Page 227 of His Hungry Wolf
“Hello, Mr. Toro? Hi, you don’t know me, but this is Quin’s roommate… It’s nice to meet you, too.”
My head popped up. “You called my dad? Low blow!” He wasn’t even on my radar of people I didn’t want to face. I turned over and buried my head in my pillow.
“Listen. I’m calling because I’m having a bit of a situation with Quin…”
“You called my dad?” I groaned.
“Yes. I can’t get him out of bed,” Lou said to my father. “Why is it? It’s because some guy broke his heart.”
“What? Noooo!” I exclaimed reaching for the phone. Lou jumped out of the way.
“I know! They’re the worst, aren’t they? …Anyway, I was wondering if you had some way to get him up to at least take a shower or something? …Yeah, it does smell rather rank in here.”
“Noooo!” I said mortified.
“Okay. You got it,” Lou said lowering the phone. “Quin, I have your dad. He wants to talk to you.”
“I hate you!” I told him meaning it.
“But, I love you,” he said handing me the phone with a smile and leaving my room.
I looked at the phone and took a deep breath. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to my father about this. It was just that it was humiliating. He and I had worked so hard to get me to be able to live around others that I wanted him to think that I could. But, I had failed. Not because I couldn’t control my wolf, but because I couldn’t control my humanity.
“Dad?” I said doing my best to sound composed.
“Quin, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Quin.”
That was when I lost it. Retching pain waft out of me as snot drained down my face.
“It just hurts so much, Dad. Why does it have to hurt so much?”
“Because that’s love. Sometimes it hurts.”
“But why?”
My father went quiet on the other end.
“Okay, that’s it. Get out of bed, get dressed. I’ll be there in four hours.”
“What?”
“Your roommate caught me on the jet flying back to New York. I’m making a detour to see you. We’re gonna go get some dinner and we are going to talk this out.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean it. Get out of bed. Get dressed. I’m gonna be there in four hours.”
As much as I didn’t want to, after the call, I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower.
“Hallelujah!” Lou yelled from the living room.
“I hate you,” I mumbled with the shower droplets drowning me out.
I didn’t hate him. Lou was the best friend I’d ever had. I might have starved if it wasn’t for him because there was no way I was walking to the front door to get my food deliveries.
He also cared about me in a way that I had hoped that Cage would. Lou deserved more from his college experience than having to take care of me.
Returning to my bedroom clean, I smelled what Lou had talked about. My room smelt like a tomb. I cracked a window. I didn’t want my dad to see me like this.