Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
“That sounds awfully predictable. They could come up with something better,” Darnell says. “How did Reid handle it? Did Mr. Uptight lose his shit?”
“He’s not that uptight when you get to know him. I think it’s the suits that make him seem that way.” Although I’ve come to think those suits of his are sexy as hell. “So when it first came out, Reid was cool with it. I was surprisingly chill. Like I’m in good shape. I don’t know what the angles were or if the lighting was right, but I’m pretty comfortable with my body and I like Reid.”
Darnell shakes his head. “Get to the good stuff. Reid was truly cool with his sex tape getting out?”
I shrug. “I thought so. He said we should go to the press together and maybe we should even get married.”
A snort comes from Darnell. “You have not known each other long enough.”
“That’s what I said.” But now I wonder if I shouldn’t have taken him to the courthouse right then. Maybe he would have talked to me if we were married. That is such a ridiculous thought and exactly why I need to get all of this out of my system before I have to see him again. “Anyway, then Ivy announces it’s Britta who has the tape and he loses his shit. But in that very Reid controlled way. He announces he’ll take care of it.”
Darnell waves the idea away. “Ivy already took care of it. The girl is thorough. Britta will be lucky if she comes out of this with her dignity intact. She’s going to be put on a lot of mailing lists. Maybe a couple of watch lists, too.”
I can’t worry about Britta getting endless rounds of spam concerning male enhancement and tractors. Those are Ivy’s go to’s for some reason. “I know, but he didn’t stick around to hear that part. He walked out and refused to talk to me about it. When his brother tried to slow things down, Reid yelled at him.”
Darnell blinks as though he has to think the information through. “That does not sound like the Reid I’ve come to know. He practically treats Jerry like he’s a sick toddler.”
“No one calls him Jerry.”
“He looks like a Jerry to me,” Darnell continues. “So he blew up at the brother he adores and ices out the woman he tried to sneakily marry? All because of an ex.”
I nod. At least he gets it. “See. That’s it. He’s either still in love with her and I’m in the middle of this twisted game they’re playing, or he hates her and I’m in the middle of this twisted game they’re playing. But in the last scenario he doesn’t want to play.”
“I like this.” Darnell seems to think for a moment, and he’s probably already plotting the book in his head. “So you’re not upset that the sex tape has likely been viewed by both perverts and journalists who are probably perverts? You are upset that your boyfriend yelled at his brother and walked away. See. Another reason to like you. So I’m going to come down on the side of Reid doesn’t want to be playing whatever games she’s playing.”
Or maybe he doesn’t get it. “You can’t know that.”
“His actions speak louder than words,” Darnell counters.
Ah, but Darnell is forgetting the most important part. “Mostly because he doesn’t actually say words.”
His lips press together as he looks me over. “Harper, I do not give relationship advice. It actually physically pains me to be saying these words to you. Like deep down in my gut where dinner should be right now.”
I don’t like receiving relationship advice. The only one who ever gives it is my mother and that’s mostly to tell me I’m going to die alone. “Just say it.”
“Has he given you any reason to doubt him?” Darnell asks.
“So many.”
“Name one.”
“All right. He hated me at first. He thought I shouldn’t be working on a project like this.”
Darnell’s head shakes. “Nope. That was an opinion he had in the beginning. He’s apologized. Has he given you reason to doubt that he doesn’t want to be with you?”
I think about how to answer. “He tells me how much he likes me. It’s weird and comforting. He’s liberal with the praise, but why would I trust that? It could be how he gets me to do things for him. I’ve seen it happen before. Things can look good from the outside…”
He interrupts me again. “Nope. We’re not talking about your rough childhood and your mom being a walking, talking mouthpiece for the patriarchy while your dad treated you like a son he needed to toughen up and had affairs behind your mom’s back.”
“Why are we talking about this?”
He stares at me. “Girl, get thee into therapy, as my friend Shakespeare would say. Seriously? You don’t see the connection between your childhood and your inability to believe that your relationships can work out?”