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A text message flashed across the screen. The number looked familiar.
My stomach was already in bad shape and roiled.
I clicked on the message, even though my head hurt so bad that I wasn’t sure I could read it.
Saw a pic of you and your billionaire
It was my auntie Theresa.Fuck me.She attached a picture of Cole and me from the night before—someone must’ve snapped it and posted it online. We were stumbling out of Viva Luxe and into the Escalade, our arms wrapped around each other.
I thought Daddy Warbucks told you to stay away
I stared at the screen. My brain wasn’t functioning correctly, which only made things worse. What the hell was I supposed to say to her?
You owe me money. Lots of it
My blood started to boil. My auntie Theresa was bad news. She was responsible for a lot of the shit that went wrong in my life, and she was the reason I’d ended up homeless at sixteen. She wasoneof the reasons, anyway. I didn’t often wish bad things on people, but as far as I was concerned, Auntie Theresa could go die in a hole.
I don’t owe you shit.
That’s bull, and you know it
Daddy Warbucks knows it, too
I’m gonna call him. You are in for it, missy
Don’t forget I know where you are
I threw the phone down, wincing when it smacked against the hardwood floor.
“What’s the matter?” Cole muttered, sounding as though he was still in a deep sleep.
“Nothing.” But it wasn’t nothing, and I knew it. “Go back to sleep. I’m going to go take a shower.” But it wasn’t as though I could wash the stink of my hangover—or my auntie Theresa—away.
Some things took time to get out of your system.
And some stained you for good.
CHAPTER TEN
cole
My head hurt.Scratch that—my headkilled. But that didn’t stop me from sitting up, making myself a coffee, and considering my options.
Jenny was in the shower.MyJenny. I’d gotten wasted last night, but I still remembered everything we said.
I love you, Jenny.
I still love you too, Coley.
There was also some sort of fight about the superiority of buttercream frosting. I winced as I sipped my coffee. My head throbbed. Getting drunk last night had been stupid, but at the same time, I didn’t regret it. At least Jenny and I had laughed.
At least we’d been close. At least Jenny said she still loved me.
We didn’t have to talk about it. I could pretend I didn’t remember anything. I could pretend I didn’t remember what I said. I didn’t have to be vulnerable or open up to Jenny again.
Still, I heard her singing in the shower, some sad ballad I didn’t recognize. Hearing her voice got me choked up. And, of course, imagining the water splashing all over Jenny’s luscious curves also got other things going. Hungover and half-dead as I was, I was still human. Jenny was the prettiest girl in thewhole world. Knowing that she was in the next room, completely naked, had my cock stirring.
She might reject me. She might very well say no. Our contract stated this was strictly business, but I strolled into the bathroom anyway.
