His Nasty Little Pussy

TESS

My hand tightened on the stems of red roses, my mother’s favorite flowers. Thorns pricked my fingers, but I didn’t notice the pain. Physical hurt couldn’t compare to the emotional cave inside my heart. I had spiraled down into that hole, a downward fall into an engulfing darkness.

I attempted to crouch down to lay the flowers, but the bulge of my stomach made it difficult, so I reached out for the gravestone for support but ended up nearly slipping.

“I got you,” Kate said, grabbing my arm and stopping me from falling.

“Here, let me,” my dad said, reaching out for the flowers.

“I can do it!” I snapped, holding my stomach as I lowered myself to the ground again and set the flowers on my mother’s stone.

Frustrated tears rolled down my cheeks, my cry turning into a sob. Neither Kate nor my dad spoke, allowing me a moment to empty my sadness, my tears spilling into the earth.

I slowly stood up, and this time, when Kate offered me a hand, I took it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you guys. I know you’re just trying to help. I just feel so fat.”

“You’re eight months pregnant,” Kate said. “You’re not fat.”

“Are you kidding? Look at me. I’m huge.”

“Well, you’re eating for three,” my dad said, hugging me.

I wiped my tears and shook my head. “I just don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this.”

“Do what?” Kate asked.

“Be a mom. I mean, I know I’m going to do it. But what if I suck at it?” “Everyone thinks they’re going to suck at it,” my dad said. “Even your mom thought that.”

“She did?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said. “It’s easy to think the worst when you have no idea what you’re doing.”

“She was the best mom,” I said, fresh tears spilling out. “I miss her so much.

“Oh, honey,” my dad whispered, pulling me into a hug. “I miss her too.

Ready to head home?”

I nodded. “I’m going to drop Kate off first, and then I’ll be there.”

I said goodbye to my dad as Kate, and I headed in the opposite direction of the cemetery where we had parked. As we crossed the grassy lot, a black hooded figure lowered his camera and slipped behind a tree.

“Oh, fuck no,” Kate growled.

“Kate, leave it,” I said. “It’s not worth it.”

“Hell, no,” Kate said. “If there’s one place you should have a little fucking privacy and not be followed, it should be a fucking cemetery,” she snapped, darting forward toward the photographer. “You fucking asshole!” She yanked her phone out of her pocket and started snapping photos of him.

The man spun around and sprinted away from her, his camera bouncing on his chest.

“Yeah, run, bitch!” Kate shouted, chasing after him and snapping pictures. “How does it feel?”

I burst out laughing at the entire sight.

Kate turned around, sliding back down the hill. “What?” she laughed.

“I fucking love you,” I said.

Smiling, she wrapped an arm around me. “Likewise.” As we got back in the car, she shook her head. “I just don’t understand those people. It’s been two months. You’d think they would have found a better story by now. It was one fucking photo of your tit, and they act like porn doesn’t exist, as if they’ve never seen a boob before.”

“They probably haven’t,” I laughed.

Kate snorted, glancing down at her phone. “Oh, fuck.” “What?” I asked.

She gulped and looked at me. “Brady’s back in town.”

I blinked, trying not to react at this sudden news as I shifted the car into drive. “Oh, yeah?”

“I follow Brooke on Social,” she said. “She just posted a photo of them at Eon’s Eatery downtown.”

“That’s nice,” I said, glancing down at my phone. As usual, there were no missed calls from him, just a few from an unknown number.

Kate noticed my glance. “You still haven’t heard from him?”

I shook my head. “Nope. But I said some pretty fucked up things to him when I was leaving. I also told him to never contact me again.”

“Fuck that,” Kate said. “You’re having his babies. The least he can do is reach out if he’s back in town.”

“He sent me a check for five million dollars.”

“I’m sorry…what did you just say?”

I rolled my eyes. “I just got it in the mail yesterday.”

“Yeah, um, why am I just hearing this?”

“It’s how much the photographer paid his lawyer to publish my photos,” I mumbled.

“Oh fuck,” Kate whispered. “You cashed it, though, right?”

“Not yet,” I said. “It feels like bad money.”

“That’s bullshit,” Kate said. “Please cash it, Tess.”

“I’m going to,” I said. “I don’t have a choice. I don’t own the rights to Perkins Formula anymore. I’ll never make a dime from it, and my debts are

too high to ignore. Plus, my dad deserves to retire.” “We should go,” Kate said.

“Go where?” “Eon’s Eatery.”

