Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
"I know, but finals."
"Whatever. I could have taken a break." An irritated breath leaves her, and I don't try to argue.
I know, and so does she, that Mabel can become very fixated on things, and during finals, that should be her only fixation. If she knew all this, it would have thrown her off her game. Mabel does her best work when she's hyperfixated on one thing at a time.
"I'm sorry," I tell her. "I'll be quicker to tell you the next time the husband whom I planned to divorce ends up sweeping me off my feet and admitting his undying love for me," I tease.
Mabel raises her palm and makes a reverse circular motion. "You never said you two said the L word."
"We didn't.” I lick my lips, trying not to fidget. “It's just a saying." I shrug, downplaying it.
"It's not just a saying." Mabel calls me on it.
"I know he does. It's in his actions." Mabel is still skeptical, and I don't blame her. I'm sure I'd be the same if the script was flipped. She only wants the best for me, and she’s not going to spare my feelings if she believes I’m not getting it.
"But you still haven't talked to your parents and heard their side?"
"Not yet." Crap. "You think it will be different?"
"Do you think if it is true, they'll cop to it?"
"I don't know." I hate the dread that is trying to creep back in.
"They could say Blake is full of shit and he was the one that strong-armed his way to take over the company, and the marriage was to ensure he couldn't take everything. That your family still had a claim."
"The hell, Mabel?" I never even considered that Blake wasn’t telling the truth.
"Just saying." She cringes with a sympathetic shrug, letting me know she doesn’t want to say it as much as I don’t want to hear it, but it needs to be said.
"But you are also a creative writing major, which means you come up with many crazy ideas." Once she was convinced the two girls across the hallway from us were undercover cops. In our dorms! I'm not bringing that up. We still bicker about it because I could never prove they weren't, but nor could she ever prove they were.
"I know that's a wild one, but all I'm getting at is that there could be more you don't know. Don't forget you were manipulated into all of this and sent across the pond. All of them could be just as guilty. Who knows?"
"I trust Blake," I say defensively.
"You trust the boy you once knew. That boy is not the same man as Blake. None of us are."
"Then he's playing a good game. He can't keep his hands off me." It's been a few days since Blake and I made love. Both of us have been insatiable. Mabel opens and then closes her mouth, cutting herself off before she can even begin. "What?"
"Nothing, really." She glances around.
"Say it," I growl out.
"Well, of course he can’t keep his hands off you, but what if he's trying to knock you up? That could really get you hooked in." My hand goes to my stomach. I’m not naive, I knew I could end up pregnant, but I was okay with that unless the baby wasn’t conceived purely out of love. Love that isn’t one-sided.
"No." I'm shaking my head before she can finish.
"Everything the man is saying is too perfect is all." Now Mabel has me going over everything in my mind. Is it all too perfect? Even with the inkling of doubt Mabel has inserted, I still can’t bring myself to believe that Blake could do something like that. Could he?
“You think I should reach out to my parents?” I told Blake that I wasn't going to, and I wanted him to take whatever action he deemed appropriate. He’s been going into his office to do just that.
“I don’t know. This is hard. I don’t know any of these people, but in the short interaction I had with your parents, they weren't great.” They aren’t.
“They still could have come to see me.” I let out a sigh. “Talking to you was supposed to make me feel better.”
“Tru, I’m sorry.” She leans in closer. “I love you, and you can tell them all to go kick rocks. Then you come here.”
“Are you staying put?” Mabel said she wasn’t going back home, but things changed.
"Yes." She glances down, and I know it’s a sore spot. I leave it be. When she wants to talk, she will.
I change the subject over to a lighter topic. We gossip about a few of our classmates before we say "I love you" and end the call. I fall back onto the couch, staring up at the ceiling. I don't know where to go from here.