Page 12 of Crash

“It’s fine. I can sleep in the other room. Can I borrow something to sleep in, Sandy?”

“Sure, sweetie. Come on. I’ll have Tash leave some clothes for you at the bakery tomorrow. You can borrow my old car for as long as you need.” Tiny dancer stands up, and Sandy puts her arm around her waist as they walk towards me down the hall.

Sandy stops at the door to the master bedroom. “I’ll bring you some things in your room,” she says.

Tiny nods and continues walking towards me down the hall, ignoring me completely.

“Good night,” I say just to piss her off.

“No wonder there was such a stench in that room the last time I was here. You still smell like shit.” She puts her index finger underneath her nose as she dishes out that insult. She steps around me, walks a few more feet down the hall, and goes into the other guest bedroom. The one that’s right next door to mine.

I don’t remember how it happened, but it’s been hate since the moment we laid eyes on each other.

2 years before

I let out a loud yawn inside my BMW 750. I’m so fucking exhausted, but when I promise my nephew I’ll show up at his last soccer game for the season, I keep my word.

It was a waste of time going to California to confront Tori. After a week of calls and texts, she still refused to see me. Having enough of her avoiding me, I finally knocked on the door to her house.

I didn’t know what to expect, but when her father opened the door, the expression on his face told me all I needed to know. We’d met before. He was on campus last fall for parents’ weekend and we got along well, but the affable man I met months ago was nowhere in sight.

He told me his daughter didn’t want to see me and ordered me off his property. I called Jake and cried like a little bitch, and he told me to get on a flight home immediately and to put this shit behind me.

“I’ll help you get through this,” he had said.

It’s hard to believe that was just a little over twenty-four hours ago because I feel aged and hollow.

I grab my coffee and finish it, needing all the caffeine to keep me awake before I can go home and crash in my bed and forget about the last week. I need to forget about the last ten months and the disaster that was.

All I wanted were some answers. I wasn’t ready to be a parent either, but I was willing to step up and take responsibility. She decided she didn’t want to continue the pregnancy and I didn’t get a vote. Hell, she didn’t even tell me until three days after via text message.

After all the declarations of love and a future together, she could not face me after ending the pregnancy. Just a few months ago, I was willing to move to California to be with her once we graduated. She was going to attend law school on the west coast, and I was to follow her, but now, I’m left blindsided.

“Fucking coward,” I mutter to myself. The character trait I despise the most is cowardice. I slam my door a little too forcefully and start to cut across the parking lot. My phone vibrates, and I pull it out of my back pocket. As I’m scrolling through my texts, I collide with something.

“Oh, shit!” I look down and see a girl sitting on her ass in the middle of the parking lot. She’s looking down on the ground and reaches for her phone. The first thing I notice is that her dark hair is a long, poufy mess. It’s a thick mane of wavy tresses, which, in my opinion, can use a bit of moisture.

She finally gets her hand on the phone and looks up. Our eyes clash. The background noises fade away as I hold her gaze. Her eyes are like dark chocolate. Her skin is light, but she’s a black woman. She even has about four or five freckles across the bridge of her little nose, but what I notice immediately are her lips. Full and lush, with red lipstick, making her skin appear even lighter than it is.

I offer her my hand to help her up, and she takes it. She doesn’t move right away. Instead, she holds onto my hand while she continues to look into my eyes. My large hand swallows her much smaller one and when I squeeze, I feel goosebumps. I pull her to her feet, and she barely reaches my chin when she stands.

“Are you okay?” I ask, my voice foreign to my own ears. I wait for her to offer me an apology for bumping into me and to thank me for helping her up, but she yanks her hand out of my grasp and readjusts her clothes.

“In the future, please watch where you’re going. The parking lot is a public space.” Her voice is husky but sexy. It’s much deeper than I expected. She slides her phone in her pocket and looks me up and down. “Just like a man to think he owns everything.” She waves me off and walks away, effectively dismissing me.

“Excuse me? You were walking and texting, weren’t you? Oh, and you’re welcome, by the way.” Even though she’s walking away, she stops when she hears my words. To my shock, she walks back towards me. Despite being more than a foot shorter than I am, she comes and stands directly in front of me.

“And what exactly would I need to thank you for?” She sneers, hands on her hips as she looks up at me.

“For helping you up, Thumbelina.”

“Thumbelina? Not very original, are you? Well, I’d rather be a Thumbelina than a giant oaf of a man,” she says, pointing a dainty finger at me.

I laugh at her words.

“You’re just another crazy female. Be on your way.” I mimic her gesture and wave her off.

“Another crazy female? That’s just what I would expect to come out of the mouth of someone like you.”

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