Page 60 of Beautiful Desire
Nothing new to report, other than your son is making great strides. I know you’re not proud of him, but I am.
Have the day you deserve,
Georgia
From:Alden St. James
To: Georgia Astor
Subject: RE: Weekly Update
Good morning Georgia,
Received. Thank you.
Best,
Alden
Received,thank you?
Every week, I think I can’t hate this man any more than I already do, and then he goes and proves me wrong.
27
Fletcher
“Hey, I’m about to take off,” Hazel murmurs as she grabs her bag from under the register. “Y’all need anything before I go?”
“Yeah, actually, I could go for a pizza right now,” I say teasingly.
She glowers at me, biting back a smile as she turns toward Georgia. “Doyouneed anything before I go?”
Shaking her head, Georgia breathes out a chuckle. “No, I’m good, but thank you for all your help tonight.”
“No problem, boss.” Throwing up a peace sign, she says, “See you Monday.”
Following Hazel to the door, Georgia locks it behind her, then turns around and glances at the clock on the wall. “Good god, how did it get so late?” she asks, mostly to herself.
We’ve both been here since ten this morning, and it’s almost midnight. I was supposed to be off at four, but I offered to stay because the person scheduled to be here with Georgia and Hazel tonight woke up with the flu. The bookstore hosted a hugerelease party for Gemma, and it was quite an interesting thing to witness. People drove from all over the state to be here. Of course, I’ve known what she does for work, but it was cool to see her in action, even if being around her was kind of awkward.
It’s been just over a month since she and Grace found out about Georgia and me. We’ve seen each other a few times since then, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t strategically plan my trips to the gym around the same time they came over to watch The Bachelor every week. Neither of them has said anything to me about it, not that I thought they would, but it still just feels a little weird, since we’re technically family.
I thought the truth coming out would halt things with Georgia, but it hasn’t. I’m still in her bed several nights a week, and if I’m not, chances are, she’s sneaking into my room instead. We still haven’t spent an entire night together, which admittedly is annoying. It’s like, she’ll let me fuck her—or she’ll fuck me—but as soon as it comes time to sleep, that’s too much for her. And what’s more annoying than her refusal is how badly I want it to happen.
I want to roll over in the middle of the night and have her be there, hold her while we sleep, wake up next to her in the morning. And thoughts like that, mixed with how light my chest is when I’m around her, one thing’s becoming abundantly clear… I don’t just have feelings for Georgia. I think Iloveher.
“I’ll be in my office, finishing up some paperwork,” Georgia says, pulling me from my thoughts. “Shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes, then we can go.”
Following behind her like a puppy hoping to get a treat, I plop down in the chair in front of her desk as she sits in hers. She glances up at me, eyebrows raised. “You’re just going to sit there and watch me?”
“Why not?” A grin splits my face. “And aren’t you going to say thank you to me too, like you did Hazel, for helping tonight?”
“Going fishing tonight, are you?”
“I’m just saying, it was awfully nice of me to save your ass.”
Georgia chuckles, fingertips clicking away on her keyboard. “Nobody loves Fletcher quite like Fletcher loves himself.”
