Read Final Call (The Call #2) for Free Online

you just sent me to lunch with my
ex-fucking-boyfriend boyfriend who broke my heart for a second time
just two weeks ago!”
    “Ah.”
    “Ah. Ah. Fucking ah!
What the fuck, Mon? You knew! You knew he was there and you sent me
anyway!”
    “I know.”
    “Why? Why the hell did
you let me go?”
    She turns, her coffee
clasped to her chest. Her ice-blue eyes are warmer than I’ve ever
seen them. “You told me you wouldn’t fall in love.”
    I desperately rake my
fingers through my hair and spin on the spot. “I loved him, Mon. Do
you get that? Once upon a time, I loved that man so fucking
desperately that my life wasn’t worth living without him. I loved
him so damn fiercely that he was the center of my universe, but I
moved on. I stepped into this world after my parents died, into
this world where love isn’t allowed. I forgot what it felt like,
what love and adoration were, what it was to be addicted to the
touch of another person. Until I saw him again. Until he took me on
a fucking worldwide trip you allowed to happen, one you
shouldn’t have allowed. And now… Now I know a secret everyone knew
but me, and I’ve had my heart shredded into a million inscrutable,
unfixable pieces because of it. Because of him. And you let me go.
You let me go!”
    She looks at me
hesitantly, regret filling her eyes the way tears are filling mine.
I wrap my arms around myself.
    “I am so in love with
him that it hurts every time I breathe. Every time my heart beats,
I feel the pain of not having him by my side, and you let me go.
Why, Mon? Why the hell did you let me go?”
    Her heels click along
the tiled floor as she approaches me and wraps me in her arms in
the first comforting contact I’ve ever had from her. I bury my face
in her shoulder and cry, the hot tears soaking her shirt. She sighs
as I sob so hard that it really does feel like my heart is being
torn from my chest.
    “Because,” my agent
says in a soft voice, “despite my job and the way I act around you
girls, I believe in true love. I believe in the power and the magic
of true love, and I will always send you down that path if you’re
lucky enough to ever cross it.”
    “This isn’t love,” I
whisper. “This is pure pain.”
    “There’s no love
without pain. When it hurts as much as you do now, that’s when you
know its love.” She smooths her hand over my hair. “Dayton, honey,
when it feels like your whole world has been tipped upside down and
shaken so hard that nothing makes sense except for the steady
pounding of your broken heart, that’s when you know it’s true
love.”

    ***
     
    Liv’s apartment is
quiet when I let myself in. This is the only place I can bear to be
right now. It’s the only place he hasn’t been.
    I know she won’t be
back until tomorrow since her shoot was today, but her tabby cat,
Angus, immediately rubs himself against my legs.
    “Hey, buddy.” I bend
down and scratch his back, much to his delight. “Let me in, will
ya?” I lock the door behind me and dump my purse on the table.
“Hey, Angus, do you know if your mommy has any wine in this
place?”
    He jumps onto one of
the barstools and purrs loudly. I sigh. Of course he wouldn’t know.
His food tray is nearly empty, so I grab a can of food from the
cupboard and dump it into the bowl before I turn to her fridge.
    There’s a bottle in
there. Bingo.
    I pour a glass, kick
off my shoes, and curl up on her sofa. After I find some trashy TV
show and Angus curls up on my lap, my eyes close briefly.
    I’m exhausted.
Completely, utterly, mentally, physically, and emotionally
exhausted. I think the only thing that could revive me now is a
year on a remote island with no contact with people, a stack of
books, and a supply of wine.
    And possibly my
vibrator, because, y’know. A year is a long time to go without an
orgasm.
    I smile at my own
thoughts and shake my head. Jesus.
    A heavy sigh leaves me.
I wish I could go back a couple of months, back to when everything
was