Page 11 of Bad Call
I stir the sauce, making sure it’s done before turning off the burner. Checking the clock on the microwave, I realize that it’s been well over half an hour since I left her. I’m sure the water has gone cold by now, yet I don’t hear any movement in the distance, causing me to freeze as red flags wave in my head. I push away the panic that climbs up my throat, reminding myself that she’s a strong, independent woman who’s fully capable of bathing herself. But as the seconds tick by with not a single sound other than the blood pumping between my ears, I can’t stop myself from investigating.
As quietly as I can, I pad toward the bedroom, deciding to play it cool in case she’s still relaxing. I stop at the bed, turning down the comforter and stacking the pillows just like she likes them, before scanning the room in search of the one thing I know will make her feel better. My eyes lock onto the heating pad cord as it hangs from the top drawer of the nightstand, haphazardly shoved in there without a care. I guess some things never change, because Stella has always operated best in organized chaos. Her belongings may be out of place, but she always knows where they are.
I round the mattress, reaching for the drawer and pulling it open. But what dangles over the edge is definitelynota heating pad, but the charger to one of about fifteen vibrators. My eyes go wide, mouth drying as I pore over the sight. My head is telling me to back away—that this is none of my business—while my dick begs to differ, practically daring me to run my fingers over them. She’sthe only one who lives here, so I know they’re all hers, and it’s safe to say every one of them has been inside her.
Fuck. I miss sex with her.Exciting, passionate, meaningful sex.
I’ve obviously had other partners, but none of them could ever hold a candle to Stella. Her body has changed a lot since the last time I touched it, but the new curves and softness only turn me on more. Imagining her lying in here, her full hips rotating as she chases her own pleasure, has me forgetting all the animosity between us while precum leaks into my boxer briefs. It’s like all rational thought has left my brain, replaced by the desperation to touch something that’s been inside the paradise I can only dream about these days.
I reach out, my hand slowly lowering into the drawer and ghosting over the pink dildo that lies front and center. It’s on top, so I can only hope there are remnants of her arousal still lingering on the shaft as I drag my fingertips up its length. My cock is like a lead weight between my thighs, every drop of blood in my body moving south and making me throb painfully with need. And just as I’m about to lift the toy—for God knows what fucking reason since I can barely even remember my own damn name right now—the bathroom door swings open, and Stella emerges wearing only a towel. I yank my hand back like it’s on fire, but I’m already busted. There’s no pretending I wasn’t just elbow deep in her toy drawer. All I can do is stand there, eyes wide in horror, hoping she doesn’t notice the steel spike under the thick fabric of my sweatpants.
“What are you doing?” she says, her shock matching my own as she clutches the towel above her chest.Between her sun-kissed skin that’s still slick with water and the plethora of dildos in front of me, I’m frozen in place until I remember that there’s a logical explanation for all of this.
“I…um…” I rasp, my throat closing around the words. “I was looking for your heating pad. I thought the cord was?—”
Her hand shoots up over her mouth, eyes somehow going even wider than before. “Oh my God! Emmett, get out of my stuff!” I do just that, slamming the drawer shut as fast as I can and almost severing all my fingers off in the process. Her face is flushed, not sure if it’s from her bath or the embarrassment, as her expression pulls tight with anger. “Did I give you permission to snoop through my private drawers?” Her fingers clench around the towel, and my gaze locks onto the cleavage that peeks out from underneath like I’m some kind of sex-obsessed pervert. Butfuck, she looks good. What I wouldn’t give for the terrycloth to slip down just a few inches, revealing what I already know are the most perfect, blush pink nipples. Hard, ready, begging to be sucked and bit into.
Godmotherfuckingdammit. Now my dick is evenharder.
“I— No,” I answer, shaking my head rapidly to erase the thought and moving my stare to the wall behind her. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to help. I wasn’t expecting—” I motion toward the drawer, not saying another word, because if I don’t stop thinking about her vibrators, my cock is going to punch a hole right through my pants.
“Well, thank you, but I don’t have one,” she says, her tone a touch softer now that my explanation has had time to settle in. I take a chance, bringing my attention back upto her as her shoulders relax slightly. “A box of my stuff got lost in the move.”
I nod in understanding, the air around us growing thick with silence. I hate that it’s awkward, but this is what she wanted—a clean break. And now, here we are…broken.But I can’t just leave her alone when I know she’s struggling. Regardless of where we stand, I hate seeing her in pain. There was a time, before she left me, when I’d have crawled across hot coals if it meant she wouldn’t have to feel even an ounce of discomfort. And as much as I’d love to say that part of me doesn’t still exist somewhere under all the anger I’m harboring from how we ended, I just can’t.
“Why don’t you put some pajamas on and lie down? I’ll finish your dinner and be back in a few minutes,” I urge quietly. She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes as I hurry toward the door, giving her privacy to get dressed. As soon as I’m in the hallway, sure she can no longer see me, I release a sharp exhale, my hand shooting up to massage my chest because it feels like it’s caving in. I fucking hate all of this. I should’ve been here all along, making sure she was taken care of. Rubbing her back and feet. Taking trips to the grocery store for whatever snacks she was craving. Telling her how beautiful she looked every time she worried about being too bloated to get out of her sweatpants.Thatwas the future we were meant to have—not this bullshit where we’re as good as strangers, uncomfortable energy crackling between us like we never existed at all.
