Page 52 of Diving In

My thoughts were scrambled during the entire walk home, so I finally put in my ear buds and turned on the music, doing what I could to control them.

It was 10:15 by the time I got back to Jack’s. I needed to get showered, make myself presentable, and get going before I ran out of time to go to The Rogue Shallot,my last stop before the airport. The spot Jack had mentioned in his letter.

I’d said I wasn’t going to follow through with his letters, but regardless of the chaos that was my life, I’d discovered little parts of myself with each letter that he’d left. I was hoping this last one would bring me some clarity among all the confusion.

I typed in the door code and was once again reminded that today was my birthday.

If you would’ve asked me a week ago how I was going to be celebrating this milestone birthday, my answer would have been basically anything but this. Thankfully, birthdays had never been my thing anyway.

I walked into the kitchen, laying my purse on the counter. I attempted to take a few deep breaths, but my eyes flashed to a leather briefcase propped up against one of the wooden barstools near the kitchen island. I’d seen it before.

“No fucking way,” I huffed, turning toward the stairs, taking them two at a time as I hurried to the top.

As my bedroom door came into view, I heard water running in the bathroom. Reaching for the doorknob, I was engulfed in a wave of steam as the door opened. I couldn’t help but be furious, all my blood pulsating through my body and rushing to my head. The steam was so thick I could barely find my way around the bathroom, but I maneuvered my way toward the white ruffled shower curtain. The sound of metal against metal ricocheted throughout the small bathroom as I ripped the curtain open.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I shouted.

“Fuck, G. You scared the shit out of me.” His response was muffled above the water splashing.

Of all the people that could’ve been standing in that shower, Ian was absolutely the last fucking one I would’ve chosen. He stepped out of the shower, completely naked, and reached for a towel, causally shaking out his hair while drying off his body.

“Jesus,Ian,” I huffed. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I came to get you back,” he said, more straightforward than he’d ever been.

“And you think that breaking into my dead dad’s house after I told you not to come here is going to get me back?” I questioned.

“Well, sort of? Though, by your reaction, I’m guessing it’s not giving the chivalrous vibes I’d hoped for.” His body slumped in defeat. “G, I really just need us to get back together. I need you to come back to New York, and I need us to figure this shit out. We had our whole lives planned out,” he pleaded.

A planned-out life seemed like a pretty damn good option at this point if I was being honest, but the sight of Ian made me feel sick—and not in a good way.

Ian moved closer to me until our bodies were practically touching. He wrapped his arm around my waist and smashed his lips to mine. His warm, wet body left a trail of water droplets on my clothes.

The same clothes that Cal had torn off of me just yesterday.

Holy shit.

My head was spinning, I forcefully pushed him away from me. “Ian, what the actual fuck!” I screamed, furthering the distance between us. “You can’t just show up here, start kissing me, and expect everything to go back to how it was.”

“G, come on. This is silly. It was a simple fight. We’ll get over it and move on,” he said confidently, holding the towel tightly around his lower half.

“No, Ian. I’m done.”

“What do you mean you’re done?”

“I mean I’m fuckingdone. I broke up with you for a reason—several, actually.”

“You can’t be serious… I flew all the way down here just for you tonotget back together with me?”

“I literally told you not to come here. It’s not my fault you decided not to listen to me,” I stated.

“G, just give me a chance, please. Let’s grab lunch before our flight.”

“Our flight?” I asked.

“Naomi helped me with everything. I told her how much I missed you and she gave me all the information I needed,” he responded.

“Of course she did,” I said, shaking my head.

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