Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 37200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
TWELVE
Millie
True to Ezra’s word, he sat down on my living room couch, papers spread around us, my vision board in full view. The two of us got after it once we woke up this morning, a heaviness still in the air between us from Friday morning. One more day, that’s all there is left until I bring everything with me to the bank.
“Do you want ice?” I ask. He came to pick me up, showing up at Books and Brews after closing hours and helping me do the tasks like he did the day before. The difference was when he left my apartment that morning and returned to me that afternoon, it was with a bruise around his eye and a few forming along his chest.
“No, I’m okay,” he responds as he looks at my final proposal, making notes on a sticky pad in the margins. My nerves are eating me up inside. How I’m going to survive the rest of the night and work tomorrow is anybody’s guess. I only hope I don’t take someone’s head off because I can feel it boiling inside me, like a pot of boiling water on an unwatched stove, slowly creeping over the edge unless you turn it down. Even then, I’m not sure that would calm my ass down. “Millicent, breathe, sunshine. This is good, really freaking good. A few tweaks here and there; totally optional, by the way. You’ve got the money, the vision, and the experience. I don’t know what your credit score or debt-to-income ratio is, but I’m willing to bet it’s rock fucking solid.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I have one or two credit cards. They get paid off monthly. Rent, phone, power, the usual. So, my credit score should be good. You see where I live, but the rent is still freaking steep. And are we going to talk about the fact that you’re black and blue? Friday is still up in the air, and I feel like we’re in this weird stalemate of a situationship, and I’m floundering. There. I said it. I can’t take it anymore.” Nessa told me that sitting on this was a bad idea. She was right, because here I am, a damn mess, an ache deep in my chest. I want it so much to work in my favor, worried that the other shoe is going to drop.
“Parker and I fought it out. You think I’m a mess, ask Nessa how he’s doing,” Ezra jokes. My humor is gone. Him not touching on the other stuff only causes my worry to deepen. He must notice, since he places the pen down, stands up, and moves toward me. While he was reading over everything, I couldn’t sit in one place, so pacing the floor it was. “Millicent, I’d have apologized earlier, and I should have. I’m giving it to you now. I’m sorry, so fucking sorry. I am and have been a complete and utter dick, Friday being the worst. I didn’t handle that well. You’re one hundred percent right. We’ve got things to discuss. I’ve got shit to work through, which I’m doing. I’m asking for time until we can label this. You deserve more, I know. I’m a bastard for even asking you that, believe me, I know. Until then, I want you to leave clothes at my place, and I’ll do the same here, okay?” I shouldn’t be alright with what he’s saying. I should demand more, but his life wasn’t like mine, and while having absentee parents still stings, grandma Rose was there. He had no one until Parker and Krista came along. What he had before that wasn’t a childhood; it was survivorship. I nod, understanding and forgiving him for Friday all at once. “What I can tell you is that a life without you, Millicent Saoirse, is no life at all.”
“Oh, Ezra.” He stops right in front of me, his hand cupping my neck, the other going to my hip, holding me in place, stopping me from pacing. I see the genuineness in his face, hear in his tone, and feel it in the way he’s holding me.
“Are we good now?” he asks. My heart is in my throat. No one has ever said anything like that to me, not with the depth and meaning Ezra did.
“We’re good., I’m sorry too. I have so much going on, and instead of talking about it like a grownup, I let it fester inside me until I blew up. That wasn’t fair to you either.” I’m now going to have to tell Nessa she was right. I’ll never hear the end of it.
“You’ve got not one single thing to apologize for. My past is fucking with my future. I’m going to work on that, this time for good.” He gets the words out before I attack him, my lips on his, sighing at the feel of him taking over the kiss, tongue sweeping inside, tangling with mine. Ezra’s hands delve beneath my hair, holding me right where he wants me. My hands are uncontrollable, though. A master at multi-tasking, they go to the waist of his lounge pants and slide inside, wrapping the palm of my hand around his thick and heavy length. It’s been days since he’s been inside me, and I’m ready to feel him again.