Two Weeks Later…
I feel like I’m soaring high above the Earth.
Living with Grant is beyond anything I ever could have dreamt of. I’ve never been so relaxed, so at peace, and so turned on at the same time.
Once I explained to my parents that I was no longer dating Reed but was actually dating his father, Grant, they were fine with me moving in with him. My mother was ecstatic, as she still thinks I’m dating him just for his money and sees this as step-one of me getting my foot in the door. And my dad…well I only heard about what my dad thought through my mother, but she assured me he was fine with it.
I moved in two days after Grant asked me, and we immediately went shopping for new clothes. I tried to protest and tell him that I was fine with the things I had, but he wouldn’t listen and outfitted my entire wardrobe with things I could never afford. I blushed the whole time and put up a huge fuss, but in the end, I liked it.
Writing all day, being there for him when he came home from the office, doing my best to help make him dinner, then making love all over the house and falling asleep in each other’s arms and waking up together the next day. It was heaven. That is until that awkward morning when Reed showed up at the house when it was only me at home.
“The hell are you doing here?” he asked.
I just went for it. “What do you even care?”
“Uh, my ex-girlfriend is at my father’s house in short-shorts and a T-shirt looking like she just rolled out of bed? Yeah, I care.”
“Let’s not pretend I was ever your girlfriend, Reed,” I replied. “I was just another virgin you were trying to add to your roster, okay? And you failed. So if you could go now, please? Your step-dad isn’t here right now. But I can tell him you came by.”
Reed’s face went as red as an overripe tomato, but he left (thank God), and I spent the rest of the day writing until Grant came home.
Today, however, I’m back at my parents’ house for my mom’s birthday. Grant said he wanted to come but had to cancel at the last minute because of some kind of work meeting.
“Probably for the best,” I told him. “It’s going to be a disaster anyway. I may end up having to spend the night.”
“Say it ain’t so,” he teased as he brought me in for a kiss. “Text me if anything changes. I’ll miss you, gorgeous.”
“I’ll miss you too.”
We kissed just outside his office and he had a car take me over to my parents’ house. But when I arrive, things are not as I expected. Mom is at least several glasses of wine deep already, and Dad is fed up and watching TV with a slice of cake in his hand.
“Did I miss the festivities?” I ask as I come in. My dad grunts, and my mom laughs and waves her glass through the air, spilling wine all over the carpet. I set down the pair of earrings I bought for my mom on the table, but she doesn’t seem to notice. Probably will in the morning.
“Woo, things are just getting started!”
“Put her to bed, will you?” Dad asks. “I have tried already.”
“Bed?” my mom protests, sounding like a whiney sorority girl. “The night’s still young!”
But her eyes are already almost closed, and she’s swaying on her feet, so I take her by the waist and slowly walk her into the back bedroom as she says something about wanting to go out dancing.
She goes for another sip of her wine, but I manage to take it from her and sort of half-set-half-push her down onto the bed. She lands hard, laughs, and covers her eyes with her arm.
“Thank God I don’t have to go to work tomorrow!”
“Right?”
I go into the living room where my dad is reclined with his feet up and on his phone with someone.
“You going out now? Leaving me with her?”
“She’ll be fine,” he scoffs. “Had a few too many. Gonna go play poker with the boys. Don’t you have that new man of yours to spend the evening with anyway?”
I sigh and slump down on the couch. “Yeah, but I told him I’d be over here tonight. He said he’d probably be busy.” My dad shrugs and goes over to the door to get his coat. “I guess I’ll do some writing. Will you remind Mom to open the present I got for her? It’s earrings.”
“I’ll let her know if I see her before you do,” my dad replies.
“Gee, thanks.”
I grab my keys off the counter and go out to my car. Even if Grant is at the office, I’d rather be at his house getting some work done on my book than here in the living room while my mom’s passed out in the back. Who knows, maybe Grant will be home by the time I get there anyway.
On the way, I brainstorm my book. I’ve been working on the outline of a cozy mystery involving a girl who moved to a small town with her mom to open a coffee shop and ends up investigating the murder of a local librarian in her spare time. I’ve just about figured out how I want the first chapter to go when I reach the house in Malibu, but as the gate opens and I pull in, my heart sinks.
Not only is the house not empty, but it’s absolutely packed. Packed with lingerie and bikini-clad models prancing around and dancing to music that I can hear from the driveway as I park. I see Grant’s car in front of the garage and feel a pang in my chest. I glance up and see him standing in the living room, three girls fawning all over him.
No…it can’t be.
A rage fills me, and I nearly take my car door off its hinges as I kick it open. But once I’m out and racing up to the front door, I stop.
Do I really want to do this? Go in there and confront him with all those girls there to see it?
The thud of the bass is like the pounding of my heart. I can feel it in my feet, in my ears, in my chest. My anxiety is at a level I’ve never felt before. I know if I go up there now, there’s a good chance I won’t be able to say anything to him. Or I may actually pass out when I see him surrounded by those girls being all touchy all over him.
No, I have to go. I can’t be here right now.
So I turn on my heels, go back to my car, get in, and quickly back out of the driveway. But the last thing I see as I pull out onto the road is a girl with long blond hair and big fake breasts pulling her top off and throwing it in Grant’s face.
Wow, what a night. What a night.
