Page 36 of The Problem with Dating
“I wasn’t,” he assured me. “Especially, since it’s our fault she felt free to meddle.” Gideon ran a hand through his hair. “We should have shut down her meddling years ago.”
“I-” My phone started ringing, cutting off what I’d been about to say. It was still lying on the counter and when I glanced over at it, I could see that it was Marco calling again. I thought it might have been Louise since Gideon said she was going to call to apologize, but nope. I didn’t bother answering, but a few seconds after it cut off to voicemail, it started ringing again.
This time, Gideon asked, “Do you need to get that?”
I shook my head as I turned back to face him. “No. It’s just…” I wasn’t trying to be a drama queen, but I was feeling a lot right now. However, I didn’t want to lie. “It’s my ex-husband.”
And that didn’t go over very well.
Gideon stilled. “What?”
“It’s Marco,” I repeated. “He’s been texting and calling since Tuesday.”
There was a pronounced tick in Gideon’s jaw that was a clear indicator of some anger surfacing. “I thought you said you didn’t talk to him anymore.”
“I don’t,” I replied coolly.
“Then why in the fuck is he calling you?” he snarled at me, and I wasn’t even sure if had the right to ask that question right now. What were we to each other?
“I don’t know,” I told him honestly as the phone kept ringing. “I haven’t replied to his texts or have answered his calls.”
He straightened to his full height and crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh, really?”
My eyes narrowed, and I was pretty sure I was snarling. “Are you suggesting that I’m lying to you?”
“Why didn’t you mention it?” he asked, all kinds of unvoiced accusations in his tone.
“What’s there to mention, Gideon?” I shot back. “I haven’t spoken to him, nor do I want to.”
“If that’s the case, and he’s bothering you, you should have damn well said something, so I could take care of it, Echo,” he fired back. “You’re my girlfriend, for fuck’s sake. If someone is bothering you, that’s something I should know, don’t you think?”
“Am I, though?” I challenged. “I mean, we haven’t really discussed it and you didn’t seem too thrilled with me showing up in your parents’ backyard.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he practically spat. “My dick has been buried inside your pussy every night for the past week, and you don’t know that you’re my girlfriend?”
“Sex doesn’t automatically equate a relationship, Gide-”
“Fuck off with the sex, then,” he thundered. “The fact that I have half my goddamn clothes in your closet should be indication enough, Echo.”
“And when I showed up at your parents?” I wasn’t ready to be reasonable. I was in my emotions and they were confused emotions. I was feeling too much too fast with Gideon, and that was terrifying. I guess I needed the words, and he wasn’t giving them to me clearly enough. Sure, he said I was his girlfriend, but I didn’t feel like I was.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he grumbled, running both hands through his brown hair this time. “You looked like a damn deer in headlights, Echo. I was pissed that my mom had ambushed you. I wasn’t upset that you werethere.”
“Oh, really?” I scoffed. “That’s why you invited me?” I knew I was sounding petty, but I guess not being invited bothered me more than I thought.
His head reared back in surprise, but then his eyes quickly narrowed, and he looked pissed off all over again. “You said you had shit to do before you started you new teaching job Monday,” he reminded me. “And not only that, but it hadn’t been a planned gathering. After you’d already told me your plans for the day and I’d gone home, Mom had sent out a mass text, insisting on a family get-together.”
“And it didn’t occur to you to send me a text to invite me, regardless?” I posed. “Especially, if you’re standing there, claiming I’m your girlfriend?”
“Just like it occurred to you to tell me that you were getting calls from your fucking ex-husband?” he shot back. “Like that?”
I jumped off the barstool. “That’s different,” I argued.
“The fuck it is!” he yelled, finally losing his composure. “I don’t care who the fuck it is. I have a right to know.”
“Because we’re fucking?” I choked out childishly.
Just then, my phone started ringing again. Gideon’s eyes shot over, and he started making his way to my phone, and I just knew he was going to answer it. I quickly grabbed it and when he stormed over to me and reached for the phone, I did the worst possible thing I could do.
