Page 102 of There's No Us Without You
After what happened on Thursday night, he’ll be on a downward spiral towards murder. Not that I blame him all that much. What Tyler did was pretty shitty. Eden shouldn’t be hanging around that crowd.
Fuck, I shouldn’t even be associating with them either, yet here I am, unable to admit I need help while staring at the little plastic packet of white pills I’ve come to rely on this last week. I’ve already upped the dosage once when the pain came back a little sooner than previously.
That’s normal though, right?
I won’t have to worry about that when the season is over—I can get off the drugs, get my knee right, and take a break from all the bullshit.
I scrub my hands over my face before pulling out two pills and swallowing them down. They catch in my throat, the taste almost making me gag, so I snatch my water bottle from the centre console and take a sip while squeezing my eyes shut.
Four more weeks and I’m done.
I promise.
A knock at the window has my eyes flying open.
Jesus Christ.
I shove the packet into my pocket before glancing at Eden’s gorgeous, smiling face peering in at me from the outside.
Here we go.
I plaster on a grin and open the door slightly.
Eden steps back, allowing me to climb out with ease.
“Hey, Em,” she says, the streetlights making her green eyes sparkle. “How was dinner?”
“Fine...” I pat the pocket burning against my leg—the one keeping me tethered to this mess I’ve created for myself. “What’s got you out so late? I’m surprised Will even let you out of his sight after the other night.”
She holds up two paper bags. “We made a deal,” she says, grinning like a kid who just won a lifelong membership to their favourite sporting club.
I raise an eyebrow, a slight smirk pulling up one side of my mouth. “A deal, huh? That sounds like code for something else.”
Eden rolls her eyes dramatically. “Do you always think with your penis?”
“I am a man.”
She laughs, the sound prickling my skin. “Well, I made a deal that if he let me out of prison to get some ice cream, I had to bring home some vanilla custard from work.”
I laugh. “He’s obsessed.”
The first time Eden brought home custard from her work, Will wasn’t interested. The next day, however, the entire jar was empty. At first, I thought he must have thrown it out, except when I asked him about it, he just shrugged and told me to ask Eden for my own jar.
That was code forI’m not sharing with you.
“Tell me about it,” Eden says, before nodding to the front door. “Feel like joining me?”
“Maybe,” I say, trying to peek into one bag. “Depends on what you have in there?”
Eden snatches it away, narrowing her eyes on me. “Patience. Come on. Let me feed you.” She moves towards the entrance, drawing my attention with the sway of her full hips, and sets the bags down to unlock the front door.
What I should be doing is helping her, but when she bends over to pick the bags up again, the skirt she’s wearing gives me the perfect view of her arse, barely covered by the skimpy underwear underneath.
A low groan rumbles in my chest, and I bite onto my knuckle to stop myself from making any further inappropriate sounds. I shouldn’t be looking at Eden’s arse the way I am, but like I said only moments ago, I am a man. And she’s a very beautiful woman.
Very. Fucking. Beautiful.
Plus, I don’t hate my life so much when she’s near me. The same way I don’t hate it when I’m with Will. It’s like nothing else exists, if only for a little while, and I can breathe a little easier knowing that if everything goes to shit, I still have them.
