“You were right.” She shrugged. “He’s been throwing hints since yesterday…well, actually all week. I guess I was so set on Stenton Rogers that I never paid much attention. And when Stenton tried to go all one-woman-man on me, I just gave up. Hey, if you can’t have Prince Charles, Henry is always a viable stand in, right?”
Ang’s voice was soft, dreamy even, which meant she’d given this some thought and there was no changing her mind, even if I mentioned the Tynisha woman to her. I knew this and I still attempted it.
“But Alton is still involved with the Tynisha Lang girl. Do you want to get into bed with a man with baggage like that, Ang?”
This time Angela did look at me. Within seconds, she exploded in laughter; her face turned red and all. “Zoey, I told you they all cheat. This is par for the course for Tynisha just as much as it is Alton.” Her eyes went back to the road. “But damn, I sure had my heart set on Stenton Rogers.”
My phone pinged again. I opened the Facebook app and saw there was a new message from the anonymous philosophy inquirer.
I’m asking because I have no idea why someone like you hangs out with a girl who throws herself at men. I’ve been trying to figure it out. This time ol’ David had it wrong. Not even my perception is perfect.
I dropped the phone like it burned my hands.
“What’s wrong with you, Zoey?” Angela sounded alarmed next to me.
Is that—
I scrambled to get my phone from in between my seat and the door. I tapped the screen until I got to the profile of Notnet Srego. I mouthed the name until it clicked.
Notnet Srego is Stenton Rogers spelled backwards without his first initials!
Chapter 2
~Stenton~
So fucking pretty. That was the only way I could described the girl. Fucking pretty. I could use the adjective beautiful, but it wouldn’t accurately describe a female of her age. Of course she was beautiful, but there was something innocent and unblemished about her persona that kept her in the pretty lane. Maybe it was her untarnished honey skin that she wore naturally. Perhaps it was her long hair that was so natural and unkempt, but went with her style so well. It could have been her thin frame that was always covered in loose clothes, even when she wore short shorts.
I had no intentions of contacting her, or seeing her beyond the hours of my pre-season training. She was cute, but so were millions of women I’d encountered in my life, like her friend. I could never remember her friend’s name, but her name I did. She had two: Zoey and Elizabeth. I didn’t get the correlation, but couldn’t forget them. On Facebook she was Zoey B. It wasn’t until the dude at the club gave her whole government that I knew her formal name must have been Elizabeth Barrett. Maybe Zoey was just a middle name. Either way, it was a perfect name for her. It was innocent and carefree.
She was tight almost every time we got up after training that first week. Alton begged me to stick around while he pursued them, or let them catch his sloppy ass. I didn’t want to. I wanted no parts of that type of energy. Not anymore. Her friend was aggressive as hell. I appreciated the ambition, I just wasn’t interested. Alton was all for it. He enjoyed that fanfare. And me, from the moment I saw Zoey’s eyes when I’d busted her ass on the phone, I enjoyed the intrigue. I’d been over to the beverage cart once or twice before then, but I never paid attention. When I’m training or practicing, I’m in a zone. The last thing I’m thinking about is ass. And from what I saw of both girls, they were young.