Page 23 of Glory Hole

“That’s horrible. I’m guessing that is not the intended meaning here,” Christina replies.

It all seems to happen in slow motion. It’s one of those horrifying moments that seem to go on forever. Ti moves to set the wine bottle back into the bottle chiller when it starts to slide across the table. Christina tries to grab for it but she has a wine glass in one hand and Wookie in the other. The chiller falls from the table. It strikes dead center of the painting that still rests leaned over the hole in the wall. To my absolute horror, the canvas rips down the middle, exposing my dirtiest secret to my best friends.

“Damn Glory. I am so sorry. It just slid off the table, and I couldn’t catch it.” Christina bends over to pick up the chiller, and I’m frozen in place as I watch the ice mix with the wine and broken glass. It sparkles on my wood floors like a beacon beckoning all to look at the gaping hole in the wall no longer hidden behind the canvas painting.

“I’ll grab some paper towels.” Evelyn hops off the sofa and heads toward the kitchen.

“What the hell is that?” Christina asks as she moves closer to the wall to survey the damage she didn’t do.

“Shit. This chiller knocked a hole in your wall, Glory. Jesus, I’m sorry. I’ll find someone to come out and fix this.” Christina looks upset with herself, and that, I can’t have. I can’t allow my best friend to feel bad about something she didn’t cause. No matter how much I don’t want to come clean.

“The hole was already there, Ti.” The weight of my confession crushes my chest, making it hard to breathe.

“It was already there? How? Why didn’t you have someone come fix it? Is something wrong? Do you need money to fix it? I can get it fixed for you.” Christina’s concern is evident, and I know she would do anything to help me. I look over and there are Ev and Jen, cleaning up the mess. I just hope they will still love me once I confess. I walk over to them, and Christina joins us.

Sighing, I sit back on my heels and ready myself. “Girls, I have a confession. I hope you listen with an open mind and don’t judge my behavior too harshly.” I’m so disappointed in myself and embarrassed of what I’ve been doing to Beck. When no one but Wookie and I knew, I guess it was easier to play down the severity of the situation. Now that I’m about to come clean to my closest friends, the people that know me the best, it feels dirty, wrong. Very wrong. The realization that Beck will find out hits me like a hammer. Jesus, he’ll hate me. He’ll never want to speak to me again. I guess that’s what I deserve but it will break my heart. I’m totally catching a case of the feelings for him. Big time.

“What is it, Glory? You know you can tell us anything.” Evelyn lays a reassuring hand on my shoulder. Jen and Ti stop cleaning and look at me, waiting on me to drop this bomb.

“So, the day Beckett moved in, this hole was knocked in the wall. I’ve been spying on him, and he doesn’t know.”

I hang my head in shame as I wait for my declaration, which I’m sure has stunned my friends, to sink in. After a few seconds of what I’m assuming is stunned silence, their laughter rings throughout the room. I look up and tears stream down Evelyn’s face because she is laughing so hard. Ti has fallen onto her back in a laughter-induced fit. I turn to Jen as she swiftly hops up onto her feet, cupping her cooch through her pants declaring how she is going to piss herself.

“Guys, I mean, it’s kind of funny, but aren’t you repulsed by me now? I’m a freak. I’ve been watching my neighbor through a hole in the wall while I masturbate to him masturbating. I’m disgusting. Lowest of the low.”

Taking a deep breath, Christina sits up and wipes the tears from her eyes.

“Glory, honey, typically, you are the least freaky person I know. Would I ever guess you’d do something like this? Not in a million damn years. Hell, anyone with eyeballs and access to that beast that lives next door to you,” Ti quirks her thumb toward the hole. “They’d do the same thing. Actually, I’m a little upset you didn’t tell me sooner so I could look too.” We all laugh again, and some of the stress I was feeling about disappointing them lifts from my shoulders.

“Does he know you’ve been watching him?” Jen’s eyes dart to me as she picks up some of the broken glass from the floor.

“No. He doesn’t know. If he finds out, he’ll hate me.”

“He will not hate you. Obviously, you don’t see the way he looks at you,” Evelyn says as she drags a trashcan and mop over.

“How’s he look at me?” I haven’t noticed anything important. I mean, sure, I can tell he has the hots for me, that goes both ways.

“Beck looks at you like you are the only woman in the world, like you are the key to his very existence. That man has it bad for you, honey, and I’m not talking about sex.”

“Really? You think so?”

Does he look at me that way? Could he feel what I’m starting to feel?

“I know so. If a man looked at me like that, I’d wife his ass.”

We all laugh as we finish cleaning this mess, and I tell the girls the truth of what’s been happening with Beck. Evelyn volunteers to serve as our cock-blocker blocker.

My burden has been slightly relieved. I am going to have to come clean to Beck, though. I can only pray he takes it well and doesn’t want to stop seeing me. It’s a chance I’ll have to take. I’m starting to see the possibility of a future with this man, and I can’t base it off something started on a lie.

I’ll tell him after the concert tomorrow night.

Chapter Fourteen

Glory

“Here are your tickets and backstage passes. The passes must be on your person at all times.”

“What happens if it’s not?” Evelyn asks as she leans into the window staring the pimply faced twenty-something man down.

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