AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You really are too good to be true,” I whisper. Then I straighten my spine. “After I told him I was going alone, he told me he’d go to my ‘silly play’ but that my mother would not be happy with us.” A low growl rumbles from Alex’s chest, and I melt. “I told him there was no us anymore.”
“Good girl.”
Well, there they went. Goodbye panties. Hello hormones.
20
GABE
What the hell am I doing? I shake my head at myself as I glance at the mirror. Last night was a rush. Being in that glittering ballroom, surrounded by the most exquisite clothing money can buy. Perfume that costs more than most people’s rent. Watches more expensive than a BMW.
I flick the shower to hot and shed my shirt. There was a time when I wanted all of that. The fanciest everything. The trophy wife. I worked my tail off to make something of myself and achieve every single one of my wildest dreams.
But last night, all of that paled in comparison to the auction, the woman on the stage, and my best friend at my side.
I shuck the rest of my clothes and step beneath the spray. The house might be well worn—loved the real estate agent had said—but at least the hot water heater knows how to do its job. The little bar of soap isn’t much, and it smells awful, but at least I’ll be clean.
How long has it been since I used a bar of soap as shampoo?
Ages. College? Freshman year? That’s when Alex took me under his wing. He had a nice apartment. Actual shampoo. A quality soap. Nothing was from a dollar store or homemade.
My chest squeezes, and my mind spirals backward through time.
“Stop coddling them, Maude. Soap is for clean’n. Not smell’n good.” My father’s voice boomed through the house, and I swear the walls shook. They’d been out of the cheap stuff and so Momma’d gotten the next cheapest. This soap smelled like spring and rain. It smelled like heaven.
“Daddy just doesn’t like change,” she assured us later. But I learned two things that day. Number one, embrace change like it was my life’s mission. And two, do whatever it takes to smell like heaven on a daily basis.
I come back to the here and now with a gasp. Sputtering beneath the hot spray, I turn to wash off the bubbles.
It’s just temporary. Tonight, I’ll be back to my apartment where shampoo comes in a bottle and my body wash smells like lime zest and sin.
Have I been embracing change lately?
I lather my hands and run them over my face.
At some point, the company and my to-do list took over. Sure, there’s a specific trajectory and I have side projects that shake things up a bit, but. . .
“Don’t think it. Don’t you dare think it.”
Too late.
Something’s missing.
I turn the water to cold and shove my face into the spray. We need a do-over. Rewind everything back to yesterday morning and go for a jog instead of to the gym. And for heaven’s sake, don’t go to that gala with Alex.
He wants her.
Katie Bird.
He kissed her.
I kissed her anyway.
I’m a lousy fucking friend.
Goosebumps cover my arms as I brace my hands against the wall. I hang my head. The water sluices down in one thick stream.
“I bid first,” I say to the empty room.
