Who Hates Bethany?

By Amanda King

Fancy a short, steamy mystery? You've come to the right place!

 

Bethany Danvers is a little bit of a mess. She's probably the only person in the state with a masters degree who teaches swimming and tends bar for living.

 

She's busy ALL the time just so she can pay her mortgage every month. Her boyfriend isn't really her boyfriend (but he wants to be) and she doesn't even have time for friends, family or a decent meal.

 

One day…something happens (I won't spoil it) and it looks like someone is after her.

 

See if you can guess who it is before the ending!

 

Warning: Beth swears like a sailor and her not boyfriend is a super-hot soldier!

 

You won't be able to put this down!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amanda King
• Release date: Sep 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215011331

Book preview

Prologue

Beth

When I woke up this morning, my purse was $3000 heavier and I was feeling good about things…but that was until I walked outside with my morning coffee in my fluffy robe and found the word—WHORE—painted in red on the side of my car…

Chapter One

Beth

Days earlier…

Tommy! Stop that! It’s disgusting! Can you believe this kid? His parents act he farts rainbows and here he is eating his own boogers! This is a what I get for earning a masters in psych with this job market—I get to teach six-year-olds how to swim and watch them eat boogers! I’m twenty-eight and have a masters degree dammit!

He looks at me like I’m the crazy one—as though eating boogers is a perfectly normal thing to do.

Lord! Now I’m thinking about eating a booger and it’s making me want to puke! I feel my stomach churn, it hits my throat and I hold it down. I can’t do this anymore!

Okay, everybody out of the pool. It’s almost time to stop, your mommies are going to be here to pick you up any minute. Grab your kickboards and go with Mrs. Lewis to get rinsed out in the shower. You know what happens when you leave the chlorine in your hair too long.

A little blonde girl, Susie, says, It makes your hair green Miss Danvers.

That doesn’t really happen. I told them that once for fun because they wouldn’t get out of the pool—It stuck. Now, I can’t exactly un-ring that bell, can I? Susie might turn thirty before she realizes I was lying! That’s right, Susie. It makes your hair green. Go on now, go to Mrs. Lewis.

There are six of them in here, six six-year-olds. I can’t imagine what running a daycare center must be like. How many do they have in there? Like…twenty of these little monsters?

Going with the theme of sixes, I also spend six hours a day in the water. Is this damaging my skin? I need to look into that. My lung capacity is great though. I blow up at least half of their inflatable arm bands for each session. Anna—Mrs. Lewis—helps too.

Why has no one invented a machine to do this? I guess swimming instructors don’t matter to the world. They’ll sell a $2000 machine to squeeze juice out of a bag, but not something to stop me from going blue in the face twenty times a day.

Come on everyone, I gesture them to me and they doggy-paddle forward.

I help Freddy to the steps, then Laura, Tim, Jessica…and when Susie gets to me, she holds me and points to the new tattoo on my arm. What’s this one Miss Danvers?

I’ve just completed my sleeve—meaning my right arm is tattooed from top to bottom. It’s a mermaid, Susie, because I like to swim. Yes, I like to swim, but not six hours a day!

I like it. Can I get one too?

I have a friend who does my ink for free. Is this why no one will hire me for a real job? You’ll have to ask your mommy, sweetheart. I say, If she says no, then you’ll have to wait till you’re emancipated or turn eighteen.

"What’s a manspated, Miss Danvers?"

Anna shoots me a dirty look.

Nothing sweetie, go on now. I put her on the steps and she makes her way out.

I’m one child short. I look around and—there that little bastard is…Mr. Booger himself. He’s all the way out in the deep-end, holding the ledge.

Tommy! OUT!

NO! I wanna swim some more!

I said, OUT, TOMMY!

NO!

I get out of the pool in my blue one-piece and start running to the other end.

"You said no running around the pool! You said we can slip and fall and break our—"

I’m a GROWN UP, TOMMY! You do what I say, not what I do! I reach in and yank him out, set him down, then point my finger for some disciplining, "How many times do I have to tell you—When the lesson is over, it’s over! You have a pool at your own house. You can—" Oh crap, his mother watching.

Shit.

Nothing like an uptight neglectful mother in a beige business suit to brighten your day. This is going to be the cherry on top. Booger’s mother to the rescue. She’s got the kind of irritating haircut that you know makes her want to ‘speak to the manager.’

Her heels clack, clack, clack on the tiles as she walks to me. Now her finger is pointed, How dare you take that tone with to my son! Her voice could shatter glass!

I want to say—Maybe if you actually spent some time with your son and disciplined him yourself, I wouldn’t have to!

But, of course, that’s not what I say. I say, I apologize Mrs. Radcliffe. I didn’t mean to lose my temper. It’s been one of those days, you know? And Tommy here has been a little more than his usual handful this session.

"Excuse me? Usual handful?"

Damnit…wording, Bethany, wording. I see Anna staring at me in the distance. That’s what she does—It’s this whole passive aggressive thing, but she’s the boss.

You’re paid to provide a service, Miss Danvers. You’re not the only swimming instructor in West Virginia. There are plenty more where you came from. You lucky that I’m throwing some business your way at all—

I want to say—No, the instructor that you used to send your child to told you to fuck off and take your son with you. But…I don’t say that either.

"In future, if Tommy wants