Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
—Overheard conversations
CREOLE
I wasn’t just freaking out.
I was about to crawl right out of my skin.
I’d never thought I’d come into close contact with the man, but here I was, staring at him while he sat next to the man that knew every trick to get under my skin.
Jesus.
In that moment, I hated Laney for what she’d done.
Out of all the people she could’ve slept with and gotten pregnant with, why did she have to choose a man from her husband’s own club?
She’d done it on purpose, too.
She’d told me that she was going to get pregnant.
She just hadn’t told me who she was getting pregnant by.
It was about three months into her pregnancy that Laney had admitted she’d slept with one of Audric’s club brothers when he was drunk off his ass.
I’d asked her what the hell she’d been thinking, and she said that she was sex-starved and hadn’t been thinking.
I wasn’t sure that was the truth.
I knew that Laney had her own dalliances.
She was discreet about it, but she couldn’t get over the fact that her “husband” didn’t want her the way she wanted him.
That was another secret I’d be taking to my grave.
I would never tell Audric that Laney had loved him so deeply that she’d thought up a hundred and one different ways to get him where she wanted him.
Eventually, she’d found a way.
I hadn’t been super happy with her taking advantage of Audric in a vulnerable position, but in the end, it was always Audric’s decision.
He’d been a grown-ass adult, who was I to tell him that he had made a poor choice?
She’d have paid for his debts even if he hadn’t agreed to marry her.
Then again, I would’ve done the same to help pay off the debts of my son’s and mother’s illnesses if it meant my dad could live his half-life debt-free.
But this?
What the hell was I supposed to do with this?
I felt terrible.
I’d felt terrible since the moment I learned about it and Laney made me keep the secret.
Then again, when I’d learned about it, I wasn’t doing so hot.
I had more things to worry about than Laney’s affair with one of Audric’s best friends.
And they were best friends.
The way they were cutting up and laughing for the last hour and a half was damn near heart-wrenching.
These two men were close.
Really close.
How could Laney do that?
She could’ve chosen any man in the world, and she chose that one?
If they ever found out, how would they stay friends?
Honestly, I didn’t think they could.
Hence why I’d stayed silent for so long.
My guilt was keeping me feeling like shit about not telling them, but my common sense knew that this wasn’t going to work once they did know.
And I had no doubt that he’d eventually figure it out.
How could they not?
Every time I saw Lottie, I wondered if there were similarities between Cakes and Lottie. I hadn’t actually met Cakes, but I thought I’d noticed him at the veteran’s center in downtown Dallas.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I mean, this man named Cakes had a kid that he wasn’t getting to raise. He was missing all the great moments.
I felt lower than a roach as we took off and then I started food service.
My fellow flight attendants offered to help, but like always, I refused.
I liked them all right, but it didn’t matter if they were just trying to be nice, my brain wasn’t wired to accept help when it got them close to me.
I started with Audric first so I could get him out of the way.
Surprising me, he ordered water and whatever was left over for the meal service.
His friend Cakes, however, ordered whatever meal was best, and a beer.
Almost all of the bikers in first class did.
It was weird.
Well, except the men who were married asked that their meals be taken back to their wives. They even gave us seat numbers that were directly behind first class.
After all meals were delivered—and the women had to be broken up because they were having so much fun together drinking and carrying on—I started trash pickup for the front again.
Audric had his tray ready for me, and he waited until I was leaning over Cakes to say, “It was good, Creole.”
I nodded.
It wasn’t like I made the meals.
The facility I worked for had a thousand chefs who prepared these meals on a daily basis.
I got whatever was left—if there was anything left—and usually it was okay.
Some days those meals were the only things I survived on.
I was a mess.
Probably always would be after the life I’d lived.
Even worse, I was a shit friend because I wanted nothing to do with my best friend’s child, and that was unforgivable.
But I just couldn’t.
I couldn’t do it.
That…
“You should thank Blue Airlines for that,” I murmured as I pulled away, suddenly remembering I was all but hanging over Cakes to get to Audric’s plate.