Adam
Adelaide came charging out of the bathroom,stark naked and fuming. I’d been in the middle of mentally reliving the last hour of my life—possibly the best hour—definitely the best naked one—but I snapped out of it, rising to my feet.
She pointed to the bathroom, oblivious to all the beautiful skin and perky tits she had on display. “What is that?”
Because of those perky tits and miles of skin, it took me a beat to register what she was asking—then I had anoh shitmoment.
“Uh…yeah.” I rubbed the back of my neck, sheepish. “The night I took you to dinner, when I gave you your ring, I came back home pissed. And when I went into the bathroom, I stared at the wall in my shower and got even angrier. Since I couldn’t take a hammer to myself, I took it to the tile.”
The tile on the wall between Adelaide’s place and mine was a crumbled pile on my shower floor. Destroying it had taken the edge off my rage, but it hadn’t eliminated it. It was going to take a lot for me to stop hating myself. Maybe when Adelaide forgave me, I’d work on letting it go. Maybe.
“That was dumb. What if a broken piece had flown into your eye, then what?” She crossed her arms, pushing her tits up. “You want me to live with the guilt of you blinding yourself?”
“That’s your first thought?” I picked up my T-shirt off the floor, holding it out to her. “As much as I want to keep looking at you naked, I can’t have a real conversation with you unless you cover up. Otherwise, I’m going to have you back on the bed, getting to work on round two of making you squirt.”
Her cheeks went dark as she yanked the shirt from my hands and tugged it over her head. When her face emerged, it was still flaming. I put my hands on my hips, staring her down.
“Tell me you’re not embarrassed over that.”
She rubbed her cheek. “Well, I am. It was hot when it happened, but now you have a puddle on your sheets.”
I pointed to my bed. “Lie down right now and we’ll make another puddle. I don’t care about my sheets. I want more of that hotness. Knowing I’m the only one who’s ever made you do that makes me feel like a damn king. I’ll take that experience to my grave, Adelaide.”
She plopped down on the corner of the mattress, elbows on her knees, cupping her face with her hands. “Can we talk about you murdering your bathroom? Aren’t your new neighbors going to be mad at you?”
I kneeled in front of her, taking her hands from her face. She peeked at me from behind her curtain of hair.
“No new neighbors.”
“What do you mean? I’m surprised someone hasn’t scooped it up already.”
“Someone did,” I admitted.
“But…?”
I tucked her hair behind her ears, knowing it wouldn’t stay there. “I didn’t want anyone else to live there but you.”
Her rainbow lips parted. “What does that mean? What did you do?”
I shrugged like it was no big deal. To me, it wasn’t. It had to be done. “I made some calls, talked to the right people, and bought out the lease. The apartment is yours. Nobody else gets to live there.”
“That’s crazy,” she breathed.
“You’ve made me crazy. I’ve felt like a madman ever since you ghosted me.”
“I didn’t ghost you,” she argued.
“Going from seeing you every day to barely speaking to you every other week is ghosting. You cutting your dad off, getting a new job, and fucking moving without telling me any of it is ghosting. I get that I hurt you. I know I’m in the wrong here. But I hope you can maybe understand why I might be losing my mind. I’ve lost you. You took you away from me, and I really fucking don’t know how to deal.”
My words cracked like the crumbling edge of a cliff. Throat tightening, I curled my hand into a fist to stave off the tears stinging the backs of my eyes. This was frustration, anger, sadness, all mounted into an unbearable boulder in my throat. If I didn’t get her to see, make her understand, I’d choke on it.
“It’s my fault. I messed up like I always do. But I’m incapable of walking away from you.”
She sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say, Adam. I know you’re hurting, and I hate it.” Her warm palm cupped my cheek. “I hate it so damn much. But you have to know I’ve been hurting for a long time.”
“But why, Adelaide?Ihurt you?”
“No.” Her lids lowered, lashes brushing her smooth cheek. “I hurt myself.”