Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 82524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
“You think?” She smirks at me, and I just shake my head.
“Go to your room,” Matty urges me. “When are you telling everyone?”
“The question you need to be asking is, did you tell your girlfriend that you are now a father?” Sofia asks me. I don’t answer her that she is a non-factor. Instead, I answer Matty.
“I don’t know. Why?” I ask him.
“Because when you do, they will all be descending,” he teases, making me laugh. “It’s going to be a Bat Signal to end all Bat Signals. Then everyone, and I mean everyone, is going to descend.”
“I’ll let you know,” I assure him before I walk up the stairs to the spare bedroom. Pulling up her number, I think about texting her instead of calling, but something in me just makes me press the blue phone button. I look down at the phone and put it on speaker as I kick off my shoes and throw myself on the king-size bed.
It rings three times before she answers in a whisper, “Hello.”
“Did I wake you?” I whisper back into the phone.
“No,” she replies, and I hear the sound of sheets rustling. “I was just checking on Avery to make sure she was okay before heading to bed.” Her voice goes up a touch.
“Can you meet me tomorrow for breakfast?” I ask, holding my breath, hoping she says yes.
“I don’t know,” she answers. “I have to have her at daycare, and then I start work by nine.”
“What about lunch?” I ask her, hoping she says yes to this.
“I try not to take lunch,” she admits, “so I can leave early and get Avery.”
“Why did you sneak out that morning?” I want to kick myself the minute the question comes out of me. It was a question I knew I would ask her eventually. It was the question I’ve asked the universe time and time again when I would think about the beautiful stranger who made me forget all my rules. The beautiful one who made me laugh like no one else, and the one who made me go from zero to a thousand with just one look.
She lets out a deep breath. “It was the first time I ever had a one-night stand.” I don’t know if I should be happy about this or not. “I was mortified you would think I did it often.”
I close my eyes at the way her voice dipped at the end. “Did it matter?”
“To me, it did,” she says. “I wasn’t like that. I wasn’t that person.” I want to tell her I know she isn’t. I knew that night she wasn’t that person, and even if she was, it didn’t matter to me. “I went back to the hotel six weeks later.” I gasp in shock at her declaration. “Told them what room you were in and everything, but they wouldn’t give me your information.” I sit up in bed, my heart beating a million miles a minute as it rises to my throat, and I feel like I’m going to throw my phone at the wall.
I’m shaking that she did that. I’m shaking she put all of her pride aside to look for me. I’m shaking because it was my job to protect her and Avery, and I didn’t do my job. I’m shaking because she probably went to look for me out of desperation, especially after her parents kicked her out. I’m shaking because now I’m going to do everything in my power to make her whole again, even if I have to destroy people to do it. I don’t tell her this. Instead, I whisper, “I’m so sorry.”
addison
My eyes close as soon as I hear him whisper the words, and a lone tear falls onto my pillow. “Addison,” he says my name in a whisper, but this time there isn’t just one lone tear. Now the tears are streaming down my face. “I’m so sorry.”
Today has been, without a doubt, one of the best and also one of the hardest days.
“You don’t have to apologize.” I try to get my voice back to normal as I wipe the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.
“But I do.” His voice stays just as low as it was before. “I have so much to apologize for that I don’t think there is ever going to be enough time in the day.” He stops talking for a second. “I know this is not going to sound like it’s the truth.” His voice is higher now. “But I never had a one-night stand either.”
I laugh through my tears, making the sniffling less conspicuous. “You don’t have to say that.” I turn over in my bed, looking out the window I don’t have blinds on. Looking out into the dark night, I see the twinkling of stars in the sky.