Page 1 of A Promise For Tomorrow

One Year Later - New Year’s Eve 2016

“Gahhh!”I shriek for the umpteenth time this year.

Scorpions.

Nasty, creepy,crawlylittle creatures.

We’re not in New York anymore—that’s for sure. I have no idea what I was thinking when I dropped everything to come live here.An escape? A chance at hitting the reset button? Putting as much distance as I could get between me and the two men who have my head in a constant tailspin?

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Regardless, here we are. Donning a flip-flop in one hand, and a can of scorpion killer in the other. Beady black eyes fixate on me as its pinchers spread wide, poised for an attack. A venomous barbed tail protrudes from its hairy pale exoskeleton, pulsing with agitation. This pet of the devil himself is preparing to launch itself at me—or so I tell myself.

As if it can read the fear in my eyes, or perhaps is intelligent enough to take in the trembling of my hands, it launches itself over the lip of the bathtub.Scuttling.Right.Towards me.

I release a blood-curdling scream. A scream that should’vehad the neighbors in apartment 4C running over thinking something unspeakable happened. Luckily, Simon and John are used to my ‘unwarranted outbursts’. The couple gave up racing over after my first few encounters with these eight-legged monsters. Now, they just opt to send a hysterical text about me being a giant baby or playfully remind me I’m not cut out for a life in Arizona. Usually, followed by an offer to go grab a drink or join them for a glass of wine in their apartment next door.

Spray foam smacks the space next to the scorpion, making it bob its tail in my direction—not that I am anywhere near the ledge of the tub. My ass is firmly pressed against the granite countertop of the vanity.It’s just a scorpion, Maddy. A small one at that. You’ve got this, girl. Now smack the shit out of it.I brace the sandal, ready to send the creature back to the depths of Hell, where it belongs when the black sparkled shoe is tugged out of my grasp.

Slap.

“Jesus, Mad. I woke up thinking Diego was at our front door,” Lexi mumbles groggily, handing me back my shoe. She shuffles over to the vanity, retrieving two tissues before leaning over the tub and removing the mangled,very dead, scorpion.

“Pshh. Even Diego couldn’t make me scream like that,” I scoff defensively.

She tosses the balled-up tissue into the wastebasket, then leans a hip against the granite, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Oh, really? So you’re admitting that Diego can’t make you scream?” A smirk forms on her lips as she arches a sassy brow.

“That’s not what I said…I mean not like…that. And you’re a bitch,” I joke. “Can we lay off the Diego topic, please? As if today is not bad enough already. Ya know, with it being my one-year anniversary of moving here. Of course, the Universe just loves to fuck with me and had to add a nice cherry on top of my already shitty day,” I groan, nodding to the trash bin next to the toilet.

“It was the smallest scorpionever.John and Simon text you yet?” She laughs as footsteps approach from down the hall.

I snag my phone off the vanity and notice a new text in our group chat.

Simon

That scorpion had to be the size of my nan’s knickers for you to scream that loudly.

John

Or maybe, she had a guest over… the kind who own private jets…

Lexi’s fingers fly across her phone screen, click-clacking away before my phone chimes with a new notification.

Lexi

*gif of a girl with her index and thumb finger hovering close together, indicating tiny* It was THE smallest scorpion If it was the size of your nan’s knickers this apartment complex would have already been on fire.

Maddy

A deep chuckle radiates from the doorway. Conor is leaning against the door frame, barefoot and shirtless, sporting a pair of gray cotton sweatpants. He’s biting his lower lip, holding back another chuckle while shaking his head. His giant paws hold out his iPhone, the screen illuminated, revealing a group chat we are all in.Should have never included that asshole in our sacred neighborly group chat.

“And you want to visitAustralia?” He bends over at the hip with tears in his eyes as he starts to crack up some more. “Good luck with that, lass,” he says between snickers.

Heat rushes to my face.Conor reminds me so much of Liam.If Lexi wasn’t head over heels in love with him I could have just aseasily cut him off.Okay–not easily.I love Con. He was one of my first friends in the Tri-State Syndicate. My own personal bodyguard before Liam ever was. None of this was easy. Letting go of the friends—the family I had created with all of them.

I stalk his way and jam my pointer finger into his tattooed chest. “If my best friend didn’t love you so much, you would have already been cut off.”

---