Page 27 of Little Sunshine
Me: Can we meet somewhere else?
Literally anywhere else.
I wasn’t worried about security being sicced on me. If I saw the behemoth—and that was a big if—I could likely do a jig in front of him, and he wouldn’t recognize me.
It was my ego I was looking out for.
Usually, repression and compartmentalization were skills of mine—especially when it came to all the various embarrassments I’d endured. In that lengthy list, the entire scene at Moonlight was ranked right at the top. Even though I would’ve loved to block the whole thing out, it’d been hard not to think about the behemoth.
And I did not want to think about him.
I didn’t want to remember the pity in his hazel eyes.
I didn’t want to remember the way he’d fed me like he cared that I was starving.
I didn’t want to remember how good looking he was as he sat across from me, cool and sophisticated in his fancy suit. All the while, I’d been fighting against passing out or throwing up.
That was a big ole no thanks.
The easiest thing for me and my ego was to forget about the behemoth and avoid Moonlight for the rest of my life. Easy enough. I was too young and too poor to gamble.
I just had to hope Veronica would be accommodating to someone other than herself or her man for once.
But I knew it was highly unlikely.
Well… At least I was right.
That has to count for something.
Veronica hadn’t been accommodating.
She hadn’t been anything because I hadn’t heard a damn peep from her.
There’d been no texts from her. Certainly none that had said she’d reconsidered and would be dropping my money off at my apartment, plus a few grand more for the inconvenience.
I’d tried to call and text a few times throughout the day, but they’d also gone unanswered.
Which was why, though I was far from happy about it, I was in the spot she’d picked. At the time she’d picked.
Yet Veronica was not.
Standing outside boarded-up buildings that’d seen better days, I checked my phone.
Still nothing.
Although it was only September, the strong winds made tiny bumps spread across my skin. Or maybe it was hunger messing with my temperature regulation since it was nearing dinner—my one meal of the day. Whatever the reason, I pulled my hoodie a little tighter as my gaze went to my left.
Again.
For the millionth time.
It was just the edge of a roof, off in the distance.
Moonlight Resort.
It might as well have been an entire world away. Nothing about the run-down block where I stood seemed like it should be in the same state as Moonlight, much less the same area.
When I’d gotten off the bus near The Roulette—another building I would prefer to avoid for the rest of time and then some—I’d had to walk out of my way to steer completely clear of both.
