Page 72 of The C*ck Down the Block

“I almost don’t even know.” I shook my head, still not ready to believe everything that had happened so far today. It wasn’t even drink o’clock yet. “Karter just called me into his office and said I was fired for conduct unbecoming a city employee. He wouldn’t tell me what it was about or anything. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t have a lot of savings, enough for a month or so at most.”

“That motherfucker,” Chris growled.

Yeah, my sentiments exactly. “I... I’m gonna have to move or something.”

Chris nodded. He probably didn’t really understand this situation, he was quite literally a millionaire. He had a jet. “The way I see it, you’ve got a few options here, babe. You can move in with me. I can move in with you. Or you can just stay put.”

Yeah, see. While it was adorable that his first instinct was for us to move in together, I’m sure he had probably no idea what it meant to break a lease. “I can’t just stay here rent free. And I don’t want us to move in together because I’m mooching off you.”

He nodded and seemed to be thinking about his response. “Right. Two things. I’m literally a millionaire. So you can mooch all you want. I will make you a kept woman if you want. And also, I own your house. You don’t have to pay rent if you don’t want to.”

Exsqueeze me? “What?”

He pushed my jaw shut, and then booped me on the nose. “I own at least a third of the houses in the neighborhood, maybe more now. When they go up for sale, my company comes in and offers cash for above asking price. Then sometimes we flip it, but most of them I either keep to rent out, or you know, put one of my family members into it.”

“You’re a slum lord?”

Declan, Everett, and Hayes all walked into the house, looking like they came straight from practice without showering or anything. Smelled like it too. Hayes grabbed an apple off the bowl on the counter and just before he took a bite said, “Yeah, he lets us pick which one we want when we get out of school.”

I looked over at Declan and Everett who confirmed. One with a shrug and the other with a scowl.

“In fact,” Everett grinned and pointed at Chris, “I bet the house I live in that we’d get you to fall him. Which was a sucker bet, because the rest of us already knew you two were head over heels for each other. Still, I won. Gimme my house.”

Chris shook his head and smiled. “Worth it.”

Mr. Kingman walked in, whistled to get everyone’s attention, and waved his hand in the air in a circle. That must have been a signal he’d used with his family to gather around, because everyone circled up around him, me, and Chris.

“We are talking about my house, ugh, your house later,” I stage whispered and poked him in the chest. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

We all gathered in the living room where we did family game night, since it was really the only room with enough space for everyone. Before he started in, I put a hand on Mr. Kingman’s arm. I needed to say thank you for helping to rescue me. What I really wanted to say was how much it meant to me that he and his whole family just instantly brought me into their fold.

“What did you say to get those crazy reporters to listen to you?” I didn’t think anyone else could have done that besides this mountain of a man with the presence to match.

He raised one eyebrow with an evil grin. “I just asked them if this was the lawn they were willing to die on.”

Right. That’ll do it.

“All right, team. We’ve got a crisis on our hands, so we’re circling the wagons. Let’s hear ideas on what we need to do to control this situation.”

Everett rubbed his hands together. “I say we all make our own sex tapes. If everyone’s doing it, then it’s not a big deal, right?”

Mr. Kingman rolled his eyes. “I like your family spirit kiddo, but that ain’t it.”

“You sure? I’ve got—” Everett pulled out his phone.

“Whatever you have, delete it now.” Chris pointed at him.

“Who else has a suggestion?”

Hayes had the next suggestion. “Lawyer up. Sue the shit out of that asshole.”

“What asshole?” Mr. Bridger asked. “We know who leaked this footage?”

Jules was the one who pulled out her phone this time. She typed in something while she was talking. “Yeah. We do. This guy has a pretty big channel. All the misguided dude bros who buy into the patriarchy watch him. Chris and Trixie are trending because of this guy. Anthony Am I the Asshole.”

“How do you know Anthony?” I took her phone and looked at the screen. There was an entire playlist called ‘The Sunshine Babcock Fan Club.’ Oh shit. He had more than a million followers. So I guess the question was how did I not know about Anthony’s channel. Probably because I mostly watched celebrity gossip, baking stuff, and funny chicken videos.

Not misogyny at its finest.

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