Page 59 of The Moment We Know

“Slow down. You handcuffed him to his bed?”

“It was his idea.”

“His idea?”

“Yes. And his handcuffs. Well, he bought them for me to use on him,” Paige explained, then put her hand to her face. “Oh, shit.”

“What?”

“I left him handcuffed to his bed. This is so bad.” She leaned her forehead against the metal frame surrounding the pay phone, ignoring how dirty it was. “How am I just now remembering that? Jesus, what’s wrong with me?”

Jules snorted out a quick laugh before she could stop herself.

“This isn’t funny,” Paige admonished her.

“I know. Of course it’s not,” Jules agreed, but there was still amusement in her voice when she added, “I can’t help picturing it, though—not his peen, of course, because that would be wrong—but the handcuffed to the bed part. Speaking of which … did you take a picture?”

“What? Why would you ask that?”

“Because I want to know.”

“Why would I take a picture?”

“He was naked and cuffed to his bed. Why wouldn’t you take a picture?”

“Because I didn’t. I raped him, instead.” Paige sniffed loudly and then wiped at her nose again, which was now running like Niagara Falls.

“Look, I’m sure you didn’t rape him.”

Jules was obviously trying to be a calming influence but Paige wasn’t in the mood. “Now isn’t the time to blow smoke up my ass. I’m in trouble, here.”

“Okay, sorry. Look, why don’t you start from the beginning? And maybe give me the abridged version, since you probably need to get back to him pretty soon. I mean, depending how long you’ve been gone, he might be really freaking out. I’m sure time passes a lot differently when you’re cuffed to a bed, right?”

“You mean like dog years?”

“Maybe. I’ve never been handcuffed to a bed, so ...”

When Paige didn’t respond to that for a few seconds, Jules asked, “How long have you been gone?”

“Fifteen minutes, maybe.”

“You don’t know for sure?”

“I don’t even know how I got here, to be honest, so fifteen minutes is my best guess. When I finally realized I was raping David, I got … off him … then apparently put some clothes on and left the loft. I barely remember getting in my car, and I don’t remember driving here.”

“Where’s ‘here’?”

“A Walgreens parking lot.”

Jules took a deep breath. “But you’re okay, right?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Okay, good. Now, tell me what happened.”

Paige gave a quick recap of the evening’s events, but when she got to where everything went south, she started to slow down as she re-lived it. “I was just … overcome, I guess. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life and I just …”

“Put his dick inside you?”

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