Page 40 of Red Velvet

She throws me a look that can only be described as annoyed, her brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed.

"He said he found a new place to live, and he wants to come by to pick up his stuff that's still at our apartment," she retorts. "Myapartment, I mean. It's always been my place."

"That's a good thing, though, isn't it?"

She nods, but I can tell she's only partly agreeing with me.

"I guess. Yeah, it should be a good thing." She shakes her head, as if saying the words out loud won't change the fact that she's not entirely cool with it. "I don't know why I'm even thinking about it, or why I'm feeling like… I don't know."

She clears her throat, sticking out her perfect little tits as she straightens her back.

"It's just annoying to have him on my mind now," she adds. "The timing of his call just sucked."

"Don't think of him, then," I suggest, bringing the wineglass to my lips.

She huffs. "Easier said than done."

"He shouldn't hold such power over you. Not anymore."

My words seem to hit home, more so than I anticipated. She doesn't look hurt, but visibly impacted by what I said. Her face loses its former tension, turning into an absent gaze as she processes my statement.

"He never really held any power over me," she says in a thin voice. "That's not the kind of man he is, or was. He's just an angry, boring man."

"Boring?" I probe, sensing a chance to divert the subject in my favor. "What makes you say boring?"

"You know," she replies, shrugging. "It's just like you said. He's a nice guy, a regular guy. Someone who does exactly what's expected of him, never daring anything, never looking for danger or some kind of adventure, never leaving the path of mediocrity."

She pauses, looking as if she’s dwelling on memories of a past that can’t always have been as bad as she's trying to make it sound now. This time I don't stop her when she reaches for her drink, but I make a mental note of her forgetting to ask my permission.

"We were boring together," she continues, twirling the wine before her eyes. "I think we were a perfect example of two people bringing out the worst in each other."

I don't know what to tell her. Relationship talk wasn’t on my agenda tonight, and it's not like I could contribute anything helpful at all. I've never been in a relationship that lasted long enough to even deserve the name.

"I once heard that only boring people are ever bored," Lila continues.

A sigh flees her lips as she adds a little pause, her gaze wandering aimlessly, latching on to anything but me. "And I was bored a lot when I was still with Jim. What does that say about me? Do you think I'm boring?"

I look at her with grunted disbelief. "Isn't it obvious that I don't?"

She shakes her head. "No. All I know is you want to do… things with me. You like to play with me, but that doesn't tell me what you think of me." She adds a little smirk before she closes with "You're hard to read, Kade Armitage."

"I don't think you're boring. Not to me, at least," I respond to her question, ignoring the rush of feeling flattered by her words. "You ended things with Jim because you realized he wasn't giving you what you needed. That speaks of a self-awareness most people don't have. And it makes you anything but boring."

"I literally broke free from him and the path that was laid out for us," she says. "And went right into the arms of a handsome rebel."

There it is again. That word. Why does she insist on calling me that?

"A rebel, huh?" I repeat, throwing her a side look. "Is that all I am to you?"

She looks like someone who got caught doing something wrong, sucking in a sharp breath as she raises her hands in defense.

"I didn't want to offend you—"

"You're not. I'm just curious. You keep bringing up this label. There must be a reason for it."

She bites her lower lip. "Yeah, I mean… in a way, you are a rebel, aren't you?"

"How so?"

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