Page 100 of What About Us
Thismotherfucker.I want to rip his arm off his body and beat him with it.
“My roommate and his daughter are home,” Finn says.
Roommate?What. The. Fuck.A cold sweat breaks out across the back of my neck.
“This was fun, and you’re very sweet, but I think it’s best if we stay friends.”
There’s a beat of silence and I almost cheer when his hand drops away from her waist and he takes a step back. That’s right, asshole, get your hands off her.
“Oh.” He sounds surprised. “If that’s what you want.”
Her voice is weary, and I detect a bit of sadness when she says, “It is.”
“Well, goodnight then, Finnley.” I hate the way her name sounds coming from his mouth.
“Goodnight, Brad.”
I watch her for a couple of seconds, while she watches him head down the walk and climb into his car. When she turns to come inside, I quickly close out of the app, chuck my phone on the counter, and turn on the tap, rinsing out my cereal bowl from earlier. The one I already washed.
I hear the opening and closing of the door across the living area, then the slow click of her heels coming closer.
“Hey,” she says, coming into the kitchen.
I pretend to act startled by her when I turn—because, yes, I’m a child. She sets her bag on the island before stepping out of her heels.
“Back so soon?” I say, turning off the tap and returning my bowl in the dish drainer next to the sink. Yeah, I’m pathetic.
She nods and pulls out a stool, dropping onto it. Then, she tugs her arms out of her sweater, hanging it on the back of the neighboring stool.
“Did you have a good time?”
She shrugs, avoiding my gaze, and pulls her phone from her back pocket, setting it next to mine. “It was fine.”
She has no reason to open up to me after the way I treated her, but if she didn’t want to talk, she’d have gone straight upstairs. I’ve known her for along time, and when she’s mad, she doesn’t hold back. I lean on my elbows on the counter across from her and wait.
She sighs. “I’m gonna be single forever.” She looks so gloomy, her shoulders slumped forward, eyes down. Her chin quivers and it makes me feel so much worse for how I acted earlier.
“Nah, you won’t,” I say, and she looks up at me. Then, because it’s what we do, I try for a joke. “I mean,Imarried you,” I say with a wink.
She drops my gaze, picking at the cuticle on her thumb.
Shit. Not even ahintof a smile.
“Why did you tell me to wear those shoes?” Her voice is soft, with a little undercurrent of hurt, and now I really feel like an ass for making light of something that clearly hurt her.
I’m starting to have a love-hate relationship with this space. I never know if what I say will end with my fingers in her mouth or her pissed at me and storming out.
I blow out a breath. “I was a dick.”
“Yes, you were,” she says, straightening her spine and tipping up her chin with a curt nod. She says it so matter-of-factly, I almost chuckle. I love how she’s always able to knock me down a peg with her honesty.
“I had no right to treat you like that. I’m sorry.”
“No, you didn’t.” She shakes her head. Her lips tip down slightly in a frown, and when she raises her eyes back to mine, they’re sparkling with unshed tears. “But what I don’t know is why?”
I push off the counter and take a step back, leaning against the sink. I run a hand down my face and fold my arms across my chest. I’m defensive and I hate it. I have no reason to be. But here we are.
“I had a shit day. Nothing went right this morning, and then Tristen called to cancel her trip.”
