Page 107 of All I Feel

“Insult you?” he scoffed. “Tessa, you pulled on your ex’s sweatshirt just hours after my dick was inside you, and you think I’m insulting you?”

I stared at him for several long moments in silence. I could tell he wanted me to respond, but I’m certain it wasn’t the response he got. “I’m leaving.”

Without another word, I put my hand on the doorknob, yanked open the door, and walked out.

Ace didn’t follow me.

“It wasgood to see you back here, Georgia. You’re all set for next month’s appointment.”

“Thanks, Tessa. I’ll see you soon.”

Georgia turned and walked out of the salon. And the door had barely closed behind her when Lark asked, “What happened?”

“What?” I countered, wanting to avoid the conversation by any means necessary.

“I’ve known you my whole life, Tessa. You’re my best friend. And I know that something’s happened. You’re not yourself. What’s wrong?”

I sighed, feeling so defeated. “Ace and I had our first fight this morning.”

“Oh, no. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t want to put you in the middle of it.”

“You won’t. He’s my brother; you’re my best friend. I can be both. In fact, depending on what’s going on, maybe I can help.”

I glanced at the time. “My next client is going to be here in five minutes.”

“Then talk quickly.”

“Ace got angry with me this morning because I made a stupid decision,” I explained. At Lark’s curious expression, I went on to tell her what had happened.

When I finished, she said, “Lucky for the both of you that he got your car fixed.”

“Tell me about it,” I said with a nod. Following a beat, I asked, “Was I wrong for this?”

My best friend inhaled deeply and considered her response. “I think you were both wrong. It sounds like Ace was being wildly stubborn, miserable, and jealous about it, even if he says otherwise. But in fairness to him, it was kindof a stupid move on your part. It probably didn’t feel good to him to see you wearing Ryan’s law school sweatshirt.”

I closed my eyes and nodded. “I know. I honestly wasn’t even thinking about it when I put the sweatshirt on. But I got so angry when he came at me like he did. He was accusing me of something that was so far from reality. And it hurt to think he could assume the worst about me.”

“Ace was afraid, you know?”

“Afraid? Of what?”

“He didn’t want to be the rebound guy. He wanted what he was building with you to stick.” She shot me a sympathetic look and shrugged. “As wrong as he was for addressing the situation with you like he did, I think he’s just worried that you two got involved too quickly after things ended between you and Ryan.”

Ace had said something along those lines when he’d been sharing why he didn’t push things past kissing at the start. From where I stood, it seemed unreasonable for Ace to feel any insecurity over Ryan. There really was no comparison to how well he’d treated me and accepted me. But perhaps, despite telling him how much I loved him, I hadn’t done enough to communicate to Ace just how important he was to me. It had moved quickly for us, and if the roles had been reversed, and he’d put on some piece of jewelry an ex he’d broken up with mere weeks before had given him, there was no question I would’ve had the same doubts as him.

“I screwed up, Lark, didn’t I?”

She nodded slowly. “Yeah. I think you both screwed up, but this one really falls on you, Tessa. It had to kill him to see you wearing Ryan’s shirt.”

Tears filled my eyes. “I never meant to hurt him.”

“I know. And I think, after you’ve both had some time tocool off today, he’ll see that, too. Just talk to him when you get home.”

Nodding my understanding, I said, “I will.”

“If things get heated again, and you need a night apart, my door is always open.”