Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Are you kidding me?” I said, grabbing the box and opening it, revealing a smooth silver band set with a glittering diamond that fractured the light, turning it into a hundred tiny rainbows.
“I’m seeing her after this. It’s our sixth-month anniversary, and I already know I want six thousand more of them.”
“How are you going to do it?” I asked, handing back the box. I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Ashley lived off spontaneity as if it were air, needing it in her daily life to keep her happy.
“We’re having dinner at this really nice restaurant on the river tonight. I’m going to have two of my friends ride down there on their boat, with the side of it lit up to say: ‘Xi, will you marry me?’ And then she’ll turn around, and I’ll be down on one knee.”
“That sounds perfect,” I said. “I may need to get some notes from you, then.”
She clapped her hands and rubbed them together, her rings clinking against each other. “So you are going to propose?”
“Not anytime soon, no,” I replied, moving on to another car. None of these were options, as the one I’d already decided to buy was getting washed and ready for me, but it was a decent way to kill time. “He’s got too much going on right now to think about a wedding.”
“What’s he going through?” She crossed her arms, brows inching together.
I sighed, rubbing at the bridge of my nose. “A lot. There’s been someone who’s fixated on fucking up his life. They left a severed chicken head on his doorstep wearing a rainbow necklace and tried getting into my house when he was sleeping over.”
“Holy tit balls, seriously? That’s some twisted shit. And he doesn’t know who’s doing it?”
“Has no idea. We confronted his ex-boyfriend, who might be connected, but he denied it all. And then we got into a fistfight.”
Surprise flashed across Ashley’s face. She knew how anti-confrontation I was. She reached for my forearm, eyes wide. “Jeez, Jake, were you and Noah alright?”
I nodded, waved a dismissive hand in the air. “The guy had it coming. It’s also been pretty quiet since we talked to him, so maybe he was the one behind the threats.”
“Maybe…” Ashley’s voice trailed off, but her eyes were pinned to me. “Be careful, Jake. If it’s an ex-boyfriend, someone that might still have feelings for Noah, then those threats could end up aimed at you.”
A chill crawled down my back. I’d thought of that possibility but didn’t allow it to carry much weight. What was I going to do? Tell Noah I didn’t want to be his boyfriend because I was scared I’d become a target? That just wasn’t even an option for me. I may not have been used to any of this, but I wasn’t walking away from one of the best things to ever happen to me because of a crazy ex. No way.
“I’ll be fine,” I assured Ashley. The firm set of my shoulders and the even tone in my words did a good job of hiding the nerves. “I just want him to be okay, that’s all. He’s seriously one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. You two need to hang out sometime.”
“That’d be fun. We should go on a double date,” Ashley said, our conversation pivoting but the dark cloud still looming overhead.
Truth was, I likely would continue to keep being worried until whoever was behind this was caught and made to answer for their fucked-up thinking. There was a certain sense of violation to think that someone was fidgeting with my locked window and trying to get inside my home while Noah and I slept peacefully together. I tried to keep hopeful, tried to think that maybe the cops would do their jobs and figure out who was behind this. And if they didn’t, then maybe Noah and I could.
One way or another, it had to end. I didn’t want Noah to jump at every shadow and second-guess every tiny noise.
“Right?” Ashley waved a hand in my face, pulling me out of my dark thoughts. “Hello?”
“Yeah, yeah. A double date sounds fun.”
“But what do you think about my idea?”
She must have read the question on my face. What idea?
“To have a Cats watch party, Jake. We obviously won’t watch the entire thing—I don’t have years to spend. But we can play that drinking game you made up. Every time they lick themselves, purr, sing the word ‘jellicle.’”
I laughed and nodded. “We got blasted the last time we played that.”
“I know, so it’s perfect. Or should I say purrrfect?”
My eyes practically rolled out of my skull, the two of us continuing to laugh even as the car salesman walked back over to us, a clipboard in his hand and a smile on his face. The day was shaping up to be a good one, and I was excited to share it with Noah, wanting to talk to him about Ashley and the Cats drinking game and the way the car salesman tried to get me to buy a dying Honda Civic that Ashley and I were sure was haunted.