Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 88895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“He needed the assist! I grabbed them from the hotel lobby restroom!”
“This is what I fucking mean, Tanner!” she harshly bites back. “I get it! You have a job to do! Fans to please! People on your nuts, but I’m so tired of you ending up in these compromising positions leaving me to make questionable calls that have me wondering if I can really trust you!”
“What on bloody earth have I ever done not to deserve your trust?!”
“Fucking my sister for one thing!”
“That was a mistake! I admitted that!”
“And yet every time I turn my back it seems like you’re one puck drop away from repeating it with every sleet slut that behaves just like her!”
“That’s. Not. Fair.” Stepping forward is done on a finger stab in the air. “You’re the one who insists on me keeping up this bloody puck bunny chasing façade instead of the happily slayed puckhead that I am so that you don’t risk losing your fucking job! You’re the one who forces me to go out alone and be seen near other females essentially givin’ all of soc’ material for their man whore fairytales so that no one suspects that I’m actually dating the woman who is constantly documenting my entire existence! You’re the one who demands this much bloody distance whenever we’re in public simply to leave no space for anyone to question whether your loyalty is to your bloody job or me.” Outrage rips through me prompting me to chomp, “Like I don’t fucking matter to you nearly as much as it does.”
“Yeah, because I see you just pounding on the boss’s door, begging to be traded so we can publicly be together!”
“No need to pound,” Hennington unexpectedly interjects into the conversation, snapping our stare to where she’s standing beside Audrey as well as Khurana who has been filming for some unknown amount of time. “This was plenty.”
Chapter 24
Arden
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
This is not how this evening was supposed to go!
We were supposed to meet here separately.
Maintaining our meanness is our thing routine.
Do our jobs.
And then meet my parents for a late dinner at this little hole in the wall wing spot next to a poolhall where Dad swore, he’d have his pancake payback.
That was the plan.
Not this.
Not embarrassing myself in front of only Gretzky knows how many fans.
And colleagues.
And the boys.
And worst of all my smug face sibling that I didn’t throat strike during my fleeing only because after a scrap when we were teens – in which I broke a couple of her ribs – I swore to my parents I’d only use words to hurt her.
I regret making that promise.
Almost as much as I regret idiotically getting into a public screaming match with my secret boyfriend where my boss could potentially hear.
Fuck!
Love makes you do the stupidest shit.
Getting into my jeep that’s parked in the building’s side lot is suddenly stopped by Khurana shouting, “Wait!” The absence of a camera grants him the ability to jog faster. “Arden, Wait!”
I don’t wanna wait.
I wanna get in my jeep, get to my dog, and get to shoveling back whatever’s left of the cream of lobster soup Tanner was inspired to make post a heated discussion regarding syllabus changes with his father.
“Just…” he slightly pants proving just how out of shape he is, “wait.”
“For what?” my shoulders slump in further defeat. “More yelling? More pictures? More videos?” At the last line, I shoot him a small glare. “And why didn’t you give me any kind of heads up our boss was in the fucking building?”
“Why did I need to?” Khurana challenges back upon his arrival. “Why did you have to constantly go behind my back and verify with Hennington about how much time you needed to be spending with Frosky instead of me?!”
Oh, look.
This isn’t going too wellskies either.
“Why did you have to start dating him?!” Unexpected anger surges through his voice. “Why did you keep dating him?! Why did you start sleeping with him?! Why didn’t you believe any of the fucking stories I told you about him with other women?! The stories we had other people tell you?! The stories we helped spread online?!”
His accidental pronoun change prompts my eyebrows to incredulously lift. “We?”
Khurana noticeably gulps but doesn’t verbally confess to anything.
“We?!” I quietly repeat on a step towards him. “Who is we, Khurana?” Another stomp forward is taken. “Who. The. Fuck. Is. We?”
“Your sister.”
Malevolent moans immediately rattle my chest.
Throat.
“I’m in love with you, and she explained he’s really in love with her-”
His head suddenly bucks back from my fist crashing into the top of his open mouth.
“Fu-”
Repeating the action is prompt and equally accurate.
“F-”
One more successfully severs any ability to speak as he fumbles to his knees to spit out blood.
Or teeth.
Or both.
Hell, he could be throwing up his own lung for all I know.