IOU

by Kristy Marie

Contrary to what you might hear, I’m not crazy. I swear it. “Are you out of your goddamned mind?” It’s a rhetorical question. “The fucking apartment is on fire, Ainsley!” Tucker has always been the more dramatic one in our relationship, and if I weren’t so

pissed off, I would bring it up, but there’s no point. He’s not my problem anymore.

“Do you have a Dalmatian in the cab?” I ask. I could go for some puppy love right now. Bostic chuckles. “No. No dog on this rig.” “That’s a shame,” I mutter. “Everyone needs a dog.” And a sea lion. But I don’t add that comment. Bostic already thinks I’m crazy.

Most days, I can’t remember who the real Maverick is anymore. Does he even like poker? Or was poker a matter of survival at the time? I’ll never know because, at this point, I can never give it up. It’s who I am now.

Life is a contract. Friendships. Marriages. Employment. It’s all there in black and white. Once time has been served, or the contract hasn’t been fulfilled to their standards, it’s over.

But ever since the survival instinct left me, and I found myself safe with a man everyone fears, the tears flooded my soul, and pain invaded every inch of my heart. I can’t stop it. It’s like waves and waves of memories hit at the worst moments. Moments when I should be showing Maverick that I’m grateful, and I appreciate him leaving a clean towel on the bathroom sink when he finishes showering. It’s like he’s the most hateful, considerate host ever. I don’t want him to think I’m a mess of a person. I might be a mess now, but I haven’t always been. “So he’s being good to you? You’re okay, I

I re-read the note and pick up the picture, a lighter hiding underneath. Some people are meant to burn, and others are meant to rise from their ashes. And then I set that bitch on fire.

He’s my spirit animal. Well, not my animal. He’s my spirit human and I might just have to stay indebted to him so he can never get rid of me.

I think I might be in fucking love with her. And eventually she will find out the truth and I’ll lose her. Maybe I should just let her go. I could call Mike back, accept the house, and help her move. That’s what she expects from me—a favor.

My mama always said you know you love a man when you don’t want to poison his food. I so don’t want to poison Maverick’s food. I might want to eat half of it, but not poison it.

I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with him. I said I would spend my last years at college

“I won’t let anyone come between us,” he murmurs, moving the hair off my neck and placing a soft kiss against my heated skin. “It’s not about staking a claim, but about protecting a future.”