Page 28 of Zero Pucks

I went to sleep all nerves and was plagued with stress nightmares of kissing Tucker and then having him morph into Bryce. I woke up sweating and sick to my stomach so many times that by five, I gave up.

Showering did a little to ease some of the tension in my muscles, and the rental had a nice coffee station with a few dozen flavored coffee pods. It made me smile knowing Bryce would have hated it. A small, vicious part of me hoped that he was twisting himself up inside not knowing where I was or what I was doing.

I sat on the porch, watching the sunrise, and the feeling lasted until my phone began to buzz. I glanced over at the screen, and my heart skipped a beat. It was my sister, and that was how my morning officially started.

“When are you meeting him?”

I blinked. “Who, Tucker?”

“No, the fucking Easter Bunny. Yes, Tucker.”

I grimaced at her, though she couldn’t see me through the phone. “We’re meeting for breakfast. Well, brunch,” I clarified. I told Tucker to meet at ten thirty so he didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn like I did.

“What time is it there right now?”

“Not after ten thirty. You’re better at geography than I am, Liss. What’s going on?”

Her silence told me this wasn’t a nothing call. She wasn’t checking up on me.

“Alessia,” I said firmly.

“He’s at your place.”

I didn’t need to ask who. “Why? You were supposed to get him to clear his shit out.”

“Yep. And he showed up with cops who said that this was his place of residence because he got mail there and had stuff inside,” she said. “I didn’t want to call you yesterday while you were in the middle of all the traveling. There wasn’t anything you could have done.”

My stomach sank through the floor. I’d been afraid of that. We’d never officially moved in together, and over the last year, he’d spent less and less time with me. But he did get some mail there. And yeah, he had shit. That’s what I wanted him to clear out.

“They said he has every right to be there, and you have to sort it all out together. They made me leave.”

My stomach began to roll. “I hate him.”

“So do I. I’m going to work on it, okay? But…don’t come home. He seemed a little unhinged, Deo. Like, I’m genuinely worried about you being near him.”

She wasn’t joking. I could hear it in her tone.

“What am I supposed to do? That’s my home.” I pressed a hand over my face and took in a long breath. “He’s going to wreck everything, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. He probably is. He had that little fuck-face with the pierced nipples with him too.”

Oh God, they were going to fuck on my bed. They were going to fuck on my couch! I was going to have his spoodge all over my stuff.

My face went hot. “I can’t deal with this right now.”

“I know,” Alessia answered, sounding genuinely sorry. “I wish I could make it better for you, and I’m going to try. But you needed to know.”

For a moment, I was angry.DidI need to know this right now? Was it necessary to fuck up my nerves, which were already frayed to nothing? But I couldn’t blame her. This wasn’t her fault. I was the one who screwed around. I was the one who took too long to end this toxic bullshit between us.

“I’ll call you later. I need to go.”

“Deo—”

“No, seriously. I have to get ready to meet Tucker and take care of this. When I have some free time, we can chat, and I can figure something out.” I could break my lease. Bryce wasn’t on it, and as much as I hated that idea because I was comfortable there and had been for years, maybe it would be worth it to start entirely over.

I’d sleep on a blow-up mattress and live out of plastic bins and suitcases if it meant being rid of all the things Bryce ruined without having to actually see him. I could do this.

It wasn’t the end of the world.

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