Page 31 of Rome
He ignored her squawk of indignation. “Finish the fuckin’ story,” he ordered gruffly.
I felt my stomach heave as she described me kissing her, then unzipping my pants and asking her to suck me off.
“But then he kept acting like I wasn’t doing it right,” she whined. “It was kinda weird, like he thought we’d been together before or something. He kept saying something about cherry blossoms, too, and I don’t know what the hell that was about.”
“What do you mean, he acted like you’d been together before?”
“Well, he kept saying shit like “you know how I like it, and why aren’t you doing it that way, baby girl.” My stomach heaved again at that. That was my special name for Abby, and it had been since we’d met. I’d never called anyone else that and knowing that I’d done that with this bitch was just one more blow to my guilty conscience.
“Did he fuck you?”
“No, the asshole left me hanging,” she complained with a huff. “I finally just went to sleep, figuring we’d fuck this morning, but then he ran out of the room when that other guy knocked on the door.”
She turned her head to glare at me. “Selfish motherfucker,” she muttered, and I agreed, but not for the reason she meant.
“So, what’s the big fucking deal here? Is Pic mad because I hooked up with Romeo?” She sounded hopeful.
“No, I doubt Pic even gives a shit,” King told her bluntly. “The big fuckin’ deal is Rome got so drunk last night that he thought you were his wife, who he lovesmore than anything. He didn’t know what the hell he was doing, or he would never have touched you.”
“What?” Her outraged screech bounced off the walls in the small room, and the echo made my head pound even more.
“We’re done here.” King got up and walked around to his desk, opening the door, and motioning for her to leave. “Oh, and Cyn?”
“Yeah?” she asked grudgingly as she stood and took a step toward the door.
“Stick to the strip club from now on. You’re no longer welcome here at the clubhouse. The only reason I’m not firing you from Fallen Angels is because you were drunk last night, too, and you didn’t instigate things.” She gaped at him in shock before stomping out of the room in a huff.
King shut the door behind her and dropped back down into his chair. He leaned his elbows on the desk and steepled his fingers as he eyed me carefully.
“You OK, son?”
“No.” I didn’t bother elaborating. He could figure it out for himself.
“What can I do?”
I tossed the now-thawed ice pack on the table. I shook my head, knowing there wasn’t a damned thing anybody could do to help at this point.
“Nothin’. Not a damned thing.” Tears pricked the backs of my eyes as I thought about what I had to do next. “I’m not staying for Church. I need to go home.”
I headed straight for the door to the clubhouse, not stopping even though Trick and Lucky both called my name. As I stepped out the door, I heard King announce that it was time for Church. I strode across the parking lot, fishing my phone out of my pocket to check the time. My feet slowed to a stop as I read the messages on the screen. The first, sent early this morning, made me almost fall to my knees right there on the concrete.
ABBY: Good morning. I hope you had fun last night. Love you.
I hope you had fun last night.I closed my eyes as the nausea rose again. After a minute or so, I got myself under control and looked at the screen again. The second message, sent about fifteen minutes ago, felt like another punch in the gut.
ABBY: Jagger and Molly called and offered to take Ethan overnight, so we’ll have the house to ourselves. Maybe we can implement your idea to fuck me into the mattress a little earlier than originally planned?
Clearly my brother, or his fiancée, had the foresight to get Ethan out of the house so Abby and I could talk. All morning long, I’d been thinking about what this would do to Abby. I hadn’t given a thought to what this might mean for my son as well. I could very well be changing his world forever.
I debated for a moment, then typed back.
ME: I’ll be home in a couple of hours. Dealing with some shit here. I miss you, baby girl, and I love you so much.
Fifteen minutes later, I passed right by the turn off for our street and kept on riding. I’d been trying to figure out how the hell to tell Abby what I’d done and hadn’t come up with anything yet. I briefly considered waiting until after the baby was born to confess. I was worried about telling her now, with the issues she’d been having. Deep down, I knew that was an excuse to put it off, to have a little longer with my wife before I had to blow it all to hell.
But as much as I wanted to wait, I knew I couldn’t. It wasn’t fair to Abby, plus I knew that it wouldn’t take long for word to spread. As bad as it would be for her to hear it from me, it would be a thousand times worse if I waited to tell her and she heard it from someone else.
I rode around for over two hours trying to clear my head and trying to work out what to say to my wife. I finally decided I couldn’t put it off any longer, and pointed my bike back toward home, the dread building inside with every mile of road that passed under my wheels.
