Chapter 8 Leo #2
We almost never fight. We don’t have a system in place. No cue so I know when she’s over it. When she’s ready to talk again. I don’t know how to let her know if I’m over it, because right now, I don’t know if I ever will be.
I choke down the last of my dinner and make up a plate for Lia. I cover it with plastic wrap because I’m fucking depressed but I’m not a complete asshole. I leave her plate covered on the table and head to the couch. I kick off my boots and prop my feet on the coffee table.
I get a text from Dog and read it over. He’s got some ideas about that electrical problem I’m having at the shop and wants to talk through it in the morning. Asks me to meet him at the compound a few minutes early so we can discuss it.
I think about messaging Tiny. I type up a whole thing, letting him know I’ll probably be needing a room, but I stop myself and toss my phone across the room.
Fuck it.
Fuck it all.
I’ll ask Tiny for help when I’m dead and gone. He knows I asked about a room at the compound, but I’m still a prospect.
There’s no point.
He’ll take care of Lia when this shit hits the fan. I won’t be surprised if I am out of luck on the MC front anyway. They are looking to bring in cash, not a deadbeat who lost his home and is barely making the rent on his shop.
Maybe I can live in the shop for a while. I could probably get a shower installed. I don’t need a full kitchen. I’ll fucking find a way.
I’m doom-planning for my future when Lia comes down the stairs. She’s still in her robe. The dogs follow her every move, their collars jingling in a way that’s annoying as ever but familiar.
I half expect her to make some smartass remark and try to bring things back to center between us, but she walks right past me and into the kitchen. She shuffles around in there and walks past me with a green smoothie from the fridge in her hands. She takes it back upstairs without a word.
Fuck.
This is gonna get harder before it’s over. I’m sure of that much.
About an hour later, there’s a knock on the door. I’m barely watching whatever it is I put on television. The endless cop dramas and true crime shit they play on cable have me exhausted. I’ve got enough true crime in my own front yard.
I get up and yank open the door to the one man I never expected to see darken my door again.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask.
Arrow flexes his arms over his chest and nods at me. “Hey, man,” he says.
“Maybe it was only in my head,” I say, “but I could have sworn I told you to get the fuck out of my life. At least until you fuckin’ ruin it.” I go to slam the door in his face when a voice behind me stops me cold.
“Josh, be right there,” Lia calls down the stairs so we both can hear her.
Josh looks apologetic as the reality hits me.
“Of fucking course,” I say. “You here to fuck around with Lia? It’s not enough that you want my house, you want my girl too?”
“Hey, man.” Arrow holds his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I’m not here for your house, and I thought she was definitely not your girl.”
I make a mock-bell noise with my mouth and clap sarcastically. “Give the man his prize.” I try to slam the door, but a cloud of perfume comes over me and I turn.
Lia’s behind me, and she’s got a hand on my arm. “Josh, why don’t you wait in your truck?” she says sweetly. “I’m going to let the dogs out back for a minute. I’ll be right out.”
Josh presses his lips at me, as if saying anything is going to earn him a punch in the gut—which it might. He turns and heads back to his truck to wait.
When he leaves, I slam the front door with every ounce of strength I have. It clatters on the frame, sending Lia jumping and the dogs cowering under the furniture.
“Are you fucking dating him? Is that what you were so excited to tell me all morning? Are you planning to save my house by fucking the guy who wants it? I should have guessed. It’s poetic, isn’t it?”
I know I’m spewing poison at Lia. But fuck, this is next-level betrayal.
Her face falls, but her outfit tells me everything. Booty shorts. Low-cut top with billowy sleeves, the one with the shoulder cut-outs. Curled hair, the high-heeled boots. She looks gorgeous, and she looks like this for him.
For my fucking nemesis.
“Now you want to talk to me about Josh?” she asks. Her voice is low, quiet.
“Nope. Ain’t nothing to talk about. You do you. Do him, if you want. Maybe he’s got a house he won’t lose.”
I don’t care how my insult lands.
I don’t give a fuck.
I’m angry, but more than anything, I’m fucking gutted that the first hint that this roommates with benefits situation isn’t exactly what she wants it to be, she’s literally off on the arm of another guy. It’s her right. I have no claim on her.
This is actually for the best.
I storm up the stairs. “Have a great fucking time,” I tell her. “And don’t worry about me. Feel free to bring your new boy toy back here to fuck. I won’t be here.”
She doesn’t say a word, but she lets her dogs out in the yard to do their business.
When I hear the kitchen door close, the girls run up the stairs, and Lia shuts them in her bedroom. Her heels clack down the stairs, and I hear the front door close.
I’m not proud of the way I treated her.
I’m not proud of the fact that I want to smash Arrow’s face into pieces with my bare hands. The thought of Lia with him, out with him…it brings me to a place I didn’t think I could go.
I look out my bedroom window and see her climb into Josh’s truck. She leans over from the passenger seat and gives him a kiss on the cheek before leaning back and fastening her seat belt.
He turns on the truck and backs out of my driveway. And then, they’re gone.
I wasn’t fucking kidding.
I won’t be here when they get home.
I know exactly where I need to go.