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This one is for you badass moms out there. Bags under your eyes, stains on your shirt and babies swinging by your tits. You are rocking the fuck out of this. Get that coffee and eat two of them cookies. You’ve earned it.
Did I just see a hot chick running down the road with a live chicken under her arm?
“I find out that stupid cunt is around here, and you’re helping her. I’ll beat that pretty face of yours into existence.” “I think the correct term is non-existence, bud. Clearly, I’m standing here, existing.” Smirking,
“So, I’m driving home, and I see this hot as fuck dime piece running down the street. At, I shit you not, she’s got a chicken tucked under her fucking arm!”
“Okay, so you’re high.” “I’m not high!” I
“I’m serious! I mean, okay, it could’ve been a duck—wait, no! The guy that tried to beat my ass said chicken!...
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“Yeah… uh, huh. Good night, Ash, don’t let Mama J find out you’re fucked ...
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“I don’t want to count my chickens quite yet. Let me see how things pan out before I start introducing people.”
“You know I don’t believe a word you’re saying, right?”
“Son, what did I say about that chicken sleeping with you? She has a coop outside!”
“Well, hello.” His chuckle is soft as he twists his hands together. “And you might be?” I’m going to have to kill him. My mortification rises, and I feel the sting in my eyes. I’m going to cry from the embarrassment. I look to my girlfriends. They all know Ash Johnson, and I had a one-night stand years ago. I told Ren last Thanksgiving when he pulled this exact move. And I’m sure since the women know, the guys do too.
“Oh, we’ve met, Dash,”
“We had a nice date a couple of years ago down at the taco trucks. You might remember us dancing in the rain? Then we went back to my place to have sex. I think you got… Oh, I don’t know, half a pump in before you blew your load?
Then you apologized a hundred times, left sixty dollars on my dresser, and ran out. I’m surprised you don’t remember that. Or is it just a common theme between you and your dates?”
His eyes shudder as he closes his mouth tightly, his jaw muscles popping while his obsidian eyes burn into me before looking away. “So, what flavor is that cake?” He pats Atlas on the back while walking over to the food. Did he? He just blew me off!
“Really? From me? What is it? Because if it’s killing Ash, I’m fine with it, but I gotta call Nika.” I let out a surprised laugh. “No, fuck him. I need to get Wade out of the place we’re staying. My credit is horrible, as you know. If I find a place, could I get you as a co-signer?”
“Sunday was at Hel’s,” I mumble while watching Indy wipe the cheese dust off her feet with a wet wipe. God, she’s a fucking weirdo. “They were having some party or something, I don’t know. I kind of walked in on it.” “Sunday Sutton? Oh no, Ash… you did that thing again, didn’t you?” The disappointment in her voice raises my hackles, and my annoyance creeps up.
“I panicked!”
“She’s going to think you’re an idiot if you keep reintroducing yourself!” Her voice calls after me.
“Too late, she already does! And she made sure everyone at Hel’s thinks it too!” I call back before slamming my door and heading to my bathroom to shower.
Though, I did start it. I wince at the thought while drying myself off before wrapping a towel around my waist. Walking into my bedroom, I see my phone lighting up on the bed. Peering over to see who it is, I loudly groan when I see it’s the Hel’s Girls.
SHE embarrassed me!
“Was two years ago!” she snaps as she smacks the couch cushion. “And it wouldn’t be nursing! Just the—” “Enough,” I snap back. “I said no. Look at you; you are in pain as we speak, and you’re expecting me to let you go and be around sick people all day?”
“I’m not a fucking child! And how dare you use my illness like that!” She stands up abruptly, and I watch as it happens, almost in slow motion. Her face goes from scrunched up and angry to completely grey and lax while her eyes roll back into her head as she crumples to the floor. “Fuck! Fuck!”
“Indy,”
“How am I supposed to let you go when this can happen?” It’s bad enough that after countless tests, doctors, and ER trips, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
“Are you okay?” “No, I have an overgrown man-whore standing in my office, wasting my time. Now, what do you want?” She blinks slowly while glaring daggers, telling me with her pretty eyes to ‘fuck off.’
