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I wanted to step closer and ram my fist against his lips for speaking to her that way as if she belonged to him. Instead, I restrained myself, knowing that it wasn't dignified for a man of my status to engage in a fistfight over a woman. The issues I had to sort out were with Kayla, not this idiot.
“Chris, we can talk later, okay? You have to leave now,” Kayla urged.
Chris glared at me for a moment; it was the helpless guy who had lost the fight for the gorgeous diva. Then he turned back to Kayla and said, “Call me.” Then he was gone.
After he had left the shop, I banged my fist on the countertop. That was the only way I knew to express my pent-up anger. I couldn't believe that Kayla would do this to me, cozying up to another man when I wasn't there. She hadn't even had the decency to keep what she did away from the bookstore. She brought him here when she knew I might come around to see her.
“What the hell was that shit?” I roared. “Who the fuck is that guy?”
My voice was loud enough for the turd to have heard me if he hadn't left so quickly.
“Calm down, Aiden,” Kayla said, reaching to touch my arm.
I jerked back. “Don’t fucking tell me to calm down. Answer the damned question!”
Kayla’s eyes widened. It was clear that she had never seen me like this before. I could see in her eyes that she was scared of me. I was someone who liked to have people looking at me with fear, but that was only in my business, so in this case, there was no satisfaction for me in seeing Kayla so scared. I only felt sick in my gut. I wanted to know who that guy was and what he was doing leaning in so close to her.
“You can’t speak, huh? How could you just act like a cheap slut....”
The moment I said those words, I wished I hadn't spoken them because the fear in Kayla’s eyes quickly turned to anger. Her eyes glinted with fury, and for a moment, I thought she was going to lunge at me with the pen she was holding with the way she gripped it so tightly.
“Don’t ever talk to me like that,” she growled. “What is your problem? Not that it matters, but he's been a good friend to me. But no, you have to go all caveman and insult me. I'm not your girlfriend, so why are you so stupidly clingy now?”
I swallowed as she said those words.
She was right.
We hadn't really defined our relationship. And we never said anything about exclusivity.
I had no business being in her bookstore yelling at her for no real reason.
I should just fuck off—that was what she wanted. She was tired of my moods. I didn't give her another chance to say anything before I turned and began to walk away from the store—and Kayla.
She didn't call me back or follow me as I walked away. I knew at that moment that whatever we had going on between us had collapsed beyond salvage.
CHAPTER FIVE
Icouldn't describe how I felt at the moment. I was torn between anger and fear. I felt anger toward myself for not doing enough to stay calm when Aiden shouted at me. I had learned that when one person was angry in a situation, the onus was on the other person to remain calm if they didn't want the situation to escalate. If I had stayed quiet, I was sure Aiden would have gotten control of himself, and he would have apologized for the things he'd said and his extreme reaction. But I had reacted angrily, and I had pushed him away too.
Some of my anger was directed at Aiden too. He could have taken a calmer approach.
He could have worded some things better.
I'd never seen that jealous part of him before.
I knew that I could see the jealousy thing positively because if he didn't feel strongly about me, he wouldn't have reacted in that way. Yet, I was stunned by the way he ranted about the issue. I had always seen Aiden as someone who was in firm control of his emotions, so I was surprised to see that slip.
The fear I felt now was that I had blown it with Aiden. It felt like I had ruined everything between us. I wished I'd called him back when he walked away, but I had been too pissed to do that. I just watched him leave, happy to be rid of his jealous self for some time. The only problem was that I tried calling him after a few hours, and he didn't pick up the phone. I'd held out for that long, hoping he would try to reach out to me first, but he hadn't called or stopped by my house.
I'd tried his number countless times, sent him a few text messages, and even tried to reach him by email. Nothing worked. My calls were unanswered, my texts unread; it just felt like Aiden had cut me off completely. It hurt me that our growing friendship had to end in this manner, and I was trying to save what was left of what we had built over the past few weeks, but Aiden was not making it easy for me.
Now, I was doing the only thing I could think of to reach him. I was in a taxi on the way to his house. I had tried to get him in his office, but it was tough. The receptionist had told me point blank that I couldn't see him if I didn't have an appointment.
“Is he in the office? Just tell him it’s Kayla,” I appealed to the smartly dressed receptionist.
“He's not been here since Tuesday,” she finally revealed.
Tuesday? I muttered. That was two days ago, the day we had quarreled. Another twinge of fear crept into my mind, the fear that Aiden might have somehow injured himself or maybe gotten into an accident. I was terrified by the receptionist’s words, and the more I tried to reach Aiden on the phone, the more it seemed likely that he had crashed his car into a tree somewhere, undiscovered for now.
