AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The door closed behind him, but Simone stood and stared at it for a few minutes longer to make sure he didn’t come back. I put my hand on her back, and she stiffened, but she didn’t step away. “Are you okay?”
She rolled her head, pinning my gaze with her own and glaring. “That didn’t change anything.”
Simone stormed off to the back, likely to the closet that had become her favorite spot to hide. For a minute I thought about following her, slamming the door behind us, and getting on my knees to beg her until she forgave me. Then again, I’d beg her out here if she’d let me.
I’m regretting a lot of things lately.
I groaned. “Fuck me.”
Chapter 28
Simone
“So let me get this straight… this guy came into the bar to start shit, so you grabbed his neck like a chicken on slaughtering day and spit in his face?” Emmy looked at me with wide eyes and her jaw hung open. I nodded. “Bad bitch…” She shook her head, muttering to herself.
“It’s just basic self-defense.” I shrugged.
With a laugh that probably woke up the neighbors, Emmy shook her head. “Basic self-defense is knowing that if you kick a man in the balls, it’ll drop him to his knees, or knowing that if you break someone’s nose, you have a pretty good chance of getting away. You spit in his face.” She laughed again.
“I’m not proud of it, okay? It was a rough day.” I swirled the coffee I wouldn’t drink around the mug.
Emmy tilted her head with a gentle nod like you’d give someone that just told you bad news. It was a pity look tinted with her suspicion. Was that a smirk? She was enjoying this. “It was a rough day because you’re fighting with the guy you’re fucking?”
The ceramic cup made a hollow thud against the particle board table. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t act like you and Logan haven’t been fucking for weeks. I can always tell.” Emmy shrugged, acting like we’d been friends our entire lives. How could she possibly know?
She was right, though, and I admitted it with a dramatic sigh. “Can we just drop it? I really don’t want to talk about my love life.” I dropped my forehead against my hand, resting my elbow on the table.
“Love life? I thought you weren’t fucking.” She gave me an I told you so smirk that I wanted to slap off her because I knew she was right. “Okay, okay, fine. You’re really not going to report the guy for harassing you?”
“He just came into the bar. If I reported him for anything, they’d be more interested in the fact I choked the dude and spit in his face.” Emmy chuckled when I said it, and I couldn’t help but join her. It wasn’t something I’d normally do. Slap him or pin him to the counter, sure, but it wasn’t like me to spit in someone’s face like some sort of feral llama.
She stopped laughing, her expression turning serious. “If you say so. Just be careful, okay? I know you can’t stand the guy, but at least have him walk you to your car later.”
I smiled at my roommate, thankful to know she cared about me. She had become a good friend since I’d moved to Grand Rapids, and it made a lump start to develop in my throat. Since I’d heard Logan reminding Ash that he couldn’t stand me, there had been one thought heavy on my mind.
“I think I might move home,” I said, mostly in a whisper.
Emmy’s shrill gasp echoed, and the fork she dropped clattered to the table, making a loud clanging sound when it hit her plate. “I’m sorry, you what?!” Her eyes filled with tears, and her bottom lip shook.
“I think there is just more opportunity there for me right now. ” I shrugged as if it filled in the blanks. It was a lie. There wasn’t anything there for me, but there wasn’t really anything here for me either. I sighed, fingering the handle on the mug.
The tears spilled over, rolling down her cheeks, and she smudged her mascara when she ran her fingers beneath her eyes to catch them. “I thought we were friends.”
“What? Of course we’re friends!”
“Then why do you want to leave? Because of some fight with a stupid man?” The judgment was thick in her voice, but she wasn’t wrong. She sniffled. “I think you should stay.”
“I don’t know…” I tried to take another gulp of the room-temperature coffee, cringing at the acrid, bitter taste.
She pushed her plate away, putting her hands on the table and holding them out for mine. I humored her, setting my mug down and taking her hands. “Please stay? I’ll help you find a different job, so you never have to see him again.”
Would that make it better? Never seeing Logan again would make it easier to forget about him, but I didn’t know that it would make it easier to act like the feelings I’d developed for him against my will weren’t real. I squeezed. “I’ll think about it, okay? I’m not packing my things this weekend.”
“I’ll trap you here,” she muttered under her breath with a laugh.
I lifted my brow. “What was that?”
