Page 16 of Zero Pucks

“Cute.”

“It is. It has nothing t-to do with you. But…” I looked at Alessia as I gripped her hand harder. “W-we need to talk.”

“No we don’t. You need to meet me at home so I can set you straight.” I didn’t want to know what that meant. “You’re stuttering again, babe. Something is up, and I’m not going to just sit on my ass and wait for you to tell me what it is. Come home right now.”

I glanced behind me, frantic to find somewhere I could meet him. There was a little café with a cat on the sign. “I’m n-not going to do that. Meet me at Café Rouge. It’s on the corner of First and Marks.”

“You’re serious,” he said flatly.

Alessia obviously heard him, and she nodded at me. I took a breath. “Yes. I’m s-serious.”

There was a long pause, and then he snorted. “You’re at Rossi’s right now.”

Fuck. I needed to turn my location off. “I’m having a late lunch with Alessia.”

“Ah, the Bitch is back.”

“D-don’t.” Christ, I hated being such a stammering mess. “Don’t call her that. Just…meet me.”

“Fine, but you’re going to pay for all this game-playing bullshit, Deo. Do you hear me? You’re going to be very, very sorry.”

I hung up without answering, too panicked to say a word. “He’s going to kill me,” I whispered.

Alessia leaned over the table toward me. “He might think he can try, but trust me, Deo. He’ll be dead before he can blink.”

* * *

I didn’t have Bryce’s location. When I asked him to reciprocate turning it on, he’d shouted at me for half an hour about trust, then insisted he only needed mine because of his anxiety. I’d never known him to have real anxiety a day in his life, but it wasn’t worth the fight.

There was hate in his eyes after that, though. There were pointed insults, and sometimes, I could swear he was gleeful whenever he reduced me to a stuttering mess. The fact that I stayed so long was going to humiliate me until the day I died.

When I moved on—ifI ever moved on—to another relationship, I could only pray to God they never asked me about my ex. I wouldn’t want to lie, but admitting what Bryce was like and then admitting that I didn’t cut and run when I should have would be too embarrassing to handle.

“Let me go in with you,” Alessia said, reaching for my arm.

I shrugged her off. “No. I can do this. I need to do this.”

She met my gaze and stared for a long moment before nodding. “Fine, but I’m going to be right here. Let his punk ass know that the Bitch is right outside. If he tries anything, I will rip his dick and balls off with my bare hands.”

Part of me wanted to cry because I shouldn’t need my sister nearby to feel like I could clean up my relationship mess.

Fuck it. I had this.

I turned and walked into the café. I had my speech prepared—a few dozen words telling him it was over. I’d get a hotel for the weekend, and when I wasn’t at the apartment, he could clear out his stuff. I didn’t care if he robbed me blind. I didn’t care if he broke half my things and pissed in my bed. I only cared that he left his key behind and we never had to speak again.

I grabbed a table near the kitchen where almost no one was sitting. I wasn’t sure if this was going to be one of those moments where he made a scene or where he remained eerily calm to make me seem likeIwas the unhinged one.

Whatever happened, it wouldn’t matter.

I was going to keep my composure.

He breezed through the door fifteen minutes late, right when I was starting to give up that he was going to show at all. He had a person with him—a tall, leggy twink wearing a mesh top. Bryce smiled at him and pointed to the coffee bar, and I knew what he was doing.

I looked down at my hands folded on the table and waited.

“Amedeo. Little god,” he said. He swore that was the meaning of my name, and the first time I corrected him about it, he didn’t speak to me for a week. Now, I swore he said it to get under my skin. “Sorry I’m late. Tanner and I were at the salon.”

His hair looked freshly highlighted, and he’d definitely had an eyebrow wax. I fought the urge to touch mine. I was always a little unkempt, and my hair was always too thick and too wild, but the first time I tried to clean myself up, Bryce had laughed himself almost sick.

---