Chapter Nineteen
Ezra
If I’d had a better sense of self-preservation, I’d have blocked Reed’s number and told him all communication had to go through our solicitors.
But I hadn’t, for pathetic reasons I didn’t really want to consider, and now I had to deal with him sending me increasingly poisonous and vindictive messages about how I’d ruined his life with my pettiness.
I didn’t know what had happened today for him to get such a bee in his bonnet, but I was starting to dread looking at my phone. I should have blocked him on the spot, but a tiny part of me almost felt like I deserved it.
After all, I was the one who’d neglected our relationship to the point Reed snapped.
And I was the one who’d left.
I sighed as my phone flashed on my desk again, and I glanced down to see yet more notifications from Reed flooding the screen.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said as I stood, pocketing my phone and wishing that drinking in the office wasn’t frowned upon. Adam looked up at me and nodded in acknowledgement before going back to the video he was editing, headphones fully covering his ears.
I headed out into the corridor wishing, for the first time, that I hadn’t stopped smoking in my twenties.
I paced up and down a few times, the urge to scream building under my skin.
But I couldn’t do that without disturbing people or causing a scene, and I wasn’t in the mood to explain my frustration to anyone.
I stalked downstairs, my phone burning a hole in my pocket, and headed for the front door. Because at least if I lost my cool in the car park, there’d be nobody around to watch.
“Ezra?” Danny’s voice startled me, and I spun around to see him coming out of the toilets.
“Yeah?” I snapped, regretting it instantly when his face fell. Fuck, it really was like I’d kicked a puppy. “Sorry. Ignore me.”
“What’s up?”
“My ex-husband.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and waved it vaguely. It felt hot to touch, like it was burning my hand.
Danny pulled a face. “Is he being a wanker?”
“You could say that.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Making me miserable,” I said, unlocking the screen and opening the new messages, wincing as I read.
I wanted to let his words bounce off me, but each one was like a tiny cut.
Individually they stung, and together they left me bloodied and reeling.
“I’m a cunt, I ruined his life, I’ve ruined my life, I’m pathetic, useless, unlovable, and, er, there’s a lot of shit about my physical appearance and our sex life. ”
Danny huffed, an angry little growl surging out of him as his moustache bristled. “Give me that.”
“I’m not letting you get involved.”
“I’m not gonna do anything. Not really. I’m just gonna tell him he’s a piece of shit and a cheating scab.”
“No, you’ll make things worse.”
He frowned, anger etched into his face, his mullet almost doubling in size. “But he can’t do that to you.”
“Trust me, it’s better to ignore him.” I’d tried firing back and it only made things worse. Once upon a time, I’d found Reed’s petty sharpness and acidic tongue funny, but now I was on the other end I wished I’d never encouraged him.
“Can’t you block him?”
“I could. I just haven’t.”
“Why not?”
I sighed. That wasn’t a question I was ready to answer. “Don’t you have training to get back to?”
Danny raised an eyebrow, but there was almost something akin to worry in his eyes and I didn’t like that at all. I didn’t need his pity. And I didn’t need him to care. “Yeah, I do. Take care of yourself, okay?”
I hummed an acknowledgement because I didn’t want to promise him anything. Then I wouldn’t feel bad about breaking it.
He turned and walked away, leaving me standing there alone with a new sinking feeling in my stomach that didn’t have anything to do with Reed.
My mood hadn’t improved by later that evening. Instead it had festered and soured, eating away at my insides until I felt physically sick.
Shane had messaged me, but I’d ignored him in favour of lying like a dead cockroach on my sofa and staring at the TV with a glass of vodka in hand.
There was some sort of soap on, but I had no clue who any of them were or what was going on.
My only thought was that they were all overdramatic as fuck.
There was a knock on the door, but I ignored it. I hadn’t ordered anything, so whoever it was could sod off.
Another knock, louder and more insistent, like someone was trying to hammer down the bloody door.
God, could I not wallow in my shit in peace?
“Ezra! I know you’re in there! Answer the bloody door!” Danny’s voice was like a foghorn. “If you don’t answer it, I’m coming in anyway. We both know this door is a piece of shit.”
I didn’t doubt he could knock it down. I’d seen him tackle men twice his size and nip around the ones trying to take him down. But while I was tempted to see how long it would take him, I couldn’t be arsed to deal with the mess afterwards, including explaining things to my letting agent.
