Inferno Anthology

by Gow, Kailin

  “I understand.”

  Doctor Bloom gave me the name of another surgeon to go to for the second opinion. I didn’t want to go; I knew I needed the surgery. I had a fucking tumor for Christ’s sake.

  I reached in my purse to call Easton and had a missed text from Nicole:

  Nicole: I’ll be at your place at 5:15. Be ready. I looked and a storm is coming. I want to get there before it hits.

  My appointment with Doctor Bloom lasted only a few minutes, but with the wait time, it was already a quarter to five. I walked to my car, calling Easton on the way, but he didn’t answer. I sent him a text:

  Me: Doc says they didn’t get enough sample to determine if I have cancer or not.

  After hitting send, I headed home. Nicole pulled up at the same time, and I switched cars after grabbing my bag from my apartment. I looked at my phone when I slipped into her car. Easton still hadn’t called or texted me back.

  After I filled Nicole in on the news from Doctor Bloom, Easton texted me:

  Easton: Sorry Baby. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now. I wish I had answers for you. We are really busy, but I’ll call you on my break. Remember, you’re my Superwoman. Stay strong.

  I smiled at his text. I was a little disappointed that it was a text and not a phone call, but it was Friday night, and he did run a bar.

  Dark clouds started to roll in as we neared New York. Every few minutes, I looked at my phone to make sure I didn’t miss a call from Easton. I had no idea when he was going on break, and I had to tell him that I was on my way.

  “We should surprise him at the bar,” Nicole said, reading my thoughts. “Avery’s there, too, but I didn’t tell him that we were both coming.”

  “You didn’t? Where am I supposed to sleep?”

  “I figured you would stay at Easton’s.” She shrugged.

  “Hello, Easton hasn’t introduced me to Cheyenne, yet. I can just imagine us bumping into each other in the hall. “Hello, I’m Brooke, your Daddy’s fuck buddy.”.”

  “You know you’re more than just a fuck buddy.”

  “I hope so. I mean, I know, but once I meet Cheyenne, that will seal the deal in my eyes.”

  “You already know that’s coming. Pull up directions to the bar on your phone,” she said, motioning to my phone in my hand.

  There was still no call from Easton.

  I typed Halo in the search engine on my phone and pulled up the address. After I punched in the directions, we arrived at the bar just as it started to pour.

  “Looks like we made it just in time, but now we need to make a run for it,” Nicole said, looking at the drops of rain hitting her windshield.

  We dashed through the parking lot, rain falling hard on my jeans and sparkly black tank top, getting soaked in the process. By the time we made it to the door, my hair no longer had the little curl that I’d put into it that morning. The water from the rain had flattened it to my head.

  Nicole opened the heavy wooden door and we entered, showing a bouncer our IDs, and then I tried to fluff my hair to look somewhat decent. The bar was packed. Bodies were everywhere: on the dance floor, sitting at high top tables and at the bar. My eyes scanned the room until I saw Easton at the bar.

  He was leaned over the bar, looking down at a red head with big boobs and flirting with her. I grabbed Nicole’s arm beside me and motioned to Easton with my heart not beating.

  “Oh fuck no!” Nicole screamed over the loud music.

  As if he could sense me, Easton turned, meeting my gaze head on, as I backed up to leave. I saw his mouth move, then looked down at the red head’s hand on his arm. That was all I needed to see: a deer caught in headlights.

  I turned, running out the door and into the rain. I had nowhere to go, but I couldn’t be in the bar and watch him flirt with someone. In my head, we were exclusive, and I thought he made himself clear, but guys have a way of manipulating you. After four years, I caught Jared cheating. I couldn’t go through that again.

  Easton told me about his past, and I was a fool for believing that he had changed.

  I looked to my left and then to my right. It had been a long time since I’d been to the city, and I didn’t know my way around. Ironically, the last time I was in the city, Jared left me to wander around alone, and I was, once again, alone in the Big Apple. I thought about going back inside and finding Nicole, but I needed time to think. I saw a twenty-four hour diner down the street and started walking to it as I heard the wooden door of the bar open with a bang behind me.

