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All that mattered was getting the hell out. She could go back to her apartment. The thought brought her up short. Just because he obviously didn’t want anything to do with her didn’t mean he’d back down from his ridiculous condition of her not living in that apartment. He couldn’t have it both ways.
Unless he calls my bluff and hauls me back here to live in the spare room and then we have to see each other on a daily basis while he holds himself apart.
No. She couldn’t do it. The pain in her chest was so sharp, she could barely breathe past it now. Seeing him and trying to function as if she wasn’t emotionally bleeding out at his feet? She’d rather actually bleed out.
Becka fumbled for her phone and dialed. Allie answered almost immediately. “Hey, girl. What’s up?”
“Are you home?” Her voice cracked in the middle of the sentence.
Instantly, all happiness was gone from Allie’s tone. “I can be there in fifteen. Is everything okay? Is it the baby?”
The baby. She pressed her hand to her stomach. The doctor said the baby was fine, but this level of stress had to be releasing all sorts of crazy hormones that couldn’t be good. She took a slow breath and tried to calm her racing heart. “It’s nothing like that. I just... Remember when you offered to let me crash at your place? Does that still stand?”
“Of course.” Allie, bless her soul, didn’t hesitate. “Meet you there?”
“Yeah, I’m getting in a cab in two minutes.” She’d have to offer an explanation, but at least her friend was willing to wait until they were face-to-face.
It took Becka forty minutes to cab it to the new apartment Roman and Allie had bought together last year. They’d compromised on location, so it was roughly an equal distance between her gym and his office. Allie buzzed her up, and she walked into an apartment smelling of peanut butter cookies.
It was too much. She dropped her bag on the floor and the burning in her eyes got the best of her. This apartment practically reeked of love and happiness from Roman and Allie living here. It was there in the little details—the table next to the door with a key bowl and a little notepad where they wrote notes to each other; the framed picture of them just down the hall, staring at each other with such love in their eyes that it made Becka want to cry. She could have had that. She almost did have that.
No longer.
She wrapped her arms around herself as Allie poked her head out of the doorway leading to the kitchen. Her friend took one look at her, and her expression fell. “Oh, honey. What did he do?” She rushed to Becka and pulled her into a hug. It was a good hug.
She clung to Allie. “Why do you assume he did something and not me?”
“Because that’s not guilt on your face. That’s heartbreak.” She rubbed soothing circles on Becka’s back. “And I talked to you two days ago, and you were all giddy and very much in love.”
Becka blinked. “I’m not...” But there was no point in hiding from the truth anymore. Only love could feel like a spiked arrow through her chest, digging in deeper with each heartbeat that dragged her into a future that didn’t have Aaron in it. “Shit, I love him.”
“I know.” Allie huffed out a laugh. “Come sit down. I grabbed the cookie dough and some cranberry juice on the way here. Eat your sorrows and we’ll see if I need to go key Aaron’s car by the end of this conversation.”
Becka gave her a look. “While that might be satisfying, that’s also a little criminal.”
“Worth it.” Allie ushered her into a chair at the small nook table and placed a plate of cookies and a glass of cranberry juice in front of her. “Now, spill.”
And she did. Every little detail of the nightmarish doctor’s appointment and the ensuing marriage proposal that resulted in the fight that broke them. She broke the cookie she hadn’t managed to take a bite of and set it back on the table. “He left, Allie. I overreacted maybe—probably—but he just...walked out. And didn’t come back.”
“Which triggered every single issue you have.” Allie reached over and covered her hand with her own. “Why don’t you plan on staying here at least a couple days? Roman adores you, and it’d be nice to spend some more time with you.”
She was too devastated to make a swinger joke, which more than anything told her just how screwed up this situation was. She tried for a smile. “Thanks.”
“If you don’t want to see Aaron while you’re here, you don’t have to. We’ll keep him away until you’re ready to deal with him.”
