Page 101 of Born to Make You Smile

She shook her head. “Gavin would never do that. He’s one of the good ones. Sometimes you need to give up a bit of control. Trust him. Like you do in the bedroom.”

She raised her brows and nudged me. I’d filled her in on our tinkering with role-play and BDSM. Not in great detail, but enough to give her an idea of our dynamic.

“I still can’t believe he’s into that,” she said. “I would haveneverin a million years guessed he had that Dom energy.”

“Yeah.” I smiled. “It was hidden, but I saw something in him. And I just helped bring it out.”

After we finished eating, I stacked the takeout containers and placed them into recycling.

“Do you want to head to a club tonight?” she asked, going through some mail on her kitchen counter.

“I should probably stay in. Save some money.”

“Well, I heard you have lots of cash now,” she said.

I glanced at her, perplexed.

She had her hands on her hips. “Marcelo said you came in the other day.”

I sighed, looking at her disappointed expression.

“I cannot believe you sold him the bracelet!” she scolded, her voice loud. “Why would you do that? What’s going on?”

My shoulders dropped. “I just needed some fast cash to pay for my furnace.”

“Okay,” she said, drawing the word out. “But what are you going to do when Gavin asks about the bracelet? Do you think he won’t notice it missing?”

“Relax,” I assured. “I’m going to buy the bracelet back at the end of the month once I get my paychecks. Marcelo said he’d hold on to it for me. Your cousin is the best.”

She looked at me with doubt.

I smiled, trying to push down my own worries and hesitations. “Everything will be fine. Promise.”

“If you say so. But get dressed. We’re going out. My treat.”

***

A week later, at the end of the day, I was in the treatment room, putting sterilized dental tools away.

“Hey, you,” Gavin said, poking his head in. “Before we go, I’d like to speak with you about something.”

“Sure,” I said, licking my lips, neatly placing the bagged drill heads into their designated spots. I wondered if he had another sexy role-play scenario in mind.

“In your office?”

He shook his head, then sat down in his chair. “We can talk here.”

Well, so much for that idea.

He tapped his hands on his thighs. “The other day, I couldn’t help but overhear you on the phone. What sounded like an agency. Regarding your mortgage payments.”

I swallowed and closed the white drawer in front of me.

Collection agencies for my mortgage and utilities debts had been calling me nonstop for the past two weeks. I tried to avoid their phone calls, but sometimes I picked up and had to deal with the conversation. I’d tell them I didn’t receive the bills, that my internet was down, try to stall. But it could only buy me so much time. I’d been so preoccupied with saving the money to buy back the bracelet that so many of my bills had fallen even more behind.

“Oh. Yeah,” I said with a dismissive shrug. “I forgot a bill, and they were hounding me down.”

I logged out of the computer system, not making eye contact with him.

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