I placed the computer on the couch beside me and gave her my full attention.
“Explain.”
She walked over, placing her ass on the coffee table in front of me, then looked at me, giving me her gaze.
“There’s this new company in Paris,” she said. “They do shipping and deliveries. They’re in need of a computer tech like me, and the pay is outrageous. I’m talking, like full benefits, great retirement, and more money than I’m making now. Plus...” She gestured toward the loud music still thumping away next door. “I’m tired of that. I know that I can’t keep living here when I break up. So I’m letting my lease go this week, which’ll mean I’ll have until the end of the month to move out. And I’ve already accepted the job.”
I was shaking my head.
“I need to break up with him,” she admitted. “I really don’t like how he’s treating me.”
I wondered if I should agree or not.
I mean, on one hand, I did fully agree with everything that she had to say.
But on the other, I knew that she was just pissed, and tomorrow she would be back to loving him all over again.
I chose to stay silent, even though I would rather tell her everything that I hated about the man.
“Umm…” I faltered. “He walked in on me watching a porn video. Luckily, he couldn’t see what I was watching.”
“You watched it?” she asked excitedly.
“Kind of. It’s not your brother, that, I know for sure.” I hesitated. “I got caught up. I got kind of pissed, actually, and was trying to find out whether the girl tricked him.”
For now, I was happy to get off the subject of her moving and leaving me behind. We’d been best friends since we were old enough to talk in first grade. I wouldn’t know what to do without her, even if she was only a few hours away.
“Why?” she asked.
I then went on to explain.
“It says in the video that the guy is secretly being filmed,” I explained. “And the way he acts with her? It makes me think that he really has no clue that there’s a camera set up recording everything.”
“Oh, come on.” She rolled her eyes. “They put those captions in there to get viewers. It turns people on to see the ‘realness’ of a porn video.”
I didn’t know.
The way the description and the title were worded, as well as how the man had greeted the woman? That screamed ‘he’s in the dark’ to me.
“Anyway, I only got halfway through the first video, so I’ll still need to take your computer with me to check out the other two.” I looked at the wall. “And I have a feeling Trent will be back once he calms down… and I don’t want to be here for when you tell him you’re leaving.”
My breathing hitched on that last part, and she threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and squeezing me to her. “I’m not going to be gone forever. And I read that Paris has one of the best cookie companies in Texas. You know you like cookies.”
I perked up slightly at that. I did love a good cookie.
“How good is this place?” I wondered.
“People from all over the world order these cookies,” she explained, a look of excitement on her face. “I knew you would ask, so I looked into it. They shipped some cookies to freakin’ France and the Queen of England for her last birthday. From a café in little ol’ Paris, Texas. They have like five thousand five-star reviews. No joke. I had to Google it to get this information.”
My lips started turning up into a smile. “You’ll actually go there with me?”
She sighed. “I’d break my diet for you, yes.”
A year ago, when Harlow had gotten serious about CrossFit, it’d broken my heart. Our movie nights filled with pizza, beer, and cookies fled the building. In its place was healthy pizza consisting of cauliflower dough and organic chia seed cookies that sucked.
But I would never tell her that, nor would I ever trade one of those days for anything.
Now, I was glad that I didn’t, knowing she was leaving.
My lower lip quivered, and I sniffled.
Luckily, Trent chose that moment to change the song, turning it on to something even more annoying—Nickelback.
“On that note,” I groaned as I got out of the chair, my leg throbbing from the hit that I took to it from a patient today. “I’m gonna go. Good luck with him.”
I heard her snort in response as I gathered my things, then told me she’d see me in the morning.
She didn’t notice my smarting eyes. Nor did she realize just how much this would affect me.
Listen, I had friends. I mean, there was Belle Pena who literally shared the property next door to me. I loved her to death. We’d been friends since we were young kids.
But she wasn’t Harlow. She wasn’t the cheese to my macaroni. She wasn’t the person that I called in the middle of the night when I thought of something random that we should do. Nor would she answer like Harlow would.
And, granted, I knew that wouldn’t change. We’d still see each other a lot.
I mean, she had a freakin’ boyfriend, and we still spent more time together than she and her boyfriend did, so I knew we’d make it work.
But the thought of her not being near literally wrecked me.
By the time I arrived home, even the enticement of watching the rest of the videos didn’t appeal to me.
But I watched them. For her.
At least, most of the other two videos.
I never did finish the second video.
Not until the next morning at least.
And boy, did I have a whole lot to talk to Harlow about when she arrived for her computer.
Sadly, not even the sexy, masturbating man could stop me from being sad that my best friend was leaving.
CHAPTER 2
Three things I wish:
1. A
2. Bitch
3. Would
Laric
“Sit.”
The dog, Alabaster, glared at me.
Alabaster was my newest dog.
I took in military working dogs that needed time to heal and time to reacclimate themselves into a routine.
Some of the dogs that I worked with had never seen a normal home life, either. They had no clue what ‘downtime’ was. They’d always had a purpose in life, and a lot of these dogs literally had no clue how to play.
This dog, Al, being one of them.
“Sit,” I repeated, calmly and authoritatively.
I was just about to ask him to do something else when he surprised me by sitting.
Al knew his commands. Knew them, and had followed them well, up until he’d been retired from the military about four months ago.
One, he’d lost the trainer that’d been with him for going on four years. His trainer had died as they’d been doing a sweep of a building. Al had been hurt right along with him, but where his trainer had perished in the bombing, Al had survived.
Now, Al lived with me.
I would now be the person that helped him reintegrate into society and hopefully find him a home.
The thing was, Al was a stubborn bastard, and I wasn’t sure that he’d get very far if he didn’t at least put a little effort in.
At this point, I wouldn’t allow even the strongest of men to get anywhere near him.