Page 117 of My Temptation

I wasn’t the same person I was when I left New Hope.

And I hated the person I was becoming.

It was time to make a change.

36

MILA

With my hands on my hips, I stared into my closet and sighed. I wasn’t sure what I was even looking for. All I knew was I needed to get out of my apartment. It was Friday night, and I couldn’t keep sitting around moping. Landon told me he’d be at Crush tonight, considering the new owner decided to keep Elite’s services in place, and to come by if I had time. I was just bored enough that hanging out with Landon in a club I didn’t like sounded promising.

Now that the case was over, I needed to concentrate on making some friends. I couldn’t rely on Nick and Beth to be the only people in my life. Nick was preoccupied with his little family, and Beth was so busy with Striker, I rarely saw her. She and Striker were together all the time, and I understood why. They’d denied themselves a relationship for four years, so it made sense that they were making up for lost time. Besides, if I invited Beth out, Striker would come along, which isn’t what I need. What I needed was to find a group of women to do things with, preferably single women, so I didn’t feel like a third wheel all the time.

Leah popped into my mind, and I wondered what she did on the weekends. Oddly, no one talked about her outside of work, myself included. I didn’t know anything about her other than that she was fantastic at her job, and a lot of her job involved wrangling testosterone-fueled men with tempers. She calmed them down more than a few times, which was a big task for anyone.

Grabbing a dress from the closet, I pulled it over my head and stared at myself in the mirror. I looked like April. I didn’t want to be April anymore, but sadly, my wardrobe consisted of April clothes and my work clothes. I didn’t know what I would wear to a club. I never went to one as myself. In college, I went to a few parties but wore jeans, and considering it wasn’t really my scene, I usually left early. I needed to spend some time finding a new style, one that fits my life now. While I was at it, I should probably do something with my hair too. Lifting my hand, I ran my fingers through the ends. It was the color of honey, which I liked because I was back to my actual color and no longer the bleached blond I once was, but it didn’t have much life. It had no personality. It was just blah and kind of looked the way I’d been feeling.

I was startled when there was a knock on the door. No one really comes to my place unless it’s Beth or Striker because they live right down the hall, but they usually text first. Shrugging, I walked to the door and pushed up to my tiptoes to look through the peephole.

Dropping back to my feet, I stood still. Ethan. What the hell was he doing at my door? When he knocked again, I knew I had to answer. He would’ve seen my car outside. He knew I was in here, and it was childish to pretend I wasn’t. Not to mention, I was curious as to why he was suddenly standing outside my door after two weeks of silence.

Unlocking it, I pulled it open and met his dark brown eyes. From the moment I met him, I saw something in those eyes that drew me to him, and that hasn’t changed.

He shoved his hands in his pockets, his eyes scanning down my body before meeting mine again. “You goin’ out?”

“Yeah,” I answered, although I wasn’t sure that was true anymore. The sadness I’d been battling suddenly engulfed me again.

He grinned slightly and pointed at my dress. “I hate your dress.”

I wanted to smile. I knew he hated my April clothes, and I missed this banter with him, but I couldn’t find the energy. “What do you want, Ethan?”

He pulled his hand from his pocket and gestured inside. “Do you have a minute before you leave?”

“Sure,” I replied unconvincingly and opened the door wider so he could walk through. “What’s going on?”

He glanced around my sparsely decorated living room, another thing I didn’t make time to do, before turning to face me just as I closed the door. “Thought we should talk.”

My eyebrows lifted. “I’m not sure there’s anything to say.”

He exhaled. “I talked to Brody…”

I laughed without any humor and put my hands on my hips. “Ah, that makes sense. I couldn’t figure out why you would be knocking on my door on a Friday night, but Brody finally talked to you and told you what he told me. Fix this.”

“Not exactly.”

I shook my head. “That’s exactly why you’re here.” I gestured toward his shorts and T-shirt. “Let me guess, by what you’re wearing, you were in the gym, he came in, told you we were making everyone uncomfortable, and one of us needed to fix it.” I put my arms out to the sides. “So you got in your car and drove here to do just that.”

“You’re wrong.”

“About which part?”

He swallowed. “I didn’t drive here.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Then how did you get here?”

“Brody drove me.”

“Oh my god.” I shoved my hands in my hair and turned my back on him. “You couldn’t even drive yourself here.” I spun to face him again. “That’s how much you don’t want to talk to me. He had to make you.”

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