Page 77 of Cougar Chronicles

“Well, get a load of that. You actually have feelings for the woman.”

“You’re full of it. I loved a woman once. It’s not worth the heartache.”

“You can’t always control your feelings, Michael. Even a pea brain like me knows that. Maybe you didn’t mean to develop feelings for Stacy, but you did all the same.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“If you didn’t have feelings, you wouldn’t be so upset about this.”

He shook his head. “Yes, I have feelings. Feelings of the loss of twenty-four hours of this conference. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don’t want to start the whole process over? I invested a lot of time here. Maybe I found the woman I wanted, and now you fucked it up.”

“There’re a million women just as hot with just as much money who’d be glad to…”

Michael stopped listening. Yeah, he knew the drill. He’d gone through it in his own mind a thousand times since he’d left Stacy lying in bed, since he’d packed up his belongings in the hallway, since he’d picked up the blue glass from the broken vodka bottle. Yup, a million women. The thought should appease him.

It didn’t, which mystified him.

“I told Ronnie. She understood. Said she’d talk to Stacy.”

Dino’s words sliced through the fog in Michael’s brain. “Told Ronnie what?”

“About Beth. She nearly cried. She—”

“For God’s sake!” Michael resisted the urge to pull his own hair out. “What the fuck did I ever do to you?”

“I was trying to control the damage! Fuck. I thought you’d appreciate—”

“Appreciate you spilling my life story to a complete stranger? Jesus Christ, Dino.”

Michael seethed. Anger boiled inside him. Anger at Dino. Anger at Stacy for not listening to him. Anger at Beth for abandoning him all those years ago…

“I have to get out of here,” he said, his blood boiling. “I need a drink. Or a smoke. Or something. God damn it! Anything!” His emotions rocked, threatened to spill into something unnameable. Something he couldn’t fathom. His father. His asshole father….

He couldn’t stay here. Couldn’t go to Stacy for the comfort he craved in her arms.

Where to go?

Where?

He slammed the door.

* * *

Stacy pasted a smile on her face as she signed another book. These were her fans, the people who supported her, fed her, clothed her. She adored every one of them, and by God, she’d act her part today if it killed her. None of them would know her heart had been shattered into a billion tiny fragments.

“Thank you so much,” the gushing woman said, taking her book. “I just love your work. Starr Shannon is one of my favorite characters.”

“Thank you,” Stacy said. “It means so much to a writer when a person enjoys her work.”

“Could I ask you a question?”

Stacy nodded. “Of course.”

“Have you ever considered making Starr a cougar?”

“A cougar?”

“Yeah, you know, give her a lover who’s significantly younger? Like seven years or more?”

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