’t so weird, I’d have called Thomas’s dad myself for an appointment to make sure it didn’t need to be straightened out. Being in the business, I knew lots of good plastic surgeons who could fix me up, if necessary.
Speaking of Colton. “Ready?”
“Ready for what, buddy?” Thomas replied.
“To take Juli to the hospital.” He really had perfected his “duh” face.
“It’s late and a school night.”
“But she took me to the hospital when I got hurt. And she got hurt tonight because of me.”