Page 52 of His Bittersweet Regret

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“Because I know for a fact that you still have his phone blocked, you little, lying, liar pants.” She snatched my phone from me, unblocked Marsh’s number, and then hit resend on the message I tried to fake my way through.

Asshole who left me: What time is she leaving?

Opal: In about ten minutes.

Asshole who left me: Be there in five.

Bethany chuckled and then handed my phone back to me. “Nice name you gave him.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Silent treatment, huh?” She asked even though the smile never slipped from her face. “Whatever. He can use my air mattress, but I demand that he wash the sheets and replace them before Monday, and I better not hear that you took them to that ratchet-ass laundry room in this complex.”

“How do you think I get my laundry done? Do you see a washer and dryer hiding in my apartment anywhere?”

“Girl, you should have taken that man up on staying in that house.” I rolled my eyes at her. “Yeah, I know why you couldn’t. Doesn’t mean I can’t wish you were in a better place.”

“Maybe next year I’ll be able to afford something more.”

A few minutes went by as Bethany got ready for work, before there was a knock on the door. Bethany came flying out of my tiny bathroom with a makeup brush in hand. “Sit your booty down. I got it.”

“You know I am allowed to move, right?”

She sniggered at that. “Oh, I know, but it takes you forever to do it.”

“Jerk,” I tossed the taunt out even though I didn’t really mean it.

“You love me,” she declared as she swung the door open.

“I like you. I love your best friend,” Marsh said before Beth opened the door wide enough for him to come through.

“Watch yourself, smooth talker, she’s in a mood.”

“Let me guess, you had to steal her phone to text me to get here?” He asked.

Bethany simply shrugged her shoulders without actually validating the truth of his statement. “I’ll be out of your hair in just a minute,” she told him as he took over making sure the door was shut and locked, despite the fact that Beth would be leaving any minute.

“I wish you had been the one to text,” he admitted, while taking the seat next to me.

“Didn’t want to bother you.”

“Don’t you understand that you couldn’t ever be a bother?”

I didn’t dignify that with an answer, all things considered, but only because I didn’t have the energy to fight. Instead, I told him he was welcome to use Beth’s air mattress.

“You know, there are a couple of actual beds over at the house that I bought for you.”

“You didn’t buy a house for me. You bought it hoping to buy my forgiveness and for us to use it together. There’s a world of difference between the two.”

He shrugged, not denying that fact. “I never said I didn’t want us to eventually be a family in that house, but it’s yours until you decide you’re ready to let that happen.”

“And what if I never decide to let it happen? What if I decide that you aren’t any good for me, especially after I’ve had enough of being jerked around, and tossed aside for other women? Do you kick me out? Leave me no time to find a new, acceptable place? Do you take all of my memories again?”

“Christ! Opal, I swear to you, the whole time we were apart all I could think of was you. I wished away the six months, in hopes that we could get back together sooner.”

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