Page 84 of An Inconvenient Marriage
In the few seconds it took for the dots to jump again, I popped a strawberry in my mouth. Then I remembered something important.
Me: Oh, and you’ll never guess who I met… Okay, I’m too impatient to wait for you to guess. I’ll just tell you.
Me: Esteban Alvarez.
Everlee: NO FREAKING WAY! When was this? And where?
Everlee: I’m seriously so jealous right now.
I didn’t have to be in the same room with her to know she was screaming at the phone. I started typing my next message but thought better of it when I remembered Zach had told me no one knew they were related.
Me: Zach took me to a club the other night, and we met up with Esteban there.
Everlee: I think I hate you a little… But you gotta tell me. Is he as gorgeous in person as he is on TV and on his socials?
This had me smiling even wider. Because yes, Javier was a very handsome man, but he had nothing on Zach.
Me: He is, and he’s just as charming, too.
Everlee: No fair. How does Zach even know him?
Everlee: But speaking of Zach…Whatever happened there? Last time we spoke, there was a little tension between the two of you.
She added a bunch of heart eye emojis at the end of her message. Ignoring her first message, I laughed to myself and typed my reply.
Me:He made me touch myself in front of a gigantic window and gave me three orgasms
Me: I think we’ve sorted it out.
This time, the dots jumped immediately.
Everlee: Oh my gosh.
Everlee: What
Everlee: Happened?
Everlee: ???
Everlee: Tell meeeee.
More laugher spilled from my lips, and I realized it wasn’t even because of Everlee—even though her reaction was pretty funny—for the first time in forever, I was genuinely happy. It was a new kind of freedom.
I never wanted this feeling to go away.
Me: So I told him everything, and I mean everything. He took it surprisingly well and then might have given me an orgasm… or two.
Me: Or was that three?
I’d barely sent the message when my phone rang. Knowing Everlee’s curiosity had gotten the better of her, I pressed the green button without even paying attention to the number flashing on the screen.
“You know what they say about curiosity and the cat,” I answered with a laugh.
“What the fuck.”
It wasn’t Everlee, it was my father. The laughter died on my tongue, and that happy feeling I wanted to hold on to vanished like mist before the sun.
“There better be a good reason I haven’t heard from you,” he bit into the line.
