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“Is that my phone?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“I wanted to know the time. My battery was dead, and your alarm clock is blinking.” I looked over at the display and saw that the clock hadn’t been reset from a week ago when the power blinked. I didn’t exactly use an alarm for work anymore. “I’m sorry. It seems you have a few new messages.” She dropped the phone and got up looking for her clothes.
“I was going to delete the account, I swear. I just forgot.”
“That’s why you had to turn off your phone, isn’t it? Because otherwise, it would have gone off all night.”
“I’m sorry. I swear to you, I haven’t been talking to anyone. I’ll delete the account right now.” I logged on my computer and hoped I’d avoid her leaving me. I went to the account and hit the settings and deleted the access. “Look, see. It’s gone. Please, I swear I haven’t been talking to anyone.” I knew I had, though. I had sent out hundreds of messages, and even though I had only done so for Hazen, my face and name were still attached to them. I needed to tell her, but I wanted to talk to Hazen first. If I had his green light, it wouldn’t be breaking the terms of my agreement. She would be pissed, but at least she would understand.
“I thought we’d done that, already. When I did mine, you should have done yours.” The disappointment in her voice had me feeling like a piece of shit.
“I know, baby, I just forgot, and I should have. Forgive me?”
“That’s what Devin would say when he’d get caught here and there. I forgave him, time and time again. Then eventually I caught him cheating. I’m not g
oing to do that again. Not ever.” She put her clothes on and tried to push past me in the doorway to my room.
“Kami wait, don’t go. I’m nothing like that asshole. You know me,” I begged.
She looked up at me with such pain and anger in her eyes that it nearly took my breath away.
“Do I? Do I know you? You hardly ever talk to me about your past, or how you miraculously have some much money. And now I know that you never deleted your account like you said you did. So tell me, Tate, how well do I really know you? Apparently, I only know the parts of you that you want me to see. I thought you were different,” she said, her voice hitching and breaking my heart.
“I’m so sorry, Kami. I’m sorry I lied, please just don’t go. Let’s talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about Tate. My phone is dead, so can I please use yours to call Rain to come get me?” she asked.
“Please, just let me explain everything,” I tried again.
“Explain what exactly? Maybe you could start with your father’s ‘tick-tock’ comment last night, and why the hell he was looking at me when he said it,” she challenged.
“It’s complicated,” I said, lamely.
“No, Tate. The truth is never complicated,” she shook her head vehemently. “Please call Rain.”
My grip on my phone tightened. “No, I won’t. I’m asking you to stay here with me and we can work this out.” I knew I was practically begging, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t lose her.
“Either you call Rain, or I start walking and I’ll hitchhike a damn ride if I have to,” she said, her voice harsh now.
“I’m not letting you leave,” I said, hoping to be able to talk some sense into her.
True to her word, Kami pushed past me, grabbed her shoes and purse and headed out the front door. I ran after her, nothing but a towel wrapped around my waist.
“You try and follow me and I’ll scream bloody murder,” she warned.
I looked down at myself half naked on the porch and sighed. “Wait,” I called out. “I’ll call Rain.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE – KAMI
Mondays were the worst days to pull double shifts since they were always slow, but at least I had my phone with me to keep me company and my boss didn’t mind if I texted my friends when I wasn’t serving up the Loving Cup’s finest brews.
Tate had messaged me at least fifty times since yesterday. He’d apologized at least twenty times and told me that it wasn’t what it looked like. I’d had to laugh at that one. Wasn’t that what they all said when they got caught?
The thing was, was that I truly thought Tate was different. I thought I knew him better than I obviously did. Could he really have faked all that? He’d told me he loved me and invited me to move into his home with him and his sister. Maybe there was a reasonable explanation. Or did I just want to believe that I hadn’t been fooled again?
Before I could answer that question, Rain walked in with a grim look on her face.
When she’d come to pick me up at Tate’s yesterday, I’d told her I didn’t want to talk about it. I said we’d had a fight and left it at that. She knew not to push me and figured it had just been some petty snit that we’d get over.
