Page 7 of Bloom: Part 1

All the other boys got thousands of likes when they posted their pictures on their social media pages. Jamie had started a new page of himself as the poster boy for sexy doctors. Aside from the few nasty comments that had stopped as soon as he posted a picture of himself next to Grimm, everyone loved him. What was wrong with me that I couldn’t get one man to appreciate my photos?

Maybe he’d seen the scars through my tattoos and thought they were gross. My stomach flipped. I’d followed him around, and he didn’t strike me as someone shallow, but maybe he was. He was so secretive I knew very little about him. I sat heavily on the bed and woke up my phone. Still no response from him. I narrowed my eyes against the pricking of tears.

Tears were for wimps, and life had beaten all the wimp out of me by the time I was ten or eleven or twelve. Nobody really knew how old I was.

One by one, I swiped through the photos I’d sent to Dr. Collier. I pinched the middle and expanded them. The scars weren’t visible so that theory flew right out the window. My heartbeat quickened. He’d rejected me over and over. I’d always believed he turned me down because he thought I belonged in a mental institution, which wasn’t that bad, considering it was probably true.

But maybe…he genuinely didn’t like me. Maybe he thought I was…ugly.

Heat flushed through me, and I stabbed my finger against the Block button. Just as quickly, I tapped the icon to unblock him. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t block him. From the first moment I saw him, I’d decided he wastheone. I wasn’t sure yet what all that meant, but I didn’t want to hurt him like I did most people. Anyone who spoke to me the way he had would have been missing a limb already, but his scowl, his rolling eyes, the clenching of his jaw meant he noticed me. And he was good looking, which I’d never realized about a man.

“Ugh.” I sat up on the bed and shoved my feet into my mid-calf-length black boots with the chunky raised soles. Straps, buckles, and lace formed details that prevented the boots from being ordinary. I tightened each one, my mind still full of thoughts on Dr. Collier.

It was almost November.

I’m running out of time.

I slipped on my leather biker jacket, then my black leather gloves with the silver studs and spikes—my recent find in a thrift shop that had become my favorite place to buy clothes in Smoky Vale. Since my makeup was still flawless, I finger-combed my hair and walked out of my room. I secured the padlock on the door. Yup, I took my motherfucking privacy seriously, and I didn’t trust these bikers. Those I grew up with knew not to fuck with my stuff, but we were mingling with the Smoky Vale chapter now. They were notorious for doing stupid shit. Since I’d promised Crowe to behave, I didn’t want to have to gut one of them and start an internal war.

In the mess hall, I made a beeline for Saint, who was drinking with Gunner, though neither was talking. I glanced around for the ex-cop, Gunner’s husband, but he was nowhere to be found.Strange. Since he left the force, he’d practically glued himself to Gunner’s backside. Or maybe it was the other way around.

“Hey.” I slapped a hand on the counter and leaned in to Saint. “I need your opinion on something.”

“No, you can’t kidnap the doctor,” he said, his tone flat. “Crowe won’t allow it, so get it out of your head.”

Gunner snorted and guzzled down his beer.

I grinned. My brothers knew me so well. “I’m saving that for our first date.” I opened my phone, found the message chat with Dr. Collier, and shoved the phone into Saint’s hand. “Look at those pics and tell me what’s wrong with them.”

“What pics?” Frowning, Saint took a gulp of his beer and looked at the phone. He let out a choking sound and spewed beer from his nostrils and mouth onto the counter.

Fuck. They were that bad?

“The fuck, man?” Gunner grunted, picking up a rag and throwing it over the mess. “Clean that shit up.” He rose to his feet and walked away, scowling.

“What’s up with him?” I asked. “Where’s the cop?”

“Hanging out with Jasper and the baby,” Saint wheezed. He brought the phone closer to his face and scrolled through the photos. “Damn, Bloom, I didn’t know you were this photogenic.”

“They’re good, then?” The way he was staring intently at each photo, I couldn’t tell how he felt about them.

“Fuck, yes.”

“Then why the hell doesn’t he respond?” I propped my elbows on the counter and gave an exasperated sigh. “He made me think I was ugly.”

“You ugly? Are you kidding me?”

“I’m not?”

“Trust me, if you were ugly, Max wouldn’t have been jealous that first day you met.”

“Okay.” I nodded, pleased. “So I’m average looking. Why doesn’t he notice me?”

“Average…” Saint shook his head. “There’s nothing average about you, Bloom. I mean, damn. How did you get your back to arch like that without snapping your spine in half?”

I frowned. He was staring at those pictures just a little too long. “You’ve seen me naked before.”

“But not when you’re trying to be sexy. The tattoos and the goth look… All of it just works.”

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