Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
I had already given her new, shiny silver Mini Cooper a flat tire, which had been slashed and would require she buy a new tire, not just patch it. Seemed I needed to leave a long, jagged scratch down it this weekend.
Meg, Holly, and Mary Beth—other teachers at the school—had all sent her separate texts, saying to ignore Anya, that she was a perfectionist, a type A personality.
Then, there had been Meg’s text, which I agreed with. She’s jealous of you. Shake it off. You rocked that book fair display. It had never looked so good.
Finally, there was fucking Toby, who I liked about as much as I did Anya, although I hadn’t slashed his tires…yet. He’d sent one text this afternoon and three more this evening, which she had ignored. Not even read them. That was one reason I’d left him alone; she wasn’t going to give him the time of day. He was shooting so far out of his league with her.
Toby
Really looking forward to tomorrow. I’ll stop and get us some breakfast sandwiches and coffee on my way to pick you up.
Okay, what? I reread that to make sure I had read it correctly. I had.
Toby
Any preferences? Bacon, egg, and cheese? Sausage? Do you like bagel sandwiches?
He was bringing her breakfast. She was letting him. I’d missed something today.
What have you agreed to, darlin’?
Toby
Or would you rather have something sweet? I can get doughnuts or muffins.
Stop being so fucking desperate. She didn’t even respond to your last text. And she loves chocolate at any time. Why don’t you know that, stalker boy?
Toby
I’ll just grab some of everything, and you can choose. You’re probably asleep already. When you get these though, let me know how you like your coffee. We can eat lunch at the festival. I heard that they’re having two new food vendors this year. One has cheeseburger egg rolls. Sounds like a must-try.
She drinks it with a yellow packet of that Splenda crap—which I wish she’d stop using because that shit is poison—and two creams, dumbass.
He wasn’t paying enough attention to know what she liked, but then he was pursuing her so damn hard that he didn’t have time for anything else.
Looks like I have a festival to attend tomorrow.
Madison wasn’t that big. I should be able to figure out what festival this was.
I made sure the texts were marked as unread, then did a quick check to see who she’d spoken to on the phone. Marley, around the time she had gotten home from work. A missed call from Toby. Yeah, he had passed the annoying part and walked right into being on my shit list. I turned off her phone and put it back in the same place it had been, then gave myself a few more minutes of simply watching her.
Eighteen
Winslet
I took a deep breath before opening my apartment door after hearing the doorbell. Time to get through this.
Toby had sent me a string of text last night, which I ignored. This morning, however, I had read them and found that he planned on bringing me breakfast and coffee. Just peachy. We’d get to eat together too.
With the best smile I could muster after just one cup of coffee, I opened the door to see Toby holding a tray with not just two cups, but three, along with a white paper bag under his arm. He also held another bag, this one plastic, in his other hand. He was smiling sheepishly.
“Uh, I might have gone overboard, but I wasn’t sure what you wanted, and I got your text after I bought the food,” he replied.
I had told him that a chocolate chip muffin would suffice and thanked him. It seemed he had brought a buffet instead. I stepped back to let him inside, which I had not been planning on, but he’d brought the food to me so that meant we weren’t eating in his truck.
“Sorry about that,” I replied. “I went to bed early last night. My head had hurt, and that stomach virus had kind of taken it out of me. I’m not a hundred percent yet.”
He walked inside, his eyes doing a scan of my body as he did so. I saw his throat bob as he swallowed, and I decided I shouldn’t have chosen the shorts. I should have gone with the longer skirt. But it was going to be in the high eighties today, and I didn’t want to be hot.
I also didn’t want Toby thinking that the way I was dressed was in any way meant to impress him. This was a means to staying cool. That was it.
“Don’t apologize. This will all keep in the fridge. We can eat what we want, then tuck the rest away for later.”
If he meant my fridge, then it would only be me eating anything later. I didn’t like his insinuation that he would be walking back inside my apartment again. Because this was a one-and-done situation.