Page 60 of Laila Manning
Nothing seedy or morally corrupt. Just a man in a tux, with a woman in a dress on his arm, spending the evening together.
I chewed my lips as I rolled the image of him in a black tux through my brain and fought the panic trying to keep dragging me down.
Dove.
His reply came again, and I sighed, rolling my eyes again.
You told me to stop texting.
Well, now that I’ve answered you, I want to know what your answer is.
I’m not a gala type of girl, Zeke.
I’m more of a twenty dollars for twenty minutes on a bare mattress on the floor kind of girl. I’d just embarrass you.
That was the first time I had ever put my past into harsh words like that for him. But he needed to know I wasn’t an evening gown wearing woman.
I was nothing.
Trash.
So far below that kind of event, it would be disrespectful to Ryker and Elora to even show up there as their little charity case dressed up like Cinderella when I was just the maid in real life.
My phone vibrated aggressively in my hand, with Zeke’s name lighting up the screen as he called me. I contemplated ignoring it, but I knew deep down he’d just call back.
“Hello.” I whispered, shame pushing my shoulders down onto the floor.
“You are not beneath this.” His strong, dominant voice rang through the line. “You can’t embarrass me, because I stopped caring about other people’s opinions years ago, Dove.”
I sighed, fighting stupid tears, I had no business crying over this topic. “I can’t, Zeke.”
“Okay.” He responded, but I could hear all the things he wanted to say instead.
“I appreciate the offer. I just can’t.”
“I said okay.” He replied. “What would you rather do?”
“What?” I started pacing my apartment, “Just because I can’t go, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go.”
“I’m not going without you, Laila.” he said firmly. “I’m not needed.”
“Then why did you invite me?”
“Because the idea of suffering through the event seemed a whole lot more appealing if I was spending the evening with you on my arm.” He mocked, as if it were obvious. “But if you’re not comfortable going, then we’ll do something else. Some other type of date.”
“Won’t that get you in trouble?” I questioned.
He grunted, and I imagined that one sided bad boy grin covering his sexy face as he talked. “I’m past the point of getting my pee-pee slapped for small shit like that. Ryker will have Jed and Carly there with him and Ellie to take care of anything that comes up.”
The mental image of Ellie and Carly all dressed up in evening gowns, spending the evening with their men, created some sort of jealousy in my chest. Wasn’t that what I longed for all those years locked away in that brothel, being abused by men who only cared about themselves?
Normalcy?
Sure, maybe spending a lavish night in a gown at an event worth more money than I’d ever see in my lifetime wasn’t exactly the definition of normalcy. But spending the night with friends and a man I cared for was.
That was the normal I always hoped for.
The normal I craved.
