Page 75 of Foolish Games

She closes her eyes and rests her head back on the seat. “Just don’t say anything to anyone, and please respect when I say no sex.”

“Fine,” I say, climbing out of the Corvette. “Agreed. I wouldn’t want Rob to find out anyway.”

“Okay,” she says, leaning down to see me out the door, since it’s too cold to put the top down. “Just so we’re on the same page.”

“Same page,” I assure her. “I’m nothing but your fake boyfriend from now on.”

She nods, her lips tight. “Thank you for being reasonable.”

I close the door and walk away. Fuck her and fuck being reasonable. That’s just another way for her to call me stupid.

“Yo,” Lexi calls, waving from the tailgate of Billy’s truck, where she’s unloading a saw that probably weighs more than her. “Give me a hand, would you?”

“Gimme that,” I say, plucking it from her arms and carrying it inside the house they’re framing.

“You’re on this job?” Billy asks when I step onto the concrete foundation.

“I am now,” I say. “Throw me a hardhat and put me to work.”

“Somebody’s pissed he didn’t get his last night,” Tony calls from the corner, where he’s measuring two-by-fours on a couple sawhorses.

“Fuck off.”

“That’s what happens when you let her make the rules,” he says. “She’ll never give it up now. She’ll just milk your ass dry.”

“I don’t think she’s milking anything dry,” Randy calls, and they crack up.

“Take my advice, Bash,” Tony says. “Put your foot down early, show her who wears the pants from the start. You keep giving her some and not getting any, that’s how it’ll always go.”

“Yeah?” I say, setting down the saw. “You just think that because no girl sticks around after you slob all over her pussy like a fucking dog.”

“I’m not the one who goes home with his right hand every night,” he says, shrugging.

“Nah, you go home with your bitch Theo,” Lexi says. “Where is he today, anyway? You wear his ass out?”

“I’ll wear your ass out,” Tony says. “We’ll take turns with it, since Sebastian here lost his bet and there’s no way you’re still holding onto that cash.”

I swallow, my chest hollowing out when I think about holding Viv this morning. But then I think about how she couldn’t get me out of her house fast enough, and how I crawled like a fucking dog on the ground to save her dignity and keep her brother from thinking I fucked her. And then she dumped me off with nothing more than a condescending order to keep my dick in my pants.

I reach into my pocket and ball my fist around her rumpled, damp panties I picked up off the floor at Maddox’s when we crawled out of bed at five in the morning.

“Hey, I got the money,” Lexi says. “It’s Bash who needs to open his wallet. Pay up, bitch!”

“What are you so happy about?” Billy asks. “You didn’t even put money in.”

“But you did,” she sings. “And you’re my favorite cousin in the whole world. I know you’re just dying to get me a pair of Calvin Klein jeans for Christmas, so I can strut around like Drew Barrymore and show Scarlet and all them rich bitches I’m just as good as them.”

“Dude, you’re a thousand times better than Scarlet Stone,” I say. “She’s a hole. You’re a whole-ass person. And nobody’s getting paid today except me.”

“Nah, you’re bluffing,” Tommy says. “Ain’t no way you nailed Robert Delacroix’s sister. He’s your boy.”

Not fucking helping. I think about shoving the panties down in my pocket and agreeing with him. At least that way, only I know what a piece of shit I am.

I’m not just betraying Vivienne. I’m betraying her brother.

It’s a little late to develop a conscience though. After the night we had, there’s no going back.

But then I remember how William told Mom she needed a new transmission, and how she’ll never be able to get ahead enough to buy one, what with feeding four hungry kids and working for barely over minimum wage. And I think about Mel, and how happy she’d be if I could get her a keyboard or maybe even a couple music lessons. Or how happy Deane and Caitlyn will be when they see more than a couple cheap toys Mom managed to find at garage sales under the tree. Maybe even one of those Tickle Me Elmo toys they never got when they came out a few years ago.

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