Page 29 of Desperate Desires

Why would she?

We’d been doing things like this for years. Ever since Micky and I were in our teens.

These women were important to me. More family than anyone I was related to by blood, and yet, I didn’t feel comfortable telling them about what happened with me and Ono.

Micky sort of knew, but the rest was a secret. Guilt gnawed at me, but I pushed it away. I would tell them.

Soon.

Probably.

I just wasn’t ready.

Not yet.

Besides, what would I say?

Hey girls, you will never guess what happened to me. Some big mafia dude busted into my apartment bleeding all over the place and I rendered aid and let him stay for a few days. Oh yeah, and he boinked my brains out before stealing away in the dead of night, leaving me completely shattered and devastated. Crazy, right?

Yeah, no.

I was going to keep that little tidbit to myself until I had a better handle on my ridiculous emotions.

I mean shattered and devastated? Come on, I hardly knew him.

Clearly, it had been way too long since I’d had a real man in my bed, and I was being dramatic.

“Something is different about you, Shelly. I can’t put my finger on it, but you seem, I don’t know, subdued somehow,” Micky remarked after we drank two pots of tea and ate every last cookie in the box.

“Subdued? Shelly? Are you kidding? She’s the wildest of us all,” Andrea scoffed.

“I don’t know about all that, but I’m fine, Mick. I mean, this is the first week off I’d had in over a year, and I had the damn flu, so maybe I just look off,” I replied, pinning her with a look that said she better shut it or else.

“Okay, whatever,” she muttered, and I noted the gleam in her eye.

Micky was up to something, But she’d kept my secret and that meant a lot to me.

“So, you’re all better now, right?” Lucy asked, biting her lower lip, eyes glittering with mischief as she looked at her cousins then back to me.

“Oh no, what are you planning?”

I crossed my arms and narrowed my gaze. I had to be on call tomorrow, but it was only six o’clock now and if I didn’t know better, I would say Lucy Volkov was plotting something shady.

“Well, Micky is just an old married lady now. So boring! And well, Andrea got a few tickets to this pop up venue tonight for DJ Alpha.”

“So?” I said nonchalantly, even though I knew all about the infamous DJ and was dying to see him live.

“So, you’ll come with?” she asked.

“DJ Alpha? Hmmm. I don’t know,” I said, playing coy.

My clubbing days might be behind me, but I still paid attention to the New York music scene and DJ Alpha was fire.

“Pleaaase, Shelly! It’s gonna be so lit,” Andrea gushed, and I was already nodding my head.

“Alright, fine. I’ll be the mama bear,” I joked.

“Yeah, right. Last time we went out, you danced us under the table,” Micky said, shaking her head. “But they’re right, I’m out. I just wanna get this little guy home and fed and wait for my hot as fuck husband.”

---