With a smile, I said, “Yeah, she’s the most amazing woman I’ve ever known. I’m not really sure how she did it all those years on her own.”
I could feel Meagan’s eyes pinning me with a stare but I chose to keep looking straight ahead. “What was it like? Growing up without a father and your mom having to work so hard to provide for you?”
My hand pushed through my hair as memories flooded my mind. “We had good times and bad. I can remember breaking down at the table one day and crying because my mother put a plate of scrambled eggs in front of me with toast.”
“Why did that make you cry?” Meagan asked as I turned to look at her.
“Because it was the tenth night of eating the same thing. Eggs and bread were cheap.”
Meagan’s eyes widened, and I saw pity in them. I couldn’t stand when people felt sorry for me.
“My friends gave me hell when I became a stripper, but they quickly shut their mouths when I was bringing in more cash in one night than they made in three months working at Home Depot.”
Meagan cleared her throat as she asked, “Does your mom know you were a stripper?”
“She didn’t at first, but I finally told her. The only reason I did was because she thought I was dealing drugs.”
With a chuckle? Meagan looked straight ahead as I pulled into the parking garage of my apartment. “Did you um . . . you know . . . ever get offered to do other things for women?”
My head snapped over to look at her, but she was still looking straight ahead. “All the time,” I said as I whipped into my space.
Now it was Meagan’s turn to snap her head over to me. I couldn’t tell if she was angry or scared by what I had said. Something about that small look of jealousy in her eyes had my heart beating just a little faster.
“Like . . . what?” Meagan asked.
Putting the truck in park, I opened my door and got out as Meagan did the same. As I walked around the back of my truck, I met up with her. “Do you really want to know?”
She swallowed hard. “I guess that depends on what it was and if you did it.”
“Why do you care if we’re just friends, Meg?”
With a shrug, she acted unaffected. “I don’t and you don’t have to even tell me if you don’t want to.”
I grabbed her hand and led her to the elevator. I liked the fact that she didn’t try to pull her hand away. “I had an older woman, maybe forty-six, ask if I wanted to come home with her and have a threesome with her husband. She offered me six thousand dollars to come and spend the weekend with them.”
“Holy shit! You didn’t, did you?”
With a laugh, I shook my head. “Fuck no I didn’t. There was another lady, probably around twenty-eight. She offered to pay me two thousand for a threesome with her and her best friend. They were on a girls’ weekend and both wanted some action with one guy. Both were married and they wanted some fucked up fantasy of watching each other get fucked by a younger guy.”
“Wow. That’s messed up.”
“Yeah it is.”
Stepping into the elevator, I hit the floor my apartment was on. The lack of sleep was kicking in.
“So did you?”
The doors opened and I looked at Meagan. “Did I what?”
“Hook up with the two girls?”
My stomach felt like it was twisting in knots. I didn’t want to be talking about my past with Meagan.
“My mother was about to have her car taken away from her for late payments. It would have been easy money, but I turned her down. Told her I wasn’t into that kind of thing. The girl offered me fifteen hundred to fuck her alone, but she still wanted the friend to watch.”
For once in my life, I felt ashamed for some of my actions when I was younger. “I figured it would be an easy way to make some quick cash.”
Meagan’s eyes widened as she searched my face before she looked away. “Did you um . . . did you use protection?”
I closed my eyes and stopped walking. When I opened them, Meagan was staring at me. “I’ve always used protection, Meg. I’ve fucked around with my fair share of women. I regret almost all of it, but none of them meant anything to me. I was younger, and it was money. Money I used to buy my mother that house.”
Her eyes softened as she took a step closer to me and placed her hands on my chest. The air in my lungs felt like it was sucked out the moment she touched me. “Gray, I’m not judging you. Besides, it’s not like I’m a sweet innocent girl. I’ve slept with my fair share of guys.”
The thought of Meagan fucking another guy drove me insane. “How many guys?” I asked as I narrowed my eyes at her.
“How many girls?”
With a shrug, I said, “Probably around twenty.”
Meagan took a step back and covered her mouth. “You fucking manwhore!”
My heart dropped as I looked at her. “Wait! You made it seem like you’ve slept with a lot of guys!”