Page 29 of Twisted Love

“Going out as in we don’t actually go out a lot.” Rosa’s face was turned towards Keily now, and despite the glare, she could see the smug satisfaction on the other woman’s face.

“I want details, woman, now! How could you keep this from me?” Keily sat up on the sun lounger and grabbed her own bottle of water.

“I wasn’t sure where it was going and I didn’t want to get your hopes up if nothing happened.” Rosa sat up, too, her knees almost touching Keily’s. “I wasn’t actually looking for a couple, but I met them at one of the, uh, more adult places in Spartanburg.”

“Adult places?” Keily asked before the penny dropped. She leaned forward even more and pushed her sunglasses up. “You went to a strip club?”

“I might have.” Rosa laughed at the shock on Keily’s face and how far her jaw had dropped. Again. “I’m brave since I got divorced, what can I say?”

“How did that work, was the woman working there or something?” Keily wanted to know everything. Ever since Logan had taken her to that club her brain was hungry for knowledge about all things sexual and sensual. Living vicariously through her friend wasn’t a bad thing either.

“I was sitting at the bar, watching the women dance, fending off scuzzy guys that automatically think a woman in a place like that is either working there or looking for a quick fuck. This cute little woman with long black hair and the most dazzling blue eyes came up next to me and told this really gross asshole to leave me alone, that I was there with her. I wasn’t going to deny it and once the guy left, she sat with me and we had a few drinks together. She’s so cute, Keily.” Rosa turned, snapped up her phone, and showed Keily a picture of a woman that wasn’t just cute, she was beautiful. And she had the most delightful tilt at the end of her nose that made her smiling face even cuter.

“Wow, she is cute, Rosa. Tell me more.” Keily waited while Rosa swiped through the pictures.

“This is Jake, her husband.” Rosa held the phone out again.

A man with a charming grin and lots of curly brown hair stared back at Keily with gray eyes and a body that was used to a gym. He wasn’t wearing a shirt because he was standing in a pool, obviously at their home, judging by the privacy fence and the brick house in the background.

“Wow, hottie.” Keily grinned wider and demanded to know more. “So, what happened next?”

“Well, don’t get mad, I know it was stupid, but we went to Waffle House and I met her husband there.”

“What’s so stupid about that? Other than it was a Waffle House.” Keily shrugged.

“Because instead of going home that night, I went home with them.” Rosa pulled her lips in and waited for Keily to fuss at her.

“Um. Okay. Not wise, but you didn’t die, so something must have gone right?” Keily didn’t see the point in fussing at her friend. The woman was an adult and knew the precautions she should take to protect herself.

This was all new territory for Keily, being a supportive friend had never come naturally to her. She’d been taught that other females were her competition her entire childhood, but she liked not thinking that way anymore. It was…freeing.

“No, I didn’t, thank goodness. I know it was stupid, but you’ll see it when you meet them. They’re just so…wonderful. We hit it off right away, all three of us, and nothing happened that night. We just talked until the sun came up. I slept in their spare room, and I went home after breakfast the next morning. I’ve seen them a few more times since then, well a lot more times, and every time it just feels like I’m, I don’t know, home? I think I feel like I’m home when I’m with them. Don’t laugh.” Rosa held out a warning finger but Keily shook her head.

“No, I think that’s great. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be.” Keily sat back on her lounger, her thoughts now on her own life. “Joe never felt like home. I don’t think I actually loved him, either. I said it, thought I meant it, but I don’t think that was love.”

“And Logan?” Rosa pushed lightly, her left eyebrow arched over her sunglasses.

“I don’t know. He’s been weird lately.” Ever since that day when they pushed their luck and had sex in, and on, the car, he’d been…angry?

That didn’t seem right. Not angry. Distant definitely. Resentful felt like the right word.

He’d looked at her that day like he wanted to consume her, but also like he hated her for it. Emotions had swept through her the entire time he fucked her on the hood of his car; fear that this was the last time, excitement that she’d conquered him, sorrow that she still felt that way. Worry that he almost looked like he hated her.

“How weird.” Rosa finally prompted her when she didn’t go on.

“He’s just, I don’t know how to say this. He comes in, he goes home. He hasn’t stayed the night in a long time. I think he might…” She stopped, unable to say the words because her chest had suddenly become too tight to speak, to breathe almost.

“Oh, no, honey. I’ve seen how he looks at you. He’s not done. Maybe he’s just got a lot on his mind with work?” Rosa comforted her or tried to.

Keily stared off into space, ignoring the reflections of the water from the pool, as dread overwhelmed her. Pain fluctuated with that dread, pain in her chest, in her heart, that stole her breath away as she thought about life without Logan.

Would she be able to cope with that? She’d known all along that this wouldn’t last forever, but she’d started to have the tiniest bit of hope that maybe…

“I don’t know.” Keily shook herself out of the stupor and took a deep breath. “I just know something is up.”

“Women always know.” Rosa agreed, no longer trying to comfort Keily. “What can you do?”

“Nothing, I guess.” Keily waited until Rosa had sat back on her own lounger to continue. “What can you do and still have some pride left?”