Page 41 of Get Undressed With Me

“You meanmyhard drives, Robbie. I bought them, all their registration was in my name, all their warranties and repairs. My hard drives.”

He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in front of him in a classic defensive move.

“So, what? You pushed me into the arms of someone else, destroyed my work, and now you’re going to fuck my brother in revenge?”

Brittany barely had time to gasp at the accusation before they both jumped at the sound of a door slamming shut. Brittany turned too fast, forgetting her bad ankle and wincing when the pain shot up her leg. There, in the doorway with a bag of groceries and a scowl on his face, was Gus.

Robbie immediately rounded on him, too fired up to give a shit about how pissed Gus was.

“And you. ‘Nothing going on’ my ass. How soon after you told me that did you sleep with her? Unbelievable, Gus.”

Gus very carefully set down the groceries, placing his keys on the little hook by the door, and then turned to Robbie. His voice was quiet, especially in comparison to Robbie’s yelling, his tone so cold Brittany shivered.

“First of all, I could hear you both yelling down the hall. If you don’t have any respect for me, at least respect my neighbors and keep your voices down.”

Robbie opened his mouth to reply, probably some asinine remark, but Gus sliced a hand through the air in front of him. His expression was thunder, fierce and protective, and Brittany couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

But Gus only had eyes for Robbie.

“No. You’ve already said your piece, and it was some pretty horrible shit to say, Robbie. Nothing is going on between me and Brittany. She’s a job, which I told you about. She hurt her ankle and she’s hanging out here where I can keep an eye on her. For my job.”

Brittany wasn’t ready for how that statement stung. But Robbie just switched tactics, his voice lower as he leaned toward Gus, switching to supportive brother in a blink of a personality shift.

“She’s playing you, Gus. Don’t fall for this damsel routine. She’s using you to get revenge against me.”

Brittany snorted at that ridiculousness, leaning against the wall to take the weight off her ankle. Gus ignored her to focus on his brother.

“Why would she need revenge against you, Robbie?”

Gus asked the question in exactly the tone of a person who already knew the answer and was waiting for Robbie to fess up. And Robbie knew it. His face turned bright red.

“She pushed me away, Gus.”

“Did she push you away, or did you get bored like you always do?”

This was news to Brittany, but she didn’t want to interrupt for follow-up questions. Robbie was already shaking his head.

“It wasn’t like that.”

“Look, your relationships are none of my business. But when you look me in the eye and lie to my face like you did about your breakup, that makes me feel a certain kind of way. That makes me feel that I don’t mean a lot to you, and that I’m not worthy ofhearing your truth, no matter how ugly. We’re brothers, man. I thought we were better than that.”

Robbie looked chagrined, and Brittany had to admire Gus’s ability to talk about things like this. She had never really known someone who could phrase hurt in a way that made it a tangible thing to talk through. She certainly could never talk to Kathleen like that. She’d get too mad and one of them would throw something.

“I’m sorry,” Robbie said. “I should have told you the truth. But she did push me away. I was never good enough for her, and she let me know it.”

“Stop lying, dipstick.”

Brittany was talking before she realized her mouth was moving, but she was too mad, so fuck it. If Gus kicked her out, he kicked her out. But she wasn’t going to listen to Robbie’s lies one more fucking moment.

“I was a hundred percent in, Robbie. But I was never a priority for you, and you made that abundantly clear, so clear that I feel like an idiot for not seeing it sooner. So don’t you blame me for you cheating. I won’t fucking stand it.”

Brittany could feel tears in her eyes, which surprised her. She hadn’t cried when Robbie had ended their relationship and certainly hadn’t cried when she found out he had been cheating. But here she was, in front of both Lozano brothers no less, with her eyes watering.

“You were the one who moved on without telling me,” she continued. “You were the one that violated my trust over and over again. You were the one who made it clear through your every action how little you respected me.”

Robbie had the grace to look ashamed, but he was still Robbie, which meant he wasn’t ready to give up being the victim. Instead, he focused on Gus.

“Is this because of Annabelle?”

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