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“I don’t want ice cream and I don’t want dessert, Ash. I want to know what is going on.”
The transformation really was fascinating to watch because now she went from calm to annoyed—that same annoyance he thought they had overcome—as she took a defiant stance. “What’s going on is that we were moving on from a relatively boring conversation and on to something I thought we both wanted. But clearly I was wrong. Now you’re saying you don’t want dessert either, so…I think you should go.”
He was fairly certain his jaw was on the floor and his eyes were bugging out. “Excuse me?”
Ashlynn crossed her arms and nodded. “Yeah, I think you should go. Thanks for the pizza and…” She walked over to the door and opened it. “I guess I’ll see you around.”
It wasn’t like he wanted to argue with her, but he wasn’t going to be dismissed either. “Talk to me, Ashlynn. What did I do wrong, huh? We were having a really nice time and…”
“And I think one of us misread the situation and I would really be more comfortable if you left. Please.”
It was the slight tremble in her voice that told him not to push. He had a feeling that whatever was going on in her head didn’t fully have to do with him, and really, he had a feeling he was wasting his time with her. He had apologized for his past behavior and he could have some peace now with that, but if every interaction was going to turn into some sort of awkward battle of wills that left him feeling thoroughly confused, then he knew when to throw in the towel.
With a soft sigh, he said, “Okay. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. For…” At this point, he had no idea what specifically, but figured he needed to say it. “For everything. Thanks for having dinner with me and I guess I’ll see you around.”
She was staring at her feet, but he saw a slight nod and when he walked past her to go out the door, he had to fight the urge to do or say something—anything. But she lifted her head and her expression was the saddest thing he’d ever seen and for some reason, he’d put that look there.
“Good night, Ash.”
“Night.”
As much as it pained him, he left. If she wanted to pursue anything with him moving forward, the ball was in her court.
Right now, he had far too many things on his plate to try to figure out what was going on in her head.
Chapter Five
She was going to strangle him.
It was one thing to be noisy when you were moving furniture. But that was four days ago, and the noise coming from Reid’s apartment was borderline ridiculous!
“What the hell is he doing up there?” she hissed at the sound of another loud thump. She’d lived in this apartment for three years and never heard so much noise from her upstairs neighbor.
Never!
She’d gone up there twice already this week to let him know just how noisy he was being, and both times he apologized and promised to keep it down. He’d been polite and completely respectful and considering the way she essentially threw him out of her apartment on Sunday night, she almost felt guilty about how nice he was being.
Until he would start banging around again.
Like he was right now.
“Ugh…why?” she shouted, and was fairly positive he could hear her, but it didn’t change anything. Glaring at her door, she considered going up there again, but that literally opened another can of worms for her.
She wanted to kiss him again.
Like…rake her hands into his hair and drag him down to the floor and kiss him until they were both breathless and sweaty and tearing at each other’s clothes.
Another groan. “What is wrong with me?”
Lately, the list had been endless. Everything in her world was upside down and it was making her crazy.
They still hadn’t heard back on the business loan, working at the coffee shop was almost mind-numbing to her, and on top of that, her relationship with her mother was still on shaky ground thanks to the revelation that she had an affair while married to Ashlynn’s father and was the reason he took off on his family. All these years she’d been angry at her father for leaving when it was really her mother’s fault.
“I should really be in therapy right now…”
And if she had insurance, she would be. But for now, her siblings were all trying to work things out together, and while it helped, there were aspects of it she knew she had to work out on her own.
Namely, that she felt that no one genuinely wanted her enough to stay with her. For most of her life, she pushed people away so that she could control when they left and she’d never be blindsided again. So far it had worked for her, but lately she was starting to see that it was a destructive pattern.
