Page 76 of Never Kiss Your Neighbors

I pull the reel up on my own phone and watch it, seeing it through her eyes, and it looks ten times worse that way. Of course, someone who’s a responsible parent doesn’t want to be involved with men who post shit like this. “Fuck!”

Cam’s phone buzzes, and Trish’s name is on the screen. He answers and puts the call on speaker.

“Trish, what did you do?”

“Did you see the way that reel’s blowing up? It’s going to be your best one yet!” she says, sounding excited and proud.

“You weren't supposed to use that footage.”

“But look at the response! Once I saw it, I realized it made no sense not to use it. The engagements are through the roof, and your follower numbers are growing by the second.”

That’s the kind of interaction we’ve been thriving on, but it means nothing now. This is a disaster.

I swipe through the comments and want to throw up.

Let’s just say, if Cam ever needs someone to hold his dick for him, there are a lot of volunteers.

“You need to take it down right now,” he tells Trish.

“Are you serious?”

“Never mind. I’ll take it down. Talk to you later.” Cam ends the call, taps on his phone, and the post disappears.

But the damage is already done.

CHAPTER56

STELLA

Iwake up from a terrible night’s sleep to find more messages from Cam and Wyatt on my phone. I tell myself not to look, but I only make it as far as the kitchen before curiosity gets the best of me.

“The video was a mistake,” Cam says. “It was all a joke gone wrong.”

I pour myself a cup of coffee, and it’s too hot, but I take a sip anyway, trying to figure out why he’s talking about a video. The coffee doesn’t help.

Surely, they didn’t film themselves having sex with Trish.

“Can we please explain in person?” Wyatt’s message says.

I take a deep breath and try to push down my anger. The last thing I want to do is listen to them try to explain why they had sex with Trish. Not now, not ever.

I need to wake Jessie up soon, and I need to go about my day, and I don’t want to have to deal with this anymore.

“I don’t want to hear from you again. Take care.” And then I block them.

* * *

So, if I thought that not receiving text messages from Cam and Wyatt would help me forget about them, I was wrong.

I go to a grocery store that’s way out of my way. I avoid our back yard. I walk the dog on a completely different route that goes nowhere near their house, and yet the pain doesn’t go away. If anything, it gets worse as each day goes by.

I don’t allow myself to look at their channel, even in my weakest moments, when for some dumb reason, I just want a glimpse of their smiles. My stupid heart keeps aching for what I thought I had. It’s mourning an illusion, and not for the first time in my life.

Silly me, thinking the four of us might form a little family. That I might find a happily ever after with these two men who can’t keep their dicks in their pants.

CHAPTER57

CAM

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