Curtis Johner Woods snores from the bed next to mine.His heavily inked arm curls around his pillow.The black baseball cap he wears sits on the nightstand between our beds.The stale scent of his last cigarette permeates the room.
He’s a stranger and yet I feel safer in this dank motel room with him than I do with the man I married.How did I fall for such an evil person?Cecilia tried to warn me.I didn’t listen.I ignored the way my stomach would drop when I did or said something he didn’t like.The tone his voice would rise to when I kept him waiting.
With time, the way he treated me grew progressively worse once he had his hooks in me.
Our relationship was a carefully crafted tower of lies.But like anything with a poor foundation, the cracks eventually show, deepening until you can no longer turn a blind eye.I wanted the fairytale he promised me.Only that version of Thad never existed.He wasted my time and stole pieces of me.Carved out my heart and cut out my tongue, but I’m slowly finding my way back and stitching those stolen and broken parts back together.
I’m finding my voice.
Repairing the damage and refuse to allow his darkness to swallow me.
Thad may have shattered my illusions of what I thought was love and landed some heavy blows that bruised my skin, but I escaped with my life.That’s what matters.
The air conditioner hums to life, the cool air sending goosebumps pebbling across my flesh.I shiver and pull the covers back up to my neck and stare at the water stain on the ceiling, trying to give it a shape.Only like my life, it’s misshapen.Disfigured.Stained.
Woods grunts, then lets a huge fart rip, breaking me from my terrible thoughts.
I stifle a giggle and roll over to find him staring at me.He doesn’t appear embarrassed.If our roles were reversed, I’d die right here.“I told you those gas station burritos were a terrible idea.”I bite my lip, ignoring the dull ache as his belly rumbles.
“Funny.”
“Bet you’re wishing you’d let me get that bottle of Pepto.”
“Maybe.Sorry if I’m keeping you up.”
“I was already awake.”
“Nightmare,” he states, reading me as though he can see straight through me.
The thought should unnerve me, but it doesn’t.
Am I that transparent?
“Something like that.I was having the strangest dream that I was being chased by a green stinky cloud and then I woke up and realized I wasn’t dreaming at all.”I wave a hand across my face, fanning the air.
“Smartass.”
I smile, and he chucks a pillow at me.It lands short, dropping to the floor between our beds.
“You’re a real comedian.You ever thought of doing standup?”he grumbles, and we reach for the fallen pillow at the same time.His rough fingers glide over mine.“Sorry.”Woods pulls away and I hand him the pillow.“You should get some shuteye.It’s a long way to Arkansas.”
“Right.You might think about lighting a candle.”
“Ha.Ha.Cute.Real cute, Jessika.”He ends on my name, his voice thick with exhaustion and a hint of something I can’t quite place.Something I’m not sure I want to explore.
Something I shouldn’t entertain, and yet I’m growing more curious about him and that expression in his eyes that makes my heart skip a beat every time he looks at me.
Things have been sexually charged between us since this morning.Since I did something completely reckless and out of character for me.
We had sex on the couch in Big Daddy’s office.I’m not a girl who just goes around fucking any guy she meets.But Woods is different.At least I hope he is.
I need him to be different.
It was probably a terrible idea to spread my legs to him without knowing a thing about him, but at that moment, being with him was exactly what I wanted.What I needed.
To forget about Thad.To forget that not only did my husband never give a damn about me, he wants me dead.
So here I am.On the run, hoping Big Daddy kills him before he gets the chance to come after me.
