CHAPTER 8

“Avery, you all right?” Mel asks as she skewers a hotcake and pops it into her mouth. I couldn’t manage to tell her what happened with Henry. I covered the slight black and blue on my cheek and smile a lot, hoping that she won’t ask questions.

As it was, Black asked a million questions and wasn’t convinced that it wasn’t my fault until Gabe spoke. The only bright side to today was the huge check. Apparently when a client tries to kill one of Black’s girls, we get compensated.

The money is burning a hole in my pocket. I want to get rid of it, but I can’t. I know that would be stupid, but it feels tainted. I nearly died earning that bit of cash.

“Yeah, you’ve been uncharacteristically quiet.” Marty picks up a sausage and makes an obscene gesture.

Mel sneers at him. “Cut it out, dickwad. You don’t have to pretend to be bi or homo or whatever the hell you were doing before. And I think Avery forgave you way too fast for pulling shit like that, so don’t piss me off or I will stab you with my fork. Then, my pancakes will get bloody and I’ll have to kill you with my spoon.”

Marty blinks at her. The shock is short lived. He grins. “I bet you’ve done lots of things with a spoon.” He winks at Mel and then stabs a sausage and hands it to her. “It’s demonstration time.”

Mel’s amber eyes widen as her mouth falls open. “Holy shit. You did not just say that to me. Did he really just say that, Avery?”

I’m lost in thought, wondering about everything and nothing. My mind skips between things that seemed pointless at the time, but now mean something. If that light at Prairie Drive didn’t take so damn long, I would have never met Sean. There are little things like that flooding my mind, and I can’t stop them.

Mel bumps my shoulder. “Hello? What’s with you? He told me to suck off a sausage in the middle of IHOP.”

I shrug. “So, do it.”

Marty tries to hide his laughter under a napkin as Mel gives me a WTF face. She blinks and a second later, she grabs the fork and is doing sexy things to the sausage. I’m leaning on my hand, staring blankly, but I’m aware enough to know Marty is transfixed by whatever Mel is doing—and so are the guys in the next booth. They’d been talking about some game way too loudly and now all three of them are silently watching Mel give her breakfast a blowjob.

I glance at her out of the corner of my eye, like I’m bored. “I wouldn’t swallow if I were you. I’m pretty it’ll be all grease. You’ll gain ten pounds in one gulp.”

Mel nearly chokes and puts the thing on her plate. The three guys are now staring at me, as well. Mel start laughing, but she has a strange smile on her face. “You’re talking a bit too loud there, Avery.”

“You’re blowing your breakfast, Mel. I don’t think it matters much.” I glance up at her, after folding my napkin into a swan. My mom taught me how to fold napkins before she died. It was her latest hobby.

One of the guys across from us stands and walks over to our table. He gives Marty the guy nod and says to me and Mel, “There are very few women who demand attention the way you do.”

Mel laughs, “Which one of us are you talking to there, Slick?”

The guy smiles. He’s attractive, with sandy blonde hair that’s not too long or too short. Coupled with a firm body and blazing blue eyes, he’s a hottie. “What makes you think I was only talking to one of you?” He leans forward and places his hands on the table. There’s a silver ring at the base of his thumb. I stare at it for a second too long. He says to me, “Cock ring. Comes in handy, so I just carry it with me.”

“It’s kind of small.” I flick my eyes up to his. I don’t feel like fending him off right now. It was the quickest shortcut to getting rid of him.

He grins and looks at me. “There’s nothing small about me, baby.” Mel’s eyes flick between me and the guy. She’d normally cut off his balls, but today she isn’t.

“Prove it,” Mel blurts out. “Whip that sucker out right now and show us the miraculous marvel that is tucked into those tight jeans.” Mel sweeps her eyes to his waist and then dips her gaze lower. When the guy doesn’t move, she glances up. “Well, come on. I don’t have all day. Besides, me and my friend here will only do a three way if the guy has a really big dick.”

The guy swallows hard. “A three way?”

“You walked over to the right table. In fact, my friend here is sometimes gay, so if you play your cards right, you might get a four way.” Mel laugh-smirks as she inclines her head toward Marty, who, in turn, wiggles the tips of his fingers at the guy. “So, whip it out and show us. If it’s big enough, we’ll make your wettest dreams come true.”

The guy stands there like he doesn’t know what to do. His friends are laughing, egging him on. A waitress brushes past him and the guy nearly jumps out of his skin. “You’re just shittin’ with me.” The guy smiles and turns to walk back to his table.

