The Bad Boy's Forever (TBBG Series #3) NOW PUBLISHED

Chapter 1: It Is A Truth Universally Acknowledged That Victorian Heroes Sucked

       

Chapter One: It Is A Truth Universally Acknowledged That Victorian Heroes Sucked

Four Months Earlier

Cole

I wonder if someone ever wrote a manual on how to win back your girlfriend when you've fucked up so badly that she had to leave the country. Considering most men royally mess up their relationships at some point in their lives, there has to be one out there and I remind myself to look it up as soon as I get home.

Home, it's weird to go back to the house that I grew up in that way. It's been a while since I've lived there for a long stretch of time and to be completely honest, having to live with my dad and stepmother for the past couple of weeks has been a pain and then some. I get it, they care and only want what's best for me but somewhere down the line of growing up and realising that most adults don't automatically have all their shit figured out, I've come the conclusion that no one really knows what's 'best' in any situation. We're all just winging it, shooting blindly and crossing our fingers like our lives depend on it. My family doesn't have the magic answers to the mystery that is life anymore than I do and I'm less likely to go on a drunken bender if I do something that's opposite to what they'd hoped for me.

Case in point, I think about everything I want to say to Tessa and all that I need to convince her of. My parents won't approve, Cassandra will most likely throw a hissy fit and I wince at the thought of dealing with her. Whatever her deal with my girlfriend is, I've tried to make peace with her like Tessa has pushed me too. It's a miracle that she hasn't asked me to pick between her and Cassandra, with the way my stepmom has taken to treating her. I don't know what went wrong and how she's gone from looking out for Tessa to belittling her every chance she gets.

My dad has picked up on the obvious tension between us and I know he's trying to make Cassandra understand that she can treat my girlfriend like shit but the damage has already been done. Tessa's been hurt by too many people who make her question her worth for her to tolerate any more of it. That might be part of the reason she's decided to move to another continent and I can't help but resent Cassandra for that. Though I'm not the idiot who blames her entirely for why Tessa left, a big fat reason was me and the shit I got involved in my first couple of months in Chicago.

"Cole, is that you?" My grandmother, otherwise known as Nana Stone is at her usual spot, on a rocking chair in the front porch and the only thing missing from the picture is a shotgun. She'd moved in when my dad's health had started to deteriorate and there's nothing like your eighty year old mother putting the fear of God in you that makes you start taking good care of yourself. Nana has been a god sent and even though most she drives me up the wall, there are moments when she offers you nothing but good solid advice, advice that I need immediately.

"Hey Nana, catch anything interesting today?"

She puts her binoculars aside, "Why do you think I left this neighbourhood in the first place? The most entertaining thing that happens here watching the lady across the street trying to flirt with the pool boy when her husband isn't watching."

I grin, she's the best part of my day usually and it's worth living with my parents if it means I get to hear these gems.

"You mean Mrs. Henderson? You do know she's got a couple of kids older than me right? And the pool boy's what, sixteen?"

She nods eagerly, "Watching her fawn over that poor boy has been the highlight of my day. But you should see how the husband checks out their babysitter."

"Jesus Nana, you're way too involved in this." I sit down on the chair next to her, tempted to borrow her binoculars myself but that's not why I'm here and that's not why I'm spending my spring break here instead of surprising Tessie in London. We'd done enough of the back and forth flying and surprising each other last fall and winter and look where that got us. I'm the spontaneous one in the relationship and yeah the look on her face when I'd walk through her door would have been worth it all but Tessa's adamant about space and about me not spending a fortune on plane tickets.