Page 19 of It Destroys Me

Theo had told me she was coming by, but he didn’t say why. “Shopping?”

“Yeah. I need a couple of new things because the kids have pretty much destroyed all my shit.” She smirked as she said that, like it wasn’t really that much of an annoyance. “I figured you needed some stuff too…since your house burned down.”

Theo’s butler had supplied a couple things for me because I hadn’t been out of the house much. There were two big guys in the front of the vehicle, so I assumed they were our security for the day.

“And I assumed we would get dinner afterward. And a couple drinks.”

“Shopping, food, and alcohol.” I climbed into the back of the SUV and shut the door. “I’m in.”

“Yes, bitch. Let’s do it.”

The guys took us to a couple of spots, including the mall, and Scarlett and I walked around and did some shopping. She grabbed a couple blouses and some new heels. Now that spring was here and summer was around the corner, I grabbed some sundresses and heels to wear out and about. It’d been a long and cold winter, and I was excited to move on from the season…and the memories.

Scarlett stopped at the lingerie store. “If I don’t get Axel something, he’ll throw a tantrum.”

I chuckled as I followed her inside.

She looked at some of the sets on display, black and lacy, and she grabbed a couple things, not bothering to try them on.

Without looking at me, she asked, “Nothing for Theo?”

“Oh, I don’t know. He doesn’t seem like a lingerie kind of guy.”

She smirked before she looked at me. “All men like lingerie, babe.”

Theo didn’t seem picky. He was ready to deliver with little notice. Lingerie or no lingerie, he was ready to fuck all the same.

“Trust me, get something.”

I looked around and grabbed a couple things, slightly self-conscious about the idea of putting it on in front of Theo and trying to be sexy. It wasn’t something I’d done with Bolton. Didn’t have the confidence to strut around the house and seduce a man like that. And it wasn’t like Theo and I didn’t already have all the chemistry we needed to ignite in flame. But I selected a few pieces anyway.

“They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” Scarlett said. “Which is partially true because my husband can’t get enough of my cooking. But he would choose sex over dinner every time.”

With our shopping bags in the back seat, the guys drove us to a restaurant a couple blocks away.

“You don’t want to go to your place?” I asked.

“No,” she said with a laugh. “I fully admit that my cooking isn’t the best.”

“I think Axel would disagree.”

“That man is blind when it comes to me. Always has been.”

We left our bags in the car and got a table near the window. It was a cute place that offered a large basket of bread the second you sat down. Scarlett and I immediately grabbed our pieces and smothered them with butter and olive oil before we stuffed our faces. Neither one of us had any shame.

When the waiter came over, we ordered wine and an appetizer.

It’d been a long time since I’d been out of the house without Bolton or Theo. I didn’t have many friends, and I used to be close to my sister-in-law, but now that she wasn’t my sister-in-law anymore, we would probably never speak again.

“So, how are things?” Scarlett asked.

When we were shopping, we had been more focused on getting everything we needed than having a deep, one-on-one conversation. Now, it was just us and our wine and our bread. “Things are really good, but I feel weird describing my life that way.”

“Why?”

“Well, I’m not divorced. I have a feeling I’ll never be divorced.”

“You can file without his signature,” she said. “So, just file for the divorce and let him deal with it.”