No Attachments - By Tiffany King Page 0,14
"Sure, he was hot, but seriously, there was nothing special about him," I lied as I distracted myself by re-stacking the pyramid of cans I had knocked over. The fact that Nathan had decided to stick around nixed any plans of us ever hooking up. I was only looking for a one-night stand, not a relationship, and definitely nothing that would lead to any sort of attachment. My indulgence the night before had cost me maybe the hottest night in bed I would ever have, but it wasn't like I could rewind time.
Chapter 4: The Decision
Nathan
Going to the store had been a mistake. I'd woken up this morning with the plan to call the client, but as I was showering, I couldn't shake Ashton's image from my mind. Against my better judgment, I decided to head to the small store where she worked. There was no reason to go. I had all the information I needed to end the case. I just wanted to get a glimpse of her one last time before I walked away. It was a purely selfish move, but I figured no one would get hurt. My client would have to wait a little longer for Ashton's location, but a few hours never killed anyone.
Feeling jittery from my decision to put off the call, I decided to walk to the store rather than drive to clear my mind. The air outside had a crispness that wouldn't be felt in Florida until mid-December. It was actually a pleasure to walk outside without sweating my ass off from humidity, and had me contemplating whether I should hang up my scuba gear and head north. I'd miss diving, but the trade-off might be worth it. I'd lived in the same city in Florida all my life, and only stayed out of habit. When I was younger, I had lived in a small one-story house with my parents, though I don't really remember it. The summer I turned seven, my asshole father flipped my life upside down when he decided he liked nailing his secretary better than living with us. My mom was too proud and hurt over his betrayal to take his money. The bills had piled up and eventually we were forced to leave the house behind. My grandparents welcomed us into their house, but it was way too small, even for four people. It was only for a short time anyway, while my mom scrimped and saved every cent she could. A small inheritance from a distant aunt added to our nest egg and finally, she was able to buy a single-wide trailer for us to live in. I was young enough to find the move to the trailer park exciting and different than our old neighborhood that was mostly made up of grouchy elderly couples. There were plenty of kids to play with, and during the summer, the trailer park opened the community pool. I was in hog heaven. It would be years later that I would realize how hard it had been on my mom to lose our house.
Living in a trailer did have its downfalls. It seemed every time we turned around something needed to be repaired. The repairs always seemed to set Mom's teeth on edge, but it was the Florida storms that worried her the most. During hurricane season she would watch the TV incessantly all hours of the night any time there was a storm brewing over the ocean. When I was ten, I asked her why we lived in a trailer and not a house if storms worried her so much. Her eyes had filled with tears before she swallowed hard and sat me down.
"I bought this trailer because that's all the money I had. I wanted something that was ours. No one will ever be able to take this from us. We will never be without a home again," she'd told me with steel in her voice. At that moment, I hated my lying sack of shit father more than anything. He took away the one thing that meant the most to her. I swore at that moment I would one day buy her a house just like the one she had lost. That day never came. She died three weeks before my twenty-third birthday. Not long after Jessica had torn my world to shreds. Within days, I had lost the two women I had loved—one from betrayal and the other from the irresponsible teenager who decided to run