Page 93 of The CEO I Hate

“Mia, come here,” he said, using his big brother voice on me. He patted the couch next to him, coaxing me closer. I stumbled toward him, slumping onto the couch cushions, and he pulled me into a hug so tight I could barely breathe.

It was exactly what I needed.

The tears fell, soaking his shirt, and I sobbed harder.

He didn’t try to stop me, didn’t try to ask what was wrong. He just held me as I processed the stress of the writers’ room and shitty Damien and the end of things with Liam.

My eyes felt like they’d been glued shut overnight.

I rubbed at the gross, crusty tears that had dried along my eyelids and down my cheeks, blinking a couple times to free my eyelashes. Ugh, I was probably a mess.

I scanned the room. Where had I put my phone? What time was it?

Judging by the sun pouring in through the living room window, it was definitely morning, but I couldn’t tell if it was seven a.m. or going on lunch time. Either way, I needed to get up and shower and be presentable for…What exactly?

I shifted on my end of the couch. Jake was on his, still passed out by the looks of things. We’d both spent all night out here, and judgingfrom the stiffness in my neck and back, I was going to be paying for that for a while.

“You alive?” Jake croaked, lifting his head and opening one eye.

“Unfortunately,” I muttered. “I feel horrible.” In every sense of the word. I felt horrible inside and out. I felt horrible for making Jake sleep out here like this. I felt horrible that my relationship had gone up in smoke and that Jake’s had crashed and burned during the anniversary of his accident. They said things often looked better in the light of day, but so far, this looked much,muchworse.

“Youlookhorrible,” Jake shot back. “Like some sort of swamp creature.”

Despite everything, that made me laugh. I reached out with my foot to prod him in the arm. “Hey, shut up.”

He scrubbed his hand over his face and through his hair, yawning before shaking his head.

“You ready to go face your apartment?” I asked.

“Eh, not quite,” he said. “Are you ready to tell me what’s wrong? Or is there another bout of tears I should brace for? Maybe get myself a little canoe to weather the flood.”

“Har-har,” I said, my voice croaking.

Jake’s smile thinned, but it was there, doing its best to support me—it was always there when I needed it. “Seriously, Mia.” His voice was so soft my tears welled up again. “What happened?”

I cleared my throat, looking down at my hands. “I was sort of…seeing someone, and they just ended things yesterday.”

Jake scowled. “That asshole! Liam broke up with you?” He sat up straighter, looking around, searching for something.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice cracking.

“Where’s my phone? I’m gonna call him.” He shoved his hand down the side of the couch, digging it out from between the couch cushions. “I’m gonna fucking call him and tell him he can go to?—”

“No,” I said, knocking the phone out of his hand before he could press the call button. It thumped to the floor. “Please don’t.”

“He doesn’t get to treat you like this. Hell no. I’m your brother?—”

“I know that. And I appreciate that. And…Wait, what?” I said, realization finally dawning. “You already knew about me and Liam?”

“That the two of you had gotten together behind my back?” Jake said sarcastically. “Oh, yeah, I knew.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “How? We’ve been trying so hard to keep it quiet. Liam didn’t want us to interrupt your recovery or anything.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, sneaking off to hook up at my birthday wasn’t very discreet.”

“Right.” I bit my lip, embarrassment seeping into the pool of despair that already swirled in my gut. I couldn’t believe he knew! Anger flared inside me. We’d wasted all this time sneaking around, and for what?

The fact that we’d gotten together didn’t seem to bother Jake at all—his only problem was how it ended. Everything could have been so different if Liam had been willing to have one little conversation with Jake.

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