Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner (free romance novels .TXT) 📗

Getting together like this always reminded her of their first date, and she loved starting her day this way. She hoped Justin would say yes. After tonight, she could use a little normalcy.

“Sorry, I can’t.”

She waited for him to go on, to explain why he couldn’t have coffee with her tomorrow. Not that he had to give her a reason. She didn’t believe in being the kind of girlfriend who kept constant tabs on her boyfriend, but he almost always explained what was going on if he couldn’t get together with her. He didn’t say anything right away, though, and she started to wonder if something was wrong. But before she could ask if he was okay, he went on.

“I’ve got a doctor’s appointment in the morning. It’s just a checkup, but if I cancel, it’ll be weeks before they can fit me in again. Maybe longer.”

There was nothing about this that she found unreasonable, which made her wonder why Justin sounded defensive, as if he were expecting her to challenge his explanation.

“No problem,” she said. “Maybe we can do it the day after tomorrow.”

“Sure. Yeah. Sounds great.”

He sounded distracted, and she wondered if he was just tired. He had said he’d had to stay late at work tonight. Still, something seemed off, and she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Then she remembered something. Hadn’t he seen his doctor earlier in the month? And hadn’t that appointment also been for a checkup? Why would he need another so soon? The answer, of course, was that he wouldn’t – which meant something else was going on. Was he cheating on her, maybe seeing someone else for coffee tomorrow? Or maybe he was spending the night at her place tonight, whoever she was, and he didn’t want to leave her any earlier than he had to tomorrow morning. No, that didn’t make sense. Justin had called her. If he was at someone else’s place, or if someone was at his, why would he call her? Neither of them were teenagers and while they texted or spoke most days, it wasn’t uncommon for a day to go by now and again without any contact between them. When that happened, she’d never worried about it, so there was no reason for him to think she’d get suspicious if he didn’t get in touch tonight. Unless he was feeling guilty about cheating and needed to set up an alibi in order to decrease his anxiety about being discovered.

She almost laughed then. After all the weird shit that had gone down at FoodSaver, she was being paranoid. Maybe she simply misremembered the last time Justin had gone to the doctor. Or maybe one of the appointments was with his physician and the other was with his dentist. Whichever was the case, she highly doubted Justin would cheat on her. He believed there was a right way and a wrong way of doing things, and that the right way – whatever it was – should be followed. Always. It was a trait that made him extremely good at medical testing, even if it did make him overly conventional and a bit boring sometimes. No, if he had wanted to see someone else, he would’ve broken up with her first. She was certain of that. He wasn’t like Larry, who could be balls deep inside someone he’d just met before it occurred to him that the person he was currently dating might be displeased by his actions.

Then again, things weren’t always the way they seemed, were they?

“I hate to do this,” Lori said, “but I should go. I’m exhausted. How about I call you after work tomorrow night? Maybe we could have dinner.”

“Sounds good.”

He still sounded distracted, as if he was only partially paying attention to their conversation. It occurred to her then that maybe he’d called because he’d wanted to talk about something important, only now that they were on the phone together he was having second thoughts.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked.

He immediately became defensive again. “What? No, why would you ask that?”

“You seem a little preoccupied tonight, that’s all. It’s not like you.” Another thought occurred to her then. “Are you still upset about our conversation last week?”

“Which conversation?” He sounded honestly puzzled.

“The one where you lectured me about continuing to allow Larry to stay here.”

She could’ve said the latest conversation about Larry, since his continued presence in her life was a sore spot with Justin – especially the fact that they technically still lived together. She’d assured him a dozen times over that she and Larry were just friends. Larry had taken it upon himself to talk to Justin as well, explaining that he had nothing to worry about. Not only were he and Lori better off as friends, he was currently in a ‘guy phase’. Each time Lori addressed the issue with Justin, he seemed reassured, but only for a while, and then his jealousy would build once more until he could no longer contain it. She really couldn’t blame him. If their positions were reversed, she was sure she’d be just as insecure as he was, if not more. But she couldn’t just kick Larry out to make Justin feel more comfortable. Could she?

“I can honestly say that Larry was the furthest thing from my mind tonight,” Justin said, his tone sharp. “But now that you’ve brought up the subject, what is your friend doing tonight? Or maybe I should ask who he’s doing.”

Lori was shocked. Justin was an even-tempered person for the most part, and even when he became angry – which he always did when Larry came up in conversation – he’d never gotten mean like this before, and she found herself reacting with her own anger.

“What do you want me to say? That’s he’s in bed with me right now, head buried between my legs, sucking on my clit while his fingers piston in and out of my vagina like he’s some kind of human