Page 78 of David

“It’s not because of me… Right,” I mutter, backing away and heading to the intersection.

I keep my eyes on her, waiting for the lights to turn green, another car in front of me.She turns right at the first stop sign and vanishes in a quaint residential area with small houses.

Her place can’t be that far from here.

By the time the car in front of me clears the intersection and I steer right, furious rain pummels the ground.

“What the hell was she thinking?” I murmur, rolling past several houses and checking the driveways.

She’s gone. Disappeared. But where?

The road loops, and I end up where I started, which makes me grind my teeth.

Rarely does someone get under my skin.

I wanted to drop her off without touching her to avoid problems, but things didn’t go my way, did they?

I knew she wanted more.

I knew I wanted more.

And then we got into this friendly bullshit banter shit that led us nowhere.

Sure, it was genuine. And sure, she wanted to know more about me.

The thing was… There wasn’t much more to know about me.

Whatever else there was, it wasn’t supposed to come to life and mess with me.

Live and learn. Age gaps are age gaps for a reason. And they should come with warnings.

I indulged her because it was hard not to.

All I thought about when she probed me was how good she’d feel when I rammed into her.

With that wonder in her eyes? She’d feel pleasure like never before.

Sadly, now she hates me.

I've been the target of women’s hate several times. My ex was one of those women, but there were others.

Whenever I stepped away from the realm of convenience, meaning paying for sex, I ran into trouble.

I thought a fair warning would help the parts involved, and that has worked for a while.

I tried not to lead them on.

I didn’t want headaches as much as they didn’t want pain. But no system is perfect. Everybody knows that.

And Elizabeth Fox just screwed with my system.

And here I am, stubbornly looking for her, wanting to make sure she’s all right.

I slam the steering wheel in frustration, following the road again, and scanning the secondary streets this time.

It takes a while before I notice a silhouette under a tree.

A hand propped on the tree, she takes off her shoe.

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