AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah.” Shaking his head, he tried to climb to his feet again, and this time, he was successful. “So just walk the fuck away, Molloy.”
Ouch.
“You’re telling me to walk away when you can’t even walk a straight line.” I narrowed my eyes in disgust. “Look at the state of you.”
“You said that you can’t do this with me again,” he slurred, as he half walked, half staggered out of the cubicle, reaching for the wall to steady himself when his balance went. “But it’s the same for me.” Brow furrowed, he shook his head again, looking completely spaced out as he tried and failed to focus on my face. “I can’t do this with you, either.”
Forget being slapped by his words; I was being stabbed by them. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I should have stayed the fuck away when we ended it at Christmas,” he slurred, aiming his words at my heart like bullets. “Instead of dragging this bullshit out for another three months.”
“And I presume this bullshit you’re referring to is me?” I swallowed down the lump in my throat before hissing, “Well, fuck you, Joey Lynch.”
I turned around to leave then, only to halt in my tracks when his arm came around my waist, pulling me back against his chest.
“I’m sorry.” He exhaled a heavy breath and tightened his arm around my body. “I fucked up.”
“Yeah, you did,” I squeezed out, trembling all over as I resisted the urge to sag against him, because, let’s face it, he could barely hold himself up in this moment. “You’re a fucking asshole.”
“I know.” A pained groan escaped him and he dropped his head to rest on my shoulder. “I know, baby.”
“You’re hurting me.”
He groaned in pain. “Shh, stop saying that.”
“This hurts me, Joey.”
Another pained groan escaped his lips. “No, no, no, I would never hurt you.”
“You hurt yourself and that’s the same thing,” I choked out. “Because when you hurt, I hurt. When you burn, I go down in flames with you. We’re entwined, Joe. We’re mirrors. Don’t you get that by now?”
“Ah fuck.” Trembling violently, he pulled me closer. “I’m sorry for hurting ya, Molloy.”
“Listen to me, Joe. I really need you to sort your shit out, okay?” Shivering when I felt his lips brush against my ear, I clenched my eyes shut and tried to steady my nerves. “Because remember when I said I didn’t need you before?” I clenched my eyes shut and squeezed out, “Well, I definitely need you now, okay?”
“No, you don’t,” he mumbled as his hand moved to splay over my stomach, causing everything inside of me to twist up in knots. “I’m the bullshit, Molloy. I’m the fucking bullshit in this relationship. You bring all the good, and I bring all the bad.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is.”
“Regardless,” I croaked out, “I need you to draw a line under whatever the hell this is and come back to me, okay? Because I’m, ah…” Exhaling a ragged breath, I let my head fall back and stared up at the ceiling as I tried to find the words. “I’m having a… I mean we’re having…” Ugh. Shivering violently, I practically spat the words “a baby” out of my mouth in a breathy rush.
“A baby,” he repeated slowly, voice slurred. “Where’s the baby?”
“In here,” I croaked out, reaching down to cover the hand he had splayed over my belly.
“In you?”
With my entire body rigid with tension, I forced a small nod.
“What’s it doing in there?”
“You put it there, Joe.”
“I did?”
“Yeah.” I blew out a shaky breath. “You did.”
