Page 51 of Forget Me Not

Reed tips his head back to look at me. “I’ve got a better idea. How aboutIrun upstairs and make that sandwich and bring it down to you? That way I can still follow through on my intentions to serve you lunch at work like the flawless boyfriend I aim to be.” He grins, his bright white teeth flashing me his perfect smile.

“My boyfriend, huh?” I say the words out loud, just to see how I feel about them. The last time we were together I was practicing calling him my husband. It’s hard not to acknowledge that we’ve taken a step in the wrong direction here.

“Yeah. Is that not what I am?” He chuckles. He thinks I’m kidding. Of course, I’m kidding. Sort of. I haven’t had a boyfriend since...well, since Reed. Gun never called himself my boyfriend. At least not in front of me. I’m not sure why. I never asked. I never wondered. Until this very moment. But then I was never his girlfriend either. We just...were. There was never a question of what we were to each other. We were together. That was it.

“Alright, perfect boyfriend,” I glide my palm up his jawline to cup the side of his handsome face. His skin is smooth, no sign of stubble of any kind. “I’ll have an avocado and tomato sandwich with salt and pepper please, if it’s not too much trouble.”

He takes my hand in his and moves my palm to his lips, placing a sweet kiss inside. “No trouble at all.”

Then his lips trail down my wrist and lower arm briefly before traveling upward again to find my mouth. It takes another five minutes of tender kisses before we manage to break apart and he takes off up the stairs to make my lunch, leaving me behind smiling from ear to ear.

While I wait for him to get back, I busy myself with cleaning up my work space. I haven’t done much other than knead clay non-stop since I got here, but I’ve still made a sufficient mess all the same.

The store door jingles and I look up, expecting a customer.

“Hey.” Gun’s standing in front of me. He seems taller somehow. Darker. I can suddenly see why everyone always finds him so intimidating. He is.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, torn between wanting to rush up and hug him tight and running in the back to hide.

“You’re moving,” he says, matter of fact.

“How do you –“ then it dawns on me before I finish the question. “Reed called your office.” I should have known. If Reed googled real estate companies in the area, Gun’s would have popped up in the top spot.

“Yep.” He nods grimly. “I’ve got Hil on it.”

Hilary. I hate her. I don’t have a good reason, but she’s always rubbed me the wrong way. And Gun knows that. “Gee, thanks.”

“Don’t give me that,” he sneers. “She’s the best I’ve got, hell, she’s the best in the county, so you take your snotty attitude and shove it. I’m doing you a favor, not going out of my way to annoy you, which would be supremely petty by the way, and not my style.”

“I don’t need your favors,” I huff. I’m definitely over the initial hug idea. “And as soon as I tell Reed he’s doing business with you, I won’t be able to accept them anyway. There’s no way he’s going to use one of your realtors.” Not when the whole point of moving is to put distance between us and past relationships.

Gun snorts, a twisted smirk of amusement at my expense moving over his mouth. “It’s really going to be like this, huh?”

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from crying. “You asked for it. You said ithadto be this way.”

His face turns stern, cold even. “Fine.” His eyes bore into me and I can’t bear to think what they see. What they’re looking for. His jaw grinds back and forth, and I know he’s carefully choosing his words before he says them. I brace myself. Gun hits hard when he wants to.

But then...

He turns.

He walks.

He disappears.

And the silence left in his wake overwhelms me. Takes me down. Leaves me breathless and sobbing until I’m sure I’m shattered from the inside out. It finally happened. We broke. And the half of us that is left with me, is floundering.

My thoughts stagger inside my head, unable to complete themselves. Incapable of finding their own path. It’s pathetic. I’m pathetic.

I refuse to be this way.

I refuse to be that girl.

I’m not her.

I’ve never been her.

I don’t need rescuing. I’ve never needed rescuing. Not in the bleakest, darkest moments of my life have I ever needed rescuing. I was okay. On my own. I was okay with the bleakness. The darkness.

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