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“Get a fucking grip, Dylan,” Phil snarled. “I’m over this. Seriously, you’re being an asshole to her and me. You have the chance to talk to her after sheblocked youand she’s shaking and upset. You aren’t getting that you are the problem. People don’t normally block each other after they end things.”
“She’s never had a relationship before,” Dylan snapped. “She doesn’t know how they go.”
“Wow, everything really is my fault,” I whispered, blinking at him in shock. “I’m not a fucking idiot. I know how breakups work even if this is my first one. I did it partially because I didn’t want to keep staring at my fucking phone crying and wondering why you didn’t care enough about me to call or even text!”
He flinched and made me realize that I was crying.
Fuck.
I went for the elevator, but he blocked it. “Move.” I growled when he didn’t. “Move or I will make you move.”
“I can’t. I can’t let you leave when youfinallyadmitted that you cared about me that much.”
I met his gaze and didn’t hide how destroyed I was. “You are so fucking selfish.” I nodded when he flinched. “All you care about is what you want. How you want things to be. There were two people in our relationship, and you kept saying you wanted to be good for me and to me, but youweren’t. You weren’thealthyfor me to be around. You were selfish. You wanted me to be easy. I don’t want to be with you!”
And then I moved him. I grabbed his arm and flung him across the reception area, not caring about the damage I was doing and more.
When I reached downstairs, I turned to hand off what I needed to give Phil to the security guard and then froze. This was ridiculously valuable and sensitive information, and I was going to just give it to some super low-level guy who watched the front?
Was I really that messed up and fucked in the head now?
“Ma’am, are you okay?” the guy asked, worry in his tone.
“Sorry, bad day,” I whispered, shaking myself out of it and heading for the door. Right as I reached it, I turned to see Dylan rushing off the elevator.
Part of me expected him to order a lockdown or something so I was stuck in the revolving door, but he didn’t, just taking a step towards me. Phil had been on the elevator with him and grabbed him back, whispering something in his ear. I didn’t want to know. I pushed out of the door and headed across the street to the portal we had in their parking garage now that we used if we needed to.
Mason instantly knew something was off when I arrived home. Honestly, I was so upset and down on myself that I couldn’t seem to get my mouth to work.
He cupped my face and gave me the sweetest, softest kiss. “Can you give me your trust today? Please? Yes, I want to show you that I’ll never abuse it again, but this is for you.Please, just shut off your brain and let me help you today?” He smiled when I nodded. “Change for causal and pick whatever glamour won’t get us noticed. I’ll use the charm as well.”
Okay, that sounded odd, but I just assumed we were going out in public. I didn’t really want to, but I got too lost in my head when I stayed at home.
No, I really,reallywanted to go out in public when I saw where he was taking me.
“This is one of my favorite places to come reset myself when I was having a hard time,” he told me.
I nodded, totally understanding it. It wasn’t just that it was a popular dog park with so much fun and life, but there was a shelter hosting an event trying to get people to adopt. There were gobs ofpuppiesthere with bandanas and all kinds of cuteness like they needed anything more than just to be their perfect selves to have everyone want to cuddle and keep them.
I went directly for the one who gave me the biggest puppy dog eyes but seemed shy. I knelt down by the pen and simply let my hand be near him. “Yeah, it’s scary. There’s so much going on and it’s so loud. There’s too many people, and I bet it’s so overwhelming for your little ears and senses, isn’t it?”
I felt like the little baby understood me, slowly coming closer and sniffing my hand before nuzzling my fingers.
“You have a magical touch,” one of the workers told me quietly. “He hasn’t trusted anyone like that yet and certainly not so fast.”
“We recognize our own,” I said sadly as I picked up the cute little bugger. “But you’ll find someone who will adopt you and give you all the love you need.”
“I think he just did,” she chuckled.
“I wish. I work way too much, and I’m gone far too often and—it wouldn’t be fair to him.”
“Right, but I could,” Mason hedged. “I’m going to have a stable place now.”
“No, not for me,” I chastised. “Don’t do that to yourself.”
He gave me an amused look. “I know I’m desperate to get you to love me, but even I wouldn’t use a puppy like that. I was looking up this event because I was kinda thinking it might be nice to have a buddy. Someone to keep their ears alert and—we have a ton of friends who would love puppy snuggles when they visit.”
“If that’s what you want, I would love it, but I don’t think it’s a spur of the moment decision to make,” I muttered after a moment, worried he was going to get upset.
