“That was dumb. I don’t know why I did that,” I sigh.
“Because you struggle with emotion regulation,” Grayson mutters, like it’s an insult.
“What the fuck is…” Adam starts to ask Grayson, but I interrupt him.
“It’s fine,” I say.
“It’s not fine, Milly. That was…” Adam argues.
“It’s okay,” I say, grabbing the towel off the counter and wrapping my hand. “I’m going to go down to urgent care and have them look at it. I’ll have my phone.”
“You want me to come with you?” Adam asks.
“I can…” Grayson starts to say, but my loud voice cuts him off.
“You can go fuck yourself,” I shout at him.
“If you think you are just going to walk out of this house and…”
“I don’t believe I asked your goddamn opinion, Grayson,” I bark. “We are done. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with you, but I am done.”
“Milly, don’t…” he starts to argue.
“I’ll let you know when I am headed back here to get my stuff,” I tell Adam. “I’m going to get a hotel room, but I’ll make sure you know where and I’ll call Alania.”
“Okay. Be careful,” Adam says softly. He doesn’t touch me, and neither does Grayson when I walk past him. I go to the door and step into my shoes before hooking my arm in the handle of my bag to pick it up. Before I can get out of the door, Grayson gets to me.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I snap when he gets close. I spin around, and I’m stunned to see that he has tears in his eyes. “For the fucking record, it was an accident. If I wanted to cut myself, I would have done a much better job.”
“Milly, I’m…”
“Save it,” I scoff. “I don’t fucking care. You can’t do shit like that and then just apologize.”
“You can’t just walk away every time we get into an argument, Milly,” Grayson says with a sigh.
“Watch me,” I say before turning and pulling the door open. I go out to my car and get in without Grayson trying to stop me. I know I am overreacting right now. I know this is not how I should be handling things, but if I don’t end things, I will only get hurt worse when he realizes there are better women—like Hope—out there that can please him.
Chapter Fourteen
Grayson
“You’re an asshole. Youknow that, right?” Adam asks from behind me as I watch Milly drive away.
“Yeah,” I say simply.
“She just needs to clear her head. You knew this was coming,” Adam tells me.
“I know what I said was shitty, but… I’m not saying she doesn’t have a reason to be upset… I just…”
“Dude, she’s overreacting. She’s scared. She’s never been in a healthy relationship but is desperately trying to be self-sufficient. You have to let her find her way. If you hand-feedher all of the answers, you are just enabling her struggles with codependency.”
“I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have assumed she did it intentionally,” I say.
“No, but you are human, Grayson. If you want to help her learn how to fly, you have to be willing to knock her out of the nest. All we can do is wait for her to find her way back. Maybe that isn’t back here with you, but it will be in a far healthier place than where she came from,” he tells me. “I texted Thomas. He is going to go to urgent care and sit with her.”
“Yeah. I think that will be good for her,” I say with a sigh. I go back inside and sit on the couch with my head back.
“What’s on your mind?” Adam asks, sitting beside me.
