Page 46 of Waiting Forever
“What’d you do last night?”
“Nothing much. Ate some hot dogs.”Cheated on you a little.Fuck.I need to end this, but not over the phone. “What are you doing tonight?”
“You if you’re free,” she purrs in a low, sexy voice.
Jesus.She’d make the perfect girl for someone, just not me. “We need to talk.”
“Talk?”
“Yeah.”
She scoffs. “In other words, you want to break up. Wouldn’t have to do with a little redhead, would it?”
“What—no. She’s my cousin.” The response flies from my mouth.
“She’s an attractive woman living in your house and you’re going through somethings.” She says “things” like it’s a contagious disease. “Maybe you’re looking for a change. I know you, Nathan. We’re alike in that way. We fixate and we get bored. I’ll be the first to admit our relationship is in need of something.”
“Something,” I repeat with an ounce of guilt. It wasn’t all bad with Harper. The first month was a hell of a ride. The second and third were a good distraction from the loss of my closest friends. The sex was still hot, and I needed it as much as she did. The remaining months were more about going through the motions and not dealing with what I knew was a failed relationship. “We can talk about this later. If you’re not busy tonight.”
“I wasn’t busy last night, but tonight I happen to have plans. A guy in my strategies class is having a party. You remember what those are, don’t you?”
“Quit with the attitude, Harper. I’m trying to have an adult conversation with you.”
“And I’m trying to get laid, but I guess that’s not happening.”
“Why do you do this?”
“Do what?” she snaps.
I take the on-ramp to I-4 and merge with the traffic. “You go into bitch mode when you feel threatened. You did it with Ainsley and you’re doing it with me.”
She gasps. “How dare you bring her up. She abandoned me.”
“Can you blame her? You kicked her out when she had no place to live.” A fact she kept from me until Sebastian informed me days later that Ainsley was living in an RV he’d purchased for reasons he never explained.
“She was lying to my face. I gave her plenty of chances to come clean. And then she just left without so much as a good-bye. I would have forgiven her if she’d have just been honest with me.”
“Would you have? You can hold a grudge like no one I know.”
“I’m not talking about this with you.”
What else is new? “This is why people leave you, Harper. You give them no choice.”
“People don’t leave me except for Ainsley and now you. Maybe you’re secretly hooking up with my former BFF. Maybe she never left like her note said.”
I release a dark laugh. “You areunbelievable.” I crank up the air conditioner, my skin burning with rage.
“I have to go.” She ends the call—and our relationship, as far as I’m concerned.
I tried to make plans to talk and let her down nicely, but she had to ruin it by being her bitchy self.
The exit to downtown is ahead. The office isn’t far from Winter Park. I scan the tall buildings, focusing on the one with the condo I toured online. Maybe moving downtown wouldn’t be a bad idea. I could still drive Kensington to school, or she—we—could get her a car. It’s not like her family can’t afford it. I doubt she’d mind living in a high-rise, but I should talk to her about it before making any decisions. She just got here. I don’t want to shake up things more in her life.
I do, however, like the idea of leaving my past behind. The house holds a lot of memories for me, good and bad. It seems like the right time to move on.
19
Kensington, a.k.a. Cerise
