Page 52 of The Fallacy of True Love
Cam
Of all the times I’d gotten inked, never had I ever attempted to do so while working on my job applications—until today. I figured that having a needle poking the backs of my heels would distract me from the pain of sorting through listings. Ironically, my tatts were simple enough that Hector finished both of them before I could submit a single application.
He was applying second skin over my fresh ink when my phone rang, stopping me in the middle of editing my cover letter.
“Cam!” Nikki screeched in my ear. “Do you remember that NBA player I told you about? The one who retired and moved here to be with his Filipina girlfriend?”
“How could I forget?” She and Eric had discussed it nonstop for at least a week since the guy had been part of their favorite basketball team.
“They just got engaged! It’s all over the news and?—”
I gawked at my laptop. “You called me for that?”
“Will you let me finish? So, it turns out the girl’s tita was the one who leaked the news because the girl—Tala—announced their engagement at their Christmas party last week.”
I grunted, scanning my letter as I willed Nikki to hurry it up.
“So get this. Not only did the tita spill the news, she also shared photos of Tala and Jason with Tala’s family. Including…her brother.”
I found a typo in my document—I does. Why didn’t my autocorrect flag that? “Uh huh.”
“Cam! Can’t you guess who the brother is?”
“Why would I—” Realization barreled into me. I pressed the delete key too long, erasing half a paragraph. “Shit!”
“You okay?” Hector asked.
Thank God for the undo function. “Yep.”
“Is that Hector?” Nikki said.
I grunted. “If you called ten minutes earlier, you might have messed up my tatt.”
“Sorry. Hey, Hector,” she shouted.
“Hi, Nikki,” he replied before telling me, “All good.”
Nikki waited on the line while I paid Hector and gathered my things. As soon as I said goodbye to him, she blurted out, “Lonzo, aka your Manila guy, is going to be Jason Meyer’s brother-in-law.”
“He’s not my Manila guy.” Walking out the door, I muttered, “Not rich, my ass. I told you, city boys shouldn’t be trusted.”
“Eric is a city boy.”
“Fine. There are some exceptions.” A handful of them, maybe. “Whatever. I’m never seeing him again, so it’s not an issue.”
“Uh huh.” The amusement in Nikki’s voice had me glaring at thin air. “I’ll send you the pic?—”
“No. Seriously, Nikki. I don’t want to see or talk about him again. Okay?”
“If you say so. What tatt did you get?”
“You’ll see.” I already regretted the designs I went for, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that I could tweak them in the future if I wanted to.
When I arrived home, I tried to get back in the zone to no avail. Nikki had derailed my productivity train, and all I wanted was to research the hell out of Alonzo.
My pride wouldn’t let me do it. Googling him was an admission that he’d gotten to me, and I refused to sink to that level.
It was bad enough I’d kept the note he left me. I told myself it was proof that he owed me a favor. Now, I felt like a fool for holding on to it.
