AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Silence fell between them. “What are you saying, bro?” Aidan asked softly.
James shook his head, but he didn’t meet Aidan’s eyes. “This is serious, man. I-I can’t let her get away.”
And with that, he reached for the phone and tried her number.
Again.
10
Mark was nice.
That categorized him well.
In front of her friends, her family, her other colleagues… everyone thought he was pleasant and amiable. And he was. That was the truth. But closed doors changed all that. Changed him.
He was as controlling as ever.
The night—Hailey’d taken to thinking of it in italics—she’d been so overwhelmed by what had happened with James, that Mark’s sudden presence had floored her.
She hadn’t wanted to talk to him, but at the same time, his presence had brought her back to reality with a bang.
Whatever she was to James, it wasn’t a permanent thing.
Why had she messed up something that was permanent to be with something that was temporary?
That thought had been why she’d entertained Mark for that moment.
But now she was getting sick of entertaining him.
They weren’t even dating; she’d not even said she’d taken him back, and old habits were already dying hard. He was always around. Always close to hand.
She was too independent to appreciate that. If she needed help, she’d ask for it, but Mark had never understood that. She’d only just left him at a coffee shop an hour ago and already he was calling her.
Her phone rang, and she reached over to turn off the ringer as she’d done the first three times. But when she saw James' number come up on her cell, she glowered even more. He’d rung what seemed like a thousand times, and she’d consistently ignored it.
What was it with the men in her life at the moment?
None of them were acting in any way she could predict.
Mark had flown across the country without her asking it of him, and James, rather than ignoring her existence after they slept together, wasn’t letting go.
God, it all boiled down to James. It always had and always would, and she had to admit, she hated that. Hated the power he had over her.
When he hadn’t ignored her as she’d feared he would after their one-night together, she guessed she’d taken some of the control back in a way that could only be described as mean.
Ignoring him rather than allowing him to ignore her.
Had she played hard to get?
Maybe. But maybe not.
If that had been her intention, it had certainly worked. He was doing a shitty job of blanking her, that was for certain. But more than that, she figured she’d ignored his calls for so long because it was a means of stabilizing herself.
He’d already rocked her universe. Both with that Labor Day kiss and the precious moments they’d shared in the bed behind her. She was tired of that. Tired of the world revolving around her reaction to him. She needed time for herself. Time to focus and to center herself.
With James in her life, she couldn’t do that.
When she picked up her phone and pressed the ‘connect call’ button, Hailey could say she only accepted because of the last text she’d received from Mark after she ignored his third call of the morning.
