Fly on the Wall by Trista Russell Read Free Book Online

women that tolerate that.” Well, at least not anymore.
    â€œWow.” Toni thought about it. “That was tacky.”
    â€œVery.”
    â€œMaybe you should tell him that it bothers you.”
    â€œWhat?” Was she high? “Toni, Doran is just my workout partner, that’s it. I have no right telling him how I feel about him looking at other women.”
    â€œThen tell him that you’re interested,” Toni said. “Then he’ll know that he can’t say certain things around you. At least hint to him that you’re attracted.”
    I regretted telling her so much about Doran. “Correction, I find him inter—”
    â€œInterestingly attractive,” she finished my sentence. “Bullshit. You want some action and so does he.”
    â€œSo we should just fuck, huh?”
    She didn’t hesitate. “Yes. Like wild dogs.”
    I laughed. “I’m now convinced that you are insane.”
    â€œPaige, I would do anything for you to stop sleeping with Craig’s diseased ass.” She had to go there. “We both know that that’s a sure recipe for pain and penicillin.”
    Once again, I regretted informing her of my occasional slipups. “Where are you?” I changed the subject with a lie. “I can barely hear you.”
    â€œAt home.” She paused. “Don’t try to change the subject.” She giggled. “Stop fuckin’ Craig. When will you get enough? Paige, he gave you a damn STD.” She only knew about the second sexually transmitted shit I caught from him. “Hold on.” She rested the telephone down. “Boys, I’m on the phone, so please turn the video game down.”
    Toni Young, formerly known as Toni the Tigress in her exotic dancing days, was not only my best friend, but also the closest thing I ever had to a sister, and her twin boys, Kevin and Devin, were my godsons.
    Eight years ago, I ran into Toni at a grocery store. She approached me and asked how to make seafood lasagna. Right then I knew that the poor girl needed a friend.
    I was twenty-four and she was twenty. Within the time it took to gather the proper ingredients for her meal, the talkative girl told me her entire life story. In Fort Walton Beach, Toni’s mother’s boyfriend sexually molested her at age thirteen. At fifteen, she dropped out of high school and ran away to Miami, where she lived on the streets until she befriended an old white man named Rick. He allowed her to live in his apartment, and never asked her for anything more than a cooked meal once or twice a week.
    On her eighteenth birthday, she went to The Cure, one of the most popular strip clubs in Miami, shook her moneymaker for the owner, and was hired on the spot. Within a month, she was living on her own and was earning close to three thousand dollars a week.
    The day we met, she was cooking dinner for a lawyer named Marcus, who frequented the club. He spent thousands on private dances and alone time with Toni, and was surprised when she asked to see him away from the club. Her plan was simply dinner and a movie, nothing more.
    After the grocery store, I followed her home and helped with the cooking. Then we tore through her closet until we found something sexy that didn’t scream, “Lap dance!”
    Now, Marcus was her husband of seven years. Toni gave up the yeast-infected pole, got her GED, and was now in college working on her bachelors in accounting, and attorney Marcus Young was the father of my beautiful five-and-a-half-year-old twin godsons, who were always up to no damn good.
    â€œWhat are the boys doing?” I asked.
    â€œThanks to you, they’re driving me insane with that never-ending Dragon Ball Z game.” She added, “I believe that you bought them this game to torture me.”
    â€œIt was on sale.” I giggled.
    â€œLeave the sales alone, Paige.”
    â€œC’mon,” I said, “if it’s marked