Page 9 of Sexting His Son's Ex
“Don’t waste your time. Please.” This time I’m begging him. “I don’t mean to hurt you, but your attempts won’t work. You should go talk to the girl you almost got pregnant. You clearly want her, or you wouldn’t have cheated,” I say gently. “Really. I’m fine.”
He stands and kicks the stool across the room. One of the legs snaps off when it smashes against the wall. “I’m not fine!” He roars, tugging at his hair. “I’m not okay without you. I need you. I will do anything, Jovie. Anything. Please.”
I step away, the alarm bells ringing in my head from the wild look in his eyes. “I think you need to leave. You said what you needed to say. I think?—”
“I don’t give a fuck what you think, Jovie. Please, be mine again.”
“You’re scaring me, Luca.” I take another step back, the vintage cash register digging into my muscles.
He hides his face with his hands. “I’m so sorry, Jovie. I’m sorry. I fucked up. I regret what I did. I regret losing you. I’ll do anything.”
“I need you to leave, Luca.”
In three steps, he’s in front of me, gripping my wrist harder than necessary. He might leave a bruise. I try tugging my arm free and he tightens his hold.
I whimper. “You’re hurting me, Luca.”
He blinks, confused, a curtain lifting in his eyes as he comes back to normal. “Oh my god, Jovie. I’m… I’m so fucking sorry.” Hestumbles away to put space between us and I’m finally able to take a breath.
The door rings again and it’s Marlowe, my best friend. She always comes to have lunch with me around this time since she owns the cat café next door. Marlowe stops at the entrance, the same bag in hand that Luca brought me. She analyzes the room. Her attention darts from me, to Luca, to the chair in pieces broken on the floor near the wall.
Marlowe is a protective type and a complete badass. She has short black hair with the side shaved and wears bold makeup with heavy eyeliner. It pairs well with her mostly dark outfits and black boots.
“Is there a problem here?” She cocks her head at Luca. “I think you need to leave before you piss me off.”
Luca lifts his hands in surrender. “I’m going. You’re right. I’m going. Jovie, please, just think about what I said.” The further he walks away from me, the more I can breathe.
Marlowe doesn’t get out of his way. With disgust in her eyes, she drags her gaze from head to toe when Luca stops next to her.
“I didn’t mean for it to get this far.”
“They never do,” Marlowe sneers at him.
Luca takes one last look at me before pushing the door open and gets into his car that’s parked outside the flower shop.
Marlowe spins around, flips the sign to close and runs to me. She throws her arms around my shoulders, bringing me in for a tight hug. “Are you okay? What did that fucker do? Did he threaten you? Did he hurt you?” She cups my face, checking me for anybruises or injuries. “Talk to me. You can’t ever be too sure with a man like that.”
“I’m okay. I promise, I’m fine. Things got a little heated, but he left. It was just a guy I was briefly dating.”
“You dated him? Him?” She curls her lips in disgust. “You can do so much better than him.”
I rub my wrist and Marlowe doesn’t miss the redness already showing on my skin.
Frowning, she turns my arm over. “He did hurt you.”
“He grabbed me. He lost it for a minute. He got so angry but then he was fine. He wanted me back.”
“This is the guy who cheated on you?” She snorts. “Men like him, they always cheat.”
“Yeah, I should have listened to my instincts. I ignored them, like I always do.”
Marlowe guides me to sit down. She doesn’t say another word while she unwraps our lunch. I can tell by her movements, by how her jaw is tense, she’s furious and is working through her thoughts before she says anything else.
I snort when she tosses the sandwich Luca got me in the trash only to set the same exact one in front of me.
“What? Mine isn’t tainted with betrayal or stupidity.”
I can’t help it. I toss my head back and laugh, the anxiety much lighter since she got here. I take a bite and groan. I was definitely hungrier than I thought. I really need to stop skipping breakfast. Since I live above the shop, I always come right down to start working on orders. Marlowe is always telling me to hiresomeone, and I get that. I do need help. I can’t do it all on my own. The problem is that I don’t know who to trust with my business.
