“Can we ... I don’t know, can we talk about this inside?”
“What’s there to talk about? You fucked someone else.”
“Gabe!” I eye our neighbor Mrs. Thompson, who sometimes watches Axl if we can’t get a sitter. She’s peering out her window at the two of us. “I just, it wasn’t meant to happen.”
“So what? He just accidentally slipped and fell into your pussy?”
“I didn’t go there with the intention to sleep with anyone, we had too many drinks and—”
“And that’s all it takes with you. Yeah, I remember.”
I flinch. “That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it? While you were off fucking some Spanish dude I was taking care of our little boy.”
“Mexican,” I reply on autopilot.
“What?”
“He’s Mexican, not Spanish. And yeah, I was drunk, I had way too much to drink, and I got caught up in the feeling of someone wanting me. I’m not ashamed of that, and I won’t letyou slut shame me. God, you have it so fucking easy. If I want sex, I’m a whore, but you can sleep with anyone who sits in your chair.”
“I’m not slut shaming you, Lo. I’m fucking pissed atwhoyou decided to fuck. Frankly, though, I’m surprised it took you so goddamn long. He is the reason our marriage ended after all.”
“He is not the reason, and you know it,” I shout. “And who I have sex with is none of your goddamn business, but it’s not like I have a long list of guys just waiting for me to open my legs.”
“No one, huh?”
I shake my head. I don’t have anything to say to that. But Gabe doesn’t care because he’s all up in my personal space. “I would have been that for you. All this time I’ve been fucking waiting for you, because I’m just as much in love with you as the day I married you.”
“Oh, and that would have been a great idea, wouldn’t it? Because no way could that go terribly wrong.”
“Well, it couldn’t be worse than fucking your boss now, could it?”
I reach out and slap him. His wide-eyed expression is enough proof that he’s as stunned by this as I am. I cover my mouth and step back, shame fills me, but the hurt in my heart belongs to him.
I shake my head. He takes another step toward me, grabs my neck and pulls me to him, kissing me hard on the mouth. My hands that were crushed between us automatically fly to his neck, and I open to him, to the kiss, and to possibility. But possibility is a very dangerous thing, I realize, and I slowly disentangle my tongue from his and push away from him.
“Don’t do that,” I say and shove him back with my hands firmly planted on his chest. “We can’t do that.”
“Why?” he sneers. “Why can’t we do that? Once upon a time, that’s all we did. I kissed you when I wanted, fucked you when I wanted, and now you’re opening your legs for him.”
“Gabe!” I shout, but we’re interrupted by the sounds of a car pulling in the drive behind me.
Axl shocks me by flying out of the gate toward the drive. “Turo!”
Oh god, how much did he see or hear?
Slowly, I turn and see Arturo stepping out of his sleek black car. He stoops to high five Axl and the two of them play at roughhousing. Arturo has always been fond of Axl, though right now I really wish he wasn’t.
I risk a glance back at Gabe. His eyes are liquid black fury, all the beautiful serene green has ebbed from them as he watches his son with Arturo. His gaze slides to mine and he seethes. “You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me? Here, he’s showing up here? After he just fucked my ...” He peters off and it’s my turn to glare.
“Your what?” I hiss.
“Nothin’,” he says, shaking his head. “Isn’t that what we are? Nothing.”
“Don’t do this. Please?”
“Why is he here, Lo?”