AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We still on for getting our apartments all Christmas-ed out this weekend?”
“How is that even a question?” I asked, feigning offense. “Of course.”
She lifted a hand in faux surrender. “Just making sure. I have to warn Aaron my body won’t be available for an entire day.”
“That poor guy,” I said in a monotone voice. “How will he ever live?”
She laughed and blew a kiss my way. “Later, sweetie!”
Looking back at my phone, I tapped out a response as I stood and headed to my car.
Me
Sure. I’m on my way back, come over in 30?
Despite my grievances with him, I liked Bryce. We’d been good friends for years before we’d ever started hooking up, and he could be really sweet when he wanted. I might need to stay “single” to protect guys from my four older brothers, but it still felt good to have a constant in my life.
Or maybe it was that it felt good to be wanted by someone when everyone else had let the threat of my brothers run them off.
* * *
CONNOR
“Wait, you’re leaving?”
I froze with my shirt partially over my head at the pissed-off comment, and then kept my movements careful when I resumed pulling the shirt on and over my chest. With a deep breath, I turned to look at the woman the voice belonged to. “That’s how this works, sweetheart.”
She pulled the sheet over her chest as she propped herself up with her other arm. “Then tell me your definition of this, because it’s apparently different from mine.”
Letting my hand slide to the back of my neck, I left it there as I shrugged. “I picked you up at a bar. I met you not even an hour before we left. I don’t know what else you could expect from that.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” she scoffed. Her face was scrunched together in anger, but even in the dark room, I could see wetness gathering in her eyes. “What else could I expect from some prick who picks up women in a fucking bar?”
I focused on her eyes a moment longer, willing myself to feel something for making her cry. Regardless of not remembering her name, it should bother me to see a woman cry—especially if I’d been the reason behind the tears.
But there was nothing.
There’d been nothing since I’d returned from a short trip to Texas six months ago. Just countless, nameless women who couldn’t fill a void that never should’ve been there.
Turning, I slapped my hand over where my phone and wallet rested on the chair and started walking toward the hall.
“For the record, asshole, it’s called a one-night stand. One. Night. Not one hour.” Her voice broke, but I didn’t stop, and her insults continued until I was out of her apartment.
I’d heard them all before, and I deserved them.
I was just numb to everything around me and was blindly, desperately searching for something to make me feel.
Once I was in my car, I pulled up the messages on my phone and tapped out the same one I did every night.
Me
I need to know you’re okay Cassidy. Please call.
My thumb hovered over the SEND button for a few seconds before I forced myself to hit CANCEL instead. Dropping the phone into one of the cup holders, I scrubbed my hands over my face, then cranked the engine and headed home—flashes of my time with Cassidy assaulting me as I drove.
She’d only come back into my life for a little more than a week and had belonged to someone else, but that week had fucking wrecked me.
My partner and I had gotten a call about a house fire that looked suspicious—and later revealed the bodies of Cassidy’s abusive mom and stepdad—early one morning about six months ago. When Cassidy had shown up hours later, I hadn’t been able to look away from her. I still wasn’t sure if it’d been the obvious black eye she’d been sporting or if somehow, during all the chaos of interviewing neighbors, I’d recognized her. But that wholly innocent girl had been all I could see that day and had haunted my every thought after.
