Page 155 of We Can't Be Friends

I have no words. No notes. No complaints for the maker.

I’m catching my breath as he runs the pinched corner of the empanada around his mouth. Collecting my glistening mess and taking a bite.

I hate how hot it is—how hot he is.

Callum was right earlier. Once we start, I know we aren’t going to stop.

My phone lights up again. His eyes track it and shoulders tense. Cal’s next bite is aggressive, annoyed.

I pull the device to me, flipping it over.

“Might want to read those.” His voice is sour, a complete contrast to the past ten minutes. Cal finishes the empanada and eats another.

He watches from the opposite counter as I read the texts, eyes flying across the screen.

SETH: I’m coming to see you. We should talk.

SETH: Chloe. Hello? Answer your door.

SETH: This is real immature, Chloe.

SETH: Where are you?

SETH: Are you serious, Chloe?

Cal speaks first. “Are you talking to him again?”

Where his sudden anger is coming from, I have no clue.

“No.” I shake my head.

“You sure?” He wipes his mouth with a napkin. “Seth was coming to see you.”

He wets a rag from under the sink. When I try to take it from him he stops me. Stepping between my legs, he gently runs the rag across my inner thighs.

“He’s not here. Seth,”—Cal cringes at his name coming out of my mouth. Shoulders hike up and down—“doesn’t know I moved out. He doesn’t know I’m living with you. We. Haven’t. Spoken.” I enunciate each word.

“Are you going to text him back?”

Cal pushes off the counter, walking away, not even waiting for my response.

I hop off the counter, throwing my shirt back on, underwear still on the floor, and my breathing barely normal, to follow him.

“Callum, please stop.”

He spins to look at me. “You were biding your time with me till he wanted you back. That’s all this was—” His hand waves in the air toward the kitchen. “A quick fuck till someone better, someone like him wanted you back?”

I take a step backward.

My heart dropping to the floor.

“Cal. . .”

“Don’t, Chloe. It’s fine, I’m used to this. Always second place.”

I’m frozen, my eyes and heart heavy from his words. Cal turns back to the stairs and walks away.

He’s wrong.

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