35 Ellie
I got back to Nat’s place before she did. Her late shift today worked to my advantage right now. I needed the time to recover from seeing Ethan. I made myself busy setting the place to rights. Too many things had been neglected when I moved out. I didn’t intend on staying long, but I still couldn’t help putting things in order. It kept me from breaking down and second-guessing myself.
My body was still reeling from our frantic fucking. It wasn’t planned, but when I was anywhere near Ethan, it was as if my brain stopped working. Fucking him was amazing, and my body couldn’t forget it. But I had to remind myself that it was all he wanted from me. I wanted him so much, but I wanted all of him—heart, body and soul, and he couldn’t give me that no matter what he said to me earlier.
I really did need space from Ethan. He had told me everything I had wanted to hear, and he looked so wretched that I almost believed him. But I wasn’t going to give in just like that. Things weren’t going to go back to the way they were just like that, and I no longer wanted things to anyway. The half-relationship, the friends with benefits arrangement we had going on was no longer enough because I wanted more.
I believed Ethan when he said he had feelings for me, but I still couldn’t believe that it was enough, and I needed to be enough. I had to be enough to someone for a change, otherwise, I’d keep on being at the mercy of people in my life who would never put me first. I couldn’t trust that Ethan would put me first, and putting space between us was exactly what we needed. We had to stop sleeping together until we figured things out, and if I stayed, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away from him.
Now I knew how Nat felt about Andy.
By the time Nat got home from work, I had dinner ready to go. She was overjoyed.
“Do you know this is the first home-cooked meal I’ve had that I haven’t hated in a long time? I can’t stand my own cooking,” she said as she dug into the grilled beef salad I had put together. “It’s so good to have you back here, Ellie.”
She was being extra meek and extra nice to me. Maybe our talk yesterday did get through to her after all.
I just smiled. “I’ll teach you, Nat. You’ll be cooking stuff you love in no time.”
Nat just made a face, but I wasn’t going to back down. Before, I would have happily offered to cook most of our meals, but now I realised that it had only enabled Nat in the past, especially when she insisted she hated cooking. I wasn’t intending to stay, and Nat really did need to learn for her own sake.
“So what now with Ethan? Is he with that other woman he went out on the date with now?”
I shook my head. “He’s not. He told me he wants me.”
“That’s great news. Isn’t that what you wanted?” Then Nat’s eyes widened. “He’s okay with you staying over with me for a while, isn’t he?”
I shot her a sardonic look. “He doesn’t get to tell me what to do with my life.”
Nat just looked bewildered at the concept of me doing my own thing without the man in my life telling me what to do. Oh, Nat.
“But…are you two together then?”
“No. I need some space from him, and I think he needs the same, no matter what he says.”
Nat gasped. “That’s a dangerous game to play. What if he loses interest?”
“It’s not a game, and if he loses interest, it means he was never all that interested in the first place.”
Nat still looked unconvinced, but anything else she had to say was drowned out by a sudden loud pounding on the apartment door.
“What the hell is that?” I got up and opened the main door a crack. The security screen still kept whoever it was locked out. “Oh fun. It’s Andy.”
I shut the main door again.
Nat’s face paled. “I’m so glad you made me change the locks.”
The banging continued on the security screen.
“Let me in, Natalie. How dare you change the locks on me?” Andy’s muffled voice came from behind the solid wood. “Don’t keep me out, baby. I need you.”
A quick look at Nat’s face told me she was starting to relent. She moved towards the door. “Maybe…maybe I can hear what he has to say.”
I stopped her. “Give it a moment.”
The loud knocking and rattling continued. Then the tone shifted in Andy’s voice. “Don’t be a bitch, Nat. You don’t know what’s good for you, and all you’re proving with your little tantrum is that I was right. What are you hiding? Who are you cheating on me with? Stop being such a child.”
Nat’s face darkened.
“You’re not the one throwing the tantrum. He is,” I pointed out. Andy had screwed with Nat’s head so many times, I had to anchor her back to reality.
Nat’s eyes widened.
“Open the fucking door, woman,” Andy yelled from the other side. “Maybe I’ll forgive you if you beg nicely. You’ve got so much you need to make up to me for, and if you know what’s good for you, you had better start right now by opening this damn door.”
More pounding.
“Did you think that just because you have a pretty face, you can keep whoever your new man is? You’re a wet fish in bed, bitch, and you owe me for the days I’ve had to go without sex. You should be thankful I’ve been faithful. I could have slept with someone else this entire time apart from you, but nooo, I’m loyal. You’re not. Open the damn door!”
I watched Nat carefully. Her expression was a mix of hurt, humiliation and growing anger. I was pretty sure she was remembering how he was the one who had actually cheated on her in the first place.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s just trying to hurt you because he’s a little man, not because of anything you did. You’ve always deserved better than him and you can do so much better than him,” I told Nat as firmly as I could over Andy’s ranting. I hoped for once, she would listen to me and not him. “No one deserves to be spoken to the way he’s speaking to you. Ever.”
“You’re all face, no personality, Nat. No one else will love you like I do. I’m the best thing that ever happened to you. You owe me.”
Realisation dawned in Nat’s eyes. “Oh. My. God.”
I nodded and mouthed, “Man child.”
“Who are you hiding behind that door?” The pounding grew louder. I wondered how much Andy’s fists were hurting by now. “You cheating slut! Whore! Open up and let me in .”
“Did you know that as long as you don’t invite them in, vampires can’t enter?” I cracked, trying to lighten Nat’s mood.
That got a bark of laughter out of Nat. Then another stuttered laugh. Then she kept on laughing and laughing until she keeled over on her sofa.
Now I was concerned. “Nat? Are you okay?”
Nat waved as tears streamed down her face. “I’m okay. I’m okay,” she gasped, then continued to laugh. Finally, she settled down enough to say, “Andy’s a little bitch, isn’t he?”
That got a smile out of me. “He is.”
“Vampires hate garlic, don’t they?”
“Yes?” Where was Nat going with this?
“There’s this chilli garlic sauce in the fridge Andy bought yoinks ago that I’ve always hated. He wants me to open the door, so I’m going to open the door.”
“Uh… Maybe that’s not a good idea—”
But Nat had already darted to the fridge and grabbed the sauce. She opened the bottle top and held it like a weapon. Then she reached for the door and opened it.
“Hello, Andy.” Nat reached for the security screen.
Andy’s palm was raised, ready to smack the security screen again when it swung open, leaving him frozen like a deer in the headlights.
Nat squirted the chilli garlic sauce onto Andy’s slick polo tee, then threw the rest of the bottle at his head. She missed, but a huge smattering of chilli garlic sauce splattered across his pristine beige chinos as the bottle flew past. “Go fuck yourself.”
Then she slammed both the security screen and the main door in his face and locked everything behind her.
I took the opportunity to yell out, “Leave Nat alone, otherwise we’ll be calling the cops. You know any arrest will cost you your law career.”
That did the trick. I opened the door a crack again to see Andy stalk off. I turned back to Nat. “He’s gone. I can’t believe you did that.”
“I can’t believe I did it too.”
“I’m so proud of you!” I pulled her into a hug.
“I’m proud of me too.” Nat was still semi-hysterical. “I’ll never let anyone treat me like how he treated me ever again.”
“Damn right, you won’t.”