Spent - Part 1 (Spent, a New Adult Romance, MMA Series) (12 page)

“Thanks, baby. Don’t go anywhere, okay? I’ll be right back.”
 

I nod my head and smile. Smiling back, Luke quickly puts on his clothes and walks out the bedroom door, starting to text someone on his phone as he turns. A second later as I hear the front door close, I cry out in anger. Hot tears run unhindered down my cheeks. Refusing to stay in his bed a moment longer, I get up abruptly, accidentally spilling the cup of orange juice across the comforter. I don’t care. All I want to do is get the hell away from here.
 

I put my clothes on, pick up all of my things and am out the front door in less than 5 minutes. My apartment is only a few blocks away, so I decide to just walk, hoping that the cold winter morning will help to wash away some of the pain I’m feeling.
 

After I turn down the second block, my phone rings. I dig it out of my purse to see who it is, hoping that it’s Cameron. Wiping away at the tears glazing over my eyes, I try to see the name on the screen. It isn’t at all who I expected it to be.
 

Mom.

Sighing, I realize that she’s probably in full-on panic mode since I haven’t been returning her calls. I should probably just be happy she hasn’t tried to file a missing persons report with the police yet. Tears run down my cheeks as I stare at her name across the screen. I don’t normally run to my mom with my troubles, but right now, she’s exactly who I want to talk to.
 

“Mom?” My voice comes out cracked.
 

“Natasha!” The strain in her voice makes me feel even worse, “I’ve been worried sick about you! Are you okay?”
 

“Yeah, Mom. I’ve just had a busy week. Sorry for not calling you back.”

“Are you crying, baby?” She asks, concern lacing her voice.
 

“I’m fine,” I wipe away at some of my tears as I walk around another corner, “Are you and Vincent still planning a trip?”

“Well, that’s what I’m calling you about. Vince and I are already in Maryland. He has a business meeting in Annapolis and we were hoping we could come and see you. We’re actually about 30 minutes away from your campus right now.”

My phone beeps. I glance down at the screen to see who it is calling me. It’s barely been half an hour since I left Luke’s apartment and he’s already calling me. I sigh. All I want to do is get away from here for a little while and clear my head.

“Could you come and get me today?”

“I’m already in my car.”

I smile through my tears, “Thanks, Mom,” my dark mood is already beginning to lighten at the thought of seeing her.
 

“That’s what moms are for. And Natasha?”

“Yes?”

“I expect you to tell me why you’re crying when I get there,” she says firmly.
 

“I will,” I sigh, knowing from her tone that she’s going to force every detail out of me. Suddenly, facing Luke doesn’t sound quite so bad by comparison, but really, I know that talking to my mom will help me to sort all of this out.
 

“Love you, Tash,” my mom says as she ends the call.
 

“Love you, too,” I whisper into the wind.
 

My phone rings almost immediately after the call with my mom ends. I glance down at the screen. Shoving my phone into my back pocket, I realize that Luke is probably going to be far more persistent with calling me than Derrick was after I broke up with him.
 

Turning down the final block, I spot my apartment. I can already feel the desire to lock myself away for a week like I did after Derrick creep over me. As I think about Derrick and Luke and all that has happened over such a short amount of time, I shake my head.

I jumped into a new relationship too soon, and now, I’m paying for it dearly.
 

When I reach my apartment, I quickly walk inside. I don’t bother to take off my shoes or jacket. Dumping my purse on the ground, I walk over to my bed and collapse into the middle of the soft mattress. Curling into a ball, I let the tears fall. My body shakes as I let out all of the anger and pain that is built up inside of me. With every tear shed, I feel my body slowly rebuilding the walls that I had originally built up around my heart. Luke had gradually chipped away at the walls with every sweet word and tender touch, but with a single lie, he has caused me to become even harder than I was before.
 

My phone rings in my back pocket. I pause from sobbing for just a moment in order to see if it’s my mom calling. It’s a text message. Opening it up, I instantly regret having looked at it.
 

“Where’d you go, baby?”

Another message appears on my phone before I can toss it across the room. Relief washes over me when I realize it’s my mom. She’s waiting for me outside. That woman has always had a lead foot. Wiping my tears away with the back of my hands, I hastily rush to gather my things and walk out the door.
 

Another text from Luke comes through as I’m closing my apartment door. Sighing, I toss my phone into my purse, hoping that he’ll get it through his thick skull that I don’t want to talk to him right now. I grit my teeth and brace for the shock of winter air that hits me as I step out into the cold.
 

My eyes are greeted with the sight of my mom’s old Volkswagen parked in the lot in front of my apartment. I smile as new tears begin to spring along the corners of my eyes. It’s been almost a year and a half since the last time I saw her, before I had even met Derrick. Seeing her auburn hair shining in a big mess of curls behind the windshield makes the tears fall. Right now, all I want to do is be wrapped up in one of her famous mama bear hugs and cry until I have no more tears to shed.
 

I rush over to the car when the driver side door opens. The tall and lanky woman that climbs out looks nothing like me, except for the red spirals tumbling down along her shoulders. Otherwise, when I look in the mirror every morning, I see parts of my father reflecting back at me. It used to bother me, but now, I’ve learned to try to love the person looking back at me, even if she does look like one of the few people I cannot bring myself to love.
 

Mom climbs out of her car and flashes her trademark grin. When she sees my face, her expression turns sullen, causing me to grimace when I realize my face probably looks like a puffy red mess. She hastens towards me with outstretched arms.
 

“Natasha,” she mutters against my hair as she wraps her arms around me, “What’s wrong, little one?”
 

