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“You want me to come in with you?” Reed questioned as we stopped outside the door of Chad’s apartment.
I shook my head, sorting through the mess of miscellaneous keychains on my keyring to find the sparkly new key hidden within. A key he’d given me only the day before the wedding, yet he’d had one to my place a few months after we’d started dating. His insistence that he enjoyed his privacy had made sense to me at the time—past me especially appreciated the need to keep his personal life quiet and intimate. But the rose-colored glasses I’d been wearing for over a year had been completely shattered, and I was seeing things a lot clearer than ever before.
“Nah, I’m okay,” I said, flashing Reed a forced smile as I put the key into the lock and turned. “Honestly, I doubt he’s even here, and I only moved in last week, so I was still living out of a suitcase. It’ll only take me a few minutes to gather my clothes and stuff.”
Reed folded his arms across his chest and leaned into the wall, kicking one foot up. “All right. I’ll give you five.”
Rolling my eyes, I pushed the door open and hurried inside, fully aware that he wasn’t joking. If there was one thing about Reed Lawson that I’d learned in the past few days and knew without a doubt, it was that he didn’t say anything he didn’t mean. And when you’ve realized you’ve been lied to for over a year, honesty suddenly becomes an extremely attractive quality.
I didn’t waste a second, jamming my keys into the back pocket of my jeans—jeans that had just appeared, tags still on, at the end of my bed this morning—and headed for the bedroom, determined to get in and out and be done with this shit.
My large green duffle bag was exactly where I’d tossed it last time I was here. I picked it up off the bedroom floor, opening it wide before heading to the bathroom to dig out my dirty clothes from the laundry basket.
Chad’s apartment wasn’t large—an open-plan kitchen, dining, and living room big enough to have a loveseat and a television, but not actually enough room to have anything to dine at, meaning we always ate sitting on the couch.
There were two bedrooms and a small bathroom with a shower over the tub. The shower head I was sure I would miss more than Chad himself. It had been my best friend on multiple occasions when myneedshad got the better of me.
I hadn’t complained, though.
I respected it.
Admired his loyalty to his faith.
What a damn joke!
Slamming the bathroom door open in frustration, I hadn’t expected the thick cloud of steam that suddenly hit me in the face. “Holy crap,” I choked out, waving my hand in my face.
“Valen?” Chad’s voice startled me, and I stumbled backward into the small hallway. He appeared a second later, wrapping a towel around his waist as he emerged from the mist like in some weird horror movie…
Return of the Cheating Ex
no
Escaping the Fuckboy
Internally, I chuckled.
“Hey,” he said after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.
I was surprised at how easy it was to keep from getting emotional. There was a part of me that was sad because I’d been betrayed by two people I cared about—two people I thought I loved—and it wasn’t a pain that was going to simply disappear. Betrayal is a torment that’s hard to bear. But instead of giving in to that torment and letting it overwhelm me, I decided to focus on something else.
My anger.
“Excuse me,” I asserted, nodding to the open doorway behind him. “I want to get my things from the bathroom, then I’ll go.”
“You don’t have t—”
“Move, Chad.”
He let out a dramatic sigh and stepped to the side. “Sure. Go ahead.”
I didn’t waste a second, slipping by him and making quick work of digging out my clothes from the hamper. Then I grabbed my toothbrush and a few bits and pieces, including body wash and skin care I had scattered around.
By the time I got back to the bedroom, Chad was wearing a pair of jeans and was pulling a fresh shirt on over his head.
I tossed the pile of things in my arms into the duffle bag, the contents now spilling over the sides, but I continued to stuff them down, eager to get the hell out of there. Wrapping my fingers around the handle, I couldn’t help but pause for a second, wondering if I should say something.
See you around.
