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I crossed my arms and tried not to feel self-conscious about the fact that I wasn’t wearing a bra under the thin t-shirt I’d worn to bed last night. I was glad it was cool enough in here that I’d worn sweats rather than just underwear. Otherwise this would’ve been a lot worse.
“What is it you want to apologize about?” I asked.
Jalen’s fingers tightened around the base of the flowers. “I wanted to apologize because Jenna told me what happened the night you stood me up. That she was the client you were working for and that you were helping her find her sister who’d taken off.”
A flash of anger went through me, and I pushed it down as I asked, “Is that the only reason?”
He scowled at me. “What other reason do you want?”
My temper bubbled up again, and I wondered how I’d been able to keep it this long. “I don’t know. It might’ve been nice if you’d simply accepted my apology and waited until I wasn’t exhausted to talk instead of skulking off and ignoring me for days.”
“You could’ve called me,” he pointed out. “You know, instead of running to Clay like you always do.”
“You need to back off,” Clay said, somehow managing to look threatening while pointing a spatula at Jalen.
“Let me handle this,” I said to him. I took a step toward Jalen. “Okay, we both could’ve picked up the phone, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to come barging into my apartment, yelling and making accusations.”
“Accusations? Really?” Jalen sneered. “This is the second time I’ve shown up at your apartment early in the morning and found him half-dressed and you looking freshly fucked.”
Heat flooded my face, as much from anger as from embarrassment. “How dare you come in here and say that to me!”
“Oh, was it making love then?” He threw the box of donuts at the closest table. “Guess that makes me the pity fuck, right? You two get together and laugh about it? About how stupid I am for believing you the last time I caught you two like this, and you said nothing happened?”
“Yeah, Jalen, it’s the whole world ganging up against you.” I shook my head as my voice dropped. I was still pissed, but that wasn’t the dominant emotion anymore. “You decide how the world is and that makes it so. Must be nice to know everything.”
“I actually thought you were different.” He dropped the flowers, stepping on them as he left.
“Bastard!” I shouted as he slammed the door shut behind him.
Tears burned against my eyelids, but I pushed them back. No way in hell was I going to cry over Jalen Larsen. Not anymore. I was done with him and his inability to trust. I’d thought I had issues, but I was nothing compared to him.
“Rona, are you okay?” Clay put his hand on my shoulder.
“Fine.” I glanced at him. “But would it kill you to wear a damn shirt?”
“We both know it’s not about me not wearing a shirt.”
He had a point.
“I’m sorry for my part in it,” he said. “I shouldn’t have let him come in. I thought you knew he was coming.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said, moving out from under Clay’s well-meaning hand. Between my dream and Jalen’s accusations, I wasn’t feeling particularly comfortable with my friend touching me right now.
“Did you tell Jalen that you and I used to…be a thing?”
“I did,” I said as I picked up the flowers and set them on the counter. Some of them were crushed, but I was still going to check to see if any of them could be salvaged. No point in wasting them. “And I also told him that it was over. That we’re friends.”
“You have to admit,” Clay said, “from his side of things, it did look pretty bad.”
I almost threw the donuts at him, but it would’ve been a waste of good sugar. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just saying, I know I’d be pissed if I showed up at my girlfriend’s place some morning and a gorgeous, shirtless man answered the door.”
“Gorgeous?” I raised an eyebrow. “You think a little highly of yourself.”
He grinned at me, but I didn’t quite have it in me to smile back.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” I said. “I don’t care what it looked like. He’s crossed the line more than once.”
“Don’t you think it’s because he’s scared?” He held up a hand when I opened my mouth to argue. “He is, Rona. He’s absolutely terrified that he’s going to lose you.”
“Then he should talk to me instead of behaving like a child,” I countered. “He should trust me.”
A little voice in the back of my head reminded me that Jalen had good reason to be untrusting. Elise had done a number on him.
But he should know that I wasn’t Elise. It wasn’t fair to me to be held responsible for the infidelities of his crazy ex-wife…excuse me, wife. Besides, it wasn’t like I didn’t have my own baggage from my past to deal with. He’d seen most of it.
Maybe that was the problem. He needed someone who could handle his shit without him having to deal with theirs. The thing was, I had no problem working with him on his issues. It seemed like he didn’t want to try to get better though. He just wanted me to accept things the way they were. Maybe some women could do that, but I couldn’t.
