Page 11 of Addicted

CHAPTER 6

DENISE

“I know you are absolutely lying to my motherfucking face right now, Denise.”

Cleo was staring at the ring that she’d dropped on the table as I told her the story of my afternoon.

I was drunk.

The cream shirt I’d worn to work was on the ground somewhere. I was lying backward on her couch. The gorgeous red bra Hugh had bought for me secured around my chest. They were worth the huge price tag for that alone. All of my other bras would immediately be on the floor, kicked into a corner, the second I was out of public view but this one was comfy, hours later.

“You’re sure? You’re, like, super sure?” Cleo was just as drunk as I was, but her mood shifted the more I spoke.

I shrugged, throwing my hands out.

“The lady pressed the thing on it, and it was fake. Glass, cubic zirconia, whatever! And, like, if you were gonna spend thousands of dollars on a ring, wouldn’t you steal one of the rings I already own and see that I wear a size nine? Look at me. Is there anything about me that hints that my ring size would be a five?!” I laughed to myself as the heat started to fill my face and my stomach roiled.

“Wait. I have an idea.” She pulled out her phone.

Placing the ring back in the box, she snapped a photo of it and smiled.

“Reverse image search.”

I jumped up off the couch and put out my hand, dizzy as shit. Swallowing against the sweaty feeling in the back of my throat, I took a second to let myself settle.

Hint taken, don’t drunkenly hang upside down.

“Oh. Fuck,” she whispered.

I clambered over her coffee table and sat beside her.

There it was.

The exact ring on a website boasting about how close it looked to the real thing.

“Fifty bucks.” She breathed, looking at me and grabbing my wrist.

Nine years of my life. Fifty dollars.

I started laughing again. This time, tears burned behind my eyes. Wiping at them angrily, I threw my head back against the couch.

Cleo laid her head in my lap and sighed while I tried to control the riot of emotions running through my head.

“This is so shitty. I was ready. I came home ready to end it.” I closed my eyes as I pressed my palms against them.

“And you thought the ring changed something?” Cleo asked.

“I did. For a second, I thought maybe…” I stopped, sighing.

“Maybe what?”

“Maybe I’d gotten it all wrong. I fucked up with Hugh and Curtis just needed time to get his shit together.”

Cleo squeezed my calf.

“And now? Knowing that he lied?”

I started to rub my eyes again.

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