Page 11 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

“Okay, but I’m not worried about it.” Another strange noise bubbled out of her mouth, and I eyed her. “You sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah. Just promise me that if he continues to fuck around, you’ll lop off his dick with garden shears.”

I laughed. “Promise.”

“No, changed my mind. That would be too quick. How about a letter opener?”

“Deal. And we’ll make it a dull, rusty one.”

Christa laughed along with me and the weirdness started to dissipate. She hadn’t been acting like herself the past several days, and I was relieved to see that changing. We spent the rest of the ride home plotting creative ways to castrate Dre should he stray from the agreement.

I couldn’t ask for a better best friend.

“You haven’t once asked me how my day went.”

“Hmm….” He was munching away on my neck. “What’s that now?”

“Dre!” I pushed him away. I was pissed off. “Don’t you even care enough to at least pretend to care?”

He gave me a dopey look, then tried diving back in. I didn’t want his slobber all over me. I scooted my chair over and he sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“I thought you said you’d be back to your regular self after resting up for the weekend. I’m not sure what’s the problem here.”

“The problem is that you haven’t taken one little minute to ask about my first official day at work. This is a big deal for me.”

I swear if that was an eye roll I’m going to slam his head into the basket of wings sitting in front of him.Tabasco sauce couldn’t feel too good on the corneas.

“You’ve already been there for two weeks.”

“That was just training. But now that I think about it, you didn’t ask me about that either.”

He chugged down the rest of his beer. I was sure he was using that time to figure out what the hell was going on with me. I knew he was frustrated, for many reasons, but was it too much to expect him to give me some attention before I gave him some?

He’d picked me up at home after work, never asking how my first day had gone. He’d tried for a quickie, but I’d pushed him off. He’d tried again, and I’d pushed him off again. Had he bothered to ask about my day yet? Nope. We came into Wengo’s and got a table. Ordered some wings for him and some mozzie sticks for me. Sat there for a half hour making small talk. Anything still? Nada. It wasn’t much longer after that before he was all over me like he hadn’t gotten laid in months.

All that and still not a fucking “Hey, how’s the job?” or “Did you have a good first day?”

Stu had texted in the first five minutes. Christa had written ‘good luck’ in lipstick and left smooches on the bathroom mirror. But a single gesture from myboyfriend? That’d be a big fat zero.

God, I was turning into one ofthosegirls, but fuck….

I shoved a wad of breaded cheese into my mouth. If he planned to have sex with only me from now on, then he’d better get used to showing me a little consideration or he might as well apply to that monastery over on Route 67.

I dropped my head, nauseated. The cheese was sticking in my throat, so I washed it down with my peach daiquiri. Yeah, I was irritated by his lack of concern over my new job, but so what? I didn’t know why I seemed to be punishing him for wanting to be with me and only me. What did that say about my priorities?

“Look, Perry.” He pulled my chair closer to his. “I’m sorry, okay. I didn’t know this was such a big thing for you. You’re switching jobsall the time and, uh, this one probably isn’t going to last too long anyway.”

I gritted my teeth. “That’s not the point. You could still ask. And I want this one to last.”

I was trying to do things differently. I made that promise to myself. It wasn’t my dream job to answer phones in a call center, but I was crossing my fingers that I’d stick it out a while. I was determined to give my life a makeover.

“You know, you could just come work for me at the gym. I’d be flexible enough so you could go to college.”

“I don’t want to go to college, Dre, and I don’t want to work for you. I want to do my own thing.”

Whether or not I wanted to go to school in the future was entirely up in the air. But if I did, it’d be my decision and mine alone.

“Don’t you want to… be someone someday?”

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