  “Brooke!” Easton shouted.

  I kept walking, picking up my pace to get out of the rain and away from him.

  “Fuck, Brooke, please wait!” he shouted.

  I heard footsteps splashing in the rain as he neared.

  He grabbed my right arm, spinning me to face him. “Baby, please stop. It’s not what you think.”

  “I know what I saw.”

  “Yes, you saw me flirting, but that’s my job.”

  “Are you serious?” I questioned, crossing my arms over my chest and looking to the side, not wanting to look directly into his beautiful face. “How is flirting part of your job?”

  “I have to flirt to get tips.”

  “Really? You expect me to believe that?”

  Both of us were drenched from the storm. I didn’t care, and I didn’t move. People were trying to step around us with umbrellas as we stood in the middle of the sidewalk—fighting.

  “Ask Avery. Ask any one of my bartenders. If we flirt, we usually get bigger tips.”

  “I…,” I started to protest some more, but Easton stepped forward, grabbing my face with both hands like he normally did and kissed me.

  The moment his tongue entered my mouth, my body instantly relaxed. I remembered how he surprised me last week, how we made love for hours, and how he went with me and stayed by my side at the hospital. I even remembered about the cruise and how he had every opportunity to fuck any girl on that ship, but didn’t. He stayed with me—someone not dropping her panties for him (even though I wanted to).

  As we kissed, the rain beating down on my face as he tilted my head up to his mouth, I remembered about Cheyenne. He told me he wanted me to meet her, but was that just a line?

  “Will you listen to me now?” he asked, pulling his lips from mine.

  “Yes,” I said, breathlessly.

  He held my face in his hands as he spoke. “I flirt to make more money. None of those women mean anything to me. I haven’t looked at another woman since I first saw you—except the ones you were trying to hook me up with on the cruise, but you know I didn’t do anything with them,” he said, laughing and trying to lift the tension between us.

  “I haven’t needed to look at other women because all I do is think about you. From the moment I wake in the morning until I go to bed—I think of you—and it doesn’t stop there. I dream about you, too. My father once told me that I would know who I was meant to be with when I couldn’t get her out of my head. And you know what? He was right. I love you, Brooke. I fucking love you!”

  A tear rolled down my cheek, but you couldn’t tell as it mixed with the rain.

  “I never thought I would love anyone after Dana—I didn’t want to, but then this tiny brunette entered my life, and now I want to introduce her to my daughter. I want to pack her shit up in her apartment and move her in with me. I want to spend forever with her, and I want to be someone who she can lean on.

  “I love you, and I don’t want to waste any more time without you. You’re my Superwoman, and I want to care for you. I want to love you. I haven’t felt like this in a long time. Please. You’re my best friend, and I don’t want you to think that just because I flirt to make money means I’m cheating on you. I’m not that person anymore. Life with you makes perfect sense—not some skank in a bar. I love you!

  “God, I’ve never met anyone like you. You make me want to be a better man—a better father. You’ve got me thinking all these crazy thoughts,
and I don’t even know where you stand.” He finally paused, and I was trying to wrap my head around everything he said.

  All I could think to respond was, “You love me?”

  “Fuck, I’ve loved you since day one. You didn’t hold anything back the first night. You flipped my world upside down.”

  “I love you, too,” I said, giving him a smile.

  His hands tightened on my face, and he kissed me hard. I’d never had anyone ever profess their love that way, and I felt like a fool for jumping to conclusions and assuming that he was cheating on me. I still didn’t like the fact that he flirted with random chicks at the bar, but I would work on it.

  “Get a room,” someone shouted as they passed us.

  We smiled, our lips still pressed together, and then we held each other in the rain a few minutes more.

