Page 51 of Mine

“He’s gonna be a big dog, I don’t have the space,” he said looking at me.

“Buy a house,” I said, getting my camera and taking one last picture of the dog curled up in his arms.

“Valencia,” he chuckled.

“Hunter,” I said, looking down at my camera.

A loud laughter turned our attention to Romeo who was holding a small white dog who was so tiny you could have missed it if you weren’t looking for it. The ladies were swooning as Romeo held the dog, pet it and let the dog give him kisses. I realized he had two small dogs in his hands, and it was adorable.

“Come on, Gomez!” I waved him over as one of the ladies held out her arms, he shook his head, skating over with both dogs.

“Of course he has to outshine everyone,” Hunter said, shaking his head.

“Don’t be made because he makes women swoon,” I chuckled.

“I only want him swooning over one woman and that should be you, so you can finally put us out of our misery and say yes,” he said, as I finally looked up at him. “I know you want to say yes, come to my apartment and we can discuss it and if you still don’t want it, then you can walk away. We won’t bring it up again.”

“You make it sound so easy,” I whispered.

“All three of us together is easy,” he said, as Gomez skated into position and skated away.

I looked back at Hunter, telling myself this was a bad idea for the hundredth time. Romeo was such a natural in front of the camera. The brother and sister Maltese mixes were adorable andwe ended up taking a photo with Romeo on his stomach, one dog licking his cheek and another one on his back. It was so fucking cute that even I would purchase a damn calendar. Maybe next time we could have them shirtless...

After I was done with Gomez, I packed up and thanked the volunteers for their help. I found out Baxter ended up adopting his dog and Cap was thinking about taking home his dog too, but he had to talk with Heather. Even if Baxter was the only one to adopt a dog, it was a great event.

I took a few pictures of the volunteers with the dogs to post on our social media. They were amazing. I hoped we would be able to do this again in the future. As I was putting my camera away, a small piece of paper fell out with an address, it had nothing else on it and I knew exactly whose it was. Dammit, they knew exactly what they were doing, and I didn’t know if I had any excuse not to go.

I walkedto a nice building in the downtown area. The parking was horrendous and I almost said fuck it after I had to go around the block twice. A doorman opened the door for me, he smiled and directed me to the front desk.

“Um.. Hello, I’m here to see Hunter Riggs,” I said, feeling a little out of place.

“Hello, Ms. Cortez, he is expecting you,” he said with a big smile. “Follow me.”

“Hello, oh, ok,” I said following him.

He pushed the button for the elevator and hit a button for me after scanning a card.

“Have a good afternoon, Ms. Cortez,” he said, before the elevator closed.

I was definitely not in south Denver anymore. Nerves ate at me with each floor that passed. This was a colossal mistake, one that I was going to pay for because our society would never blame them if they found out about us. Sometimes I hated the world we lived in and how women always took the blame.

The elevator stopped and I took a deep breath. I walked out trying to figure out which way to go. I found his condo relatively easy, but now I was frozen outside of his door. This was the last chance I had to walk away because I knew when I walked through those doors, I wasn’t going to say no.

“Last chance,” a voice yelled from the other side of the door.

I wanted to be annoyed, but I laughed because, of course, they were waiting for me. These men were going to be the death of me.

I noticed the camera on the doorbell. “Open up,” I said, as it immediately opened revealing a shirtless Hunter. “Oh, for fuck’s sake really?”

He shrugged, “I’m not above playing a little dirty or maybe making this decision easier for you.”

I walked past him to Romeo in nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs walking from the kitchen. It was an open concept and the dining room, living room and kitchen were all in the same space with a beautiful view of the mountains.

“Seriously?” I snapped.

Romeo smirked, coming towards me with a tray of drinks.

“I hate wearing clothes at home and I just got out of the shower,” he said, presenting me with a glass of amber liquid, what looked like a margarita and a glass of white wine. “Plus, I expected you a little later. I thought maybe you would make a few laps around the block before you walked around and then came into the building.”

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