Page 19 of Bristol

“Okay. I’ll get in touch with Slider tomorrow. We call him the Magician. He will give you a new identity. New driver’s license, birth certificate, the works. You just have to choose what your name is going to be.”

“I’m keeping Bristol. I don’t want to change that part. I don’t care what last name you give me. I just can’t be the Bristol Tullier I once was, so I don’t ever want to be her again. Patrick took that from me and that’s something I will never get back.”

Before I can respond, Frankie appears with two plates.

“Hope you’re hungry,” she says, setting Bristol’s plate down in front of her.

“This looks so good!” she squeals, unwrapping the silverware next to her plate.

“Thanks, Frankie.”

She sets my plate down and scurries off to tend to the customers that have just walked in.

“Oh. My. God.” Bristol says through a mouthful of mashed potatoes and gravy. Her eyes close and she tilts her head back.

I chuckle, shoveling a forkful of red beans into my mouth.

“That good, huh?”

“These are the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever put in my mouth.”

“I told you this place is the best. It’s a hidden gem. If everyone in town knew about it, it would never be this empty, I guarantee you that.”

“I have no doubt! This food is delicious.”

We finish the rest of our meal with twenty more orgasmic pauses by Bristol about how amazing the food is before we tell Frankie goodbye and head out. I want to take Bristol to do something. I want to show her that life can be fun.

That not everyone is as terrible as that piece of trash that held her hostage. There’s so much that I know she hasn’t been able to experience in captivity and I’m making it my personal mission to find out what those things are and take her to go do them. After I get her in touch with Slider. For tonight, there’s a park on the beach that I think she would enjoy. We’re only a few minutes from the park, but Bristol sitting in my passenger seat with her feet on the dash looking so fucking fierce and beautiful has me wanting to rip her clothes off and bend her over on side of the road.

I manage to keep the beast inside me contained and we make it to the park without any pitstops. I open her door and she steps out in front of me.

“Come on,” I say, grabbing her hand and dragging her toward the water.

The moon is high in the sky, illuminating the way. The tide is out but I hear the waves crashing and the wind roaring around us. The smell of salt and sand is whirled around the air and the smile on Bristol’s face makes me want to do this every single fucking day. She’s so genuine… innocent even.

“This is incredible,” she sighs, the wind whipping her hair around.

She flips her head upside down and pulls it up into a neat bun on the top of her head. I ease behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist. She relaxes into me, just as I’d hoped she would. I grip her tight and pick her up, running out through the wet sand until I hit the water. Bristol is laughing as we splash through ankle deep water. I set her down on an island of wet sand and she’s still giggling.

I don’t step away, though. I pull her into my chest and again, her whole body relaxes into me. She tilts her head back and looks up at me.

“This is really nice. I forgot what it feels like to be on the beach. It was my favorite vacation spot,” she says, closing her eyes with her head still resting on my chest.

“I used to come out here all the time when I first moved here. It’s peaceful and everyone else is always going further down usually near the souvenir shops and casinos so they don’t even pay this park any mind.”

“Park?” she asks, opening her eyes and looking behind us.

I point off to the left behind us at an angle.

“Yeah. There’s a park right over there. They have events and concerts and shit, but when there’s nothing big happening, it’s a forgotten spot.”

“Oh.”

She closes her eyes again and rests her head back on my chest. Her lips pull up into a smile as the wind whips around us. She shivers and I see the hair prickle on her arms. I take my hands and rub her arms softly, creating heat to try and warm her up. It’s not cold but it’s that time of year where the temperature begins dropping at night and it’s cool in the morning but eighty by mid-day.

“I have a hoodie in the truck. Want me to go grab it for you?”

She shakes her head in protest. “No. If you leave, I’ll freeze.”

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