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Getting onto the convertible couch bed wasn’t as difficult for him as getting him back into his chair proves to be. There’s a height difference to our calibrated-for-Adam bed and the fact that the handles installed there are fixed, not something I could bring here to my office for him to use.
I open the door so he can easily maneuver out. I put the couch back the way it belongs and fold the blanket.
A new day. New attitude? New chapter for Adam and I? I don’t know. I really don’t.
We lay together for a while cuddling this morning and something in the air feels different, but I haven’t got the capacity to figure things out at this point.
He’s going to physical therapy this morning and said his brother Paul is taking him, that Paul has a surprise for him. He’s being sweet and careful with me. He offered to skip PT, but I insisted he go as well as find out what Paul’s surprise is. I told him I just need to throw myself into some work for the day.
We’ve left things unsaid, I know, but it feels like we’ve crossed over a threshold. There’s just no telling yet where it’ll take us.
My doorbell rings just after 1:30, so I answer and find Alannah standing on the step with a cardboard tray holding two coffees and a paper bag.
“Chocolate éclairs,” she states, and pushes her way past me.
“I’m working, Lan,” I mutter.
“I said chocolate éclairs,” she repeats with more than a bit of attitude. “In other words, I’m paying a toll, so you get your ass in here and talk to me.”
She goes directly to my office, sets the bag and coffee tray on the floor in front of the convertible couch, then parks her behind on it. I sit beside her, folding my legs under myself and cradling my elbows.
“Background noise needed?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Adam’s out.”
“Good. Now, spill.”
I haul in a big breath and let loose. “Derek Steele overheard our conversation in the club that night I met him. He heard all about the hall pass, all about my kinky wannabe status from the things you said, and then he proceeded to run into me multiple times. I actually thought you set it up after it happened because he knew just what to do and how to do it. So, short version is that I slept with him and then before I left the next morning, he told me he overheard our conversation.”
She stares, mouth agape.
I say, “He played me, Lan. Got what he wanted, and I don’t ever want to hear his name again. Ever again.”
She blinks a couple times with her mouth still open.
“I’m so embarrassed. I can’t believe he told me, too. Like… he used the information he heard and got what he wanted, so why tell me? Why not just let me leave and work another notch into his bedpost with me none the wiser?”
“That’s… that’s wild, Chlo. I’m…” She shakes her head, folds forward to grab the éclair bag, and then pulls one out before passing it to me. She takes a giant bite from hers.
I set the bag down on the little table beside me.
“You probably need that more than I do,” she says, gesturing toward the bag.
I shake my head. “I’ve barely been able to eat since that lovely breakfast he cooked for me Saturday morning.” I shoot her a poignant look.
She takes another bite, then says, “Wow,” with her mouth full.
“Yeah,” I say. “Even thought for a minute you might have put him up to the entire thing.”
“Me?” she points to herself.
“It’s not above you to try to fix my problems for me by talking to a hot guy about fulfilling a big chunk of my kinky sex bucket list.”
“I’d never break trust like that, sister. You know me better than that. Don’t you?”
“You’re right. Sorry,” I mumble.
“But shit, Chloe, I am sorry I got so personal in that bar. So sorry, sister. How the fuck did he overhear that? That place is bugged? Shit… the conversations I’ve had in there. Yikes.”
