Semua Bab Say it Again-Tell Me l'm not just another deal to you : Bab 21 - Bab 30

Wild and gentle. Brave and lost. Imperfect and whole."Oh, look," she said, our eyes connecting through the window mirror. "It's my wallet."She spoke in a bitter and sarcastic tone, but there was a drawn and defeated expression about her that compelled me to walk into the room uninvited and sit against the wall."You should not have let yourself in," she said to me, her voice without annoyance, and I remembered that Klaus never did really have her privacy to start with. She'd always been dwelling in someone else's space, never spreading out those gorgeous, black-tipped wings of hers."That is no greeting for your fiancé," I scolded."."I lose, asshole. I don't feel good enough to fight this war of brains." Her eyes rolled back to that place unseen in the heavens. To the liquid blackness and the stars that whirled within it like silver freckles."What's happening?" I asked.I've been running around these past few days desperately looking for work and keeping Grav in front of the telly,

Klaus"Shit. I'd forgotten to give her a snack. It was in the manual, but so were a hundred fucking other things."Yeah. Just let me..." I grabbed the manual, shuffling through it. No way raising children was this precise.".When my gaze darted to Gravity's preapproved meals, my eyes left my body. Chicken breast, organic wheat quesadilla, spaghetti and meatballs, broccoli casserole... All of those items had to be prepared from scratch. Most of my dinners were Trader Joe's prepackaged meals or pussy. There was no chance of me preparing any of these home-cooked meals.I looked up and around, fists cemented at my hips. "Hells bells.""You said bad word." The child's eyes bulged. "You owe me five dollars." Her hand rested open and out in a nanosecond.The apple had not fallen far from the tree, then.I fumbled through my wallet with a groan. "I don't have money on me.""That's not my issue."Christ. What kind of devil did Klaus spawn?"Do you accept Zelle or Venmo?""What?""Nothing." I s

I rolled up my sleeves and got down to business after I texted Flinn quickly. The cocktails were tricky and the instructions hard to read-it was called the Alchemist for a reason-but the majority of customers asked for the usual of beer or wine. The tip jar was so full we needed to pour it into a bucket every hour. It was good work that would help pay for a good, hands-on nanny to tend to Grav when I was working.Med school, however euphoric, was out of the question now."Klaus," the bartender-and, as it turned out, owner, Max-shouted at me. "Your ten minutes are up. I'll Zelle you the money. You want to cover the rest of Faye's shifts this week?""Text me the schedule. I'll see if I have childcare."And then I was off, a thousand dollars poorer but less poor because of the tip split. The clock was 6:45 p.m., and I knew I owed Flinn a lot of explanations and an apology.I pushed the door open, prepared to spill out onto the sidewalk, when a hard body smacked into mine. My fists went o

I was a stoic child-self-sufficient, blunt, rule-bound, and above all, a selfish bastard. My parents were not affectionate beyond their own great marriage, and the best I learned from them was that love could suddenly mutate into all-consuming monomania, a mutant of madness, so I avoided it the hell out.I'd grown up with no girlfriends, no boyfriends, nothing that amounted to closeness. I'd had sex. Lots of sex. But I'd always been upfront about what I'd been able to offer-a good time, a great date (if you could afford my rate)-nothing in between, nothing more.Her stomach rumbled between us. She'd not eaten. Where on earth had she been for seven, almost eight hours?I untangled myself from her, waltzing into the state-of-the-art kitchen. "You need a tall glass of whatever the fuck has the most alcohol and a big meal." I tried to loosen my jaw before it snapped and blew out of the Milky Way. I headed straight for the good whiskey in Pete's bar cabinet, pouring two tumblers full with

"Did I ask for an observation?" I inquired."And as much as we tolerate Pete-which isn't much in my book and a decent amount in yours-you shouldn't be so worried about his older sibling.".In the back of my mind, I realized that he was correct, yet I would not admit it. I was selfish but not a sociopath, unlike him. I still felt guilty about other people."Come on, are you going to do it or not?" I snapped."I'll do it, but you're going to owe me, and I always collect," Shane said."Yes, I remember. Forty-two percent interest, isn't it?""Fifty percent in your case, since I don't like your face."I hung up the phone before he could finish what other insults he had to give. I had sold my soul to the devil just to spite two worthless bitches I didn't even know.And I didn't regret it for one second.I was the sole child. My parents liked each other so much that they did not have leftovers to share with anyone else, and therefore, I never had the pleasure of dislocating someone's nose or