Endless Obsession

“Don’t hurt me, Sterling.” I hear the hitch in her voice, and I want nothing more than to hold her in my arms and reassure her that I would never do anything that would cause her pain. The trip to Texas isn’t for another ten days, and I need that time to ingratiate myself into her life so much she’ll never want to let me go. There’s a lot of shit she’s going to have to get past, once I tell her everything.

“I swear on my life, Poppy, I’ll never hurt you.”

“Okay,” she says quietly, and nods to herself.

“Have a good night, Beautiful. Sweet dreams.”

“Good night, Sterling. Bye.”

I hang up and watch her for a few more minutes. She has a sweet smile on her face as she glances down at her phone in her hand.

By the time I close down my computer, the sun has set. I get up from my chair, grab my phone, and head out to my car. My need to see her now, in pe

rson, is overwhelming.

Chapter Seven

Poppy

Lunchtime on Wednesday, I’m sitting in mine and Liv’s usual spot by the window at Melly’s Sandwich Shop, while Liv waits at the counter for her order. This will be the first time we’ve really been able to hang out together since she’s been back from her vacation, AKA, “Fuckation” as she likes to put it. Apparently, that’s all they did over the weekend. I spoke with her briefly on Sunday morning before their flight back home, but was interrupted when Tony wanted a quickie—her words, not mine. Our short conversation confirmed Tony did propose, right before Liv jumped him and had her wicked way with him. Again, her words, not mine.

She was due to come back to work on Monday, but Sunday night her and Tony both got sick from food poisoning. Today is her first day back. I talked to her on the phone Monday just to see how they were both doing, but it was cut short when she started puking.

Liv drops her tray on the table across from me, sits down, and immediately dives into her turkey and Swiss on rye sandwich.

“Mmm… mm… This is sooo good!” she moans, rolling her eyes as she chews, swallows, and takes another bite. “It’s almost as good as sex.”

Laughing, I tell her, “I wouldn’t go that far.”

She takes a sip of her drink before stuffing her mouth again. With her mouth still full of food, she says, “Girl, you just don’t know. I’ve missed food so much over the last couple days, so yes, it’s damn near orgasmic.”

“That’s pathetic.” I shake my head and pick up my own sandwich. “Tony must not be giving it to you good, then.”

She drops hers on the table and grabs her napkin to wipe the mayonnaise off the corner of her mouth. With a mischievous glint in her eyes, she replies, “Oh, he gives it good, all right. He has this move with his tongue…”

Her words are drowned out when I drop my food to the tray, put my hands over my ears, and chant, “La la la, I can’t hear you! I can’t hear you!”

I see, rather than hear her laugh. I stick out my tongue and remove my hands from my ears.

“You can’t say that crap to me. I don’t need any details on Tony’s tongue and what he does with it.”

She laughs. Her engagement ring twinkles from the light filtering through the window. I reach over and run my finger across the diamond resting on the silver band.

“I can’t believe how gorgeous this is.”

She looks down at the band. The smile on her face couldn’t be construed as anything other than pure joy and awe.

“It is, isn’t it? It belonged to his great-grandmother before it was passed down to his grandmother, and then his mom. Can you imagine having something that’s been around for generations?”

I smile at her soft look as she twists the ring around her finger.

“I know you just got engaged, but have you both talked about a date yet?”

“We haven’t made it official, but we were thinking this fall.”

Her answer doesn’t surprise me. Liv and I have talked about our dream weddings numerous times. We both want to get married outside; however, while I want to get married in the summer on a lake somewhere, she wants to get married in the fall beneath a canopy of trees when the leaves start to change colors.

“So that leaves us a little less than a year,” I comment. “We can totally pull this off, but we should probably get started.”