Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
“If only I could bring you up here too, baby,” I mutter to myself as I open the front door and step inside. Business has been booming lately, but I find myself wishing sometimes that there would be a slight lull so I could sneak off with my beauty for a quickie up here in the bedroom.
Christ, Mya has such a hold on me that I’m wishing my business would slow down so I could spend more time with her. Now that’s something I never thought I would be thinking.
I wash my hands in the sink, grab a bottle of water from the fridge and a granola bar from the cabinet, and go to the bedroom to change my shirt. With any luck, I’m mostly done with my manual labor for the day and can focus on getting a few things done in the office.
I toss my shirt in the hamper in the closet and grab another one from the dresser. As I’m sliding into it, I notice Mya’s birth control sitting out on the bedside table. That’s when the idea hits me like a lightbulb bursting in my mind.
“Wow…” I say to myself out loud. Am I really prepared to do something like that? I never have before, and it’s definitely not anything that I’ve ever thought of doing, but when I think of the idea of Mya leaving me, all regular, rational thought goes right out the window.
Yes, I am going to do that.
Quickly, I dial Joe, my buddy from high school who I cut off contact with once he got less serious about his fertilizer business and started selling weed to college kids. He answers on the third ring.
“Ethan, buddy! Haven’t heard from you in a long time, how’s things?”
“Not bad,” I reply, not thrilled to be talking to him. “Listen, I was wondering if you could…if you could get me something.”
“Get you something?” Joe chuckles. “Sure, buddy. How much you need?”
“No, it’s not that,” I reply. “It’s something else. Something a little different. Something kind of specific.”
“Yeah, sure, buddy. What’d you have in mind? Ol’ Joe can get you anything.”
At first I thought Joe was just talking a big game, but as it turns out, he wasn’t lying. I meet him in the parking lot of an old tractor supply shop and make the exchange, then head back to the house as quickly as possible. Thankfully, Mya hasn’t finished up her day just yet, and I’m able to get back up to the bedroom with the brand new pack of placebo birth control sugar pills.
I pop out the right number of pills to make sure they match the number Mya has taken this month, then make the switch and take her real ones out back to the dumpster and bury them under a heap of trash. My heart is pounding, but what’s done is done, and I’ll be back to meet up with Joe again next month when Mya picks up her next prescription.
“Why are you doing this?” Joe asked me when he handed me the sugar pills, an inquisitive smile on his face. “Some kind of evil prank on an ex-girlfriend?”
“Nah,” I replied, as I took the pills. “Do I look like an evil guy to you?”
Joe shook his head. “Nope. That’s why I’m asking.”
I frowned down at the pills before stuffing them in my pocket. “Let’s just say I found my soul mate. I know it, she knows it, but she’s afraid of letting herself commit to her feelings. I’m just going to make sure she does.”
Mya
Two Months Later…
The sun is warm, the air crisp and filled with the beautiful, sweet smells of flowers and vegetation. I’ll never get tired of working here, of living here, of being surrounded by this wonderous paradise that I get to experience every day. Even the smell of dirt and mulch lifts my heart and soul and reminds me of just how far my life has come since the day I first saw Ethan’s help-wanted ad and responded to it.
And then there’s Ethan…
What an incredible man. Slowly but surely, he’s changing the way I see men generally. I haven’t completely let my guard down, and I don’t know if I will ever be able to, but I’m getting there. Baby steps.
I allow myself to sleep in his bedroom, acknowledge the fact that I feel more for him than just a physical attraction, but I still haven’t fully settled on what that feeling is. And so what if it’s been two months? Who says I have to put a label on what we have?
There’s an ache in my chest every day when I wake up beside him, an ache that deepens when I look into those beautiful brown eyes of his, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like it might just be better to go back down to my bedroom and call things quits between us.