Page 100 of Five

My boyish grin comes out at the memory. “He kept bullying me. Nobody tried after that. Mark J. or Michael J. in ninth grade, hestole my pink cotton cardigan, it was the most beautiful piece of clothing I owned. I kicked him in the balls and then fucked his boyfriend. Jeff something, a classmate in my paralegal course, he told the teacher I cheated on a test because he was jealous of my grades. I had to retake the test, and he was kicked out when the school found out he was into bestiality.”

“Was he really?” Clover snorts while Ollie shakes his head.

“He had some weird videos on his laptop. I don’t really want to get into that.” I need to bleach my eyes periodically, but it always comes back.

“You want to hear what I think?” Ollie says.

“Not really.”

“You have to, Clover made me come to this trashy club because you’re pouting like a brat while I could be in bed with my hot-as-fuck husband.”

“Does he ever take his dick out of you, or he leaves it there and reattaches himself—Ouch!” He pinches my arm.

“Listen! It was self-fucking-protection. You’ve liked Gabe from the first time you saw him, but you were scared shitless of what you were feeling. Then his other…side showed himself and…”

“It stirred your inner desires.” Clover’s words make me snort this time. Fuck, this second Bloody Mary is strong. Third?

“They stirred my inner murderer,” I counter.

“Your inner serial slut.” I purse my lips at Ollie’s comeback.

“Says the ex-slutbag,” I counter.

“I’m trying to put lipstick on a monkey here.” Clover leaves me confused.

“You mean pig? Lipstick on a pig,” Ollie clarifies.

“Pigs hardly have lips,” Clover states.

“It’s because pigs are ugly,” I say.

“They are not.” I agree with Clover, I was just explaining why the saying uses pigs instead of monkeys.

“And monkeys aren’t?” Ollie frowns at us.

“American sayings are stupid,” he mumbles. Clover is half-Japanese. His English pronunciation is perfect, his wording not so much.

“You love them, Lori, admit it,” Ollie suddenly says.

Did he really use the L-word? Lurve?

“Do you smell toast, coz I think you’re having a stroke, mate.” I grab his arm with fake worry. He bats it away.

“Let me rephrase that, you mule. Youcarefor them,” Ollie insists.

“No,” I lie through my teeth. I fucking do, but I’m so upset with them right now, the anger comes back up like bile.

“I can ask Rami to bring your denial file to add more to it,” Clover taunts me.

“Go jump off a cliff.”

“If I want to die, I’ll just get into a car with you behind the wheel.” He sticks his tongue out at me.

I fake a laugh and flip him the bird.

“How is he still alive when he drives like a pill-popping chihuahua?” Ollie talks to Clover like I’m not even here.

“Gabe had a lot of courage when he gave him back the wiener mobile,” Clover adds to it.