"Really? I'd way rather do the pin one."
My phone pinged, and I saw it was a text, my heart rate kicking up at the possibility that it could be her. Picking it up, disappointment shot through me. And then annoyance. Because it was another fucking text asking me if I was interested in adding at least three inches to my manhood.
Archie grabbed my phone out of my hand and read it out loud.
"Still unhappy with your teeny peeny? Want to add at least three inches? Ninety-seven percent of men saw results in two weeks! Why wait? Order now!"
His face turned red with laughter. "Teeny peeny," he repeated over and over between bouts of hilarity.
Between the penile enlargement and erectile dysfunction ads all over my social media feeds and all the calls for let's just say very interesting cruises, I'd just about had it. What fresh hell had I entered into?
I was this close to changing my number. This close. But...
It was my only lifeline to her. And even with my actual number, she barely kept in touch. Barely. So if I did change it, I might as well kiss any chance of anything happening with her goodbye.
My phone made another noise, and I grabbed it back from him, but not before he gasped and let out a high pitch shriek.
"Oh my God, it's her! It'sher!" he squealed. "And you have her in your phone as 'masked beauty?'"
He fell onto the table in laughter as I answered it, practically sprinting to my room in an attempt at privacy. If I was lucky, she hadn't heard him and the laughter that followed me up the stairs.
Damn this open layout that amplified sounds.
"Hey, Roxie," I said, trying my best not to breathe hard in her ear.
My mystery woman laughed. "It's not Roxie. Good guess though."
"I'll get it one of these days. Maybe when I'm sixty-nine."
She laughed again. "Nice number."
"Yeah, Archie's obsessed with that number. Although I'm not one-hundred percent sure he understands what it really means. Thank God."
"Oh, you're not going to explain it to him?"
I sighed, shutting the door and crossing over to the sitting area I had over by the windows."I guess I'll have to soon."
"Uh-oh, the big talk, huh?"
This was a very strange way to start off our conversation, especially when all I wanted to do was ask her why... why had she waited so damn long to call me back?
"Yeah, the big talk." Sitting down in the chair, I rubbed at the back of my neck. "Obviously, he knows the basics, just not the moreadvancedstuff. I'm determined to talk to him about all that, though, just waiting till he's a little more settled in."
"That's very brave of you."
That felt fucking nice. At least someone appreciated my efforts. I wasn't doing this for praise or any kind of acknowledgement from my father or his ex or even Archie.
My motivation was simple—an attempt to give my little brother a home life that I could only dream about as a kid. But it was still nice to hear a good word every once in a while.
"I just don't want him to grow up like I did," I admitted. "No one talked to me about anything. I was completely clueless and had to figure everything out for myself."
"That's terrible," she said, voice full of sympathy. "Your dad didn't talk to you?"
"Hell no. Which I guess in retrospect I'm not mad about," I said with a wry laugh, shaking off the image of my dad actually talking to me about all of this shit.
"Well, judging by our night together, it didn't seem to cause you any long-term damage."
My eyes nearly popped out of my head because, damn, I couldn't believe she just said that. Was that a fucking compliment?