I just wish that walking away was as easy for me as it seemed to be for her all those years ago.
ELEVEN
EMMETT
I sitin the chair in the corner of Stella’s bedroom, watching her as she sleeps peacefully. After she put down an entire plate of spaghetti and two pieces of garlic bread, she passed right out, clearly exhausted from what she’s been putting herself through. I should have left hours ago, but I can’t seem to tear my eyes away. The room is practically pitch black, save for the moonlight that filters through the sheer curtains, but it’s lighting up her face enough for me to study every feature, trying my hardest to burn them into my memory. The tension that swirled around us while she was awake is nowhere to be found now, giving me the first feeling of peace I’ve had since she came crashing back into my life. I know I shouldn’t be here, now that she’s resting comfortably, but every time I try to walk out of the room, something keeps me rooted in place right where I am.
I can’t stop my mind from wandering back to the day she told me she didn’t want to be married anymore. I could tell her demeanor was off as soon as we left theparty, but it wasn’t until the next morning that she explained the things she heard.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it, or are we going to spend the weekend acting like everything’s fine?” I asked, making her body go rigid in my arms as we sat with our backs against the headboard and a movie playing on the laptop in front of us. I thought for sure we’d be in for a night of making up for lost time, but she told me she hadn’t been feeling well and just wanted to go to sleep. I agreed, considering the fact that we had the rest of the weekend to be alone, but as soon as we opened our eyes that morning, I knew something was up. She wasn't cuddly like I’d come to expect, getting out of bed and showering alone even though we had done it together hundreds of times before. As the day went on, tension filled the space around us like a balloon that was about to explode at any second, until finally, it did.
“Do you ever wonder if we rushed into this?” she asked, making my head rear back in shock as she turned my way. She had shown up at my doorstep just over twelve hours earlier, claiming that she couldn't go another day without seeing me, and now she was questioning our marriage? It didn't make sense.
“Rushed intowhat?”I replied, desperately needing more clarity. We’d spent our entire lives falling in love over and over again in different ways, so her thinking that we had rushed into anything was hard for me to comprehend.
Her eyes dropped to the hands that were wrung together in her lap, a rough swallow working its way down her delicate throat. “Getting married,” she said, the words barely audible as they fell from her lips.
My body went rigid, and I sat up straight, setting the laptoponto the nightstand as I attempted to process the question. How had we gone from the excitement of a surprise visit to having doubts about our future overnight? “No,” I stated firmly. “From the moment I bought your ring, I knew it was the right decision. I know you’re worried about doing the long-distance thing, Stell, but it isn’t forever. We’ll be back together before you know it.” Her eyes welled with tears, and I reached for her, but she twisted away. A sharp pain shot through my gut at the action, but my brain still wasn’t understanding what her sudden trepidation had stemmed from. “Tell me what brought this on.”
She swallowed, eyes welling up with tears. They spilled over, and she batted them away quickly with the backs of her hands. “I realized last night that this is nothing like I expected. While you were looking for Dexter, I met some girls who were quite positive they’d be able to turn your head. And while I know you’d never cheat on me, I can’t seem to shake this nagging feeling that one day, you’ll regret not seeing what other options were out there before you tied yourself down to me.”
My brows pulled in, anger slowly building inside me becausewhat the fuck?Stella and I had been inseparable since we were five years old. We had seen each other through some of the happiest—and the hardest—times in our lives. When her grandma passed away in the tenth grade, I held her and told her it was going to be all right. When I broke my leg at football camp our junior year, she was the one who rushed to a hospital almost six hours away to be by my side. She had my UCLA acceptance letter framed because she was so proud of me for going after my dream of playing pro ball. And now, she didn’t think our bond was strong enough to make it through this stage of life?
“That’s what you think?” I asked, my fingers flexing until my nails bit into the skin of my palms. “That I would just tossyou aside for a woman who couldneverknow me the way you do? That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard, Stella.”
She huffed an incredulous laugh, standing from the bed and creating space between us. It was only a few feet, but it may as well have been a thousand miles with the way she looked as she shoved clothes into her bag, tears continuing to fall as her movements became rough and jerky.
“It’s not dumb to me, Emmett,” she said. “Maybe I was naïve because we grew up in a small town where everyone knew we were together, but I never wanted to spend the rest of my life in competition with random strangers. And don’t say that I’m not, because according to those girls last night, the ring on your finger doesn’t mean a fucking thing.”
I scoffed, standing, my insides vibrating as I tried to keep myself in check. “Funny you say that, because if I recall correctly, I practically had to beg you to marry me. Had I not poured my heart out to you on those steps, we wouldn’t have even made it into the courthouse that day. You know damn well that I’ve been all in on us the whole time, Stell—it’syouwho can’t get out of your own goddamn head long enough to realize it. I’m done begging you to trust me when I tell you we’re going to be okay, and that you’re the only one I see. If you want to let fear and insecurity tear us apart, there’s nothing I can do to stop you. But for fuck’s sake, get it over with, so we can move on with our lives.”
