Free Private Affair (The Private Series) by Danielle Torella

making Erin feel made me want to cry. I saw on her face the way Ben avoided to look: Weak. She didn’t think about how she carried on with guys, not until she met the right one. Ben didn’t care about his bed hopping back then, not until he met me, then it all kept popping up, throwing it on both of our faces.
    I feel like I can understand so much more about him now, but now I need to figure out a way to help the one friend who truly helped me in the same situation. I know what James is going through.
    Ben closes the door separating us from Erin and James, hopefully they are working it out, or at least being honest. That’s all they really can do.
    “How are you?” Ben asks me.
    I sluggishly climb onto our bed and stretch out. I look up to the ceiling, I feel the alcohol rushing my system. “I am okay … then again I have been playing this through my head for a few weeks now.”
    Sitting next to me on the bed, “Why didn’t you bring it up sooner with me?”
    “We weren’t exactly on solid ground then.” I turn on my side and prop my head up on my hand. I look him in the eye and still see a glance of guilt. “Hey, I am okay. Was I then at the time? Probably not, but I have grown.”
    Ben lays down next to me and caresses my cheek and lays a leg over mine, “I am still very sorry about all of it.”
    I tip my head so I kiss the side of his hand. I smile and that makes him arch an eyebrow and I have to ask the one and only question left in my inebriated head. “How could you not remember having sex with Erin?”
    He exhales quite dramatically, twists and drops dramatically to the bed next to me. Covers his head and groans, “I don’t know. I don’t remember a lot from that time. I was pretty fucked up.”
    “I understand that. I do, but … and I am saying this as the best friend of the girl out there … But Erin? She’s pretty hot!”
    Ben rolls his eyes and smacks my behind, “Enough! Besides I don’t want to think about anyone from the bad part of my past. I have you, the light of my future.”
    “I just don’t understand how you could forget someone as fiery as Erin,” I smile at him, making him and I lighten up.

 

     

     
     
    As many times as I have asked Charles to check the stock downstairs and all the times he said he would do it, then why am I down here taking the fucking stock? We went in on this deal as equal partners, so I expect him to step it up and cut back on flirting with the girls that come in here.
    Not that I can blame him or anything for Christ’s sakes, the women that come in here … fuck the way they dress in those tight, mini dresses and they leave very little to the imagination.
    I like to keep it on the down low that I own part of this place, crazy I know right? But I don’t want to flaunt that I have a bar. There’s nothing wrong with it, fuck it brings in some good cash. I just want to be known for a little more than that.
    It’s slow right now, most people are still at work so I can come back upstairs and not be noticed. “Why wasn’t your ass down there doing inventory?” I ask Charles, who is cleaning the last of the glasses.
    “I was busy.” He gives me a shit eatin’ grin.
    “Yeah…” I look at my watch and see that happy hour will be starting soon. I head to the loo, take a leak and check myself out in the mirror. I look like I haven’t slept in days, which I suppose is suitable, considering I haven’t. I don’t know what my fucking problem is, shit I fuck enough women that walk through these doors … that alone should exhaust me. But no.
    “You good here for the night?” I ask Charles. He assures me he will be fine. I trust my business partner, we met a few years back and talked about starting a place up for some time and when the old bar that was here failed we bought it out and changed it up. Before it was a typical dive bar, not a single classy bone in it body, just beer and slurred bloats using crap ass pick-up lines. So I had an idea,