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“Maybe you did,” he said, as if the thought had just miraculously come to him.
“Did I imagine you telling me you loved me? Did I imagine you going down on me? Is that what I imagined? You begged me to break up with Kate.”
“I’m warning you—”
“Seventeen reasons, remember? It wasn’t the same without me by your side. You missed me.”
“That’s enough.”
“Number four. Do you remember number four? That you didn’t know what Kate and I did with each other when you weren’t around?” I sat silently, waiting for an acknowledgment I knew would never come. “You told me you loved me, Gray. You told me you loved me, and then you dragged me back to your house, snuck me into your room, and had your legs over your shoulders before I even closed the door. Don’t tell me I just imagined that night. I fucked you, Gray. I fucked you, and you begged for it.”
Gray leaped from his seat, sending his chair slamming against the wall. He walked toward the lockers, rearing back his arm. His fist crashed against the metal, filling the tiny break room with a deafening sound. When he turned toward me, there was a level of anger on his face I’d never seen before. For a second, I thought he was going to hit me next.
I rose to my feet and nodded. “If you want to punch me, then do it. Come on,” I said, tapping my cheek. “Give your brother a run for his money. I can pull a twenty out of the ATM for you if you want to go grab some gas while you’re at it.” I took a step forward. “You think I’m flirting with you? You have nothing I want.” I pointed at the door, my eyes never leaving his. “Now, I’m going to go back out there, and—”
Before I could react, his hands were on my chest, shoving me against the lockers. He lunged forward, his face inches from mine. His lips parted, his thumb grazing my nipple roughly. The realization of what he was doing struck him, and he froze, his face so close I could taste the flavor of mint on breath. Gray stumbled back, walking until he bumped into the wall behind him.
He slammed his eyes shut, squeezing them together. “Go home. Just go home.”
I sidestepped until I reached the door. Grabbing the handle, I shook my head. “I’m scheduled until three. I’ll leave at three.” We were both stuck in rushes of disbelief, our eyes locked. “Don’t ever touch me again. You keep your goddamn hands to yourself.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face, his breathing heavy and harsh. “Kent,” he whispered. “Kent, please.”
I didn’t want to know what the hell he had to say next, so I spun around and reached for the doorknob. When I opened it, Rhonda’s prying eyes darted to the ceiling, and she pointed at a burned-out lightbulb.
“Well, would you look at that,” she said with all the subtlety of a tap-dancing dachshund.
I wrung my sweat-drenched shirt out onto the concrete floor and slid it back on before making my way toward the freight we’d just unloaded. Rhonda trailed behind me, placing her hand on my shoulder.
“Are you okay?”
I turned toward her and shook my head. “I will be.”
Gray didn’t speak to me for a day and a half.
I didn’t speak to him for a week.
When Aunt Jeanie left, she snuck an ounce of pot into my sock drawer. It helped.
REASON SIX
I can’t stand to see you hurting.
Ithadbeentwoweeks since Gray Collins punched a locker while imagining my face. And as for that pesky little potential kiss? A temporary side-effect of my near heat stroke. In the days that followed, he’d attempted to apologize a total of twelve times. He was denied forgiveness eleven of those. The straw that broke the homosexual’s back? A tray of low-carb cheesecake balls he later revealed to be regular, carb-heavy cheesecake balls. When I’d demanded an apology, he’d advised me that the day he saidsorryfor fattening me up would be the day he renounced his Christianity. I’d scowled at him. He’d winked at me. There had been absolutely no pitter-patters in my heart, nor were there any butterflies in my stomach.
We’d gotten back to a comfortable place. A place of bromance with zero chance of romance. That’s why when his hand wrapped around my wrist one Tuesday afternoon in late June and he stared deep into my eyes, I may or may not have whimpered directly into his face. Thankfully, Gray ignored my lusty little moment of madness. Unthankfully, his eyes were wide and full of fear as he whispered for me to go to his office and hide.
“Wait, what?”
“There isn’t time, just—I need you to trust me. Please. Do this for me?”
Rolling my eyes, I threw my hands up in defeat. “Fine. You win. But if this is some sort of kinky little sex game, I’m not interested.”
A growl crawled up his throat, sucking the fun right out of the room.
I reached around his head and tapped his bald spot. “You’re being such a drama queen. What the hell is going on? Why am I—”
“Trevor’s here. I just saw his car.”
