Page 21 of Unrecognizable Player

The voices get louder and when I turn around, Dorian is standing in the doorway, his eyes wild and his hair messy.

“Baby, hey.”

Alice rushes up behind him. “Sorry, I tried to tell him to give you a few minutes-”

“It’s fine, I’m done.”

“Wait.” Dorian steps into the room. “Can’t you stay for a while? We can talk-”

“He has nothing to say to you.”

Dorian ignores her.

“I don’t want to talk, I just wanted to get my things.”

“Are you really going to just turn your back on the last six months because of one stupid mistake?”

While my resolve wavers, Alice scoffs. “One mistake, that he knows about.”

Dorian’s nostrils flare. “Stay out of this.” That flash of anger reminds me of a trait of his I never liked very much. His ability to just change on a dime. It happened sometimes when we were out, and he’d speak to a waiter like they were beneath him. I couldn’t ignore it, not while my family own a restaurant and wait on customers every day, and he knows that. When I brought it up, he’d be especially apologetic and leave the waiter a huge tip, but I was still embarrassed. Seeing him speak to Alice like that reminds me. I look at him without the rose-tinted glasses and maybe he’s not so pretty after all.

Opening the bag up, I take out the memory box and put it on the bed.

“Is that… oh baby, don’t leave, come on, we can talk about this.”

He tries to grab my arm as I walk past, but Alice pulls me out of the room before he can get purchase.

“I’m not going to hurt him,” Dorian frowns. “He’s my boyfriend, I just want to talk to him.”

We ignore him as we gather the bags Alice has lined up in the hallway, ready to take to the car.

Dorian stands in the doorway, alternating between telling me how ridiculous this is and begging me to forgive him and stay.

I’m shaking when we finally get in the car. My bags piled up in Alice’s trunk.

“You okay?” she squeezes my hand.

I take a deep breath, throwing one last glance at the apartment before saying goodbye to it forever. “Yeah.” I give her hand a squeeze back. “I’m okay.”

“Is this it?”Alice pulls up outside the apartment block where Alexei lives, craning her neck to see the top floor.

“Yep.”

“Looks okay.” She takes her seatbelt off and turns to face me. “Stef, are you sure you wanna do this? That was pretty intense back there. Maybe you need a bit of time staying with someone you feel comfortable with? Maybe even a week at your parents’ place if you don’t want to stay with me. You could get the subway into classes for a little bit, it would be doable.”

I shake my head. “Thank you, but no. I have to do this eventually, and the jock isn’t that bad.”

“You’re sure?” She gives me the eyebrow.

“Positive.”

Alexei buzzes me in and I prepare myself to carry all this stuff up without his help. But as Alice and I are unloading the car, the building door opens and I turn around to find him wedging something under it to keep it open.

He’s dressed in a pair of grey sweatpants, a black t-shirt with the college hockey logo across the front, and a pair of slide-on sandals with no socks. I turn back to the car quickly and carry on unloading, but Alice is on me, whispering in my ear.

“Are you kidding me?”

“What?”

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