Perfectly Toxic (Sterling Shore 9)

ME: You’re his hero.

BELLA: Stop being stubborn.

ME: You’re being stubborn.

BELLA: You’re being petulant. And grumpy. Come see him.

ME: I can’t.

BELLA: I’m seconds away from kicking your ass.

ME: Is that supposed to scare me?

BELLA: I’m cumming on it.

That one does have me laughing… and groaning. Pretty sure that’s not even a real word.

ME: Guess you don’t need me to get you off after all.

BELLA: What?

BELLA: Stupid perverted phone! COUNTING on it. Not conning.

BELLA: Conning??? Oh NOW it decides ‘cumming’ isn’t a word!

I’m laughing, coughing, groaning, and cursing all at the same time. I don’t even get to message her back before she’s hitting my phone up again.

BELLA: Seriously. Please?

ME: I can’t.

BELLA: Give me one good reason…

Sighing, I scrub a hand over my face, frustrated with the damn relentless woman.

ME: I’m sick.

I expect a witty retort, or some claim that I’m lying, but instead, she sends me back one letter.

BELLA: K

K? What the hell? I tell her I’m sick and that’s her response?

Fucking eh. I am grumpy.

I decide to go to sleep, and I toss my phone to the ground. I really hate being sick when I can feel every ache and pain.

Chapter 37

BELLA

As soon as I get off work, I rush home and pack up all my supplies that I have left. I hid from all the schedulers so that no one could tell me to stay over.

After getting it all packed, I head over to Ethan’s house, and I punch in the code. He really should pick a better code than his birthday. That’s way too predictable.

I put the basket of things on the counter, and I head into the living room where I find Ethan face down on the couch with the blanket tangled around his feet. He looks so pitiful, but it’s kind of cute, because I’m weird like that.

“I thought you didn’t get sick,” I tell him, which has his body stiffening.