Page 26 of Catching Feels

The reply:

*eye roll emoji* *Warning Emoji* Take the hint and move on or risk being banned from the number one dating app in the US. *stop sign emoji*

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” I flop back on the bed and groan.

My phone chimes, and I lift it up, hoping to see a message from her.

Nope.

AJ

You wanna let us know you’re alive?

I scroll back and see a picture of him, my sister, Bennett, and Rudy G at O’Donnell’s with the message: Busted.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I send a message back

Me

Needed a few hours alone. Be back at CeCe’s soon. Chill.

AJ gives it a thumbs-up.

I sit back up and hit the light switch on the nightstand table, but it doesn’t turn on. I reach across and try the other. It doesn’t, either.

I hit the flashlight app on my phone and look to see if it’s unplugged. It’s not.

I then check to see if the bulb’s blown and quickly realize it’s unscrewed.

“What the hell?”

I get up and try the one on the desk. Also unscrewed, and yeah, so is the other lamp on the other nightstand.

“You’re a fucking idiot.” I seethe as I screw all of them back in then go take a much-needed piss, as I again remind myself, “I’m so fucked. So completely fucked.”

When I walk around the room that is no longer dark, I see red. I step closer to the bed for further inspection.

Blood.

“Fuck, she’s hurt. She left because you battered her pussy, you fucking idiot.”

The whole drive back to the city, I’m pissed at myself for leaving when she could be hurt and come back. I could at least apologize. In a blink, I even consider it since she blocked my ass. And I’m pissed right now, as I turn down our road, because I know damn well AJ and Blaze are going to ask a million questions, and all I wanna do is shower and go to bed.

When I pull into the driveway and see there are no lights on, I thank whatever spiritual being who ducked out on me today and didn’t give me some sort of gut feeling that I was making a shit choice.

Who the hell am I kidding? This dry spell needed to be broken. The need to be in something hot and wet would have overruled that feeling. I’d have had to have gotten a flat tire, or the stomach bug, or explosive diarrhea to stop me from meeting her. Let’s hope she felt the same and got freaked out by the thought of me seeing her face without the mask. Maybe she shaved off an eyebrow … or she’s fucking married. That would fuck with my head.

If she is married, I don’t want to know. Cheating is a unforgivable. More unforgivable? The lies told to conceal the act or betrayal.

No, fuck that. I shake my head to rid myself of the memory of what damn near ruined my fucking career. If I can block that out, I certainly can block out the memories of a red-bottom-wearing unicorn with pierced nips.

Fuck them and fuck the unicorn, too. I still have my first true love—baseball—and a whole new family—the Jags.

When I walk into the house, I’m greeted with the pup whimpering.

“They left you in the dark?” I huff as I flip on the light. “Sweet Jesus.”

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