“Sunshine.” “Day,” she snaps, “My name is Sunday.”
“Ash, I have nothing, and I do mean nothing, to say to you. I don’t give a rat’s ass if you apologize. I ain’t got time for your apologies, alright? I don’t have time to fix your overly fragile male ego. I already told you the endless list of shit I have to do today, all while trying to get this screaming in my knee to calm down. Do you know what kind of toll four hours on a pole can have on a body that isn’t hurting? Let alone one that is injured? I have to teach a class of fifteen how to perform the Dove while my knee feels like it’s snapping in two. So, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t
...more
“Feel better?” I ask while smirking, and she gives me the finger. “If you need help,” I start but stop as I see the darkness on her face.
“I’ll sooner hand out ten-dollar blow jobs on the corner than ask you for a damn thing.”
“I wasn’t trying to insult you,”
“Really? Which time? When you tried to hand out charity? Or the times you’ve pretended you had no idea who I was, making me look like an idiot?”
“Or! Or? Could it be that time that you flirted with me while I got tattooed, conned me into going out with you and having sex with you, just to have you run out thirty seconds in, but not before dropping sixty dollars on my nightstand like I was some kind of hooker?”
“O-Okay.” Holding my hands out cautiously, I step toward the angry woman. “The money was your tip–” “Get the fuck out–”
“It was the tip,”
“That you had given me for the tattoo the night before. I felt weird keeping it after the date. I had planned on giving it back to you the whole time. Yeah, I'm aware it was the worst timing, but I never thought I’d see you again.”
“I’m really pissed off about that being a good excuse,”
“Jesus,” I whisper as her round ass has its main character moment in her dark grey leggings. And I mean, fuck, her ass is top tier–round and firm with a nice handf–
One day, I hope to earn the right to talk to you about what happened that night. Just know it wasn’t you. Not ever. I know you won’t take my help, but I’m here if you need anything, even just a person to talk to. My number is below, in case you deleted it.
-Charming PS - Yes, I’m still going to call you sunshine. Don’t like it? Guess you’ll have to tell me to stop. PSS - I like charming.
They blamed me and told me that if I didn’t keep my mouth shut, I would ruin a ‘good man’s career.’ And then I became pregnant and was kicked out of the trailer shortly after Wade’s first birthday and moved into the back room at the local bar, where I was paid under the table as a loader until I was
able to save enough to get Wade and me a bus ticket to New York City where I had a spot waiting for me to train with the ballet. I grabbed that opportunity and never looked back. He and I haven’t been back to Alabama since. Now, though, it’s the only place we’ll have to go after I sell the studio. I can’t afford it out here with just the studio, not when I have all this debt to pay off.
I hate apartments, but it’s one of the few places I found in my budget in Wade’s school district. No one would take me, even with Janie as a co-signer. So, we had to get creative and even though this seems reckless, I agreed because I have no other choice.
She's a little more extroverted than I prefer, but it’s not like I’ll see her often. I take my key cards and head to the elevator to beat the moving crew to the apartment on the third floor. “Oh, Mrs. Simmons!” She calls as she runs to the elevator; I cringe at the name. “I’m still Sutton,” I say softly. “I never changed my name.”
“Okay, well, I just want to confirm that the rooster wouldn’t be, um, crowing? If we receive noise com–”
“Alice is a hen, not a rooster. I’ve heard her crow, maybe once, and it isn’t loud. Anything else?” The girl smiles apologetically before stepping back, and I hit the button to my floor.
“If I set them down, I won’t be able to pick them up, and my stupid brother isn’t answering his phone or my knocks,” she grumbles as she opens the door. “No worries, I’m moving in across the hall,”
“Sunday?” Ash says in shock as he walks over to me. The girl's head whips to me, her bright blue eyes wide. “Wait, you’re Sunday Sutton?” Fucking shit… I’m living next door to Ash Johnson and his sister.
“We both know if you really wanted me to leave, you’d be hurling shit at my head.”
