Page 82 of Because of Her

Her voice is muffled through the phone but the words light up behind my eyes.

“Whatever happened, I think you should try to make it work.” Her words shock me, but they light a tiny spark in my soul. I thought I was done trying to make things work with Cassidy, but maybe there’s a little fight left in me after all.

“I don’t even really like Michael. Like, he is a good guy. But he isn’t right for me. I just didn’t want to be alone, getting replaced, while you found the love of your life.”

“Oh, Audrey.”

I want to hug her through the phone. I grab at one of the cushions on the couch and squeeze it instead.

There’s a lot to process and I’m not sure where to start. Maisie liking Cassidy is a good start. Or the fact that even Audrey can recognise how special what I have with Cassidy is.

“Promise me something,” Audrey forces out after a large sniff.

“What?”

“Promise me Maisie will always come first.”

“Our daughter will always come first.”

After ending the call, I sit for a while. Contemplating everything, regretting so much.

Laughter in the hallway distracts me from my musing. My legs move of their own accord as they creep toward the door, and I’m thankful for my ‘no shoes in the apartment rule’ when my socks muffle my footsteps.

Cassidy’s laugh fills my ears, along with another woman who I assume is Amira. Their voices are faint and broken frominside my apartment, but I can make out the sounds of one of them searching through a handbag. For keys, I guess.

“Ugh, we should leave a key above the doorframe like Callum,” Cassidy says as I inch closer to the door to hear better.

Amira laughs in response before shouting, “Found it!”

Their door opens, then slams shut and I’m left standing sideways, my ear centimetres from being pressed against the wooden panelling between me and them. Between me and her.

I can’t breathe. What started as a swirling of emotions inside every piece of me, has grown to a cyclone sized storm. My chest constricts, my neck aches, my brain races.

Cassidy is right there across the hall, and I know she is the woman I am meant to be with.

I know almost nothing of my ex-wife’s relationship with this Michael, and I’m still angry I had to find out through Maisie. But so help me if it hasn’t fuelled me with something else.

A heat that won’t stop rising from my core. I can have that, too, in fact, I can have something even better. And the woman I want it with is mere metres away from me. Noah told me to wait, but I’m done sitting around and waiting for her to fight for us, because Cassidy is worth fighting for.

I’ll fight every day until she knows she belongs with me. Until she knows she fits.

Without thinking, I undo the latch on the door, crossing the corridor in two long strides. I don’t stop to knock, stepping straight into their apartment.

“Rogue,” it comes out on an exhale, breathy and hot from deep in my throat.

The two women appear at the end of the hallway and for a brief second, I register that Amira still has her shoes on. But like always when she is in a room, it’s Cassidy whocatches my attention. She has, presumably, already changed. The fluffy socks on her feet give way to bare legs. I allow myself the time to peruse them slowly, dragging my gaze up to where the long dark tee brushes her thighs. It’s clinging in all the right places, and I can see the outline of her hips, her breasts, underneath it.

Her face is pink with blush, her mouth open in a tiny ‘o’ shape. The storm rushes through my limbs, lightning sparking around me.

Amira coughs, stealing both our attention.

“I am so glad I’m going back out.” She laughs as she speed walks down the hall. She passes me with a wide berth, sidestepping as though to avoid the heat I’m sure is radiating off me.

As soon as she has passed, I move for Cassidy. My arms wrap around her waist and pull her in until I can feel every inch of her pressed against me. I trail my hand up her back and into her hair, fisting it around the chocolate waves to tilt her head up so she is looking up at me.

We breathe in unison and her tongue darts out to wet her lips.

“Uh, Callum, your door is open?” Amira calls from the hall.

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