Page 46 of Caleb
“Stop putting yourself through this bullshit,” I retort. “You deserve so much better. You deserve someone who will respect you and treat you right.”
“This job helps support my family,” Annette says, tears cascading down her flushed cheeks. “It won’t be easy to find another that would even come close to matching my salary here.”
“So you’re basically his—”
“Putain?”
“No. Fuck. I’m sorry,” I say, trying to calm down. “I hate feeling like you’re being taken advantage of.”
“I’m an adult, Caleb. I’ve always known what I’ve gotten myself into. Don’t believe for a second that I am innocent in this. I am the villain. Or was, for that matter.” She looks away, and a sob almost chokes her. “When she died—when María died …” Annette presses her eyes shut as if wanting to forget the choices she made in the past that led her here to this moment. “It destroyed me. It destroyed him too. But loving him helped me put myself back together. And I hoped that our love would allow us to deal with the guilt. But now … he’s the one tearing me apart. And I’m allowing him to do it. It’s just that I—I don’t know how to stop loving him.”
“You don’t have to stop loving him,” I say quickly. “You just need to break it off with him, and with time, you’ll move on.”
Annette stares at me, eyes dark and heavy with evident heartbreak.
“María’s death shattered James to the point where he’s become incapable of loving again. He either loved her more than he realized or didn’t love her at all. Which I doubt. But now, he has to carry the burden of knowing that—” She clears her throat. “I just pray to God that I’m strong enough to avoid her mistakes.”
Mmm. There’s definitely something she’s not telling me, but now’s not the best time to make her spill the beans. I should focus on what’s important right now.
“You’ll survive this,” I reassure her. “It will be painful at first, but you are one of the strongest women I know. And you will only find it harder to leave the longer you stay.”
Annette snorts, and a sad smile twitches on her lips. She reaches her hand out and cups my cheek. I lean into the warmth of it.
“You’re only twenty-four,garçon,” she mutters. “But the man you’ll grow up to be …Merde, I wish I could be around to see it.”
Her hand slides around my neck and pulls me in for a kiss. I can feel her tears wetting my face, and I immediately pull away. As much as I know it’s beyond stupid to reject a woman like Annette, I know she’s not emotionally stable. It doesn’t feel right to allow this.
“Just this once,” she says, her lips brushing the corner of mine.
“That’s what we said the first time, and we’ve been doing good so far,” I remind her. Our friendship is at stake, and I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t grown fond of her in a deeper or more meaningful way. Enough to want to think twice before messing things up between us.
She stares up into my eyes, unwilling to move. As we measure up the situation in silence, my phone pings on my nightstand. And I know it’s Noelle.
Annette pulls away. “If you need to take that—”
“No, it’s fine,” I rasp out. “It’s just a text.” But I can feel the tension of wanting to read it, and I hate myself for not being able to keep myself fully present with Annette. I just want to know if Noelle’s okay since I haven’t heard from her in days.
She stands up, grabs my phone, and places it in my hand. “Your face is telling me everything I need to know,garçon. Read it.”
I snort and unlock my phone to read the damn text.
Noelle:I’m sorry I’ve been MIA. I should’ve texted sooner. Lucas and I have made it official. I wish I could have told you in person.
My ego is taking a beating. I shouldn’t care, but somehow, I do. I think.
I shouldn’t.
Tossing my phone away, I lean closer to Annette and pull her flush against me with a thrust. My lips crash against hers. Breath hitching, chests heaving, tongues colliding, I think to myself,a kiss never hurt anybody. But by the way she’s kissing me back, I assume this doesn’t stop here. She wants more, and I do too.
“I need this, Caleb,” she whispers into my lips.
“This is the last time,” I tell her, unbuttoning her silk blouse. And this time, I mean it. We’re both allowing ourselves to shift into this temporary bubble of an alternate reality to accommodate our pressing needs. But I relax knowing how transactional Annette can be for this sort of thing.
A soft laugh escapes her lips. “Of course it is.”
I push down the lace of her bra and bend down to capture her nipple with my mouth. She throws her head back with a moan. “And we’re going to be very quiet,fille,” I remind her. “Just like the last time.”
“I know,garçon.”
