Chapter 29
JAMIE
“Have something exciting planned?” Claire asks on her way out. “You’ve been a ray of sunshine since you walked in. I’ve never seen someone so happy to be working on Saturday.”
I let out an embarrassed chuckle. I’ve had excited energy thrumming through me all day, but I thought I did a good job acting normal.
“Yeah, I… I’m going on a date tomorrow.”
Claire beams. “That’s great! Been a while, judging by your reaction?”
I suppress a grimace. She doesn’t need to know I’ve never been on one. “Yeah, it has.”
“What are you doing?”
“Fremont Markets.”
“Oh, I love those! If you haven’t yet, you need to try their soft-serve. And the weather is supposed to be great, too.”
“Good to know, I haven’t checked.” It doesn’t matter. I’d stand with Tyler in pouring rain.
“Well, have fun!” she says, turning to leave. She stops in the middle of the open door, looking at something outside before turning back to me with a grin. “I think your date might start earlier than planned.”
“Huh?”
“There’s a dude hovering nearby and it seems like he’s waiting for someone. And he’s looking this way.”
My heart does a little backflip. I told Tyler not to pick me up unless it’s raining buckets or it’s too dark outside. But it’s been a sunny day, and it’s only 4 o’clock.
He does whatever he wants, I think, amused despite myself.
Or maybe he’s just as excited for our date as I am?
“Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Have a good night. See ya Monday!” And she’s off.
I shut the computer down and pack up my stuff at the speed of light. Normally, I’d take care to make sure everything is ready and organized for the next shift, but there’s no way I’m staying behind today.
Double-checking that all the lights are off, I slip outside and lock the door. My eyes reflexively search for a familiar blue Nissan, before something clicks in the back of my mind—how come Claire didn’t recognize Tyler? He’s her patient.
Too late. The realization doesn’t fully hit me until, instead of Tyler’s car, my gaze lands on something equally familiar. A sight I hoped I’d never come across again.
David is standing two doors down, leaning casually against the brick wall like he belongs there. Like it’s natural, and not something that feels immediately, instinctively wrong.
For a second, everything in me goes still—not because I feel anything for him, but because my body remembers before my mind catches up.
The familiarity of his posture, the way his presence used to bring a smile to my face.
Now it just feels invasive, like he’s followed me somewhere he no longer has the right to be.
He straightens when he sees me, pushing off the wall. Smiling like his parting words didn’t leave a jagged scar on my heart.
“Hey, Jamie.”
Even my name on his tongue feels wrong.
I don’t move closer. If anything, I hold my ground more firmly, putting space between us without stepping back yet.
“What are you doing here?”
“You’ve been ignoring my texts.”
“I blocked you.”
Not right away, though. A foolish, weak part of me had still hoped it wasn’t all over yet. But my thumb slammed that block button the day I moved my stuff into Tyler’s apartment—our apartment.
“I guess I can’t blame you,” David replies, chuckling sheepishly. Not sure what he finds so funny. “But I’m here to fix things.”
“Fix things,” I echo flatly. He must be joking. “There’s nothing to fix.”
“Sure is!” He takes a couple steps forward. “If something’s broken, you fix it.”
“We’re not broken. We’re nothing to each other, David.”
“Come on, Jamie.” Another step. “Won’t you let me explain? Let’s talk things out.”
“No.” The answer comes immediately, and I can tell it takes him by surprise.
He falters for a fraction of a second, then recovers, pushing forward anyway.
“Just hear me out. I’ve been thinking a lot about everything—about us, about what happened. I know I messed up, Jamie. I know I handled it badly. I panicked.”
I watch him as he speaks, really looking at him.
What strikes me most is how little I feel.
There’s no pull, no ache, no lingering attachment trying to twist his words into something hopeful.
Just a quiet, heavy sadness. Not for our relationship, or whatever that thing between us was.
Sadness about how long I let it go on for.
How much time I wasted being someone’s doormat.
“You didn’t panic. You made choices.”
His jaw tightens slightly, like that isn’t the response he expected. Of course he didn’t. The Jamie he knew never held his ground, rarely talked back.