  “Come on, I have someone for you to meet.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Easton

  Professing my love to Brooke was liberating. I didn’t expect to tell her in the pouring rain when she thought I was cheating on her. I wanted to do it right. I wanted to light candles, buy her flowers and all that shit people do in movies. But as I kissed her in the rain like Spider-man and Mary Jane (despite me not being upside down), I needed her to know. I needed her to know that I wasn’t cheating and that I loved her.

  When we walked back into Halo, Nicole was leaning against the bar in the corner while Avery made drinks for customers. As we got closer, they both gave us a questioning look.

  “It’s raining outside,” I said, over the loud music.

  “I can tell,” Avery replied, smiling.

  “It’s getting late, and I want her to meet Cheyenne before she goes to bed. Do you mind if I take off?”

  “My girl is here, too, man,” he said, motioning to Nicole.

  “I need to talk to you then. Let’s go to the office.” I turned to Brooke. “Baby, have a drink, I need to sort this out with Av.”

  “Okay,” she said. She pulled me down by my shirt and kissed me like we kissed in the rain. When she let me go, I looked around and all the women that I’d flirted with that night to get tips were staring.

  “I see what your plan is, Baby,” I said, giving her a knowing smile. “Bethy, can you make Brooke whatever she wants to drink?”

  “Sure thing. Sweetie, what will it be?”

  I left, catching up with Avery, and we took the steps two at a time until we stepped into our office.

  “Hear me out…” I said, raising my hands defensively.

  “Nicole is here, too. We need to have a better system,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Dude, Brooke walked in and thought I was cheating on her.”

  “So you decided to fight in the pouring rain?”

  “She went to leave. I couldn’t let her just walk away. Also, I told her that I loved her.”

  “You did? I thought you were going to wait?”

  “I had to do something. I needed to tell her the truth,” I said, running my hands through my wet hair.

  “I see,” Avery said with a nod and rubbed his hand over the stubble on his chin.

  “So let me have tonight, and I’ll let you have next week.”

  “You’ll just call in Bethy again.” He laughed.

  “Fuck you. You know why I did it, and you would do the same thing.”

  “Alright, get out of here, but you owe me!”

  “Thank you,” I said from the hallway. As soon as he said “alright”, I was on my way.

  I squeezed my way through all the bodies standing around—some dancing, some kissing—but most just talking and drinking. I saw Brooke at the bar, talking to Nicole, her hair starting to frizz. I laughed to myself, remembering how hot it was kissing her in the rain.

  I came up behind Brooke and leaned down to her ear. “Ready?”

  She jumped slightly, and then turned to face me. “Yep.”

  She drank the rest of what looked like a vodka cranberry and then told Nicole that she would see her later—probably at Cheyenne’s game if things worked out with my girls meeting.

  “Wait, my bag,” Brooke said, looking between Nicole and I.

  “I’m not going out there in the rain.” Nicole shook her head.

  “I’ll bring your keys back,” I said, gesturing for them.

  Nicole dug in her purse for her keys and then handed them to me. I turned and gave Avery a nod as he leaned on the bar near Nicole. The rain hadn’t let up as we ran towards my BMW. I opened the door for Brooke and didn’t care that she was soaking wet when she slid onto the leather seat. All I cared about was being with my girl, and she was in my car—not thinking I was a cheating bastard.

  I ran to Nicole’s car, popped the trunk and pulled out the green bag that Brooke told me was hers. I ran back to my car, threw her bag in the backseat and handed Brooke a sweatshirt that I grabbed from the back.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  I looked at the clock and it was past eleven. “Maybe it’s not a good idea for you to meet Cheyenne tonight.”

  “Oh…” She looked disappointed. “I didn’t realize how late it was.”

  “You know, I have new sheets that need christening, too,” I said, smirking at her.

  “Oh, is that right?” she said, laughing making my dick instantly hard.

  “Yeah, Cheyenne made me buy new ones after I told her about you. I didn’t realize that mine were so old.”

  “You told her about me?”

  The car had finally heated up some, I turned on the heater and put the car in reverse.

  “I did. I think she’s excited.”

