The ride took about half an hour, but it felt good. The seat was still all torn up, but I had patched it up with some duct tape, which made it more or less rideable. I tried to ignore it as I rode through the city, my mind only focused on getting to Cooper and catching him in his lie. When I got to the house listed on the address, I parked across the street and dismounted from my bike. I kept my helmet on but flipped up the visor to get a better view, and sure enough, Cooper’s car was sitting in her driveway. I fought the urge to go and disconnect his spark plugs and leave him stranded like he had been the first day I met him. But I quickly dismissed the idea, not wanting to give him more of a reason to stay all night with his bougie-mama play toy.
I waited around outside for awhile, not really sure what I was waiting for, but I kept my eyes trained on the house, looking for any sign of movement. The longer I stood there, the more I felt uncomfortable, but I couldn’t figure out what to do next. I didn’t want to knock on the door, but I also didn’t want to stand here all night, waiting for him to leave.
My indecisiveness was driving me insane. There had been no movements, as far as I could tell, and standing in the street stewing over what was most likely happening inside the house was making things worse. I climbed back on my bike and rode back home. As soon as I stepped inside, I checked the little blue GPS dot and sighed. It was still at the house.
“Maybe he left his phone there,” I tried to rationalize to myself.
“Oh, Allie…get real,” I quickly scolded myself.
I sat on the couch and shut the laptop lid. Sitting around compulsively checking it wouldn’t do me any good. I did my best to distract myself for the rest of the day, but couldn’t fully resist the urge to periodically check Cooper’s status. Late that night, as I was falling asleep on the couch, I checked one last time and felt a final twist of despair to see the signal was still there.
Chapter Twelve
I woke up to the muffled chirping of my phone. I dug it out of the couch cushions and saw at least half a dozen text messages that all came in at one time. I stared at the screen, trying to process everything, my eyes squinting against the brightness. All of the messages were from Cooper.
“I’m taking you out to dinner tonight.”
“Dress nice…like you did for the Plush party.”
“I want you to make me hard, just seeing you.”
“Seven o’clock.”
“Don’t make me wait.”
“What the—? Ugh!” I threw the phone back onto the couch and shut my eyes. My body was rebelling, coming alive just reading his words, imagining him whispering into my ear, telling me what to do. But my heart was screaming “No!”
I forced myself to play the scenario all the way through. Would we have mind-blowing sex? Probably. Would he drive me to the absolute brink and satisfy me like never before. Yes. But then what? He’d find some lame-ass excuse to leave me alone, again, and make me feel like some disposable whore.
I refused to let myself get sucked back into his game.
I snatched the phone back up again and furiously typed at the screen.
“I am NOT going to dinner with you. I just want my money from the club the other night.”
I hit send.
My phone chirped again, not two seconds later.
“You’re going to dinner. Seven o’clock.”
“Cooper — I don’t want to have anything to do with you. All you do is mess with my heart and make me feel like an idiot.”
I backspaced the message…it was a little too raw.
“No — not going. Please send me the cash. I need it to fix my bike.”
He didn’t answer.
I waited another ten minutes, no answer.
I rolled over on the couch and screamed into a pillow, releasing all the pent-up rage that had been building inside of me from the moment I met Cooper Brighton.
Finally exhausted, I heaved myself up off the couch and went to make myself a cup of coffee. I did my best to pretend everything was fine. Everything was normal. But panic was starting to seep in. I knew Cooper well enough to know that he’d show up at my door, promptly at seven o’clock and that he was more than capable of dragging me out, kicking and screaming if needed.
If I was going to be forced to go out to dinner with him, then the only thing I could do to get a sliver of revenge would be to look as hot as fucking possible, and then not let him have me, no matter how hard he begged. He had to learn that there were some things he couldn’t have, no matter how much money or charm he had.
I finished making my coffee and went back to the couch to drink my first cup. My laptop was still open from the night before, and I noticed the little blue dot on the screen. I was still tapped into Cooper’s phone. Currently, he was back at Brighton Enterprises. I vaguely wondered what his bitchy receptionist had told him about me—if she had mentioned me at all.