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Gavin’s voice surprised the shit out of me, considering I hadn’t heard him speak in days. We’d both gone into full avoidance mode again, which seemed to be our new normal.
I pulled another one down from the cabinet, setting them both on the kitchen island before grabbing a bottle of tequila off the bar. I hesitated on another bottle, and before I picked it up I said, “Gin?”
“Yup.”
Yet another preference of Gavin’s I couldn’t help but know. I wished I wasn’t so damn tuned in to what he liked or didn’t like. It was all a bunch of useless knowledge that served no purpose whatsoever, besides driving me crazy.
I made the mistake of looking up when I slid the bottle of gin and the flask his way, and I swear my heart stopped for a beat. Gavin looked…pretty fucking incredible. Not that that was unusual, but he usually kept to blues and greys and neutrals. Tonight he’d busted out a vivid red jacket that, combined with his platinum hair, was stunning. There was no other word for it.
Gavin started to pour the gin into the flask but looked up when he felt me staring. “What?”
So defensive. I couldn’t blame him. I’d been an asshole, trying to get us over this awkward in between.
Gavin brushed the back of his hand over his jaw. “Is there something on my face?”
I shook my head, unable to stop from looking at the hot picture he made. But I couldn’t tell him that. He’d read into it, and that would only set us back a few steps.
With a nonchalance I didn’t feel, I said, “Red’s good,” and moved back to my side of the island to unscrew my poison.
He didn’t respond, but I felt him watching me as I filled my own flask and capped it tight. I’d be lying if I said the sexual tension between us had dissipated even with our being on shitterms. If anything, it was stronger now, so tangible I could cut it with a knife.
“Typical,” he muttered as he poured the liquor into his flask, and despite everything inside of me telling me to walk away, I did something I hadn’t done lately—I engaged.
“What did you say?”
Gavin looked up, as shocked as I was that I’d said shit. But hey, it looked I was stepping out of my comfort zone lately, didn’t it?
“Huh?”
“I asked what you said.”
Gavin screwed his nose up as he finished filling his flask and then screwed the cap on the gin bottle. “Why? It’s not like you care.”
“You’re right, but stop being passive-aggressive. You want to call me out on my shit, then call me out.”
“Okay.” Gavin planted his hands on the counter and glared at me. “I saidtypical. Typical, as in you throw out these little crumbs, these…moments of affection like treats for a well-trained animal. And then, like the dumbassIam, I immediately sit up at attention like, oh my God, he’s not the horrible asshat who stomped all over me last week. He really does care.” Gavin swiped up his flask, walking around the counter. “What kind of fucking idiot am I?”
He went to storm past me, but before he got even two steps away, I reached out and grabbed hold of his arm.
Gavin whirled around on me so fast that I immediately shifted back and dodged left, not wanting to feel the sting of his hand against my face again, even though I wouldn’t have blamed him.
“I told you I was no good for you,” I said, like that made every shitty thing I’d done this week better. “How long are you going to punish me for being right?”
“Punish you? I’m not punishing you.” He glanced down at the hand on my arm. “I’m forgetting you. Or at leasttryingto. Isn’t that what you wanted? No one to get close to you? No one to care about you? Well, wish granted. I’m moving on, and I’d appreciate it if you’d stop throwing your scraps under the table for me.”
He yanked his arm out of my hold and marched off down the hall to his side of the condo. I stared after him, my breathing difficult, as though I’d just taken a direct hit to the solar plexus.
I should just let it go. Lethimgo. Let him forget me, or whatever the fuck he was trying to do. That was whatIwanted—what needed to happen. But instead, I found myself storming after him, not stopping until I was somewhere I’d never been—his bedroom.
“What do you mean you’re forgetting me?”
Gavin whirled around, a stunned expression stamped across his face. “Get out of my room.”
“No.”
“Daire.Get out.”
“No. You said something out there, and I want to know what you mean.”Forget me?How did he plan to do that?“Are you moving out?”
