Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 133034 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 665(@200wpm)___ 532(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133034 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 665(@200wpm)___ 532(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Jesus Christ, what a revelation. I feel the colour drain from my face as her words sink in. Reuben Sinclair – Santa – is one of the founders. No way. It can’t be true. I can’t even fathom it.
My eyes click with Josh’s, and he’s as pale as I am, trying to get his mind around what the hell is going on.
“The mall?” he asks me.
“Yeah, we went shopping,” I say. “Me, Tiff and Eb. We thought it would be fun to go in the grotto. Just a stupid game.”
“A stupid game, no shit.” He looks back at Tiff. “And the prick has called it off now? Had his fill and turfed you out? I know you get these obsessive streaks, Tiff, but he’s the one who crossed the line if he fucked you over.”
She shakes her head. “No. He didn’t fuck me over. It was the opposite.” Her lip trembles as I speak. “He loved me.”
“Loved you?” Josh raises his eyebrows. “A founder dressed up as Santa in the mall sought you out, fucked you, and told you he loved you? And then what? Loverboy kicked you to the kerb?”
“No. It wasn’t like that!”
“Sure it wasn’t. What a fucking tosser.”
Oh, how life has its parallels. But Josh doesn’t know Santa. He’s never met him. The idea he’s a founder is fucking mental, but there’s a tandem situation here that I never saw coming in a thousand years.
Josh has no idea of the similarities, though. He grits his jaw like he’s ready to go and attack our founder at the mall. Like he wants to rip his Santa beard from his face and pummel the shit out of him.
Again I remember when we were first together, and he confronted those idiots for being a cunt to me, kicking their bikes to the floor.
I shift closer to him and rest a hand on his arm.
“Santa isn’t like that, Josh,” I try to assure him. “He’s a really nice guy.”
Like Heath, I want to add. But I don’t dare.
He looks at me as though I’ve lost my mind.
“You’ve bought into this Santa crap as well? Seriously? He’s a fucking founder.” He stares full on at Tiff, who is still sobbing. “Did you know he was a founder when you fucked him?”
“Yes. I knew he was a founder the moment I met him in the grotto,” she says.
“But you’d never seen his face. You’ve always been under a hood.”
“I didn’t need to see his face. I just knew. I knew the way he felt when I sat on him. I recognised him.” She rubs her temples, trying to explain it, and I understand. Being with the founders is so heightened. The sensations etched into your soul.
“I just knew, ok?” Tiff says. “And then I saw his eyes, and he saw mine, and the rest is history, as they say. Or in my case an absolute fucking nightmare.”
I hold the cushion tighter to my chest, hurting for her. Josh shakes his head, still trying to process things.
“Shit, Tiff,” he says.
I wish he’d tell her about Heath. I wish I could tell her about Heath. I wish we could assure her that these things happen and your heart has control over your head.
“It gets worse,” she says.
“Worse? Jesus, just take it from the top, will you?” Josh says, the concern for Tiff etched onto his face amidst the rage. “Fucking hell.”
Tiff takes it from the top. The very top. And whoa, what a story.
I listen, transfixed, my stomach lurching hardcore when her tale touches close to our own. I recognise her terror about The Agency. I recognise her heartbreak at loving someone forbidden.
Someone beautiful, inside as well as out.
Josh’s expression changes as Tiff’s story continues. He pulls her into him as she cries.
He quizzes her. She answers him. And he’s scared for her. He’s really scared for her.
I am, too.
I am well aware of how serious things get when it comes to the founders. We sure have it bad with such a high profile client on the go, but as for Tiff… it doesn’t bear thinking about.
“They’ve cancelled you, then?” Josh asks her, and I could throw up on her behalf.
She dashes for the bag she dropped in the hallway and scrabbles for her phone. She’s back on the sofa when she tries to call up the app, but it doesn’t show for her. Incognito mode or not, it doesn’t appear.
Holy fucking shit.
Josh calls up the app on his phone and she tries her login details, but no. Profile not recognised.
I feel such empathy for her panic. I recall exactly how I felt when I thought I was in her position, barred from my career. I search for her Creamgirl profile page myself, but there is no sign of it, and all of her forum posts have disappeared. Every single one.