Page 173 of Volatile Obsessions

Worked my anger out in a positive outlet.

I went every single day, harder and longer still after the blaze at the factory.

The regimen seemed to be working, but I suspected that was only because I was exhausting myself to the point I’d go home, shower, refuel, and pass the hell out.

Today, though, I made the sudden decision to stop somewhere on the way home. I hadn’t been to the Panorama since the night Lux and I broke up, but something was calling to me, urging me to visit the roof top.

To deal with my strife head-on.

It was painful to say the least, leaving me no other choice but to relive what took place up here. I stood near the ledge for quite some time, time traveling through them all; the volatile ones while we were enemies, the tense ones during our transition phase, the tender ones after I claimed her as mine…

All of them.

When it was all said done, when there was nothing left to look back on, I felt more hollow than before, yet sobered from the fog I’d been living in for weeks.

Folding in on myself, I sunk to the ground in poignant distress, regretting every decision that had led me to this point in my life.

Except Lux.

I missed her—with every fiber of my goddamn being, and for the first time since she left me up here, I wondered if packing my bags would be the best solution for me.

If yet another move would be what helped me heal.

A fresh start—far away from the memories this city now held.

And that’s when my phone rang, a call that, unbeknownst to me, was fate catching up to me.

On autopilot, I fished it out of my pocket.

I didn’t recognize the number, and yet I answered it anyway. A small part of me—as stupid as it sounds—had me believing it could be Lux. “Hello?”

“Hey, stranger.”

I. Fucking. Froze.

Went more rigid than the concrete settled for years beneath me.

That voice.

“Liza…” I growled, balling my fists in my lap.

“Miss me, baby?” she asked, using her most sultry voice.

A voice I once loved.

Cringing, I shot onto my feet and surveyed everything around me. She could’ve been anywhere. “Quite the opposite, actually,” I snapped, repulsed.

“Ouch—such hostility. Why?”

“Ask yourself that question. You’re the reason why we’re here.”

“You led me here,” she countered viciously.

“And you led me on,” I tossed back. “Guess we’re even.”

“I don’t want to be even. I just want you.”

I cringed again. I’d rather be dead than give my ex another chance. “Might as well give it up, Liza, because I can assure you, that’s never going to happen.”

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