Sin & Salvation

Chapter 18

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

The sound of birds outside wakes me up out of a sleep where I never truly felt fully asleep. Light trickles in from the window, shining directly into my eyes. Instinctively, I reach over to my nightstand to check my phone. My hand touches book spines and memories of last night come flooding back, remembering that I fell asleep in the library.

I stretch, every bone in my body aching from the uncomfortable position I slept in on the chair. Tess of the D'Urbervilles lay open next to me, having fallen while I slept. My hand feels around for my phone again, until I realize I left it in the room last night. I stand up and look out the window. It must be close to afternoon from how bright it is.

Panic immediately set in.

I wasn't awake to make Brett breakfast.

But then I take a second and remember that he has some serious ass-kissing to do after last night. Lying about going out with Jason when I seriously couldn't have cared less.

I mean— okay, I admit, maybe I would have been a little bit upset, but I would have never stopped him. And it's not like he would've listened to me if I had tried to stop him anyways. The whole situation still seems off to me, but the way he ate me out last night had me forgetting my first name. It felt like he was poisoned and the antidote was in my pussy.

Still dressed in just his oversized t-shirt, I head upstairs to grab my phone and shower. When I get up there, the bed is made, much to my surprise. I laugh when I think about how exhausted he must be after getting less than 4 hours of sleep. Serves his dumbass right. Walking to my nightstand, I pick up my phone which has a few notifications from Brett, Payton, and an unknown number. I choose to look at Brett's first.

Brett: Good morning baby— or afternoon, depending on when you see this.

Brett: Anyways, I hope you slept well (even though I'm sure that chair was uncomfortable and my chest would have been comfier) Just wanted to remind you that we have the party tonight.

Ugh. I completely forgot about that.

Every year towards the end of the summer, Evelyn hosts a huge charity gala at her house. After surviving breast cancer in her 40's, she has made it a point to host these events every year to raise money for the cause.

While I'm not really feeling like attending a huge social gathering tonight, I do love seeing Evelyn. Plus, getting to watch rich people auction off thousands of dollars for useless shit is pretty entertaining. I quickly reply to him and he answers in less than a minute.

Brett: Dress and suit should be delivered between 1-2, and Mel has girls coming to the house around 5 to get you ready. Love you baby.

Oh yay. Even more social interaction I don't want.

I send him a quick text back and then go check my messages from Payton.

Payton: Good morning, sleepy head! Let's do lunch today, I know you need some 'normal people' time before the big partyyyy tonight. Let's say 12:30?

Payton: Also, Emma's joining us because I really want you two to get to know each other. You need new friends and she's perfect. See you then cutie ;)

I glance at the time— 11:34. I have less than an hour to shower and get myself ready to meet up with her. I'm about to put my phone down when I see I still have one more notification from an unknown number. I'm about to delete it, thinking it's just spam, until I see what it says.

Unknown: We need to talk.

I don't even need context to know exactly who this is. I do, however, need some context on how this stalker got my number.