Page 21 of Only for Tonight
“It’s a fucking wonder I’m still here.” She can’t be serious with this, can she? But looking at her, she is one thousand percent serious about this conversation.
“For once, why aren’t you fucking honest, Tiffany?” I watch her face. “You’re with me not because you want to be with me, but because of the perks you get to be with me.” Her mouth opens and I am finally fucking done. “The red-carpet events you're asked to attend because of me. The charity events you go to with the team because of who I am. It’s the jersey that gets you all hot and bothered, not the guy in the jersey.” Saying it out loud is almost as bad as someone kicking me in the balls because the truth of the matter is, I’ve ended up with someone exactly like my biological mother.
“Why, I have never”—she puts her hands to her chest, the tears starting to well up in her eyes—“been treated like this in my life.”
“And how is that?” I quickly ask her. “I treated you with kindness and respect, which if this conversation is anything to go by, you can’t say the same.”
She snatches up her purse in her hand. “I’m not going to stay here and be chastised by you because you got caught fucking a whore.”
“Get the fuck out.” I point to the door, my whole body shaking as I try to calm down. “And fucking stay out!”
“You’ll be fucking sorry, Jaxon,” she sneers my way.
“I don’t think I will,” I sing, turning back to the dish. “I think I’ll be okay.” I reach in the cabinet for a plate to put the food on.
I hear the sound of her huffing behind me as she walks to the door and slams it hard. “Well, I’m no expert, but I think that ship has sailed. It’s safe to say that it’s over.” I look down at the chicken.
I walk outside to eat, relieved to finally be done with that conversation, and pull out the chair before going back in for something to drink. Grabbing a glass, I then fill it with ice and then some water. “What the fuck was Ariella doing here?” I repeat the same question I had not too long ago. Going outside, I sit down, putting the water next to my plate. “Should I text her?” I cut a piece of chicken before getting back up and going in search of my phone.
Looking around the kitchen, I find it on the counter next to the fridge. I look down and see if maybe she tried to call me before coming here, but the last phone call was the one I made to my father. I pull up my texts and then scroll to type her name.
A picture of her on her eighteenth birthday is her profile picture. Walking back outside, I sit down and look down at the phone.
Me: Hey.
I’m about to press send, but then I delete it before I start typing something else.
Me: Where did you go? Are you okay?
“That sounds so dumb.” I shake my head, deleting it.
Me: Why don’t you come back?
“Do not send her that,” I tell myself, deleting it right away before I press send. “The only reason you want her to come back is so you can have a repeat of that night. The night you’ve been trying to forget about, but surprise, surprise, it’s the one you can’t fucking forget.” For the past fucking six weeks when it’s me and my hand in the shower or the bed, or whenever my cock wakes up, it’s fucking her I think about. My cock stirs but then my phone rings in my hand, scaring the shit out of me. Looking down, I wonder if I accidentally pressed send on the text. My heart is beating so fast in my chest it’s making it hard for me to breathe.
The picture of my sister fills the screen with her name Favorite Little Sister with a pink heart beside it. Something she obviously programmed when she had my phone at one point or another in the thirty hours I was home.
“Hello.” I put the phone on speaker as I set it down beside my plate and eat at the same time.
“Oh, hello,” she greets, singing, “Jaxon.”
“What’s with the voice?” I ask and the phone rings again, and I see she’s trying to FaceTime me. I pick it up and place it against the potted plant on the table. Something my mother added the last time she was down here. “I wanted to see your face when I told you this information.” She smiles as if she is a Cheshire cat who swallowed the bird. “It’s always fun this way.”
“What?” I ask her, confused on what she could possibly be calling me with.
“You really have no idea?” she asks me, laughing at the same time.
“I have no fucking clue what you are talking about,” I tell her, cutting a piece of chicken and popping it into my mouth.
“Mom just got a very interesting phone call.” The minute she says that, I think the blood drains from my whole body. Surely, Ariella wouldn’t have called my mother to tell her anything. I start to put my fork down or, better yet, the fork falls out of my limp hand, clanking down into the plate. The chicken stays suspended in my mouth. “Yeah that.” She points at me. “You’re lucky I’m giving you the heads-up.”
I swallow down the piece of chicken, almost choking to death and then taking a sip of the water to help, coughing along the way. “I need you to tell me everything.”
“This serves you right.” She points at me, rolling her eyes as my hands start to shake when I think about my father finding out about Ariella and me. The sound of my heart beating now fills my eardrums louder and louder. “I don’t know why you thought it was a good idea.” I can’t even imagine what this is going to do for my father and Ralph. How the fuck am I going to face either of them? Ralph is no doubt going to kick my ass and my father is going to be the one helping him. I close my eyes, trying to get myself to calm down. Even though I know it was a mistake, it is something I have to admit to myself, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Without a second thought, I would spend the night with her.
My stomach lurches to my throat. “Like, what were you even thinking?”
“Tori, enough,” I snap at her.
