Shame (Ruin 3)
“Is that your question?”
I chewed my lip. “For now.”
“Companies… real estate investments, which is kind of boring and… um, pharmaceuticals.”
Wow, not what I expected. “So you’re a legal drug lord?”
He burst out laughing. “Sure, I’m part of the US drug cartel also known as prescription drugs.”
“What type of drugs?”
“All drugs.”
“Meaning?”
“Our specialty is… psychotropic drugs.” He coughed into his hand.
I nodded slowly. “Psychotropic? So drugs for mental health.”
“Exactly.” He looked away and shrugged. “All very boring to you, I’m sure.”
“That’s why you’re so rich.” I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and by his stunned expression, it was completely possible I’d just crossed a line. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you…”
“No.” He ran a hand through his hair, his T-shirt lifting enough to give me an awesome view of his lower abs. “It’s true… that’s the society we live in, right? Have a headache? Take this. Have a pain? Take this. Have a heartache? Here, this will make you happy again.” His tone became more and more bitter as he talked. “We mainly deal with research drugs, ones that help people who have mental struggles. We’ve made strides for those with bipolar disorders, and we’ve failed in other areas…”
Fascinated, I couldn’t help but ask, “What areas?”
He swallowed. “Schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, anti-social personality disorder, to name a select few.”
“What’s—”
A knock sounded on the door, interrupting all train of thought. I jumped to my feet just as Tristan rose to his and gently pushed me back on the couch. “My treat. You sit…”
“Sitting.” I held up my hands in surrender.
With a smile, he bent down and kissed me briefly across the lips then went to the door and opened it.
“That’ll be—”
The voice stopped talking.
I leaned back and nearly choked on my tongue.
Jack. Jack was delivering pizza to me and my professor. Oh. Crap.
“Dr. Blake?” Jack scratched his head and weaseled his body halfway into the door. “Lisa? Is there a class party I don’t know about?”
“Actually…” Tristan looked ready to confess.
“I needed help—” I said quickly. “—with our new project, and, after being so late to class, I wanted to meet with Dr. Blake to go over ways I could earn some extra credit, but I almost passed out because I forgot to eat, so he ordered me pizza… so basically—” I shrugged. “—he just wants to make sure I’m alive so he can torture me some more.”
“That right…” Jack grinned. “Well, far be it for me to stand in the way.” He took the bills from Tristan’s hands and nodded. “We still on for tomorrow, Lisa?”
“Tomorrow?” I squinted.
“Our project?” His eyebrows shot up. “Wow, you really do need food. I see what you mean.”
“Sorry.” I covered my face with m