My tears fall, drenching my mother’s silk blouse as I cry into her shoulder. I can’t hold them back, nor do I want to. Right now I just feel like a little girl who wants her mommy to make everything better. The thought makes me frown, but when the guy I’ve been falling for lies to me, I know my mom will be able to at least reassure me that I did the right thing.

***

“You probably shouldn’t have left,” My mom mutters in-between bites of sushi.
 

I stare at her, dumbfounded, “Huh?”

Mom shrugs and places her chopsticks down before focusing her entire attention on me, “I think I would have waited around for an explanation, or at least told him that you knew it was his ex calling. Maybe he’s just worried that he could lose you if he knew he still talks to his ex, so he wanted to wait to tell you when you and him were a bit closer.”
 

I hate it when she makes sense.

“He shouldn’t have lied to me,” I frown.
 

“You’re right,” Mom sighs, “He shouldn’t. But you know, Tash, guys can be idiots. Your stepfather pisses me off all the time,” she lets out a deep breath, “But I know that he cares about me and, even if he’s doing something stupid, he’s usually doing it because he loves me. And honey, it sounds like this boy really cares about you.”
 

My phone rings for the third time since Mom and I arrived at the sushi bar. I roll my eyes, determined to ignore it again, but I freeze when I see the way my mom is looking at me.
 

“Answer it,” she nods towards my purse resting on the bench beside me.
 

“I don’t want to talk to him,” I shrug as I dip another piece of sushi into a basin of soy sauce.
 

A grin relaxes across my mom’s face, making her look years younger, “I think you do.”
 

“Do you now?” I arch an eyebrow, eyeing her speculatively.
 

“Mhm,” she smirks satisfactorily, “You look relieved every time your phone rings, like you’re glad that he’s still trying.”
 

I sigh. When my phone stops ringing, I feel my anticipation plummet. She always notices the little things that I do when I have no idea that I’m doing them. But I know that she’s right. I have been waiting, hoping, for each call and text message. I slosh my roll of sushi around in soy sauce until the roll is completely drenched.
 

“Talk to him, sweetie. At least figure out why he lied,” Mom persists before plopping a California Roll into her mouth.
 

Everything that has happened between he and I flashes through my mind. Its all gone by so quickly, but I’ve felt more fulfilled with him in the past few days than I ever did with Derrick in the entire year we were together. And yet, despite all of that, I just can’t shake being lied to.
 

“I’m spending time with you,” I deflect casually.

“I don’t mind,” she mumbles with a mouth full of sushi, “I want to meet this mysterious man who has captured my little girl’s heart.”

I give my mom an incredulous glare. Grinning, she continues to eat, her big eyes staring at me, anticipation brimming along the dark hue of her orbs. Glancing down at my phone, I look at Luke’s name announcing the missed calls plastered across the screen.
 

Mom may well be right. Luke probably did have his reasons, but I needed to be true to myself. I’ve always vowed that I would find an honest man. For too many years I had to watch while my mother hung onto lies my father would tell her, lies that he would get help to get better, lies that he loved us, so many lies… but lies are all that they ever were.
 

Shaking my head, I hold down the power button on my phone in defiance. My own reasons for not wanting to be with a liar are good and valid too, and it’s way too early in the relationship for red flags like this to be appearing. I hold my breath until the screen goes suddenly dead; Luke’s name momentarily erased. Tossing my phone back into my purse, I let out a sigh of relief knowing that I’ll have some reprieve from his persistent calls and messages.

“What’re you doing?” Mom mutters between bites of food.
 

I look up and smile at her, “I’m enjoying my lunch with you.”
 

Mom scowls, “So you’re going to ignore him?”
 

“I just need a little space,” I shrug, “I need to figure out what the hell I’m doing.”
 

“Well, I can tell you one thing you definitely should do,” Mom smirks, “You should eat one of these Dragon Rolls. They’re positively divine.”
 

Smiling, I pick up one of the Dragon Rolls off of her plate and pop it into my mouth. The sushi does taste amazing, causing my mouth to salivate for more. Before I can reach for another one, I catch myself looking down towards the empty silence coming from my purse.
 

Deep inside, I wish my phone could somehow ring again, and the betraying thought makes my stomach churn.

Derrick has seen much more than he needed to… Angry, and not thinking rationally, his jaw locks in hard resolve.

For
BONUS
immediate access to a secret, exposing Chapter into the mind of Derrick Baptiste to read alongside Chapter 8 of this book, and not to be released anywhere else,
Sign Up Now
to Elise Holland’s Fan Club Newsletter!

Along with this instantly delivered Chapter, you’ll get priority notice on upcoming book release dates from Elise Holland, exclusive cover and chapter previews, and access to member only competitions and prizes.

Click here to subscribe now
.

Thank you so much for reading Part 1 of Spent. It really means such a great deal to me. If you enjoyed it, I would love you so much if you could leave me a review, even a short one, on Amazon. It only takes a minute, and helps to keep me writing more of the kinds of books you love.
 

I really do love to hear what you have to say - it’s important to me that you enjoy spending time with the characters in my books as much as I enjoy bringing them to life for you.

Spent - Part Two
will be out in early May, 2015.

To keep abreast of upcoming releases, updates, and bonus material please join my mailing list over at
www.eliseholland.com
.

If you’d like to stay in touch on Facebook, please come and join in the conversation by
LIKING
my page at
www.facebook.com/elisehollandbooks
.

There’s some very exciting things ahead for Tasha and Luke, and another series in the works, and I’m looking forward to connecting with you and revealing everything I can without too many spoilers of course, on social media.

Thank you again! You’re wonderful.