Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Bubbles flicked out a hand, winced again, then said, “There it is. True blue Doc Riggs. Wake up, eat a bitch out so she comes so hard she’s walking on air all day. Even knowing she’ll be one and done, she’ll brag she got tagged by Doc Riggs. Then spend the day making art that sells for a whack, running electrical wire while your clients slobber all over you that you picked them to receive the great work of Riggs Contracting. And then maybe saving a kid from drowning. Go to bed after banging another bitch, whose only hope and dream is you’ll let her stay the night so you’ll go down on her in the morning. Must be tough bein’ you.”
Riggs was so blown away by the garbage coming out of his friend’s mouth, he had nothing to say.
Bubbles did, though.
“Got my face literally fuckin’ caved in, they gotta put me in a coma, I get out of it, you stroll in and give me shit about a bottle of fuckin’ wine? You asked what the fuck, that’s my question too, man.”
“I came on strong because, with the state of you, and this being about those bottles, I had to sleep on the couch with my gun on my coffee table, my kid in his bed upstairs, and my neighbor in the guest room because her home is no longer secure.”
“Poor you. I been in a coma for two days.”
“What I’m trying to impress on you is that you put yourself in a coma, Bubs. And you had a place in my heart, so I also had to deal with that. And just to say, the five hours I spent in this hospital with your mom and Lucille after it went down was not a good time for any of us. I also gotta deal with the understanding a friend of mine put me, my kid and my neighbor out there for fuck knows who to target.”
“They got their wine back. They won’t give a shit about you.”
“She and I drank a bottle.”
“She,” he hissed.
“Yeah, she. So if this wine is so fuckin’ important, they’re one short in a way they’re not getting that back.”
“Seems you gone blind, seeing as you could just look at me and see, you mighta shelled out a few hundred bucks, but I paid for that precious, fucking bottle.”
“What I see is you got a comment about my earlier remark, and it’s that you don’t know how not to fuck up.”
“I got my own problems, Doc. You said we’re square I didn’t do a pool on your neighbor. I didn’t do a pool. We’re square.”
“I’m not as smart as you think I am, Bubs, because I didn’t get it until now. How you hung on to that when I told you what I did for you was because I was your friend, and it ended there. But you kept up with that marker bullshit, and I didn’t see it. But I see it now. You don’t understand what being a friend means.”
He watched Bubbles wince again, but this was more like a flinch, and it came from a different kind of pain.
But Riggs was beyond caring.
“Not sure this will get through the drugs and you processing what happened to you, or your thick fuckin’ skull,” Riggs continued. “So it might be a waste of breath, but when I walked into this room, I gave a shit about you, and after listening to you spout your damage, I’ve got about a half an inch of that shit left. So I’ll use the rest of it by sharing, a friend doesn’t hold markers when he’s doing something for a buddy in need. He also doesn’t sell him a bottle of wine that’s gonna swing his bud’s ass out there. He sure as shit doesn’t lay his damage on him. You got a problem being this version of Bubbles Novak, don’t foist that on me. Seek change. Now I’ll leave you with this. I hope you get better. I really fuckin’ do. Like I said, I’ve been worried about you, and seeing you, I can see you went through hell. But lose my number, man. We’re done.”
“Doc—” Bubbles called.
But Riggs was out of there.
Harry was studying his boots, but when Riggs came out of the room, his head came up, and he looked expectantly at Riggs.
Then his eyes narrowed a nanosecond before his expression turned concerned.
“Jesus, what went on in there?” Harry asked when Riggs stopped at him.
“I probably should have eased into it, but Bubbles would have known something was up if I was all about apologizing I didn’t bring him a get well card. But we can just say, I got a crystal-clear understanding of what Bubbles thinks about me, and it’s too much, and not in a good way.”