“I didn’t know how to deal with it,” he insists. “With…us. I thought I needed something normal, something that made sense.”
“By normal, you mean Nat.” Technically, he means a woman, but the implication is there.
He exhales, a hint of frustration slipping through. “Yeah. Nat. She’s…great. She’s fun and easy. But she’s not you.”
As in, she doesn’t have a dick. And probably doesn’t let him walk over her.
“You live with her,” I point out, then almost roll my eyes at myself. He lived with me too, after all.
“So?” He shrugs, completely unbothered by the fact. “That doesn’t mean it has to stay like that.”
And there it is again—that same, careless entitlement. That same way of reshaping reality around what he wants in the moment, as if other people are just pieces on a chessboard he can move however he wants.
“I have no place for you in my life.” The words don’t shake. They don’t hurt to say. They just exist, simple and true.
David blinks, then stares. “Jamie—”
“I don’t even miss you.” It’s important he understands that. “I missed what I thought we were. But now I see I was delusional the whole time, just taking crumbs when I was starving.”
His expression shifts, something defensive creeping in. “That’s not fair. You know what we had was real.”
I think about it for a second—not the way I used to, not with longing, but with distance. And then, inevitably, I think about Tyler. About the ease of being with him, the steadiness, the way nothing feels conditional or fragile. The way I don’t have to question where I stand.
“No. That was you playing a game.”
“I can give you what you want,” he presses, stepping closer again, like proximity might somehow change my mind.
It has the opposite effect. “The things you held yourself back from asking for. I know I screwed up, but if you give me a chance, I’ll make it up to you.
I was into you, Jamie. I still am. You’re different—you’re the exception. ”
“I don’t want to be someone’s exception,” I say, meeting his gaze steadily. “I want to be someone’s choice.”
“I am choosing you,” he snaps, frustration breaking through now.
“No,” I reply, just as evenly. “You’re still playing a game.”
I turn then, because there’s nothing left here for me to say.
“Jamie,” he calls after me, sharper this time.
I keep walking.
“You better not walk away from me.”
I almost make it to the corner before his voice cuts through again, colder now, stripped of everything except intent. “You really want everyone to see what you’re like?”
The threat lands exactly where he knows it will, forcing me into a staggering halt. I turn slowly, my stomach tight.
“What did you just say?”
His expression has changed completely now, not a trace of the faux apology left.
“The photos,” he says. “The videos. You think I won’t show people? Your coworkers? Your parents.” A sinister smile twists his mouth into an ugly, jagged mask. “The bastard you’re giving your ass up for now?”
Fuck. How does he know about Tyler?
“I saw you, you know? One day in front of that gym on Lucile Street? You seemed real friendly with each other.”
Fuck. Last thing I want is for Tyler to get involved in some bullshit David has spun.
“I did some research,” he carries on, clearly enjoying my panic. “A cozy life you’ve got yourself there. Do you suck his cock for rent?”
The fucking nerve of him. As if he wasn’t the one pretty much freeloading the whole time we were together.
I don’t know what comes over me, but I feel no compulsion to defend myself, or beg. I’m just angry, furious, really. Even the shame I used to feel about the things I desired—and have done—is only an afterthought.
“So what if I do?”
David does a double-take. “What?”
It’s me who steps towards him first this time. “If I suck his cock, if I spread my legs for him to earn my keep, what is it to you?”
He stares at me as if I’ve gone insane. Honestly, I might have.
“You probably think I’m bluffing, huh?” he says. “Well, I’m not. You don’t believe me?”
He takes out his phone, swiping through it. He holds the screen to me, and my stomach rolls. I did not think he was bluffing, but seeing the pictures in real life hits me in a way I have no idea how to handle.
“You always looked good with your mouth stuffed full. Of course I had to keep these. I still jerk off to them. Definitely the best head I ever got.” He swipes and swipes again, each photo more obscene than the last. “Oh, and then there’s this beauty.”