  “Really?” she questioned.

  I pulled in front of Halo, put my hazard lights on as I parked in the middle of the street. I ran to the door, handing my bouncer, Gary, Nicole’s keys and told him to bring them to the feisty blonde at the bar near Avery.

  I slid back into the car and headed towards the freeway. Reaching over, I grabbed Brooke’s hand—I always wanted to touch her in some way—and proceeded to describe how I told Cheyenne about her:

  “So…you want to hear about the girl I met?” I asked, taking a bite of garlic bread.

  Cheyenne and I were sitting at the dining room table, having dinner after we arrived home from softball practice.

  “I guess,” she shrugged and slurped a noodle into her mouth.

  “Well…I met her on the cruise Uncle A and I went on.”

  “So she lives in California?”

  “No, she lives in Boston.”

  “Oh, why was she on the cruise then?”

  “Same reason Uncle A and I were.” Well technically she wasn’t on the cruise for the same reason, but I didn’t think my ten-year-old needed to know details of the cruise.

  “Did he meet a girl too?”

  “He did,” I nodded. “She’s actually best friends with the girl I met.”

  “Oh, like me and Courtney?” she asked, continuing to slurp her noodles.

  “Exactly.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Brooke.”

  “What’s her friends name?”

  “Nicole.”

  “Can I tease Uncle A about having a girlfriend?”

  I laughed. “Yeah, Peanut, tease him all you want.”

  “Do girls have cooties like boys?”

  Oh Jesus Christ!

  “Umm…well…shi,” I almost cussed in front of her. How do I answer this question? “Um…no?” I didn’t mean for it to be a question, but I wasn’t expecting this conversation to go in that direction.

  “I don’t think boys have cooties either. Courtney tries to tell me that they do, but I think it’s because she likes the same boy as me.”

  I dropped my fork.

  “What? You like a boy?”

  “Yep,” she said, taking a bite of bread like it was no big deal.

  “You’re ten. How can you like a boy?”

  “I don’t know, he’s cute,” she shrugged.
>
  “Cute? No, no, no, no, no!”

  “Daddy, calm down, we’ve only kissed once.”

  “Oh my God, I think I’m having a heart attack,” I said, clenching my chest.

  “Why? Do you kiss your girlfriend?”

  “Peanut, I’m thirty-one. You’re ten.”

  “So? When did you have your first girlfriend?”

  Lie Easton. Lie!

  “When I was sixteen, your mother and I started dating.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, you’re mother has been my only girlfriend until now.”

  “Hmmm,” she sighed.

  Oh dear God, I can’t handle raising a daughter on my own anymore. Brooke was right. Cheyenne needs a mother to talk to her about this. The more she talked, the more I saw red. She had already kissed a boy! Granted, I was probably six when I first kissed a girl, but this was my little girl—my Peanut.

  “Let’s go back to Brooke. Maybe she can talk to you about boys.”

  “When do I get to meet her?”

  “I’m not sure, Peanut. Maybe in a few weeks?”

  “What does she look like?”

  “Here, I have a picture.” I showed her a picture that we took on the cruise of the four of us. Brooke was in her bikini on my left. We had just gotten out of the pool, my arm was draped over her shoulder, hers behind Nicole’s back and Nicole was clenched to Avery’s waist.

  “She’s pretty.”

  I smiled. “She is.”

  “So, can you talk to her about boys?”

  “I can try, but I’m kinda nervous.”

  “Why are you nervous?”

  “What if she doesn’t like me?”

  “She will, I promise. I told her all about you and how you played softball. Right now, anyone that can help her with softball is a hero to her.”

  “I can’t help now with my stupid tumor.”

  “Baby, she’s ten. You have her whole life to help make her an all-star.”

  We started to drive out of the city to my house. Somehow, God was looking over me because I’d washed my sheets today. I would have been mortified if Brooke had to smell my stinky man sheets—even if they were new.

  “I like when you say stuff like that.” She leaned over and kissed my cheek.