Hera.
I had a dog called Hera once.
“Are you two having sex?”
“Fuck no.”
“Do you have feelings for her?”
“What the fuck are you on about? You haven’t seen me in a fuckin’ month and now you’re comin’ in here to throw your sass around? I don’t owe you any answers.”
“I haven’t seen you because you refuse to talk to me, Adan!”
“Because you want a fuckin’ relationship, and I ain’t givin’ you one.”
“We had a connection, why can’t you just let go of your asshole-ish attitude and see that?”
I kind of like her.
“Because I don’t do relationships.”
Dick.
“You’re just trying to hurt me,” she whispers.
“No, I’m not. I am always fuckin’ brutally honest with you.”
“You said you cared about me.”
“I do.”
“But you don’t want a relationship?”
“No.”
“Argh!” she throws her hands up. “It is her, isn’t it?”
Pooh, there it is again.
“No, I fuckin’ don’t.”
“She’s not your type, she is so chunky.”
Bitch didn’t just called me chunky.
I will roll her down the fucking stairs.
I’m a curvaceous woman. Just because I don’t look like I could camouflage onto the branch of a tree doesn’t mean I’m chunky. What kind of fucking word is that anyway? It’s what you call a baby, or a husky. Fuck her.
I don’t like her now.
“I’m not fuckin’ interested in her.”
I’ll take my chunky ass down these stairs and show her who’s boss.
I drop the shorts I just put on, leaving me in only a pair of panties that grab my ass like there is no tomorrow. I have a fantastic ass, I know that for a fact. My shirt barely covers it, but they can both eat a giant dick. I saunter down the stairs and right past them into the kitchen, and I hear her suck in her breath.
“Why is your nurse dressed like that?”
“Oh, didn’t he tell you? He likes it when I roleplay. Tonight I’m the fat girl who needs some cake.”
I pull out a cake Eve gave me yesterday and place it on the counter, throwing a huge grin in her direction. She stares at me, horrified. Adan’s mouth twitches. “Do you want some?” I ask innocently.
“No,” she gasps. “It’ll go straight to my ass.”
“Looks like you could use it,” I say, spinning around, reaching as high up as I can to grab a plate down, making sure they get a full view of my ass.
Then, I put a slice of cake on my plate, and stroll right past them.
“Don’t forget it’s nearly time for your shower.” I smile to Adan. “I’m sure Hera here prefers it when you have a clean dick.”
Her mouth drops open. “She showers you!”
“Oh,” I say, acting all shocked. “So sorry, didn’t you know? He has no functioning hands, someone has to wash him.”
“Tell me she’s kidding?” she hisses in Adan’s direction.
“She’s not.”
I walk off to the sound of her whisper hissing something at him. I can’t wipe the stupid smile off my face.
This might be some fun after all.
4
“Tell me something about yourself, Ramona,” Daniel asks, smiling at me across the table.
This. Is. Awkward.
I mean, in-office flirting is one thing, but when he asked me on a date I certainly didn’t think it would be this uncomfortable. It’s not his fault, really it’s not, but he’s just so ... so ... professional.
Refusing to let Adan be right about my preference in men, I accepted the date and vowed to give it my all. He deserves a chance, and I’m going to give it to him. So, here I am, dressed in a pretty frock, hair done, fanny well and truly shaved, and ready to see where the night takes me.
I’ve got the night off, after requesting it. There is a fill-in nurse until I arrive back—she’s in training so she was happy to do it for the experience. Adan wasn’t happy about it, and made it known before I left that he’s disgusted that I’d leave him when I’m supposed to be there to help. For someone who doesn’t want me around, he sure is passionate about things.
“I’m a nurse ...,” I say and give a sheepish smile.
Daniel laughs. He really is so handsome, with those blue eyes and that sandy-blond hair that gives him an almost boyish look. Still, he’s just so damned nice.
“I know that,” he chuckles. “Tell me something else, something that gives you a little more depth.”
My step-father fell in love with me and left everything when he died and now my mother and step-brother are after me for my inheritance which nobody knows about because it’s the most twisted, fucked up story in existence, and I simply can’t tell it.
“There really isn’t much to tell.” I smile sweetly. “I’m an only child, I have a mother and a father like the rest of you, but my father has been out of the picture for quite some time. I don’t know where he is, some gang somewhere last I heard. My mother remarried, my step-father was ... kind, and then he passed, and here I am. Working to become something.”
“I mean, that’s not nothing,” Daniel says, brows raised. “That’s quite something to dig through.”
Stop saying quite. It’s so ... 1912.
“Well, yeah, I guess it is.”
“So, your father, you don’t know where he is?”
Lie.
I do know where he is.
He runs some big ass gang a few towns over and has no idea I live this close. Mom said he tried to spend time with me when I was growing up but she “refused” because he was “dangerous” and then he gave up. I often wonder if he did give up, or if she just kept him at a distance. I think about him quite a lot, but I try not to, because, well, if he wanted to see me, he would.
Rather childish of me, I figure, but oh well.
“No, I don’t,” I tell Daniel. “I haven’t seen him since I was eight.”
“That’s a long time.”
“Hey, I’m not that old!” I laugh.
Daniel grins. “That’s not what I meant. Were you close to him?”
I close off those memories, the ones that make my heart ache. Those memories, they’re hard memories, memories I keep hidden. They’re the reason I took affection from my step-father, the reason I let him get close to me, the reason we did something that we really shouldn’t have. I was craving something I had long been denied.
“Yes, I guess.”
“And he left and never came back?”
“Something like that, what about you? What’s your family like?”
Daniel smiles. “They’re great. My mom and dad are still together and my two sisters are both in the medical field. My dad was a doctor also, so I guess we just wanted to go down that path also.”
Right.
Of course he did.
I smile. But it feels forced. “That’s great.”
We chat and eat dinner for the next few hours, and as I have a few more wines, I get a little more comfortable with his boring conversation. I really do find him bland, but he is incredibly nice and maybe my issues need to put themselves to bed so I’m not always looking for a grumpy, broody, dick of a man to make me feel better. Maybe I should give the nice ones a go. They deserve a chance, more so than the rest.