“Please, Danny, just go. We’re not a couple anymore, and we’re never going to be again.” My heart is pounding wildly in my chest, and not in a good way.
“You still playing?” he asks, and for the first time since he sat down, he looks slightly unsure of himself.
“No I am not fucking playing, Danny. We are not a couple, and the fact that you have clearly been following me to find out where I am is just all kinds of creepy,” I say as I stand up, needing to get out of here.
“It’s not sexy?” he asks, and I can’t help the sarcastic laugh that falls from my mouth.
“Not even in the slightest,” I answer, before I turn around and walk out of there. But halfway across the road, I quickly realise my faux pas as I hear him shouting for me. I don’t turn, I just keep moving forwards, knowing that I need to get into the office building as quickly as possible.
But it seems like I am shit out of luck, as I feel him grab my arm and pull me to the side, to an alleyway that runs along the building. He doesn’t take us too far down it, and I pray to God that someone walks past and sees us here as he pushes me against the wall, his hands gripping the tops of my arms and his body pressed to mine. Ugh.
“You know what I find really weird, Cameron?” he says, his breath feathering over my face. “The fact that you won’t speak to me, but you’ll quite happily work at the same place as the man who spawned me.”
“What? What does that matter?” I say, as I try to control my heightening worry.
“Well, why else would you work at the same place as him, other than to piss me off?” he rages.
“It’s just a job, Danny, and I couldn’t very well stay where I was after you stormed in and made me look like a fool,” I shout, but still, no one comes to my aid. I need to think calmly, rationally, and I need to get him away from me before he delves any deeper into the hole where I am totally head over heels for his dad. “Danny, this is fucking nuts,” I say as I try to control my breathing. “Look at what you are doing.”
“I love you. You can’t leave me,” he says, his teeth gritted at me.
“This isn’t love!” I screech. “This is borderline crazy. Look at me… you’ve got me pinned to a wall because I don’t want to be with you.”
“I’m just trying to make you see sense.”
“Sense? Jesus Christ, Danny, this is madness. We weren’t even together all that long,” I say, unable to hold back and keep things neutral, because why the fuck should I?
“You fucked me,” he says, as if that is some kind of answer.
“So? People fuck all the time, but they don’t all go around acting like you are.”
“But you were my first…” His voice trails off, and I swear to God, that little piece of information is more shocking than anything else he’s done so far.
“Oh my God,” I say on a breath as it whooshes out of me. Kind of makes a little more sense now that he’s behaving like a loon, but it doesn’t excuse any of it. And I had absolutely no idea about him being a virgin, especially because he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Maybe he watched a shit load of porn to get some idea of what to do? Maybe he’s really just good at the bedroom stuff and shit at everything else? Mind blown.
“I feel like I’m going out of my mind thinking about you,” he says, and his grip on my arms loosen.
“I had no idea, I really didn’t, but that doesn’t mean you can act like this,” I say, wanting to just put this all to bed and get away from him. “We had fun, but then it all went wrong, and as much as you might not want to hear it, there is no future for us.” I might as well lay it all out there and be honest, no matter how he reacts, even if I thought I did that already. I don’t want to show him that I’m a little unnerved by his actions, because to show him would give him some kind of power, and his mental state is clearly not in a good place.
“But this can’t be it?” he questions.
“It is,” I tell him firmly.
“But how do I move on?” he says quietly, and in this moment, he looks like a lost little boy with no idea where to turn. I feel sorry for him, but then I remember how he hurt me, and how he was filled with rage when I worked for Mr Garrett and had to put my job first because it was important to me.
“You just do, and you will.” I don’t wish to help him through anything, because all that would do is give him false hope, probably. “You need to let go of me now,” I say gently, and he drops his hands from me and takes a step back.
And then, as if things have all been finalised, he turns and walks away, his shoulders drooped and his head hanging down.
I take a few deep breaths before I push off the wall and move on shaky legs back to the office, all the while hoping that I won’t have to deal with him again, and wondering if I need to tell Caleb about this.
ChapterTwenty-Six
Caleb
I know something is wrong the minute she walks back in. I’m stood talking to a guy called Jeremy when I see her pale face and the slight tremble in her body. My brow furrows as she keeps her head down and goes into her office, closing the door behind her, and then she shuts the blinds, closing herself off from everyone.
What the hell?