Torment Me (Rough Love Part One) by Annabel Joseph

Author:Annabel Joseph [Unknown]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Scarlet Rose Press

In Between Again

I knew it was stupid, and I knew it was selfish, but I called Tony a couple days later. We picked a place to meet for dinner, and “not talk about work.”

I never would have done it, except that Simon and I had argued about Rachel again, and he called me a jealous bitch, and knocked me down when I wouldn’t give him enough money, and I thought, if he can have Rachel in his life, then maybe I can have Tony in my life, just for a friend. If you want to know the truth, I was thinking about really crazy stuff, like getting a real job, and leaving Simon for someone steady and kind like Tony. Maybe it could be one of those friends-to-lovers things, and everything in my life would change.

I tried not to think about W and our exclusive thing, or the fact that he’d called me beautiful, or that he wrote me poetry. I didn’t think about anything except that he would be sorry when I quit, because then he’d have to find some other escort to blindfold and torment. If he asked me why I quit, I’d say, because you never told me your name. But really, it was everything. I was tired of selling my body, and tired of doing a job I didn’t like.

So I went to meet Tony with all these ideals and hopes in my heart. I dressed up for him, a cute pink sweater and skirt, but not Miss Kitty pink. Just casual, friendly summer pink. Tony greeted me with a gracious compliment and a kiss on the cheek. He’d suggested a tapas place and I thought, of course, a place for sharing. All of this is fine.

“What do you like to eat?” he asked. “Let’s get, like, twenty things.”

“That sounds perfect.”

We got margaritas and ordered a few dishes to start, fish tacos and watercress salad and some calamari thing. There were tiny beef sliders and crusty bread with tomato and olive tapenade. In hindsight, I was doing too much drinking and not enough eating, and he...he was asking so many questions. He genuinely wanted to know about me, and it was flattering, but it was difficult too, because I had to lie about so many things. And lying and drinking don’t go together well.

He finally caught me in a lie, because I’d told him I was born in New York when I’d really been born in New Orleans, and I said something about growing up in the south and blew that all to hell. I was so tipsy and nervous I started making up this extended story about my childhood and some step-family I knew I’d never remember, and I looked into his warm, deep hazel eyes and thought, why can’t I just be me? Why can’t I tell the truth? Why am I making up lie after lie?

Because if we were going to have a future, as friends, or maybe something more, we needed to start out with honesty, and move forward with honesty.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.