Page 10 of Just Like in the Movies
"Not a bit," I said with as cheerful a tone as I could manage. "She dumped me out of her car about five blocks down after the premier."
"Oh." Lew glanced back at me over his shoulder, his expression doubtful and more than a little cynical. "She wasn't the only one though."
"No." I wasn't going to lie to him. Not now, when I thought, maybe... he might be listening? "No, she wasn't." I licked my lips and cleared a throat gone suddenly dry. "Look, I let them get into my head, tell me things that weren’t really true." And the biggest shame. "I let them convince me that you were going to hold me back."
Lew whirled and pushed me and I stumbled against one of the trees, half falling, half sliding down the trunk. "You fucking bastard," he hissed. “You ever-loving bastard. Do you even have a clue just how big a bastard you are?”
He stood over me, fierce as any alpha, and I nodded dumbly. He was right. Lew was always right. It had been the central tenet of our relationship, and one of our biggest in-jokes too.
"What are you laughing about?" he asked suspiciously.
The corner of my mouth twitched again. "I was thinking you were right. That you were always right. Even when you weren't, and then you'd just make yourself right." If he couldn't twist your brain up with his logic, he'd fight for his right to always be... well, right. And win too.
Now the other side of my mouth was twitching. Man, what I wouldn't give to see Lew again on one of his rampages.
His eyes widened. For a second I thought I was going to get one, but he only crossed his arms over his chest again and looked baffled. "You do remember I'm mad at you, right?"
I nodded. "You are the most infuriating omega in the world, and it didn't matter who I was with out there, because none of them held a candle to you."
He lifted his chin warily. "Even the blonds?"
Carefully, because I didn't want to startle him, I used the tree to pull myself to my feet. "I'm more into brunets," I confessed.
His eyes narrowed. "Don't even think about it. You dumped me, remember?"
I nodded. "Stupid, wasn't I?" I held my breath and waited. I could grovel some more if I needed to.
"You were," he said slowly. "I'm not going to go out with you again."
"If I promise that I'm less stupid now?"
"Are you?"
But I saw his lip quiver and I could tell he was working hard not to smile. As quick as he’d blow up on you, his temper always cooled pretty soon after. And he had a fantastic sense of humor. I’d used it to get myself out of trouble with him any number of times. "Just a little. I can't promise not to be stupid still, but I learned a few things."
The humor disappeared and he stood there staring at me without saying a word. My heart beat a million times while I waited and at the same time, it was like the world stood still, like one of those tableau scenes in the movies.
Sadly, he shook his head. "I don't trust you, though, Mike. How can I? You were my first and only. You promised to be my husband. I was pricing wedding venues and sampling cake. And then you dumped me. Over the phone. While I was wearing your engagement ring." There was no humor now, just a hurt that stretched all the way to his bones and back five years.
"So there's no chance at all?"
He threw his hands up in the air and turned away. "What do you expect? That you'd come home and I'd just fall into your arms? That you could just apologize and that would wipe out five years of that old gossip getting trotted out every time I tried to do anything with my life? There isn't an alpha in this town that doesn't treat me like dirt, because either I'm crazy or I'm easy." He turned back around. "I'm neither."
"I never thought you were." I looked down at the ground and kicked at a stone half-buried in the dirt by my feet. "I know it's my fault. I'm sorry I didn't come home earlier." Understanding bloomed in my brain and I jerked my head up, staring at him open-mouthed. "I just realized something."
"Good. It can go with me realizing this is a waste of time." He turned to leave and I lunged forward to grab his arm.
"No, wait!"
He shook me off and threw a wild punch at me, which I’d been half-expecting so I ducked and his fist flew over my head. I was starting to regret my earlier wish to see Lew go ballistic again—it wasn't as funny as I remembered.
"Lew!" I grabbed him and pulled him into my arms and we swayed wildly in place before we overbalanced and landed on the ground.
Lew was on his feet almost immediately, storming away up the path. "Don't you touch me!"
I stopped in the middle of the path, only now seeing the eyes turning our way. If I didn't want to make him the center of attention again, I had to let him go.
And watch all my happiness go with him. Because the thing I'd realized had been that my reason for not coming home was that I'd been afraid to face him.
And now that I'd faced him, I was terrified to leave without him.
