Chapter Twelve
Marcus
I step out of the shower and grab a towel. I dry my hair and wrap the towel around my waist as my phone rings. I pick it up to see Gigi’s face on the screen.
“Hey, princess.”
“Marcus?” Her voice is broken and soft. Alarms start going off in my head.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
Fuck.
“Where are you? What happened?”
“I’m at my apartment. A lot happened.”
“Do I need to come over there? Is Lewis there?”
“Can you, please? And no, he’s not here.” It sounds like she’s fighting tears. One thing I know about Gigi is she never cries when she’s upset, only when she’s happy.
“I’m on my way.”
I finish drying off and tug on some shorts and a shirt and grab my keys.
I bang on Gigi’s door twenty minutes later. I might have rolled through a few red lights on my way here, but when I heard the tone of her voice, I had to get to her.
The door opens, and I see Gigi’s red, puffy eyes.
I pull her to me. “What happened, princess?”
Her voice strains with holding back her tears. “When you dropped me off, I walked in on Lewis and Sabrina fucking.”
Anger rears its dangerous head inside me. “Are you fucking kidding right now?”
She steps back out of my arms and wipes her nose with her tissue. “Nope, reverse cowgirl and everything.”
“Where is he?”
“He left. He told me I need to be out by tomorrow night.”
“Text him to see if he’ll tell you where he is.”
“Marcus, I have no desire to talk to that bastard.”
“Well, I do. I have some things he needs to hear.” Like the sound of my fist connecting with his face.
“While I appreciate you wanting to hunt him down, I need to figure out how to get my stuff out of here and where to go.”
“Most of your things are in storage, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then let’s pack up the rest. You’re staying with me until you figure things out.”
“I can get a hotel room or an AirBnB.”
“You’re not staying somewhere random, Gigi.”
“I don’t want to be a burden to you, too, Marcus.” Her eyes drop to the floor.
“You’re never a burden.”
“I feel like one right now. I’m sorry, it’s just you were the first person I thought to call.”
“G, you can always call me.” I place my hands on the sides of her head and pause to make her look me in the eyes. I purposefully deepen my voice and speak slowly. “I wasn’t asking if you wanted to stay with me. I was telling you that you will stay with me. Do you see the difference?”
Her eyes change and scan my face. “I’ve never heard you talk like that before.”
“I needed you to listen to me.” I drop my hands from her hair.
“I’ll start packing.”
“Bring it all out here and I’ll start taking it down to my truck”
“Okay.” She heads to the bedroom and I follow.
We packed and loaded Gigi’s things and got to my place two hours later. I back into the garage and turn off the truck. Gigi pulls into the driveway and gets out of her car, cat carrier in tow. I’m not the best with cats; you never quite know what they’re thinking. But I can’t tell her she can’t have the thing here. Poor woman has been through enough in the past few hours.
“How are you doing?”
“I feel a little numb.”
“Well, I can’t say the same.”
“I’m afraid of what I’m going to do when the anger sets in.” She gives a small laugh.
“I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that.” I smile at her.
She huffs out a breath, flinging her free hand toward the bed of my truck. “Is it okay if we unload everything tomorrow? I only need that one bag for the time being. I’m just done right now.”
“Yeah, we can do that. I need to set up the spare room for you. You can take a shower and get ready for bed in the meantime.”
She nods, walking into the house, and I follow, carrying her duffel bag into the kitchen, closing the garage door on my way in. We walk to the spare room, and she pauses in the small hallway.
“Do you need a hug?” I don’t think I’ve ever asked anyone that before.
She nods, so I set her bag down and I pull her to me. “It will be okay, princess. I think this might actually be a good thing.”
“It doesn’t feel good at the moment.”
I rub her neck, and we stand in silence for a moment. The need to calm her is almost overwhelming.
Finally she breaks away, rubbing her hand across her nose. “I need a shower.”
I pick up her bag. “I’ll put Ethel in your room. You know where everything is in the bathroom.”
I hand her the bag, cautiously grabbing the handle to the cat carrier. She turns toward the bathroom, and before she opens the door, she looks back at me.
“Thank you for everything tonight, Marcus. I’m really lucky you’re my friend.”
“I’m always here for you, G.”
“Same.”
She gives me a small smile and goes into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. I walk into the bedroom, setting Ethel down and grab fresh sheets from the closet. The sheets on the bed are clean, but no one has stayed in here for months. The last person was my brother when he visited last year from Maryland. I change out the sheets, taking the old ones to the washer. I grab a bottle of water from the fridge and an extra phone charger and put them on the nightstand. Gigi walks in, wearing a t-shirt that’s probably three sizes too big and a pair of shorts that show far too much of her legs.
“It’s all ready for you. I’ll let you lie down. You know where I’ll be if you need anything.”
“Thanks.” She walks to the carrier, taking out the cat and setting her on bed and crawls onto the mattress.
“Light on or off?”
“On, please. I need to get Ethel settled.” Her lips pull in a tight smile. “Goodnight, prince.”
“Night, princess.”
I walk out of the room and shut the door behind me. I walk upstairs to my room, changing into pajama pants. I plug in my phone and sit on the edge of my bed. I’m exhausted. While I’m good in a crisis, they can drain me. I feel like I just ran a marathon. I take a few calming breaths, pull back the covers and lie down.