Page 79 of Closer

“You.” Ali points at me. “Sober the hell up. The viewing starts in two hours.” She leaves my apartment, slamming the door behind her.

I glance at Brie, her silken hair falling over her shoulders, and sadness in her eyes. “I like her. I didn’t think I would because she fucked you and broke your heart, but I actually like her.”

“Then why don’t you go and join her and Coop?” I pull the lid off the scotch whisky and drink. “You can have your own little ménage à trois.”

“Maybe we could,” she agrees, stepping closer. “But there is just one problem.”

“Really, what’s that?”

“He isn’t you.” Brie climbs into my lap. My cock twitches. Her features soften, and she peppers my face with kisses. “I missed you so much.”

I cup her cheek with my free hand and look at her. I can’t believe she’s here. She’s all I’ve wanted for weeks, but these last few days especially. And she’s crying, sobbing as she smooths her fingers over my cheeks, and burrows her head into my palm. I let go of the bottle of booze, and suddenly the dam within me breaks. Everything I’ve been shoving down since she left me comes ripping, tearing, screeching to the surface, and a sob more animal than human tears from my throat.Jesus. I bet Ash would bust a nut laughing if he could see me right now. I’m naked and pussing out like a little bitch while the woman of my dreams straddles my lap.

“It hurts so much.”

“I know.Shh,” she soothes, clutching to me for dear life. Her fingers slide into the hair at the nape of my neck. I let her hold me close, and pet me, and I wrap my arms tightly around her body, afraid she’ll disappear.

Her lips give me soft, sweet kisses. That’s not what I want. This woman walked away from me, and here she is, straddling my hips, kissing me like it’s a fucking goodbye.It’s not a goodbye. I slide my hand into her hair at the back of her head and pull her down to me, pressing my lips hard against hers and thrusting my tongue in her mouth until she yields, until she opens and submits to me. There’s something wrong, though; she’s not kissing me back the way I want her to. In fact, she’s trying to get away. I pull back and glare at her.

“What the fuck?” I snap. “You come all this way just to be my friend, Brie?”

“No, of course not.” She shakes her head emphatically. “But I don’t think now is the best time to reconnect. You’re hurting.”

“Yeah, my cock’s aching too. Or can you not feel that?” I roll my hips beneath her, pushing my hard-on against her soft flesh.

“Levi, stop. It’s okay to feel grief. It’s okay to not make everything about sex.”

“Says the woman wearing that.” I glance down at her cleavage on display.

“I need to take a shower. I’ve had a long flight.” She crawls off me and stands beside the couch. Her gaze darts to my hard-on and then back up to my face.

Jesus Christ. I need a drink, a line of coke, or a hit of something stronger. “Fine, go take a fucking shower.”

Suddenly I want her gone, because I have a little baggie full of coke with my name on it. My snow-white friend won’t take away the pain completely, but it’ll take the edge off; it’ll make this day more bearable, so it’s a fucking start.

She sighs and holds a hand out to me. “Come on, you could use some sobering up.”

“In a minute,” I say, trying not to eye the stash of coke and the little metal straw I purchased for this very purpose for the fear that I may draw attention to it, and Brie might take it away.

She gives me a sad smile. “Okay, where is your bathroom.”

“Second door on the right.” As soon as she disappears, shutting the door behind her, I spring forward and grab the little silver tray with my coke on it. Only, the bag isn’t here.

“What the fuck?” I shout to the empty room. I sweep everything off the coffee table and get down on my hands and knees, rummaging through the debris. I pull out the couch cushions, one by one. I tear the fucking place apart, but my coke is nowhere to be seen. I spot Brie’s handbag on the floor and rifle through it. I glance at her suitcase, but there’s no way she could have stolen it and stashed it in there because my eyes were on her the whole fucking time.Red. That fucking bitch. She swiped my fucking coke while I was distracted with Brie.

Fuck!

I upend the coffee table and stare at the mess, panting. Then I find a pair of discarded jeans on the floor and a worn Henley and throw them on. Grabbing my keys and my wallet off the kitchen counter, I walk out and go in search of a high that won’t tease me with the promise of oblivion, but one that will actually give it to me.

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