Dirty Beginning (Dirty 0.50)

“What?”

“Have sex with him. Once he gets a taste of Kinsley Felton, he will want more and more. He’ll be begging you to marry him .”

I chuckle. “I don’t think that is going to happen. He thinks of me as a child .”

“Ew. He does not, or he wouldn’t have done what he did to you the other night .”

“He was just messing with me .”

“No, Kins, he wasn’t. He was into you .”

“Whatever. I don’t want to marry him anyway .”

“What? I thought you thought he was sexy. I thought …”

“I don’t want to marry him because maybe I want to be CEO. I don’t want to have to marry someone else in order to have anything to do with the company. Or maybe I don’t want anything to do with the company .”

Silence. That’s the answer I get .

“Scar?”

“Yeah?” she says hesitantly .

“Well?”

“I don’t know, Kins. Running the company is a lot of responsibility. Are you sure you are up for that ?”

“I don’t know .”

She laughs. “See? You can’t even honestly answer a simple question. How do you expect to run a huge company where you are going to have to answer, like, a million questions a minute?” She pauses. “I don’t know, Kins. But if I were you, I’d fuck the guy. That’s what I would do. It’s a lot more fun .”

“Thanks, Scar. You’re a real help,” I say sarcastically .

“Kinsley!” my mother screams from downstairs .

“That’s my cue to leave,” Scarlett says .

I nod. “I’ll tell you how it goes later .”

Scarlett quickly hugs me. “I know you are still sad about your dad. And I know you don’t want to deal with everything right now, but I’m always here for you if you need me .”

I nod, and then she slips out of my room .

I grab my purse, so I can get out of here as soon as I deal with my mother. I take the stairs down two at a time and find my mother in the kitchen .

She’s slumped over the bar. She’s not crying, but she doesn’t exactly look her best in my father’s old robe. Her hair is matted on her head. She’s a mess, but at least she left her room .

“Morning, Mom,” I say as I open the pantry to find a granola bar .

“Where’s the alcohol ?”

I take a deep breath before answering, “What do you mean ?”

“The alcohol that we always keep in the bar. Where is it ?”

I shrug. “I don’t know, Mom. I think everybody drank it all after the funeral.” That’s not true. I know exactly where the alcohol is because I’m the one who took it .

It’s been years since my mother relapsed. She’s been sober for almost five years now since I made the biggest mistake of my life that almost destroyed the family .