Page 4 of Alfie: Part One

“Okay!”

They shut the doors to their rooms, and our reasons for being in the same room once a week were gone. Time for me to leave.

“Have a good week,” I said, opening the door.

“Alfie—a moment, please.” West walked ahead of me, to my surprise, and stopped right outside. “I need to tell you something, and I don’t want you to hear it from them.”

I lifted a brow. It was best to keep eye contact to a minimum. West was always going to be the man in fitted pullovers and slacks, if he wasn’t wearing a suit, and my reaction to him was evidently always going to be the same too. My whole fucking body screamed for his. The comfort and sturdiness he’d represented. Always so solid, tall, warm, and caregiving.

Until he’d grown cold and said we were done.

He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head. A few more streaks of silver had appeared lately.

“My parents are watching the kids tomorrow night,” he said. “Knowing my mother, she’ll probably say too much, and I—” He stopped with a sigh. “I have a date. That’s all.”

No.

Please fucking don’t.

I clenched my jaw and averted my stare as I broke all over again. My chest suddenly felt tight, from one breath to the next, and I couldn’t fucking believe it. I mean, I could—I’d waited for this day, knowing it would come sooner or later. But my fucking God, it hurt. Holy shite, I needed to go. Stat.

“Got it.” I nodded once and started making my way back to my car.

Run. Escape. Hide. Cry. Fall apart where no one can see.

He was officially moving on. Maybe he already had. Who knew how many one-nighters he’d had the past two years—although, that wasn’t his MO. But whatever. He had a date. He was getting out there. One day, he’d introduce someone to our kids?—

Fuck me, I was gonna be sick.

Nausea crawled up my throat, and I hurried to the car.

“Is that it?” West asked. “We once said we’d discuss things when we met someone.”

“Ain’t fuckin’ nothing to discuss,” I snapped over my shoulder.

I unlocked the car and got in behind the wheel, and I noticed my fingers were trembling. Rage and jealousy and despair, emotions all too familiar for me. And now the day was here. Fuck Fridays, cunt-ass motherfucking shite.

I saw West’s expression as I started the engine, arms wide, eyes flashing with disbelief, so I rolled down the windows and backed out.

“Are you honestly leaving?” he called. “You’re clearly upset!”

I backed out of the driveway and laughed humorlessly. “Nah, I’m thrilled! I hope you and Whatshisface ride off into the sunset together!” I legit flipped him off. I wasn’t sure I’d given anyone the finger since high school.

West could not look more incredulous. “Alfie, what the hell!”

“Yeah, go there and rot! Piece’a shit!” I gnashed my teeth, stepped on the gas, and rolled up the windows again.

Oh my God, I wanted to kill someone. Maybe the motherfucker West had asked out. Had they fucked already? He’d been old-school with me. I’d suggested he rail me in thealley behind the bar I’d worked at, and he’d sort of blanched. Then he’d demanded he take me to dinner first.

Perhaps that was why this hurt so fucking much. West was all heart, and he didn’t go very far until he was ready to go the distance.

I sniffled and realized my vision was too blurry, so I angrily wiped at my cheeks and blinked back the tears. Well, too late to take anything back.Fuck, fuck, fuck!I punched the steering wheel and let the fury burst out of me.

As if on cue, my phone rang, and I picked it up and saw it was West.

I let it go to voice mail and drove past Trip’s school before I started ignoring the speed limit.

“Fuck you, you fucking cunt!” I yelled.

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