That Day by Karen Deen (best novels to read in english txt) 📕

deceptions, you are my only escape to normalcy. A breath of fresh air in a world I don’t feel like I can breathe in.

Just for a moment.

Can I just feel free?

Chapter Six

KURT

Sundays, I try to just chill and not make plans in advance. I let the day take me wherever it chooses. Relax.

Yet this morning I feel like I can’t sit still. Even my morning surf did nothing for me. The ocean was so rough that it was exhausting. Challenging the current every single moment I’m out there means I’m not able to take my attention away for a second. Otherwise, I run the risk of wiping out. It’s exhausting but exhilarating too.

What left me unsettled was the fact there was no Asha and Coco out for their morning walk. I don’t always see her in the morning, but for some reason, this morning it’s bothering me that I didn’t see them. I mean, she’s lived here for a year and survived perfectly well without me, yet I’m already worrying that something might be wrong.

I should have wandered up to the house after the surf, just to check in on her. I know I’m the one who said we should be friends, and yet here I am, acting like a clingy boyfriend.

The banging on my front door has me hoping it’s her, but reality won’t be so kind to me.

“Take your time answering, why don’t you. I had to bash the door to get your attention. I brought brunch.” Seth walks straight past me like he owns the place and starts setting out the food on the kitchen counter. “Hope you’re hungry. I need to soak up a hangover, so I brought a bacon-and-egg sandwich from Charlie’s Diner for you and the Hangover Burger for me. No bitchin’ about it not being healthy. Just eat it and work it off later.” Sitting my coffee next to my burger, he’s already on the stool unwrapping his food.

“Well, good morning to you too, grumpy ass. Big night last night? And let me guess, you ended up going home alone. That always brings the asshole mood out in you.” Although I’ve already had breakfast, the food in front of me smells fantastic.

“No, dumbass. Now shut up and eat,” Seth mumbles with a mouthful of food.

“Yes, sir!” I take the first bite of what tastes like heaven, even for someone without a hangover.

Knowing I’m better off to let him finish eating and to get caffeine into him, the conversation is nonexistent for the next ten minutes.

“Feel better now, princess?” I ask, slapping him on the shoulder and walking behind him to pick up his trash on the way to the garbage bin.

“Fuck, yeah. Not as good as I would be if I had managed to get laid last night, but hey, thank god for porn.” Seth leans back on the stool, looking more relaxed now.

“Seriously. That is what your life has resorted to?” I laugh at him and he shrugs his shoulders.

“Well, if my ex-wife wasn’t so busy running around town telling every woman that I’m a dickhead and they should stay away, then I might have a chance. I mean, it’s like she doesn’t want me, but she doesn’t want anyone else to have me either. She can’t have it both ways, though. This man needs some female company every so often, you know.”

“Seth, I love you, man, and I knew way too much about your sex life when we were growing up. But there is a line you cross somewhere about the mid-twenties that says stop oversharing the information. Thank goodness I was away for most of your twenties, but sadly, it’s like you’re trying to revisit them. If you’re that eager to find someone, we need to sign you up for one of those dating websites. You know, desperado.com.” I lean my hands on the kitchen counter, looking past Seth and out the big floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the corner of the house that faces south towards Asha. I’m not sure why, it’s not like I can see her from here.

“Fuck off. I’m not that desperate yet. It’s only been six months, and technically I’m still married anyway. Liza hasn’t divorced me yet. She’s too busy trying to work out how she can screw me over with the property settlement.” I can see the hurt in his eyes.

“You still love her, don’t you?” I watch his entire body sag in defeat.

He closes his eyes, trying not to show his vulnerability. “So much it hurts like a pain you’ll never understand… but it’s useless love. She doesn’t love me back.”

“I’m sorry, man. Hey, chin up. It’ll get better.”

“You know I’m full of shit, right? I haven’t slept with another woman since Liza walked out. I mean, I want to, but every time I get close I just can’t. I’d be cheating on her. I know it sounds dumb, but I’m just not ready yet.”

“Then go with that feeling. You’ll know when it’s time. Besides, your hand will get lonely if you find a new partner for your dick.” I can’t help it. If our roles were reversed, he would be constantly giving me shit about it.

I duck as an apple goes whizzing past my head and hits the cupboard behind me.

“And I’m not cleaning that up, either,” he says, laughing because I’m already reaching for the packet of wipes under the sink to clear off the splatter of juice and tiny bits of apple all still stuck where it hit, and then the mess on the floor underneath it.

“Like I even thought that was a slight possibility. I’ve been cleaning up after you my whole life. There was a reason your mom called you Messy Sethy when we were younger.”

“Man, I haven’t heard that in so long, at least five years, since my mom died.”

“I loved your mom. She was so cool and made the best Sunday roasts. I’m sorry I never made it home for the funeral. You know