Page 56 of Mr. Delicious
“What?” He stared at me in disbelief.
“Well you know my crazy Billy story already, so the last thing to tell you is that I’m the odd one out. I never fit in. They’re all in the medical field and as for me all I ever thought about was recipes for all sorts of cakes and pastries. Sweet stuff.”
He laughed. “I like that. I know I’ve never seen chocolate and blueberry yum yums before.”
“My mind is over creative. I can’t stop it from creating whatever I come up with for the day.”
“And don’t.”
“I won’t.” Of course talking about baking made me think of The Spot and my dire situation back home. All back home where I would return in the next few days, if this man didn’t make me lose my mind even more and drag me off to Rome.
“Wren there’s something else I need to tell you, I –“
My phone buzzed in my pocket, buzzing between where our legs met.
Must have been Stella because she’d messaged earlier about catching up. I hadn’t spoken to her since before we left for Paris.
“I can call back. It’s probably Stella.”
“No get it.” He insisted.
I looked at my phone and stood when I saw the unrecognized number. The first thing I thought was something must have happened at The Spot so I answered quickly.
“Hello.”
“Tell Stella not to keep you away from me too long,” AJ mused with a cheeky grin.
“Who is that?” Billy’s hard voice rumbled across the phone and gripped my insides. I moved the phone from my ear and cursed myself for answering.
Shit.I should have guessed it was him calling. An unknown number screamed suspicious but I didn’t take note that it could be him.
“Why are you calling me?” I snapped.
“Where are you? You evil bitch.”
Again, he called me the word I hated so much. AJ saw the way I stiffened and the anger that made my cheeks redden.
“Billy why are you calling me?” I couldn’t control the anger that came out in my voice. I was furious he called me and broke through the bubble of happiness I’d felt for the last few days. AJ stoodtooand glared at me.
“You think it’s cool that I have to live in my car?” He spat. “I’ve been living on nothing for the past week.”
“You aren’t my problem anymore.” I retorted. “Why don’t you speak to work or something?”
“They fired me when that damn whore, Lisa, turned up here with the same pictures.”
Lisa. That was the skank who’d turned up on our doorstep and started this whole thing. I had to say I would have most assuredly fired him too, after seeing the pictures. Apart from being sickening to look at with a naked Billy being spanked by a dominatrix, they were vile.
“Let me back in the house you bitch. Surely you can’t be this evil and let me live on the road.”
“No. You can’t come back.” I started shaking and felt worse for the thought if I did allow him back in my life, everything would be a mess. More of a mess than everything already was.
“No?” His voice was so loud that even AJ heard him, and that was enough for him to take action. He took the phone from me and pressed it to his ear, ready to launch an attack on Billy.
“Fucking asshole! How dare you call Wren?” AJ roared.
As I watched, I couldn’t help but feel pride and also feel the kind of comfort you felt when you had someone to take care of you. I’d never had that. The people in my family weren’t exactly the type to stick out their necks for me, and when I thought about it, all I had was Stella. But Stella was my best friend. I had never had a man in my life who would protect me like I belonged to him. Not until now.
“Don’t you worry about who I am,” AJ was saying. “You really don’t want to meet me, and if you do, expect your teeth down your throat. Now fuck off, and don’t call Wren ever again.” AJ hung up and passed the phone back to me.
I stared at him, holding his gaze for what seemed like eons. That was whatrealityheld for me.
Confrontation with Billy and having to pick up the pieces of the mess he’d caused.
It grieved me to even think of going back to that.
