He knew the answer.
I took a deep breath. “I’m going to go get my stuff. I can do that discreetly. If you come up, it’ll be hell.”
“I’m not letting you go in there alone.”
“I’ve been alone with him for years, Jay.”
“Has he been…” He took a breath. “When did it start?”
“That’s not relevant.” I didn’t want to explain that our kiss was a sort of tipping point. We were both broken, and shattering those pieces further wasn’t worth the pain for either of us.
“Fine,” he grumbled as we parked on the road under a palm tree right outside my building. “I’m trying hard not to push you.”
“Weird. Feels like pushing when I have to join you on a plane in two hours and I’m getting no time on my own.”
“Little one, I don’t regret this for a second. If you think I feel guilty, I don’t. I expect you to push me just as hard on random drug tests and keeping my ass in line. You going up or not?”
I picked at a speck of lint that was on my jeans. “Let me talk, okay? I’ll deal with him.”
Jay pulled at the door handle and shoved it out harder than necessary without answering me.
“Jay, you have a reputation to uphold, remember that.” I scurried out of the vehicle after him. “Jesus. Can we put the brakes on this? You just got out of rehab!”
My hand flew over my mouth and I glanced around before I took in the man in front of me, frozen in place. Then he laughed, laughed at my stupidity, at the fact that I could have potentially delivered a crushing blow to his career.
He crossed a foot over the other before he did a slow spin on the sidewalk. He looked like perfection, plain and simple. His longer dark hair had grown in rehab; the extra wave to it now just added to his appeal. His stark blue eyes sparkled brighter contrasting the dullness of his grey sweater.
“Yup, I’m out and I’m healthier than ever, Meek. Not that I wasn’t healthy enough to kick his ass before this.”
With that, he turned away from me and stalked toward my building.