FIFTY-FIVE

Taken

Hours turned into days and days became weeks, but Lolita did not have one moment of sleep. She felt tortured, abandoned, tormented. She was in her own little hell on earth. She thought about so many things in so many ways, like living through different timelines of earth.

Perhaps if she had remembered Hayden from the very first time she set her eyes on him, she’d be able to set her foot down and make some boundaries.

Better still, she could not have started the affair at all. In another universe, another life, she would truly love him. Now… now was the worst timing of all.

Samantha barged in unexpectedly, causing Lolita to gasp and push back into the bed frame in fear. Exasperated, Samantha slapped her thighs with a pillow.

“Would you stop doing that?” Her friend asked. “You jump at the slightest little thing, it’s sad to see.”

“I thought it was—”

“Stop thinking. Stop moping around like this and do something fashionable with your time. I wish now that you actually have a job.