Hauling myself off the sofa, I trudged to the door and yanked it open as Danny was preparing to hammer on it again. He looked a bit shocked for a second, but then he smiled and adjusted the backpack on his shoulder, bending down to grab the handles of the shopping bag on the floor next to him.
“Jesus, you look like shit,” he said as he walked past me into the flat and kicked off his trainers.
“Thanks, puppy. How sweet of you.”
“I know.”
“What are you doing here?”
He shrugged casually, holding up the bag. “You’re feeling like shit, so I’m here to look after you.”
“I don’t need looking after,” I said acerbically.
“Yeah, because vodka is a balanced meal.” He rolled his eyes and walked through towards my kitchen, leaving me standing by the door in shock.
By the time I’d come to my senses and closed the door, I could hear sounds of cooking, the smell of something spicy and delicious luring me in. I followed my nose and found Danny unpacking several tubs on the side, spooning things onto two plates he’d fished out of the cupboard.
“I’m not sure what you like, so you don’t have to eat everything, but I got chicken biryani, lamb biryani, saag paneer, aloo gobi, tarka dal, some samosas, some chilli paneer, and some naan.
Er, I think I got one garlic and one plain,” he said as he saw me.
“There’s some drinks in the bag too, in case you want something other than vodka. ”
“Bit bold of you to order for me,” I said. “What if I didn’t like any of this?”
He scoffed and rolled his eyes, but it seemed more fond than scathing.
“Please, I know you like Indian food ’cos you went on this whole grumbling rant last week about how you missed your favourite place in Manchester, and you didn’t know where was good here.
And yeah, I kinda guessed on the dishes, so I got what I like and figured we’d start from there.
Also”—he gestured at his bag on the floor—“I don’t know how good your TV is, so I brought my laptop and thought we could watch a shit film.
Like whatever Jurassic Park is the latest or one of the Fast & Furious ones.
Something fun but kinda bad where we don’t have to concentrate. ”
“That sounds… lovely, thank you,” I said, caught off guard by the sweetness of the gesture.
I vaguely remembered moaning to him via Messenger when he’d sent me something about the Knights catering team making curry for lunch, and I’d been stuck in a branding meeting with sponsors. But I hadn’t expected him to take notes.
“Good. Do you want a bit of everything? Or is there anything you don’t like?”
“Everything, please.”
“Cool. You go sit down. I’ll bring it all through.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, then stood there aimlessly for a second, still fixated on the idea that Danny had brought me dinner.
And not because he had to, but because I’d been upset and he wanted to look after me.
Or something like that. Shane had done similar things in the past, but Danny doing it felt wildly different.
He smiled when he saw me standing there, a look in his eyes that I couldn’t place. “Go sit down,” he said again. “Find us something to watch. My laptop’s there if you need it.”
“It’s fine. I’ve got a couple of streaming services we can look through,” I said in a voice that didn’t really feel like my own.
“Sounds good.”
“Do you want a drink?”
“I’ve got some cans of Coke. I’ll have one of them. Do you want one too?”
“Yeah actually.”
“You don’t sound sure.”
“No, I am,” I said, stepping around him to rummage in the bag and pull out two cans. They were a little warm but not horribly so. “Do you want a glass? I’ve got some ice in the freezer.”
“I thought you didn’t put ice in vodka? You said it was heretical.”
“I don’t, but I’ve got some for other shit. Do you want some or not?” I asked teasingly, giving his arse a playful smack. Danny laughed and stuck out his butt, wiggling it. I snorted and shook my head. “That doesn’t answer my question, puppy. But yes, you do have a nice arse.”
“I know, but it made you smile.”
“Your butt always makes me smile,” I said, unable to resist leaning down to give him a long, slow kiss. The kind that made my stomach start to unknot and the tension in my chest begin to melt.
For a moment, I forgot about all the shit Reed had said, and the poisonous claws he’d sunk into me seemed to retract.
All my focus was on Danny, who shone like a beacon in the night, slowly collecting up the pieces of my broken heart with a care I’d never thought to show myself.
I didn’t know what to do with them, I wasn’t sure I wanted my heart back, but I still took them because I couldn’t resist anything Danny did.
“Mmm, if you keep kissing me like that, I’m gonna suggest we skip dinner and do something else,” Danny said, grinning up at me, his hand casually finding my arse. “You still haven’t fucked my arse yet.”
“As tempting as that is, I’m not doing it tonight.”