Page 54 of Unhinged

“Go to hell.”

“Now, it’s my turn to talk. How I see it is you have two options. One: You can leave town, knowing you shit all over my life, and go on with yours, fucking any ass lick who crosses your path.”

“No way. You can’t push me around, Rod. I’m staying.” I see him grit his teeth. Earlier, he told Amos to stop calling him that. Hadley has called him that for years. If me calling him Rod bothers him, then so be it. He’s cut me deeply. That’s all I have in me to retaliate, so I deserve a damn medal. “I won’t bother you with your new girlfriend. Live your life. Be happy. Just let me live mine.”

His eyes drill me, and his breath smells of heavy liquor. “Or your second option. You want my forgiveness? Great. Work for it. Your penitence starts now, Garrison.” God, I hate that name, and now he knows it. I am that idiot.

Confused, I make a face, though his remains indifferent. “How am I supposed to win your forgiveness? You hate me. I’ve apologized a bazillion times. It’s tiresome.”

“It’s not enough. Don’t you think you owe me more than that?”

I laugh because I fell into someone’s nightmare. “Like what? I don’t think they have a greeting card for the occasion.”

“Do you think I’m joking?”

I sigh, frustrated with this conversation and from his trapping me. “Then what are you saying?” Greg arches an eyebrow, and it floors me because it’s clear what he’s suggesting. “I’m not a homewrecker.”

“So?”

I squeal, “So? What is it you want me to do, exactly? Talk you through a fuck with your girlfriend? It’s really not that difficult. You get hard, she gets wet, and you stick it in. But move your hips for literal fuck’s sake. I’m sure you’ve rounded those bases by now.” My stomach twists more than when that leprechaun propositioned me earlier.

His face softens a tad. “She’s not my girlfriend. Yet. We have a date in two weeks. Until then… You can repay me.”

“I’m not a damn prostitute.”

“Not if you’re paying me.”

I shake my head. “What’s the point of this? Just for you to forgive me? Forget it then.”

His glare is sharper. “As you said, I don’t know what I’m doing.” He leans closer still and whispers, “But you do.”

When Greg’s brown eyes waver behind his angry mask, I whisper, “Are you telling me you haven’t been with anyone since…Shasta? Me?”

“I wasn’t with you.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m not saying anything.”

I argue, “I’m not the whore you think I am.”

Greg glances down at my tits on display and then looks back at my face with a doubtful frown. “Really? Don’t tell me you haven’t fucked at least fifty cocks.”

I gasp, “No.”

“Like I can trust you to tell the truth.”

“Twenty-three.” Why in the hell did I tell him? My damn need to always be truthful is a pain in my ass. Though I’m honest, the newer disgusted look in his eyes fills me with shame. My quest to find Prince Charming has been disastrous. Some guys were for fun, but others were contenders who proved me wrong every time. No more. He’s not out there. I don’t want to fuck fifty duds to find love. I’ve had intense crushes before, but I’ve never been in real love. I thought I was in love with Greg. But I’m just a moronic co-ed whose heart doesn’t know shit. If my true love is out there, he can find me. I give up.

“Well, almost halfway to fifty, and it’s your age. So, see? An expert.”

“Fuck you, Rod.”

“That’s the point, Garrison.”

“I told you the truth, at least. I don’t know if I can trust you. But now you’re willing to rail me because…? And if you call me an open hole again, I will punch you in the damn face.”

“Because I may run out there and tell the whole damn bar your pussy is a North Carolina landmark?”

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