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This wasn’t like when I was with Melanie. I wasn’t angry or pissy, I was scared. Worried that she had come to her senses and realized she was too good for me. That I wasn’t worth the distraction from her studies, and her job goals.
I didn’t want to take any of that away from her, but everything happened so fast, and we succumbed to sleep, so we didn’t get to hash out all the details of our feelings. Hell, there was still so much I needed to tell her, and had been trying to since the last time I was inside of her.
It was just never the right moment, or the right time, and I didn’t know how she would react. Now that we were in a relationship, it had to be the first thing we talked about when I got home. I had to clear the air.
Barely bothering to check my phone, I went straight from my game to the airport, anxious to get back to Ash. She had told me she was going to study hard until I landed, so I still assumed she would be at my place like we had planned.
The car service I had hired to get me home wasn’t fast enough, and I drummed my fingers on my leg while I sent a few texts to Ash.
Almost home.
You at my place?
No response and no little dots indicating she was typing something up.
The car dropped me off at the front of my building and I raced to the elevator. When the doors opened into my place, I could see Ash’s silhouette standing in front of the huge windows that overlooked the bay and South Beach.
I sighed and tossed my phone and wallet into a bowl near the front door, then dropped my bag loud enough for her to hear that I was there. She didn’t turn around, just bowed her head and waited on me as I approached.
“Ash? You okay baby?”
I got closer but stopped ten feet away, unsure how I should handle whatever was bothering her. She was wearing a long jacket, and her hair was up in a bun, but that was as much as I could see since the only light was from the moon coming through the window. The jacket wasn’t her style though. She was always more casual, ready to play a soccer game if the opportunity arose.
“Ash, you're scaring me.”
She shook her head and that was when I realized how wrong I was. The smell. She reeked of Roja, and the coat wasn’t just a jacket, it was a Max Mara wool jacket that I had bought for a romantic trip up north a few months back.
“Melanie?” My voice was low and she jumped like she hadn’t heard me speaking moments ago.
“Don’t act angry, Rhys.” She spoke with that hoity enunciation and proper grammar she always had. Like she was better than everyone else around her. Breaking her from the proper Miami doctor vibe was a mission of mine when we were together. I used to think, as our relationship went on, that I could break open her shell and loosen her up. Now I could see that it was all a ruse. She loved me, and I knew that was true, but not more than she loved herself.
“Why not act angry when Iamangry?”
“I tried calling you for two weeks. You blocked me. You knew I would eventually come see you.”
“No, I didn’t, Mel. I figured you would give up and move on.”
“If only it were that easy,” she sighed. “Rhys, I…”
“No!” I yelled. I’m not interested in what you have to say. “Leave.”
“If you didn’t want me here, you would have changed your access code to the penthouse.”
“That was an oversight. Get out.”
I looked around for any signs that Ash was there. I could picture Mel coming and Ash choosing to hide until the wicked witch was gone, wanting to avoid being in the middle of our showdown. But there were no signs of her there and when I looked up at Melanie, she had a knowing smirk on her face.
“Expecting someone else?”
“Out!” I yelled again.
“No,” she said louder than she had been speaking before. “We need to talk about this.”
My only mission was to get to Ash and make sure she was okay. Melanie could stew in my apartment for days for all I cared, but I wasn’t staying there with her.
“You know what?” I grabbed my keys and wallet, along with my phone and opened the elevator door. “I’ll send security up to escort you out. I need to go.”
“And find your girlfriend? She’s too young for you, Rhys!” The doors closed as she spoke, and it took me until I was on the ground floor to even register what she had said.