“No way,” I said.

“Why not?” she asked. “Brooke just posted this like thirty minutes ago.

If you want to confront him-and I think you do-then let’s do it.

“And have everyone stare at us and make a new story.”

Kate shrugged. “Maybe you’ll get another paycheck out of it.” I was silent for a moment, and Kate quickly added, “Sorry, that was a bad joke.”

“No, you know what? You’re right.” I swung a left out of the cemetery instead of a right. “Let’s go see him.” “Fuck yeah,” Kate grinned.

An hour later, Kate and I were sitting at the bar of Eon’s Eatery, using menus to hide our faces as we peered into the crowded dining room, the Sunday brunch crowd in full swing. “Do you see him?” I whispered.

“No,” Kate hissed. “It’s too crowded. Dammit! Here, I’ll just go do a quick walk-through, and if he’s there, I’ll make a bee-line for the bathroom.

He doesn’t know what I look like, so we’re good.” “Okay,” I nodded.

“He left right before you came in.”

I glanced sideways at a gray-haired woman sitting alone at the corner of the bar. I assumed the woman recognized me from the magazines, so I gave a polite nod and glanced away.

The woman took a sip of her martini, closed the book she was reading, and reached into her purse. “Not that you asked,” she said. “But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my fifty-six years, miracle creams don’t exist.” She removed a bottle of Perkins cream out of her purse and slid it gently towards me. “Until I found yours. It’s the best skin care regime I’ve ever used. Carry it with me everywhere I go.”

“Oh, wow, that’s really awesome to hear.”

The woman smiled, placing the bottle back in her purse. She leaned forward, clapping her hands together. “When I was twenty-four, a boyfriend I thought I’d loved leaked an intimate photo of me that he’d taken in privacy. He sent it to my boss after I broke up with him. And you know what I did?”

“W-what?” I stuttered.

“I changed careers, started my own company, bought my competitor’s company, and became my ex-boyfriend’s boss.”

“Holy shit,” I laughed. “And let me guess, you fired him?”

“No, that would have been way too easy,” she said. “I kept him around so that every day, he could feel a fraction of the discomfort he had caused me. Unfortunately, he quit a week later. Once word got around, I built a reputation for myself. You see, I work in a very male-dominated industry, and if there’s one thing I’ve discovered, it’s that being a woman with power can be intimidating to men who have no balls. But you know what else it does?”

“What?”

“It inspires other women,” she said. “And sells a whole fuck ton of products. Funny that you walked in here today, Tess. But I guess that’s life. My assistant tried to call you a few times this week. I have a business proposition for you.” She offered me her hand. “Meredith Plier.”

Holy shit. She was the advertiser Brady had landed for Perkins Formula. “Tess Perkins,” I mumbled, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

She signed her tab and slid her card across the bar toward me. “Give me a call when you’re free.”

“Okay,” I whispered, pocketing her card.

“Oh, and one more thing,” she said. “If you came here looking for Brady, you could just give him a call. After what happened this morning,

I’d say he definitely still cares about you.” “What happened this morning?” I asked.

“Check the news,” she said. “Have a good day, Tess. Talk soon.”

I opened the search engine on my phone and typed in “Entrepreneur News” just as Kate reappeared beside me.

“I think he already left,” she sighed. “Dammit, I’m sorry, Tess.” “Holy shit,” I whispered.

“What?”

I showed her the top article on Entrepreneur News from earlier today.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

CEO of Wyler Marketing, Brady Wyler, wins a civil case against exlawyer Rich Stevens. Stevens will be stripped of his license after being found guilty of breaking a contract, soliciting illegal images, and releasing false press statements.

“Oh my God,” Kate whispered.

After I dropped off Kate, I called Brady on my way back home. When it went to voicemail, I hesitated, trying to figure out what I wanted to say after the beep.

“Hey,” I said. “It’s me. I just saw the news… And I heard you were in town. Can you come to my dad’s house? I want to see you.” I touched my stomach. “And so do your girls.”

I hung up just as I parked at my dad’s townhouse. He had texted me saying he was grabbing lunch, so I was surprised when the front door was unlocked.

“Dad? Are you here?”

I pushed open the kitchen door and stumbled to a stop, unable to believe my eyes. Scott was sitting at my kitchen table. I blinked at my ex-fiance, not understanding what the fuck he was doing here.

“Hi, Tess,” he smiled. “We have some stuff to talk about. And you’re not going to like it one bit.”