Page 83 of Dr. Damaged Protector

“The odd part is you teasing him about me,” I said.

“Oh hush, you know how much I love the relationship between the two of you.” She rolled her eyes. “And to think he’d look devasted whenever you weren't talking to him.”

“He did?”

“I could use him to sense when you weren't talking to him,” she affirmed. “So, I don't know what it is between two of you but fix it.”

“Tell me to fix it when I did nothing wrong.” I frowned.

“That exact mindset is the one of a guilty person,” she pointed out. “You two live in the same house so talk to him.”

She was right, I needed to talk to him. Back at the manor, I had no one else to talk to my best friend was pushing me away. I couldn't do that to the one who was finally opening up to me, and me to him.

I needed to get to the bottom of it.

*****

He closed from work early, and so did I. He didn't even offer to take me home; that's when I knew something was really wrong.

“Is there a problem senior?” I asked with a forced Spanish accent.

“There's no problem,” he replied grumpily as he tried to walk past me.

I blocked his path. “You aren't going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong.”

“I said that there's nothing wrong.” He held my arms, lifted me, and moved out of the way like I didn't weigh much.

“Oh no you don't,” I said as I scurried in front of him. “Talk.”

“There's nothing to talk about,” he insisted.

“Then why are you avoiding me?” I frowned and muttered, “If I did something, at least talk to me. It sucks that you're leaving me out.”

“Oh, now you know that it sucks when someone distances themselves from you?” he asked in a rhetorical manner.

“If you're referring to when I was pushing you away, you should understand that this was because I didn't trust you completely,” I explained.

Now that I think about it, it might not have been a good explanation.

“Because it's only convenient for you now, is it?” he asked.

“What are you even on about?” I frowned. “God what is wrong with you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you. You're shoving words down my mouth. I don't know if I'm to swallow or spit it out,” I explained. “Honestly, it feels like…I'm talking to your father.”

“So now that bastard and I are alike?”

“Only because you're behaving like an overgrown dick,” I continued. “I thought we agreed on your face would be the only thing similar to him.”

“The only thing similar to him and me is the fact that we're involved with the same kind of woman,” he blurted out.

His eyes opened in shock. The meaning of his words had yet to hit me. If he didn't look so surprised, I wouldn't have noticed.

“Did you just bring up my past?” I asked, still trying to process the weight of his words.

“No, that wasn't my intention. It just slipped out, I'm sorry,” he tried to apologize.

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