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She sounded almost defeated, like she was angry with herself. She wasn’t supposed to be angry with herself, she was supposed to be angry with me. And I had a feeling she still was. I just didn’t know exactly what about. I just knew I’d fucked up.
“If that was true,” I said, “you wouldn’t have avoided me all weekend. So, I am sor–”
She shoved by me with a shout of annoyance and thundered down the stairs.
I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know what I could do.
She was agitated in a way I hadn’t seen her be in…weeks. Not with me. It had been different with me. It was supposed to be different with me. And I’d broken it.
“Piper!” I said as I chased after her.
I hadn’t thought I was the kind of guy to chase anyone. But when it came to her I didn’t even second guess it. That shit just came naturally and I let it.
I pulled the Barlows’ front door closed behind me and, not for the first time, marvelled at how fast she was.
For a moment, I paused. Did she want me chasing after her? I’d told her I never wanted her to ever have to say no to me, and I’d meant it. Not just about sex. But this felt like more than me crossing boundaries. This felt like us both being about to lose something that we didn’t want to lose, and I had to try harder.
She was frustrating. She was sexy. She was amazing. She was perfect.
She was fucking heading for the bus stop while thunder rolled towards us.
So, by the time I’d caught up to her, I was overly emotional. Dangerous could get fucked quite frankly. I needed her to know how sorry I was, and words weren’t cutting it.
I took her arm and turned her to me. My hands were on her cheeks, and I was kissing her. Everything I could never say. I felt myself relax as she leant into me, but then she pulled away and pushed me even further.
“What was that?” she snapped.
“What was what?”
“You don’t just go around kissing people!”
Trust me to fuck up my attempt to fix a fuck up. But that had worked before. I was out of ideas. I’d given her space. I’d tried talking to her. I shouldn’t have kissed her. But I didn’t know what else to fucking do!
“I’m not just here at your beck and call, Lombardi,” she yelled. “Okay? I’m not just some booty call you can turn to when you don’t have anything better or you’re too lazy to go looking.”
What in the fuck was happening now?
“I don’t think– Where is this coming from?” I asked as the rain started.
She huffed and looked about five seconds away from stamping her foot. “You can’t just drop a bombshell on someone and think you haven’t changed things.”
Bombshell? What bombshell? And did this have to be argued in the rain?
“Is this because I said it was over?” I asked.
“Something that never started cannot – by definition – end, Lombardi.”
Fuck.
Her voice was full of venom, and I realised just how pissed off she was, but I honestly hasn’t been expecting her to be pissed because of that. She’d known this was going to have to end at some point. We’d rarely talked about it, but we both knew we were just waiting for Mason to ask her out for the bubble to not just burst but shatter into a thousand piercing pieces. And yet she was pissed it was over? Her? She was the one talking about ‘normal’ and ‘casual’, and she was pissed it was over?
“So, you are pissed I said it was over?” I threw my hands up, feeling totally defeated. “I knew it. Look, we both knew what this was. I actually thought, out of both of us, you remembered better than I did!”
That had clearly not been the right thing to say.
“I thought I knew what this was!” she said, accusingly. “Turns out you were lying to me after all. Honesty my fucking arse! You’re a piece of shit, Roman Lombardi. I wish I’d never insulted you!”
To say I did not react well would be an understatement. I know who I am.
