Page 13 of Seduced By My Bully

Cam

On my way to see Monroe this morning, I get held up in a minor traffic accident. By the time I make it to Brew for You at nine-thirty, she’s nowhere to be found. I ask Dani if she’s seen her, but she says she ran out of there around eight and hasn’t seen her since. I run out of there and head to her house, but her car isn’t there. I drive around town for over an hour looking for her but never find her. It finally dawns on me where I might find her.

“You shouldn’t be alone right now,” I say, sitting down beside her on the dock.

Monroe looks over at me and rolls her eyes. “Yeah, well, I needed a breather.”

“From what?”

“Life?” She laughs.

“Did he contact you?”

She shakes her head, no. “Oddly enough, I haven’t heard from him, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t.”

“You want to talk about what sent you running?”

“Not really.”

She’s quiet for a while until she finally clears her throat. “Do you remember that party?”

“Kind of… bits and pieces are blurry while other parts stand out. I had a lot to drink that night.”

She laughs. “Yeah, you were pretty lit.”

“I’m sorry I threw up on you. I think all that moving around combined with the drinking did me in. I remember going to get a rag to clean you up, and when I came back, you were running out the door crying.”

“Is that all you remember?”

“Pretty much. Everything after that is blurry. Why?”

“I didn’t care that you got sick. I mean, I cared because that was gross, and I felt bad for you, but shit happens, you know.”

“So why did you leave?”

She studies me for a while, and I can tell she’s trying to figure out what to say. “Justin set his attack bitch on me.”

I throw my head back and laugh. “She was a real bitch. You know they got married a year after high school because she got pregnant. He’s a truck driver now and is rarely home, and she’s constantly having affairs. No one talks about it, but everyone knows.”

Monroe’s eyes get wide as saucers. “Nooo,” she says, shocked.

I nod. “Yeah. I don’t see him much anymore. We lost touch when I joined the Marines.”

“You were in the military? But I thought you had the scholarship to play football at U of N?” She asks.

“I needed to grow up and do something that wasn’t for myself. I was in for four years. It was long enough to do my duty and get a free ride to college.” I say, looking out at the water.

“I had no idea. Was it hard, being away?”

“It wasn’t easy. The being away part wasn’t that bad. When I came home, I joined the police academy. I’ve been with Harper Falls PD ever since.”

“Are you happy here?”

“Most of the time. Enough about me, tell me about the party. Your dad said that’s why you left.”

“He told you that?”

“Last night, when I was doing a perimeter check around your house.”

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