Page 9 of The Monster and the Masochist

I’d thought when she’d been living with us for a bit that I’d be able to make some headway with her, but she couldn’t get out of Fairview fast enough. As soon as the threat of Cal’s old boss was gone, she’d moved back into her condo and hadn’t bothered to give me the time of day since.

“She likes you, Theo, you just need to try harder.”

I snorted. “Try harder, how? If she’s not going to answer my calls, there’s not much more I can do.”

“Have you tried stalking her?”

Jerry choked on a laugh as he busied himself with the forms he needed to fill out so we could claim our prize money.

“I’m not going to stalk your sister.”

“Why not? That’s what I did with Ryan. Look at us now.” He beamed at me, wiggling his fingers in my face to show off his engagement ring. “Now we’re getting maaarrriiieddd!”

It was hard to keep glaring at him when he was glowing with pre-nuptial bliss. He loved my brother so fucking much, and it made me love the shit out of him too.

Ryan deserved someone like Cal. He’d spent his whole life being bullied and living in the closet, ashamed of who he was.

Cal had stripped that all away and made my brother feel loved for being exactly who he was, and I would never get sick of watching them make nauseating goo-goo eyes at each other every day.

Not that I would tell either of them that. Kinda fucked with my whole ‘I don’t give a shit,’ vibe I had going on.

“Callum, enough,” I grumbled, but he just whined.

“Come onnnn, just a little bit of light stalking. I happen to know that she’s going to be at Chez Guillaume tomorrow night for some fancy work event.”

I wrinkled my nose.

“I’m not going to freaking Chez Guillaume. They’ll take one look at me and ask me why I’m not in the back, washing dishes.”

Cal scoffed. “Don’t be such a little bitch. If you want pussy, at least go after something classier than whoever the fuck that was.”

“Stop talking about your sister’s pussy. It’s fucking weird. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with Sienna. What’s wrong with a woman wanting sex? Don’t be a misogynist pig.”

Cal made a sputtering sound. He slapped a hand to his chest as if he were searching for an invisible string of pearls to clutch.

“You think I don’t like her because she’s slutty? Please, before I met your brother, I was fucking anything that walked. I love sluts. I was a slut. That’s not the issue. I don’t like your little groupie because I caught her digging through your gym bag last week. I’m pretty sure she pocketed a twenty or something.”

“Wait… seriously?”

Damn, Sienna… Fucking rude.

Callum was nodding earnestly, and I sighed, feeling slightly bitter that I probably shouldn’t be fucking Sienna anymore if she was stealing from me.

“Come on, Theo. Put on the suit you wear to help out at Fairview. Do your little man-bun thing you always do with your hair. Put in a bit of effort, I swear it’ll pay off. Cassandra needs to feel admired. She likes to be chased.”

I wasn’t sure this was true.

Cassandra was fiercely independent.

‘I slay my own dragons.’

She’d said that once when I offered to be her knight in shining armor.

The little girl in me had swooned.

I could have used someone to help me slay the dragon that was Father Samwell. Cass probably would have just slit his throat and called it a day.

Unlike me, who’d just stood there and fucking took it.