Page 68 of Brutal Prince

Will you come over tonight?

I found myself smiling and immediately slapped my cheek for being a traitor to my cause. The boy that I loved obsessively as a child is all grown up and he wants to spend time with me.

That’s not insane at all.

Not insane when he’s a normal person, but he’s a different breed of human altogether.

Okay, I answered. Shall I come to your apartment again?

Yes. 7pm. This time I won’t give you wine.

I held back an angry response, as I strongly believed it was nothing to do with the wine. “Asshole,” I mumbled.

It was just after 8am and Mom was watching reruns of Days of Our Lives. Now and again she’d bark something out at the characters – ‘be careful, oh you fool, watch him he’s not what he’s seems, sly dog’ etc.

This was Mom’s life now locked into a fantasy of fictional TV shows. If Dad was still alive, he’d motivate her to live and love. To feel the cool breeze on her skin, watch the Canadian geese fly over in fall, dip her toes in Lake Superior.

The loss of her greatest love sent her into a deep state of depression, not even her daughter could motivate her to cook breakfast or go on a picnic or visit the mall. She just wanted to stay in bed and watch daytime soaps and game shows.

The man who calls himself Dominus not only owed us for two lives he ruined but he owed us an explanation.

“Are you seeing Ollie tonight?” Mom asked, hopefully.

Shoot! Ollie. I’d forgotten all about him. He wanted to cook me dinner and spend some of the night with him. Sex with Ollie appealed greatly, but potential sex and a confession from Dom was a greater prize.

“No,” I called back. “I’ll be with the girls tonight.”

“Oh.” She sounded disappointed. My mom has high hopes that Ollie will be my savior.

“We don’t want to get sick of each other,” I told her, walking out from the hall to the living room.

“Hogwash. How can any nice man get sick of my daughter?”

“I was thinking the other way around. Maybe I’ll get sick of him.”

She gasped in horror. “That utterly desirable, handsome boy from a good home Atlanta?”

“How did you know he came from Atlanta?” I found a box of Branflakes and poured out some contents into a bowl. Branflakes were not exactly my favorite cereal, but Mom believed they were healthy and helped to regulate bowel movements. So the TV ads say.

“He told me that time he came over looking for you.”

“That evening I’d like to forget,” I whispered.

I saw a different side to Ollie that I never want to see again if he and I were going to make this thing work. The truth was, I couldn’t see past this year, let alone senior year. What I did know was that Ollie and I were on a course of destruction. I knew it. I wondered if he knew it.

Munching on the cardboard in the form of a breakfast cereal, I sent three messages.

One to Lise to let her know that I was going in for another try with Dom. The second message was to Ollie to postpone our date for another night. Due to several late shifts scheduled at Stads, I may not get the opportunity to spend the night with him for another week or so.

But there were plenty of upcoming summer days to share. Ollie could be my days while Dom was my nights.

At least until I get my confession.

The third message was to someone else entirely. He’s got a security camera in the living room. Are you sure he didn’t see you plant the bugs?

As soon as I sent that message I deleted it.

The answer came twenty minutes later while I was walking to my car. I was aware of the camera and covered it over.

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