Page 14 of Forever Fighting
He sniffles and curses under his breath, and I hear something break in the background.
“Braelyn…” He trails off, and I can tell he’s crying, which of course makes me cry.
“What would you say?” I press.
“Stop. I can’t… fuck, I can’t. I’m sorry. I love you. Please, I love you so much. I never wanted to hurt you. Not ever. I was going to end it. I was. I was never going to cheat on you once we were married.”
Wow. That’s such a lame thing to say. “But cheating on me as your fiancée was cool?”
“No! That’s not how I meant it. I was never okay with it. It was just something I did, and I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I love you so much. I’ll say both of those a million times until you believe me. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Please, Braelyn. Please give me a second chance to prove that to you.”
I wipe my tears with the side of my hand. “You betrayed my trust. You betrayed my love. Not just as your fiancée but as your friend. I’m not the type of person who can forgive that, and even if I could, it would always be something between us. A permanent dark cloud over every sunny day.”
He chokes out a noise. “This can’t be it. It was a mistake. It meant nothing. I was stupid and selfish, I know. Please, this can’t be it.”
“I’ll come over tomorrow to get my stuff. I don’t want you there. I’m not ready to see you. Please respect that.”
I hang up on him and throw my phone at the bed. It lands with a bounce, and I shift back to the window, a sea of opportunity ahead of me. Without thinking too much about it, or even caring that I’m only wearing Roman’s T-shirt and boxer briefs, I hotfoot it out of the bedroom and down the hall to his room, where I knock on the door.
“Come in,” he calls out, and I open the door to find Roman shirtless, with his tattoos all over his arms and chest beneath the blankets, holding a freaking worn Hemingway paperback in one hand, with his other tossed back behind his head. He’s all muscles and ink and wolfish eyes, and for some stupid reason, my face heats. Especially when he gives me a once-over, noting me in only his shirt, and something I can’t quite read crosses his features and changes his eyes ever so subtly.
I’ve seen Roman without his shirt a million times. The man boxes shirtless, for Christ’s sake. But something about seeinghim like this makes my voice squeak as I say, “The nurse dies at the end of that one.”
“Thanks for the spoiler.”
I laugh. I must be insane. “I’m in. I’ll go with you to Vegas and then to Mexico.”
5
ROMAN
Me: I don’t know what to do about Adam. I’m debating if I should just kill him.
Forest: If you don’t, I will, and I can get away with it, so think critically about that.
Iwould almost laugh or smile at that if I didn’t know Forest was serious.
Me: I haven’t talked to him yet and I don’t know his story or why he did it but I’m not sure it matters. He cheated on Braelyn. On the flip side, he was Nash’s best friend and has been one of my best friends since Nash’s death. He’s a good guy. A great guy actually. I don’t see him hurting Brae like this.
Hayes: Can you be Switzerland and stay neutral?
Me: No. I don’t know. I need to talk to him but I’m too fucking angry and full of a lot of things I shouldn’tbe too.
Crew: Things like you secretly love Braelyn and are conflicted because you’re happy she’s now single but sad because of how it happened and that she’s hurting? Oh, and the fact that Adam is a close friend of yours, so there’s the betrayal part of that.
Me: Are we on a daytime television show?
Crew: Tell me I’m wrong.
I can’t. That’s the problem, and Crew is right. I am happy and fucked up because I’m happy and conflicted as fuck because it’s Adam, and going behind my friend’s back with their girl isn’t something I do. It’s not something I’d ever do. Not that Braelyn is even interested in me for that, and there’s the not-so-small issue of my leaving to live abroad in a couple of months. But the tickling along my spine is there, and I can’t turn it off.
Hell, she could go back to him tomorrow for all I know. But for now…
Me: In ten weeks I’m moving to Europe for eighteen months.
Crew: What the fuck? Why didn’t you tell us?
Hayes: Are you serious? Where?
