Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“You’re not really all that old, Coke. Forty is the new thirty for men. Now, if a woman was forty? That wouldn’t work. Men are like whiskey. The more they age, the better they get.”
He grinned at my assessment.
“And what are women like?” he questioned.
“They’re more like bread. When they are younger, they’re really soft and perfect, but the longer they sit, the moldier and less tasty they get.” I burst out laughing at that.
“Tasty. I don’t think I’ve heard someone use the word ‘tasty’ since I was a kid.” He shook his head. “It might go down for some women like that, but definitely not all of them. Older women know what they want. They’ve probably already had something that they didn’t want and now they know better than to settle for anything less than they deserve.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” I questioned.
He shrugged. “No. I only know one woman my age intimately—and that’s my ex-wife.” He scooped his keys out of his pocket and tossed them in the air once before catching them. “And she wasn’t like a fine wine. She was like one of those Cokes. Good when you first open it—or marry her—and flat if you don’t drink her all up in the first couple of hours.”
I snorted. “I like my bread comparison better.”
He grunted and walked to the door. “One of these days, you’ll find yourself a man who’ll be head over heels for you, girl. You’re pretty, nice, considerate and down to earth. All things that a man is looking for in a woman.” He gave me an inscrutable look. “But, I’m not sure if you’re going to find that in any of the men here. They’ve already made up their mind about you like they have me—thanks to Beatrice always playing the victim card and your parents’ reputation tarnishing yours. Maybe we should just both pack up and leave.”
With that, he gestured for me to proceed him out the door, which I did.
The moment he locked it, I looked at him with more courage than I’d ever felt before.
“I feel like leaving here is giving in to it.” I paused. “They’re all assholes—or at least most of them are. And the ones that aren’t are so cliquish that I’ll never get in there. But…I’m not going to let them win, and you shouldn’t either.”
Coke had nothing to say to that as he watched me get into my truck. Once he saw me in safely, he got into his own, and we each pulled out of the lot together. Me turning right, and him taking a left.
I contemplated running by the gas station again for something to eat but decided that I wasn’t up for another chili dog just yet. Instead, I decided to run by the grocery store and grab a loaf of bread and some sandwich meat. That way, I’d have enough to make myself lunch tomorrow, too.
Coke was right, though. Eating like that all the time wasn’t the healthiest of options, and just because it wasn’t hurting me, at least visually right now, didn’t mean that one day my bad eating habits wouldn’t catch up to me.
I reached the parking lot of the store just as it got too hard to see without lights.
With the darkness starting to blanket Hostel, I flipped on my headlights, but my eyes narrowed when they lit on something deep in the parking lot of the grocery store.
At first, I wasn’t too sure what I was seeing.
To be honest, I’d sort of zoned out after the day that I’d had, and I’d gone to the grocery store sort of on auto-pilot.
Normally I parked in the back, but today I was just too tired after last night—and staying up late on top of drinking when I knew I had to get up early—so I’d opted for a closer parking spot near the side of the building.
And in doing so, I’d inadvertently pulled in at just the perfect time to see a man with what looked to be a piece of wood rear back and slam it into Johnny’s head.
Johnny went down hard and then there were five men on him.
Hitting, kicking and ultimately beating the shit out of him while he laid on the ground in a fetal position.
I started to honk my horn as I reached for my phone, but I couldn’t drive and dial at the same time since I had a standard.
Meaning I had to choose what to do…and what I chose was something that hit me like a battering ram.
Upon hearing my honks, three men broke off almost as if it was choreographed and headed in my direction. The other two continued to kick and punch.
I don’t know what came over me, but suddenly I was just so freakin’ pissed!
That’s why when three of the five were far enough away from Johnny that I wouldn’t hurt him, I gunned the engine and plowed through all three of them, narrowly missing running over Johnny’s left hand by less than a foot. I also hit one of the men still beating