Page 19 of Dissolving Prejudice

“Are you really in the position to get angry?” he asked, his stupidly deep voice annoying the shit out of me.

“You’re this close to getting punched,” I warned. Fuck my new resolution of being less violent ’cause I was ready to break his fucking face.

“Oh, get off your fucking high horse,” Shay-Lee hissed before wrapping his arm around Jordan’s biceps and pulling him away from me. But despite the distance we now had between us, Jordan’s eyes stayed on me until Shay-Lee called his name again.

Putting his hand on Jordan’s shoulder, Shay-Lee gently caressed him. “If we don’t go now, we’ll be late for our meeting,” he said in a soft voice. A voice he used to save for me.

“What meeting?” I asked, my eyes still pinned on stupid Jordan. Was it just me, or had he gotten bigger? He was still shorter than me but had gained at least twenty pounds of pure, shredded muscle. What the actual fuck?

“Our architect. We’re building a house,” Shay-Lee said.

“A house?” I turned to look at him, my eyes narrowed.

“Yes,” he said when Jordan took his bag away from him. “Anyway, we’re going now. Please don’t stalk me again.”

Without lingering any longer, they turned around and walked out of the coffee shop while I stayed in my place, unable to move a single muscle. To be honest, I half hoped this was a nightmare because I sure as fuck wished to wake up. But it wasn’t, and Shay-Lee had really just walked out of this shop wrapped around another man’s arm.

Not knowing what to do with myself, I glanced back at the table where Shay-Lee’s matcha mug was still resting. How could this actually be happening? How could Shay-Lee agree to marry someone else while I was still alive? Didn’t we agree never to leave each other?

But you left.

I did. I left him but for a good reason. Right? Because if, after all the crap I’d been through, I’d lost him to stupid Jordan Keller, what was the fucking point?

“S-sir, is everything okay?”

Snapped out of my head, I looked aside to see one of the servers standing by my side with a worried look on her face.

“Fuck no,” I snapped at her, then, with the little self-respect I had left, got out of that damn shop. The cold breeze that hit my skin the second I stepped into the street did nothing to calm me down, and I felt so hot that my skin burned under my clothes. And if that wasn’t enough, someone bumped into me.

“Are you fucking blind?” I screamed at the man, who, in his defense, apologized immediately. But I didn’t care. I was too damn angry to care. The stranger’s eyes widened, and his brows rose with… with fear. It took me a second to realize why he looked dead-ass scared. Looming over him with my fists raised in the air, I was all but ready to punch this mere stranger who’d bumped into me by mistake. Realizing how dangerously close I was to doing something completely stupid, I moved away from him in a flash and got to my bike. Turning on the engine, I was out of there in seconds. But I didn’t ride home and instead continued riding for hours with no destination in mind. It was only after the sun went down and the moon came up that I felt like going back to my shitty apartment. I’d had a long day. A long, awful day, and I was finally ready for it to end.

Unfortunately for me, my plans of going straight to bed weren’t about to happen because when I walked inside my place, I found out I wasn’t alone.

Diesel

“What are you doing here?” I scowled at Oro, who was standing in the middle of my studio apartment wearing nothing but a pair of leopard-print briefs that left little to the imagination.

“We said we’d talk later.” He placed his hands on his waist, his white skin shining with the moonlight entering from the industrial window that spread along the entire west wall of my apartment. “Now is later. Much, much later.”

Ignoring Oro’s pout, I bent down to pick up Toro, who just came to greet me with his cute face. My cat was the tiny bit of light on this horrible day, and I immediately brought him to my face. He snuggled against me, a warm purr coming from his fuzzy chest.

“Why does the cat get a hug while I don’t?” Oro complained.

“’Cause unlike you, he’s adorable,” I said while walking toward my kitchen. Exhausted from this never-ending day, I left my helmet on the wooden island and walked straight to my fridge. I was starving, but I’d have to settle for beer as I was too damn tired to cook.

“I’m plenty adorable.” He tsked. “Just ask Dion.”

“So why are you here and not at his place?”

“Because I’d rather spend time with you.”

I rolled my eyes before I opened the bottle using the counter and my fist, then walked to my couch. Slumping my ass down, I kicked off my shoes, then tossed my legs over the coffee table. Now, with a beer in my hand and Toro resting on my lap, I finally allowed myself to relax.

“So, where were you?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. Closing my eyes, I hoped he’d get the message, only he didn’t.

“And why did you come back so late?”