Page 27 of The Other Side
Chance was already acting like he owned the place. But he wasn’t the one who had painstakingly arranged everything. I had. This was my lounge. MINE!
I said nothing, letting the anger stew just below the surface as I waited for him to continue.
He watched me closely as he spoke. “If I wanted to join you up here occasionally, do you think you could tolerate being in the same room as me?”
No.
“Fine.”
“I’d also like for you to allow me to call you Violet,” he challenged.
No.
“Fine.”
Chance slowly rose from the chair to approach me. “And I’d like to put the past behind us, so we can call a detente and be done with all this contention.”
My jaw clenched involuntarily. I knew he wasn’t asking for much. I knew I should just agree and be done with it all. But I found myself speechless.
“Perhaps you’re just determined not to like me.” He took a step closer, tilting his head down to meet my fiery gaze.
He wasn’t wrong.
I couldn’t help but let out a soft gasp when his warm fingers connected with the sensitive skin at my wrist. “Or maybe you like me too much—is that it?” he whispered softly.
That hit too close to home.
“I have to go,” I choked out, abruptly severing the connection and rushing to gather my papers strewn across the study table.
“Violet, you can’t run away from me forever,” Chance simpered, but made no move to stop me.
“Doesn’t mean I won’t try,” I replied flippantly, kneeling down between the pool and Ping-Pong tables to open the trapdoor and extend the ladder into my bathroom.
“I’m glad we can discuss and solve our problems like adults,” Chance called out sarcastically.
I slammed the trapdoor closed in response.
Chance Harper was mistaken if he thought all it would take was one conversation and a handshake for me to move on—to forget that he’d lied to me. Fool me once and all of that. But I’d been made a fool of too many times before, and I was dead set on holding my ground.
Maybe Iwasdetermined not to like him, but I knew if I gave in, it would only lead to ruin.
