Page 29 of Georgia: Britain's Story: Part 1
“Who the fuck else, Tori?!”
“Right, well, I needed to bring over my severance papers and thought, why not make it a house call?!” The positivity radiating off her has my stomach in knots. I have the sudden urge to throw away all the food in my house. She might have laced it with poison.
“That could have been an email. To Gina. Do not come to my house ever again. Do you understand?”
“Oh, I understand. Crystal clear, peaches,” she says, but she’s not looking at me, she’s looking out the window. She stands and says,“Well, that’s my cue to go.”
She starts walking towards the front door, but she’s slipping off her shoes, picking them up to carry, untucking part of her blouse, and smudging her makeup with the back of her palm. I think she’s finally going to leave when she opens the door, but then hesitates. She turns back to look at me and her face is filled with fury.
“I can’t believe youjustfucked me, and now you’re letting me go! I should have listened when the others told me you're no good for anything more than a one night stand, but I loved you! And you, you’re just dumping me out like a piece of trash to move on to your next play thing!” She’s raging at me. She steps out onto the porch, but turns around again, “You’ve wasted the last two years of my life!” She huffs out, walking to her car.
What in the actual fuck?I slam the door shut behind her, locking it. Not that it fucking matters since she clearly still has my keys from when she sold the house to me. Which begs another question about her ethics, or lack of. I whip out my phone and press call.
“Hey, man.”
“Niko, I’ll give you one chance to guess why I’m calling you before 8:00 on a Wednesday morning.”
“Fuck,” he whispers away from the mic, then he’s back, “Tori?”
“Yup.”
“What’d she do now?”
“She fucking broke into my house this morning like a lunatic!”
“Of course she did. She rob you? Did you wake up with a knife to your throat?
“No, she was just sitting in my kitchen, acting unhinged. But I’m calling because-”
He cuts me off, “Locksmith? I’m on it. You need me to come to your house?”
“No, I’m gonna work from home today. Can you just post up at Broken Ridge? Let’s start getting the sales space packed up and ready to transition over to the HOA.”
“Yes, sir,” Niko says.
“Alright, I’ll talk to you later today.”
“You got it,” Niko replies, and I end the call. Guess I’m not in a rush to work out if I’ll be home all day. I go to make a coffee, but pause thinking better of it. I dump out the beans and make a mental note to replace everything in my pantry.
Britain
I woke up excited, like a little girl on Christmas morning. Even though it ended with me feeling a bit shot down last night, it was still the best kiss I’ve had in years. I’m getting hot and wet just thinking about it again. I was up at 5:00 A.M., which considering that’s 8:00 Eastern, felt freaking amazing. After reading the news and checking emails, I got up and unpacked some of my luggage. Realizing what I was doing, I paused and smiled to myself.I’d decided to stay. I slipped in some AirPods and finished organizing the dresser, and hanging up a few nicer pieces.
By the time I’d completed my couple of tasks and made the bed, I figured it was probably time to start getting back into my normal routine.Walk two miles every morning, row four km, then do 15 minutes of yoga.With the travel and prep, I’d gotten out of sync, but it’s super important to me to maintain it for my physicalandmental health. So I throw on some yoga pants, a thermal, a sweatshirt, and my Hokas and head out for my walk.
I breathe in the smell of evergreens and damp earth as I step out the apartment door onto the stairway. It soothes my soul. I’m at the bottom step when I notice there are nowthreecars parked in the driveway.It’s only like 6:45,abit early for company. A familiar unease fills my stomach. It’s a gut feeling, and it’s probably nothing, but I’ve felt this feeling before. And each time I have, there was always some other woman with my man at the other end of it.
But Liam’s not “my man.” He’s allowed to have company, “friends,” girlfriends. The only problem with that would be that it makes him a liar, and I fuckinghateliars. Maybe it’s a house cleaner or something, or a personal trainer, or maybe he has a roommate.I don’t know, it’s not for me to worry about, my personal attempt to cajole myself. I increase the volume on my workout playlist and start making my way down the driveway and out to the street.
When I first stepped out, the morning chill was biting, but once the sun broke through the tree canopy and I picked up my pace, I was sweating, which I fucking love. I always thought people were lying about workout-induced endorphins, but it turns out that’s a real thing. Who knew? I end up walking a bit more than two miles since I haven’t learned the distance of the landmarks here, yet. I’m honestly feeling great when I notice the door to Liam’s house is open, so I slip out an earbud in anticipation to say hi.
But instead, all I hear is a shrill voice. Whoever it is, she’s yelling. And she’s fucking pissed.
“I can’t believe you just fucked me, and now you’re letting me go! I should have listened when the others told me you're no good for anything more than a one night stand, but I loved you! And you, you’re just dumping me out like a piece of trash to move on to your next play thing!”
My stomach drops at those words. What am I witnessing right now? I feel like I shouldn’t be listening, but I can’t stop myself. The source of the voice steps out onto the porch and I feel the bile rise in my throat when I see that it’s Tori. Tori, who’s dating the developer…Click, it falls into place. He fucking lied to me. He has a girlfriend and he couldn’t fuck me last night because he was stillwithhis girlfriend, and it appears he decided to give her a farewell fucking, too.Been there, girl.
“You’ve wasted the last two years of my life!” Bastard,is all I can think right now. He just kissed me like he was ready to take me on the side of his car last night, and he was still with his girlfriend…of multiple years?What kind of immature, man child shit is that?