Mel shrugs. “Well, now you’ll never know.” When he looks back at her, Mel winks at him.

He laughs like she’s kidding and slips into his booth. Their conversation continues in hushed whispers. They keep looking over at us.

“You’re evil. You know that?” I say, and shake my head. “Let’s get out of here before this turns into an urban legend.”

Mel slips out of the booth. “Oooh! I like that! If you see a girl sucking off a sausage at the IHOP on Sunrise Highway, then you’ll be invited to have a three way with her and her hot friend. Totally the stuff legends are made of. Damn, I love breakfast!” Mel glances at the table of guys and licks her finger seductively. Then, she points at the guy we were talking to. “Could have been you.”

“You were joking. It wasn’t a real offer.” The guy is smiling, and it sounds like he’s trying to convince himself. His friends are smiling hard, watching him.

Marty says, “That’s what you think. Why do you think they let me hang out with them?” He mouths huge dick and waggles his eyebrows. As we walk out, the guy’s friends start teasing him for passing up two hot chicks.

“Well, you totally screwed with that guy, and I helped make the legend of the Long Island sluts into a real thing. I bet it’s floating around Facebook by morning.” Marty walks next to me, smirking triumphantly. Mel is ahead of us, speed walking to the car.

I fold my arms across my chest and walk. There hasn’t been much of a smile on my face tonight and Marty knows me too well. “So, what happened?”

My eyes cut to the side. “What are you talking about?”

“At work, something happened. What was it? You seem spooked.” He touches my forearm lightly, stopping me. We’re standing in the middle of the parking lot. I look up at him, wanting to tell him, but afraid of what he’ll say. “Just tell me. I think I already know. The asshole messed with you, right?”

“How’d you know that?”

“It’s all over your face. Are you okay? Do I need to break his neck?”

I shake my head. “No, Gabe took care of him and got me out before he really had a chance to hurt me. Somehow his crazy got past Black. She didn’t know he was jealous or nuts.”

“Jealous? Who would order a call girl and then be jealous?”

“A crazy person. He hates Sean and when he realized I was with Sean this weekend, he went nuts. He would have killed me if Gabe didn’t show up. I’m kind of out of it, that’s all.” I start walking again. Mel has started the car. The sky is that dingy gray, like it’s going to snow again.

“Hey, wait.” He takes my elbow and I stop and turn back to him. “Are you serious? The guy really wanted to hurt you?” I nod. Marty gives me the most grieved look I’ve seen on him yet. I know what he wants to say, but he swallows it back down. “I’m glad you’re all right—I wish to God you’d quit—but I’m so glad you’re all right.” He pulls me into a hug and releases me before I can protest.

“I can’t quit, Marty. You know that.” My head hangs forward as we walk the rest of the way to Mel’s car.

“When do you work again?”

“Next weekend, I guess. My regulars left, or had Gabe beat the shit out of them, so I guess I’ll have a new guy next week. Black will clue me in closer to the weekend. In the meantime, I need to get caught up on school.”

Marty nods solemnly, like he knows that he can’t save me. I wish he could. I wish someone could pull me back, but I’ve already fallen into the abyss. Last time Sean was there to keep me company, but now I’m completely alone.

CHAPTER 9

By the time Wednesday night rolls around, I can’t think. My mind keeps floating back to Sean. I hate that he left, but at the same time, I realize that I let him walk away. I didn’t have to do that. I could have done something, some huge gesture, that swept him off his feet, but I didn’t. I walked away and so did he.

I push my economics book away and wonder what the hell I was thinking when I chose my electives this semester. It’s not my thing. I have to study twice as hard to keep up, so I invoked my failsafe plan to ensure my A- at the end of the semester—smile. It sounds really stupid, but before my freshman year I never smiled unless I felt like it. I’m not a smiley person, I guess.

Anyway, I had a sociology class and learned that people have a hard time thinking poorly of a person if that person is always smiling at them. Short version—I smile at the economics professor during the entire lecture. It doesn’t matter of I’m bored out of my mind, or if I understand a thing he’s said. I look pleased as punch to be there and maintain light eye contact. Oddly, I thought that would make him call on me more often, but it doesn’t. He thinks I’m enthralled and paying attention, so unless I raise my hand, the prof calls on some other kid that’s just as lost as I am. That little smile has pulled my average up a letter grade, because I have no interest in any of this.