Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“It wasn’t what they said it was,” I told him.
“I don’t give a fuck what it was,” he shot back. “Who the fuck started this shit?”
“I…” Still perplexed, since all this happened over a decade ago, I asked, “What does it matter? That happened in high school.”
He held his phone toward me and scrolled through a bunch of shit that was still up (a lot of it had been taken down when the cops got involved, oh, and when Mom lost her mind publicly at a school board meeting). All of what he was scrolling through was about me.
Gabe dropped his phone, declaring, “It matters.”
“Gabe, I’m over it.”
He bent toward me, I leaned back, and he shouted in my face, “Well, I’m not!”
Holy shit.
“Baby,” I whispered, shocked to my core at his fury.
“Does it occur to you that I wasn’t only dealing with what that asshole did to you when I was trying to get you here with me?” He thumped his fist over his heart before he jerked his phone up again. “I was dealing with this too?”
Yes, that had occurred to me.
And yes, he was right, he’d been dealing with all of it.
Even so.
“It was a long time ago,” I said carefully.
“It marked you,” he gritted. “Like your dad did. Like that asshole Kevin did.”
“I wasn’t keeping it from you,” I replied. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that we’ve only just gotten there very recently.”
“No, Willow, that is far from lost on me,” he said dangerously.
Hmm.
I guess, point made.
“What else is there?” he demanded.
“Sorry?” I asked.
“Who else fucked you over?”
I had to finish this cake and make the delivery, but since my list wasn’t very long, we had the time.
So I gave it to him quickly in order that Real Logic didn’t butt in and underline the fact my list wasn’t very long, it wasn’t like I was the only woman who faced this kind of crap, and I shouldn’t have held back from Gabe as long as I did.
No, I’d done it because I was just smarting due to the ugly mess Trev and Kev made, and I let it get to me.
Yuck.
“Well, after I got slut shamed for not being a slut,” I hurried on after I said that because Gabe’s scary face got exponentially scarier, “my second high school boyfriend cheated on me…a lot. But, um, that’s it.”
“I’m not gonna step out on you,” he stated.
“I didn’t think you would,” I replied hesitantly.
He shook his head. “No. Fuck no with that uncertain tone, Willow. I am not that man. You’re in my bed, I’m in yours, ours are the only beds and bodies that are gonna be in this relationship. You got my vow on that. I will never step out on you. Not fuckin’ ever.”
Although what he was saying, and how passionately he was saying it, made me want to do cartwheels, I was beginning to get a very bad feeling about this, and that feeling wasn’t (completely) about what could be considered—but as crazy as it seemed, I was thinking it wasn’t—his irrational fury.
“And I wanna know who pulled this shit.” He lifted his phone up again.
“Gabe, it was thirteen years ago.”
“Do you think a boy who would do this won’t become a man who would do worse?”
No.
I thought there were way too many men who never stopped acting like boys.
I pulled a Raye and approached the beast.
Getting close, I put my hand on his chest and said, “I think you need to take a breath and realize that’s over. I’m beyond it. It wasn’t fun to deal with, but Mom took my back, and it was dealt with.”
“And, babe, I think you gotta clue in to who you’re with and the fact that man is not gonna let anyone fuck you over, past, present or future,” he returned, and my heart squeezed again, this time happily (if worriedly). “Now, I’m askin’ you to think. Is this fuck and that cheater and your dad and Kevin all there is?”
Since this obviously meant a lot to him, I thought about it, then shared, “Well, there’s also Sheldon, who’s my ex-bestest bestie, Jen’s boyfriend, and he got her into drugs, and she and I had it out about what a bad influence he was on her, with me telling her she should ditch him. She didn’t ditch him. And now she isn’t my bestest bestie anymore, but she is a meth-head, and I haven’t seen her in years. But that didn’t happen to me. Though, I really loved her, and I still miss her.”
“That it?” he demanded.
I thought about it harder.
Coming up with nothing, I nodded.
Once again, he held up his phone. “There’s a lot of this crap still up, babe, who started it?”
This didn’t give me good vibes either.
“What are you gonna do?” I asked.
“I’m gonna pay him a visit.”