“What could Brittany possibly need security for?”
“Her stalker. The one you apparently knew about.”
Robbie had the nerve to roll his eyes.
“She’s really worried about some creep in a basement stroking off to her photos? The guy is harmless.”
Rage. A burning rage had been kindled in Gus’s chest.
“He’s not harmless. He’s been escalating for a while now. And I can’t believe you knew about this and didn’t tell me.”
“Why would I tell you?”
“Because I work in security, Robbie. I do this shit for my job. If Brittany was having issues, I could’ve helped.”
The sound that came out of Robbie just then could only be described as a snort.
“You know why I didn’t tell you. I was doing you a favor.”
Gus’s head spun with confusion.
“A favor? What fucking favor? Why wouldn’t I want to help?”
“You would want to help. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
They stood there, staring at each other. Robbie clearly thought he had the upper hand, some knowledge that he believed Gus had, but for the life of him, Gus couldn’t figure it out. And it was pissing him off. Immensely.
Robbie gave him a look.
“Gus, I saw your face.”
“What face?”
“I saw your face when I first brought Brittany home. You looked like you had been hit by a bus.”
Gus froze, ice in his veins as he tried to compute what Robbie was telling him.
“What the actual fuck are you talking about?”
“I had never seen you react that way to a girl before. It was like you forgot how to breathe.”
Gus turned to go into his kitchen, needing to get away from the words because they absolutely weren’t true.
“You’re out of your mind.”
“I’m not,” Robbie said. “You like her. You’ve always liked her. I just had her first. And now she’s single and you think there’s a chance for you.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
Robbie was on a roll, and definitely not listening. “And it’s fucked up, Gus. She’s my ex-girlfriend.”
Gus gripped the counter, counting in his head even though he knew it was futile. His chest was tight, like it was trying to expand and was stuck. There’s no way what Robbie was saying was true. Gus had been nothing but polite to Brittany. They had never once had a moment of heat or chemistry between them before this weekend. Gus had always, always only seen her as Robbie’s girlfriend before the breakup.
But maybe, just maybe, there had been a moment when he first saw her. Before he knew she was Robbie’s. When he had looked at her and thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.
Only a moment. But apparently Robbie had noticed. Fuck.
“You’re wrong about a lot of things,” Gus ground out. “But I’m also going to again point out that you didn’t seem bothered by dating ex-girlfriends when you dated Annabelle.”