Page 86 of Fate Forever and Always

“Nothing. I thought I was going to fall. Just tripped a little, that’s all. I will be fine. It was just a—”

“Callie, you are rambling, which means you are lying. Did you get that trait from Aubrey?” He chuckled, trying to make light of the situation. I stayed quiet and just shrugged it off until he spoke again. “Wanna try again, Sweets?”

I got defensive, and my tone was a little rough and harsh. “I just tripped, okay? I don’t wanna talk about it. It was embarrassing. Get over it.”

Nick stopped walking and let go of my hand. “Woah. Wanna trythatagain? What is the attitude for?”

I began walking inside since we were at the steps already. “It's nothing. Forget it, please.”

Nick shut the door behind us and turned to me. “No, I won't forget it. What the fuck happened in the last ten minutes for you to do a damn one-eighty like that? Are you okay?

“I am fine,” I tried to say, a little calmer.

Nick gave me a curious look. I realized he saw me clutching my phone. I could see in his eyes he was thinking about what to say or maybe just thinking about how to say it. I knew what he was going to say before he even uttered a word.

“Let me see what he said.” He put his open hand out in front of me.

“Who?” I gave him my best dumb-look impression.

“Callie.” His eyes were narrowing in size and darkening in color with every moment that passed. I looked down in order to spare myself a moment to think.

“I don’t have to show you my phone, Nick. You don’t fucking own me.”

He took a step forward, and his lips were mere inches from mine. His eyes met mine when I finally looked back up. “You are right. I don’t own you, but you are mine. If someone is bothering you, or hurting what is mine, I have the right to know, and I have a right—as your boyfriend—to help you.” He took a long, heavy breath. “Let. Me. See. It.”

The next words just flew out of my mouth, even though I didn’t mean a single one of them. “I don’t need you to worry about me, Nick. Especially if you are going to act like a damn caveman. Maybe I don’t need you as a boyfriend, either. Maybe I just need some goddamn space for once.”

He stepped away from me. I could tell he was trying hard to hide the hurt. “What?”

“You heard me,” I said curtly.

His eyes went wide with shock. He started to scratch his head and was looking around. It pissed me off for some reason.

“What the fuck are you looking around for?” I asked.

“Cameras or someone to tell me I'm being pranked.”

“Why would someone be pranking you?”

“Callie, what the hell just fucking happened? Did you get body snatched or something? How did we go from taking a nice walk together to you saying that bullshit to me?”

“I—” I started to speak, but then he turned to me.

“You know what…when you are ready to tell me, go for it. Until then, I'm going to give you the space youneedall of a sudden.” He kissed my forehead. “Have a nice night, Callie.” Without another look back at me, he stormed down the hallway and into his room.

“Now what?” I said out loud, wishing like hell someone would give me the answer.

The next day, Nick left for work earlier than normal. He was probably trying to avoid me. I heard him getting ready and the front door closed around seven this morning. I got up and had some coffee while I reread the messages Jake had sent over and over. I never answered him, but I knew I had to.

Why are you doing this?

I waited a few minutes and got no response, so I took a shower and got ready for my students to arrive. Luckily, today was a more laid-back day since it was a last-minute session with only one student. It's technically a holiday for school, and I normally don’t teach lessons on those days, but when she reached out asking me if I had some spare time, I couldn’t say no. I needed the extra money anyway since it looked like I was going to have to find a new place to live. I had to work a shift at the restaurant today, as well. Thankfully that wasn’t until later.

This session was becoming one of my favorites of all time. Carly was doing amazing. Hearing her play was a complete joy. It was helping me get out of my head a little. She’s sixteen and is trying out for Julliard next year, so we were working on building on her skills. She has come up with two audition pieces so far that she plays to perfection. One she wrote herself with Aubrey’s guidance, and the other was Bach’s Prelude & Figure BWV 851 in D Minor.

I kept catching Carly staring at me while she was playing, but I assumed it was just because she was a little nervous since she was showing me the music she and Aubrey had recently finalized.

After we finished, she packed up her bags and turned toward me. “Miss Diaz, are you okay?”

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