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“He can try all he wants but—”
“You’ll crumble within a week, Autumn. I saw the way you looked at him. Like you wanted to fall into his arms and bed.”
Well, shit. It was creepy how she gauged that just by the way I looked at Eli. Could she also hear my thoughts?
“Okay, fine. So I wanted to be wrapped in his arms. If you remember, our marriage didn’t end because he had an affair or beat the crap out of me. Eli is a decent man. Pigheaded, yes.” I took a sip of my wine. When Davina said nothing, I continued. “Selfish at times, yes. Controlling and domineering, sometimes. Jeez, he sounds like an asshole.”
Davina snorted and scooped a handful of popcorn. “If that were true, you wouldn’t have been with him for—what was it? Eight years? You’d never put up with an asshole, hon.”
“It was seven and a half years when the divorce was finalized.”
She rolled her eyes. “Wow, a whole six-month difference.”
My phone chimed then with a text. I snatched it off the coffee table, noting it was after nine o’clock in the evening. The number was one I didn’t recognize. I opened it up and read it.
Donuts in my office at 8. See you then, Boo.
I groaned and turned my phone toward Davina.
“He’s still calling you Boo. That about sums up his reason for being in the City of Angels.”
I sat there, unsure of how to feel or what to think. If Eli moved all the way to the West Coast to get me back, he was confident he’d get what he wanted.
Me.
Crap.
I went to bed feeling out of sorts, which wasn’t surprising. Nobody could wind me up quite like Eli. When we were in college, we were each other’s biggest cheerleaders and competition. Our disagreements were legendary in my dorm. Apparently, we could be heard on all three floors because neither of us would ever back down. We also had three classes together and battled to be tops in them. It had made for some steamy and volatile sex sessions too.
I slipped under the covers smiling as I recalled one of the best nights we’d had together. I’d aced our digital marketing exam. Eli had gotten a 96%. Not a huge deal for most. But to Eli, it bruised his ego severely. He had stormed into my dorm room and slammed the door shut…
“Did you flash Professor Irving your fucking titties?” he roared, red in the face and nostrils flared.
I was on my bed, stifling a smirk. I moved my laptop to a safer place before Eli chucked it onto the floor and pounced on me. I’d been expecting him for hours since our prof sent out the grades. Eli was as furious as I knew he would be. I didn’t know what his score was on the exam, but he didn’t know about the extra credit. Usually, we got the same score or a one or two percent difference.
Even as he huffed like a bull, I wasn’t the slightest bit afraid. Eli would never hurt me.
“Don’t be an ass, E. You know I’m not that kind of student. I earn my grades the good old-fashioned way.”
“You’re lying. We studied together. We both knew the information upside down and backward. We both should have the same score.” He ran his fingers through his wavy hair. It was his tell. “There was a zero on the line for some project. I don’t know anything about a fucking extra credit assignment! Do you?”
My heart raced at this moment. I always had Eli’s back. Always. But sometimes he was too damn smug for his own good. Cocky and self-righteous. Double standards weren’t beneath him. But, hey, nobody was perfect. It was why I may have forgotten to mention an email I’d received from Professor Irving the night before the test. The one with a bonus project to get extra credit.
Yeah, I would get a spanking for that one.
“Um, well… There was an email…” I bit my bottom lip, bracing for his wrath.
His gaze bored into me. “Fucking hell, Autumn! What did you do?” He took three long strides toward me. His chest was rising and falling with a heavy thud. “I didn’t see an email. I rarely check it. You know this. That’s why you remind me of important shit.” He stopped and gripped his head. “Fuck! Fuck!”
Yeah, I was going to pay big this time.
“I’m not your personal secretary, Eli. You know, be accountable for your own shit.”
One, two, three…
He blew. “You bitch! You screwed me over on purpose!”
Now I’d come clean. “There was a bonus project. You didn’t do it?” I played surprised, which only pissed him off more.
