Page 93 of Feed Your Fiends

I eye the dental floss, and along with the rush of humiliation comes a surge of anger.Gant’s gone.I know he is, and there’s an itty-bitty thong on the bathroom floor.Ourbathroom floor.

Had he hooked up with someone while I was asleep in the other room?

A panic I didn’t think possible runs through my veins. A panic I told myself I’d never allow to happen because I don’t care what or who Gant Auclair does because he’s not mine to keep.

The woman looks at me expectantly, her pencil-thin brow lifted.

“I-I’m so sorry, uh, what was your name?”

“Heldina.”

“I’m sorry, Heldina.” I swallow hard as she tosses the used underwear into the hamper and scoops it up under her arm. “I didn’t know you were coming or that you were here. I’ll be more thoughtful next time.”

She sighs. “Ganty likes me to come early and late like a ghost.”

Ganty, not Gant or Mr Gant like how she’d addressed me as Miss. For some reason, I really like that, and a fraction of the tension in my shoulders dissipates. Until I eye the hamper.

“Did you think the bathroom cleaned itself after you and Ganty fell asleep, leaving the floor wet with your leotards and his briefs midway from the bed to the shower?”

My face overheats, but Heldina only turns on her thick, plastic sole into the bedroom.

“Since you’re already awake. Follow me.”

“Yes, ma'am.” I follow her silently into the living room and then the kitchen.

I watch as she sets the hamper behind the second island, the one with the massive sink. With her knee, she presses on a cabinet door that opens soundlessly to reveal a dustbin lined with a clean bag. She opens the hamper and pulls out the last thing I’d expect. A used cup with pink residue, a bowl, and a fork.

“When you are done dining in the tub, I would appreciate it if you could scrape out your dishes and put them in the sink.”

The tub?!

She picks the thong out of the bowl and shakes it off over the garbage before tossing it back into the hamper. Then, she puts the dishes into the sink as if demonstrating to me how it’s done.

“Thongs hamper. Dishes sink.” I nod my head at her expectant expression. “I got it.”

My thong?!My brain’s still reeling. I still can’t believe she thinks I’m that thin.

I try to smile despite the vomit bubbling in my throat. Because now, instead of anger, I feelfear?

There’s another girl here.

“Um,” I ask, glancing around. “Do you know where Gant is?’

Heldina arches her brows again. “Don’t you?”

I bite my lip as she heads for the laundry room before storming down the hallway, ready to kick every bedroom door open.

Is she here? Or did Gant take her home?

That didn’t make any sense. He can’t drive. He can’t even let someone else drive him. So where could he be at midnight?

Without me?

Hair flying over my shoulders, I march into the first guest room, the one next door to our bedroom. I must look mad, I feel mad as I drop to my knees to glance under the bed before kicking the bathroom door open and flickering on the light.

Why the fuck would that thong be in our bathroom if he has five others? Because she, whoever she is, wanted me to find it during my midnight piss break.

No one’s here. I’m about to storm back into the hallway when a squeak of wood and a rustle of clothes from the walk-in closet get my attention. Instead of fear, like when I’d grabbed the cricket bat, I feel all the boldness of a complete fool as I cut on the lights, stomp to the hanging coats and—

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