“Ty,” Bella said stopping him before the cops could. “I just want him out of here.”
“If you come anywhere near her again, you’ll pray the cops are there,” Tyler warned as the police led him out of the room. “Fred make sure the other members of the security team know he’s not welcome anywhere near the building again.”
“Of course, Mr. Reed,” the head of the security team stated.
“Can I ask your relationship to the victim?” the officer asked Tyler.
“I’m not a victim,” Bella said offended. “He scared me, and I just wanted him out.”
“He was attempting to break down the door Bella,” Tyler argued turning her, so she faced him. “What do you think he was going to do if he managed to do it?”
“I don’t want to think about it,” she stated. “You wouldn’t have let that happen.”
“I can’t always be here for you Bella.”
“You’ve never let me down before,” she replied.
“Uhumm,” the officer said clearing his throat. “I need to know how to write this up. There’s a big difference if this Brandon is your lover on the side and he’s your husband.”
“Tyler’s my best friend, my boss, and the one person I can rely on,” Bella said getting angry. “Brandon was my boyfriend but now he’s just another in a long line of jerks I’ve managed to date. Write up whatever you want, naturally you assume the worst, but I will not allow you to stand in my home and make disparaging remarks about me. I’d like you to go.”
“We need to ask a few more questions,” the officer stated.
“No, get out,” she said turning to the security members still present. “Make sure they find their way out please.”
“Of course, Ms. Bella,” the older one told her backing the officers out of the room.
“Are you okay, really?” Tyler asked once they were alone.
“No—I knew he wasn’t the nicest guy in the world, but I never thought—but I should have. I should know better by now,” she sighed walking over to stare out the living room window.
“Bella,” he said pulling her back to him, wrapping his arms around her tiny waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. “You shouldn’t have to know better. You deserve someone who will treasure you, someone who will make you smile, who will only make happy tears appear.”
“He doesn’t exist,” she said flatly.
“Maybe you just haven’t looked hard enough,” he offered.
“It’s doesn’t matter because I’m done with dating. Don’t laugh, I am. Part of what Brandon said is true…I am cold. I just can’t do it.”
“Do what?”
“Be intimate, not after…”
“Not after what Bella?” he said turning her to face him. The way she said it told him it was something huge, something he wasn’t going to want to hear, but he had to, he had to know what was holding her inside herself still, what was keeping her from him.
“It really doesn’t matter,” Bella said trying to back away. She didn’t want him to know about what happened to her.
“Yes, it does Bella; you’re not cold, you are the warmest person I know.”
“Until a man wants to get intimate and then I freeze,” she admitted to him.
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” she lied looking away from him so he wouldn’t realize she’d lied.
“Yes, you do Bella—oh Christ, when?”
“When what?”