A video comes up next. Similar set up as the photos. Me on my knees in front of him, getting throat-fucked. I remember that. Remember liking it. The feeling of being full and the noises I pulled out of him.
Now it just has bile rising up my throat.
“Not so brave now, huh?” he mocks, thankfully putting the phone away. “You do as I say, or these will make it to the inboxes of everyone you know. Maybe I’ll even print out some, cover the whole of fucking Seattle with them, so everyone knows what a shameless slut you are.”
“It’s illegal,” I protest weakly, trying not to cry. “It’s a crime to do that.”
“Oh, are you gonna cry to the po-pos about it? I’m sure they’ll be interested in the sob story of some cock-sucker.”
I have nothing to say. He knows he’s right. I know it too.
“I’m willing to overlook this little outburst of yours. You’ve always been overly emotional, after all,” David continues, conversationally. “You have one week to come to a decision. And if it’s not a decision that I like, well…” He waves his phone at me. “You know what happens.”
I don’t answer. I can’t. Nothing makes sense anymore.
I turn and run.
By the time I get home, the adrenaline has started to wear off, leaving me shaky and uprooted. My hands tremble as I fumble with the door. I’m not holding it together so much as running on whatever fumes are left.
The door barely clicks shut before everything catches up with me.
“Jamie?” Tyler’s voice reaches me from the living room. I see him stand up and turn towards me with a huge smile that shatters whatever control I had left. “Finally, what took you so lo—”
It takes one look at me, and his whole aura shifts. “Bunny?”
An ugly sob tears itself out of my chest. I cross the space between us with the desperation of a drowning man reaching for a buoy.
Tyler starts towards me, and we collide in a flurry of limbs.
I don’t find my voice for a long moment, but he doesn’t say anything, doesn’t ask again.
He just waits, holding me while I break apart.
“He was there,” I manage. “David. He was waiting for me.”
I feel Tyler’s body pull taut like a bow, but just for a second. Then he’s back to comforting me.
“What did he do? Did he hurt you?” There's a threat lurking under the words.
I shake my head as much as I can in this position. “No. But he’s blackmailing me.”
“What?”
“He wants us back together.”
Tyler doesn’t stiffen this time. He just holds me tighter.
“He can keep fucking dreaming.”
I laugh despite myself. It’s a broken sound, but it breathes life into me. “That’s what I told him.”
“Damn right you did.” He drops a kiss to my hair. “He missed his chance. You’re mine now. Always.”
I can’t hold back a whimper. I press my face into his shoulder, breathing him in, the familiar warmth of him cutting through the lingering chill that David left behind.
“Yours.”
I love you. I love you.
The words dance on the tip of my tongue, but I swallow them.
Not like this. I won’t tell him like this and have the memory forever tainted with the pain David left behind.
I’ll tell him when I’m happy. When we both are.
My mind starts to clear up, the realization that I’m home and safe no matter what happens grounding me in the moment. I pull back only enough to look at Tyler.
“He has pictures.” Familiar shame rises inside me, but I don’t want to keep this a secret from Tyler.
He’s seen the worst of me, and he hasn’t run away yet.
He still wants me, even with my past. “And videos. Of…him and me. He said that if I don’t take him back, he’s going to send them to everyone I’m close to. Make them public.”
Tyler doesn’t miss a beat. He clasps my face between his hands, forcing my gaze. “That will not happen. You hear me? I won’t let it.”
I don’t know what he could possibly do, but the words make me feel better regardless.
“He knows about you, too. He saw us, in front of the gym. He could cause trouble for you.” I’m certain that the reason he wants me back now is because he found out I moved on. How typical of him, always wanting other people’s toys.
Except I’m not a toy. Not anymore.
Tyler scoffs. Scoffs. “Whatever he does won’t hurt me. The only way to do that is by hurting you. He messed with what’s mine, so this is personal now.”
A smile grows on my face without my conscious decision. I lean forward, silently asking for a kiss, and Tyler happily obliges.
“My knight in grumpy armor.”
“That’s right.” Another kiss. “Always.”
“Yeah. Always.”