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She followed me and slammed the door shut.
Shit.
If anything, I expected her to have a red-tipped nose and bloodshot eyes from crying, not be wearing a mask of rage. I scanned her hands to make sure she didn’t have a weapon.
“Dahlia—”
“I didn’t waste over a year of my life being dedicated to Tate to lose everything I’d been working toward to you, Roe. Not to you. Tate isn’t gay and you’ve done nothing but confuse him and twist him inside out and upside down. He’s mine. So, back the fuck off,” she snarled with her expression twisted.
I stared at her. Everything she’d been working toward? What the hell did that mean? I’d heard rumors that some girls went to college hoping to land a husband, but was that actually true? Did that really happen in this day and age?
“You stole him from me. He’s mine and I want him back.” When she took a step toward me, I took a step back. “He’s.” Step. “Mine.” Step. “So.” Step. “Back.” Step. “Off.”
As she approached, I retreated until I backed into my desk chair.
Had she lost her damn mind? What happened between her and Tate?
I swallowed to try to loosen up my throat. “My goal wasn’t to steal him from you, Dahlia. That was never my intention. My goal was for him to be my friend. Things just… happened. It wasn’t planned.”
“You are such a liar. I saw the way you looked at him. I see the way you still look at him. Friends don’t look at each other like that, Ronan. You led him into temptation. You corrupted his soul. You’ve stolen his will to say no to you.”
I had no idea I was that powerful or convincing. In my head, I was just a nineteen-year-old college kid who happened to fall in love with a junior.
I didn’t come to Duquesne to find a husband, I came to get an education. Unlike the woman fuming in front of me, apparently.
“Just to be clear, Dahlia, we can’t convert straight guys. No magical rainbow glitter exists that I can sprinkle on a man to turn him gay. If he wants me, it’s because he’s always had those tendencies and just ignored them. Or didn’t recognize them for what they were,” I shook my head, “are. Nothing will make him desire another man without him wanting that for himself. It seems I’m proof that he does.”
She jabbed a finger in my direction, coming uncomfortably close to my chest. “Give him back to me. I want to spend the rest of my life with him. You can’t say the same.”
I could say the same but wouldn’t since Tate and I hadn’t known each other that long.
No matter what, I didn’t want to fight with her, but I was getting annoyed at her viewpoint. “Tate’s not an object in a store, Dahlia. I can’t simply give him back like I’m returning an item. He has emotions and desires. He needs to want to go back to you. If that’s what he wants, nothing I can say or do will stop that. But if he doesn’t, nothing that you can say or do will make it happen, either.”
She glared at me with her lips tightly pressed together for a few seconds before she sneered, “We’ll see about that.”
Shit. The determination in her brown eyes worried me. “You’re right. We will. But just remember, you can’t change who he is. If he’s gay, or even bi, you’ll have to accept it because that is who he is, Dahlia. Whether you like it or not.”
She leaned forward and screamed, “He’s not gay!” in my face. “He only pretends to be gay for you! This is all your fault. Yours, Roe. You infected him.”
You infected him.
That stung. Way more than it should even though I knew she was only striking out because she was upset and hurt.
As calmly as I could, I said, “I’m not a disease.”
“You are,” she snarled, spun on her heels and jerked open the door.
With my stomach twisting in knots, I continued to stare at it after she slammed it shut. I had no idea what Tate had said to her or how he handled the whole situation, but I needed to find out.
I had a really bad feeling about this. Really bad.
Dahlia wasn’t done with Tate.
Even if he was done with her.
CHAPTER 13
Ronan (Now)
I stabbed the button for the ground floor and once the elevator doors closed, the car jerked into motion.
I was mentally drained because my brain kept dragging me back to the past, almost making it impossible to concentrate on what I had to do today or what I had to plan for the upcoming week.
I always had some sort of deal on the table but I was struggling with my latest. I decided to go into the office this morning to see if a change of location would help cleanse my brain. Being holed up in my penthouse was unhealthy.
