Page 39 of My Soul for Sale

“You’re serious about this?” He sighs.

“I’ll take her any way I can get her. Even when we were teens and she lived here, she looked at you with hearts in her eyes, a schoolgirl crush, one that clearly never went away.”

He's either in or out, and I don’t have it in me to convince him. I stride out of the garage, leaving the heavy air of tension behind me. Pushing open the door to the house, I head straight for the kitchen.

Clicking a few buttons on the oven, I wait for it to preheat, and grab a frozen pizza from the freezer, unwrapping it.

Dad is still outside, so he must be thinking hard about everything I said. That’s good.

I slide the pizza into the oven and set the timer, the soft hum filling the silence.

While it cooks, I head to my bathroom. Turning on the shower, I strip off my clothes and step inside. The hot spray cascades over me, washing away the day. I stand there for so long, lost in my head, the water turns cold. There's no way I can go another seven years without seeing her, I have to fix this. I step out, wrapping a towel around my waist before I throw on my black sweatpants.

I pad back into the kitchen, inhaling deeply. The smell of melting cheese and tomato sauce hits my nose. Pulling the pizza from the oven, I cut it into slices and put a couple on a plate.

I sit down at the counter and eat alone, mulling over everything I admitted to my dad in the garage. It’s unconventional and I’m sure taboo to fuck the same woman as your dad, but I really can’t find an ounce of regret in telling him what I thought.

My dinner for one is interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching. I look up to see him entering the kitchen, his expression unreadable. He sits on a stool next to me, grabbing a slice, and for a minute we eat without talking.

“Okay." My dad finally breaks the silence.

My brows furrow, and I tilt my head as I look at him. “Okay—what?”

"Okay, I'll help you get Sloane back," he mumbles. "I'm still not sure about the sharing thing, but I'll help find her and win her back. Everything that happens after that... I just want it to happen naturally. I won't force something between us, and I'm not pushing myself to share a woman with my son, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want it. It's weird to even say out loud."

Chapter Twenty-One

Ripley

I sit next to Atlas in the kitchen. His eagerness is apparent, his eyes gleaming with hope, but mine are clouded with uncertainty. Why am I doing this? I ask myself for the umpteenth time. Yet the answer’s unknown, buried beneath layers of conflicting emotions.

"Are you sure about this?" Atlas asks.

I nod slowly, unable to muster the words to express my doubts. Atlas accepts my subtle nod and silence as a yes, a smile spreading across his face.

"Thank you, Dad." He grins from ear to ear.

I’m happy that he’s excited, but, on the other hand, I’m a mess of troubling thoughts—guilt maybe.

"We'll find her," Atlas declares with unwavering determination. "And when we do, we’ll make things right."

I wonder if he truly understands what he's getting himself into. Sloane is not just a woman; she's a whirlwind of chaos and confusion, leaving destruction in her wake. And yet, despite all the warning signs, Atlas is drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

She made her choice. She could have chosen to stay last weekend, and she didn't. She got her money and bailed.

The sex was good. I'll give her that. But the feelings that she invokes in me are not. Her being around is a weakness, and I’m afraid it will be the demise of my relationship with my son.

He thinks we can share her.

He's so desperate, he's willing to put his lips where his dad’s were?

Was last weekend not a big deal to him? Did he really not care that I was with her?

Either way, it doesn't matter. Because he is my son, my flesh and blood, and I would move heaven and earth to see him smile.

If that means tracking Sloane down so he can spill his soul and beg her to take him back, then so be it. He is my everything and I'll do whatever he asks, within reason.

Perhaps it’s me and I’m the issue.

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