Page 59 of Cuffed By Love

“About their move to Singapore. Uncle Greyson is running the company out there. I thought Devin would have told you?”

My hands and knees start to shake, and that ache in my chest grew tenfold. I shake my head, “That’s impossible. Devin would have told me that he was leaving.”

“I thought he did. I assumed you said your goodbyes, and that’s why you’ve been so upset the last couple of days.” My mother states, but it falls on deaf ears as I turn and almost rip the door open and run out of the house, ignoring her calling after me as I race across the street to Devin’s. I pound my fist against the red wooden door. “Dev.” I cry as I frantically push the doorbell a couple of times. “No, please, please be home.” I move over to the window and press my face against the glass and see the living room is empty.

He’s gone. Devin left, and he didn’t even say goodbye. I sink on the curb in front of the house as every broken piece of my heart falls deeper into a giant hole in my gut.

“Mimi.” I lift my tear-filled gaze and see Ayla standing in front of me.

“Ayla, he’s gone. Dev’s…gone.” I whimper, and she nods and sits beside me, wrapping her arms around me as I weep. “He didn’t even say goodbye.” I sob into her chest.

“I’m sure he has his reasons for not saying goodbye, Mimi.”

“What reason?” I cry, sitting upright and wiping away the tears streaming down my face, “Our eleven-year friendship wasn’t substantial enough to surpass his reasons to not say goodbye to me…to ME Ayla!”

“Mimi—”

“No!” I sob, shaking my head hastily, “I clearly meant nothing to him if I didn’t even deserve a goodbye. Especially after we…”

Ayla brushes my hair away from my face when my head drops, “After you what, Mira?” When I don’t respond, she lifts my head and her eyes search mine. “You slept with him.” I choke on a sob and bury my head in my arms. “Oh, Mira.” Ayla presses her head to mine and rubs my back supportively. “You’re going to be okay, I promise.”

I shake my head, “No, I’m not. I believed him, Ayla, I trusted him when he told me I was always the one, and he used me to get what he wanted and then left. He left me without a word. If that’s not the subtlest form of rejection, then I don’t know what is.” I tell her and wipe away my tears before I stand up.

“Mira…”

“I need to be alone.” And with that, I walk off down the street, away from what I considered a second home to me, not the house but the memories it held, Dev and the family that lived there. Even Levi who I was also tight with. They were like a second family to me, and neither of them said a word to me.

However hard I tried, there is no force on earth to make this or me feel right again. My world as I knew it came shattering down around me. Utterly devastated and betrayed. It was a hard pill to swallow and accept that Dev would ever do this to me. As I wander mindlessly, I find myself at our tree. I stare up at it for a moment, calling back the memories of us spending countless hours here. I walk over to the tree trunk with our initials engraved on it with a heart and trace my fingers over it.

“How could you leave me without saying a word Devin, how?” I cry, pressing my forehead to the tree and finally allowing that pain-filled sob that’s been ripping apart my insides to escape me. I hit my knees by the base of the tree and wept till I had nothing left inside of me but animosity and resentment for Devin King.

Present

I look over at the man himself asleep beside me and heave a deep sigh. Knowing what I went through trying to get over him, how am I supposed to push it all aside and act like he didn’t wreck me with his betrayal? More importantly, why is my heart so eager to forgive him?

The following morning I wake up in a sour mood due to not getting enough sleep, and my mixed feelings regarding Devin is only adding to my annoyance. I sit at the kitchen island and sip my coffee while I scroll through my social media mechanically, not really paying attention to anything. Devin seems engaged, texting away furiously on his phone, likely with his girlfriend. He has a deep scowl on his face, and I wonder if they’re having some sort of disagreement. I fix my eyes to my screen and don’t dare lift them even though I notice him glancing over at me sporadically from the corner of my eye. We’ve barely said two words to one another since we woke up this morning—on separate sides of the bed this time, thankfully.

“Morning!” Ayla chirps as she comes bouncing into the kitchen and makes a beeline to the coffee machine. Devin and I utter a half-arsed good morning back, and she turns her head and gives us a quizzical look. “Well, aren’t you just a happy little bag of unicorn farts? What’s with the two of you this morning?”

I scowl at Ayla, and Devin just ignores her altogether. “Nothing,” I utter and scratch my head. Ugh, I loathe having greasy hair. My scalp starts to itch if I go longer than two days without washing my hair. I need a fucking shower, and being unable to do so is just pissing me off. I feel gross and look even worse. I’m tempted to bite the bullet and just jump into the shower fully clothed with this idiot.

“Uh-huh, want to try telling that to your face, little sis?” Ayla says, leaning back against the counter while she waits for her coffee. She looks from Devin, then back to me again, her brows rising with intrigue.

“What reason do I have to—” I start to say but stop when Devin yanks on my arm when he takes a sip of his coffee. I turn my gaze to him sharply, and he looks at me over the rim of his coffee cup.

“Hey, don’t look at me. She woke up like that,” He tells Ayla with a shrug. I roll my eyes and tug my arm back.

“You know what I want, Ayla. I want to shower. I want to change out of these clothes I‘ve been in for the last three fucking days. I want to go to the bathroom…alone! I want the bloody option to be able to storm off when I’m angry. Can I do any of those things? No, I can’t, so excuse me for being in a damn mood.” I fume and lean back in my chair while Dev and Ayla just gape at me.

“No one is stopping you from showering, Mimi,” Ayla replies, and I pin her with a scathing glare.

“Actually, I think you’ll find someone is stopping me, this big lug right here.” I utter, and Devin chokes on his coffee.

“I’m not stopping you from showering. If anything, I offered to shower with you yesterday. You’re the one being stubborn and refusing, so you’ve only got yourself to blame, Tinks.”

I spin on my stool and face him, “First of all, smart-arse, even if I were to consider taking a shower with you, how do you propose we take our clothes off? And say we did manage to somehow strip down, how do you suggest we get our clothes back on?”

Devin stares at me wordlessly while I stare back at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

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