AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I know she’s mad.
I know I fucked up.
But I’m glad she’s facing away from me so she can’t see my smile. God, I love her.
“It shouldn’t have happened, and I should have told you that it did. But—”
“I saidI don’t want to talk, okay? Respect that or leave.”
“Okay,” I say, quietly.
I don’t know how much time passes before Cassia lies down on the bed.
I don’t know how much time passes after she does.
My phone keeps buzzing in my pocket, but I don’t pull it out.
I just sit on the side of the bed, my elbows resting on my knees in the same pose as the rare times I sit on the bench.
Staring at the signage for a band I’ve never heard of that features skulls and roses, waiting until she’s ready to talk.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CASSIA
He hasn’t left.
I keep waiting for him to leave, but he hasn’t.
The silence is both peaceful and tense.
I can hear the muffled beat of the loud music downstairs. Occasionally, someone will shout in the hallway or bang against a door. There’s a steady pounding in the room next to this one that makes me think another couple is making very different use of the bed in there.
I don’t even know whose bed I’m lying on right now. One of his teammates’?
I don’t know what to think. How to feel.
I just got blindsided.
And I didn’t think Holden would blindside me. That hecould.
I thought we were honest with each other, almost painfully so. He knows all my insecurities and fears. I’m stripped bare and vulnerable, feeling stupid for not asking more questions about his visit to Arlington last weekend. Wanting to know exactly what happened and also feeling like I’ll fracture into tiny pieces talking about it.
My feelings for Holden have always balanced on the fine line between love and hate.
That line has never looked thinner.
I love him. I love him so,somuch.
But right now, I also hate him to a painful degree. It actuallyhurts, like there’s a splinter shoved into my chest.
Do I think he cheated on me?
No.
But the smug expression from a blonde in a low-cut dress and the guilty, panicked expression on Holden’s face had me considering the possibility.
He admitted he was drunk.Wastedwas the word he used. And I’ve always known Holden has the tendency to self-destruct. To make stupid choices without thinking or caring about consequences.
