Page 73 of Some Kinda Romance

A few minutes later, I knocked again, but she didn’t open up and there was no sound coming from the other side. Exhaling harshly, I realized that this would probably have to wait until tomorrow. She either wasn’t home or she was already sleeping—or she’d seen me through the peephole and had decided against talking to me.

I waited a few more minutes anyway, hoping that if she was in there, she’d change her mind, but eventually, I left her alone. Deflated, I headed back to the elevator and pulled my phone out of my pocket. If she didn’t want to see me, perhaps she’d read a message when she was ready.

Nodding to myself, I pressed the call button and started writing, but my fingers were stupid and it took me ages to get anything onscreen that made sense. When the elevator doors opened, I didn’t look up until the sound of familiar laughter reached my ears.

My gaze snapped into the elevator and right there was Serenity and Julie. They’d been talking and laughing, singing some song until they saw me. The mood changed instantly, with Julie scowling like she was about to tackle me.

“You!” she seethed as she stalked toward me with her little hands clenched into fists at her sides. “You promised me you wouldn’t hurt her! I helped you.”

“I know.” I blinked a few times to clear my swimming mind. Then I focused on Serenity over Julie’s shoulder, leaning past her to hold the doors open. “I made it all about myself earlier and I shouldn’t have. I should’ve told Ethan to stay away from you.”

“You should’ve, but you didn’t,” she said dismissively, striding off the elevator with her head held high. She brushed past me. With her hand sliding into her purse, she withdrew her keys, unlocking the door without even looking at me. “Good night, Dash.”

“No,” I said, firmly but with a hint of pleading in my tone. “I was wrong, Serenity. I know that now. In that moment, all I wanted was for him to leave and I thought that staying out of it was the best way to make that happen, but I didn’t think about how it might’ve sounded to you.”

Her door opened, but I saw her shoulders rise on a deep breath before she slowly turned to face me. Despite the whiskey, I saw the hurt shining from her deep blues as she looked at me. “You’re admitting that the way you handled that situation was wrong?”

“Without any hesitation,” I said. “I had my reasons, but it’s been brought to my attention that they’re nothing but excuses. I don’t want to make excuses. I was wrong and I’m taking full responsibility for it, and also, I’m sorry.”

“You seem to say that a lot.”

I sighed. “I know. I suspect I’m going to be apologizing to you often for at least a couple years. If you’ll have me, that is. What I should’ve done earlier is tell him he was right. You’re mine now, and unless he wants trouble, he has to stay away from us.”

Serenity’s gaze was locked on mine, and I held my breath waiting for her response. Waiting to find out if it was over or if she’d give me yet another chance, but Julie broke the moment, pushing past us and scowling at me over her shoulder once more.

“I’ll wait for you inside, Serenity,” she said, shaking her head at me before she turned and walked away.

Serenity shut the door, taking a step closer to push her fingers into my hair. “I can accept apologies. As long as they’re genuine and heartfelt. I think this one is, so I accept. I know that we’re new and that the situation with Ethan is difficult to navigate, but for the record, I’m not trying to involve you. I just need to know I can count on you.”

“You can,” I assured her, lowering my forehead to hers as I circled my arms around her hips. “I realize I need to work on proving it, but I’m here, Serenity. I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere until you tell me to.”

Toying with my hair, she tilted her head back and I kissed her deeply, pushing her up against the door as the kiss got heated. She leaned into me, moaning as she held me closer. My tongue swept into her mouth, my hips pushing forward into her until I abruptly broke away.

“Thank you for hearing me out, Serenity. I should probably go now, though. Unless you want to kick Julie out?”

She sighed softly, then shook her head. “I want you, but I can’t do that to her. Also, you’re very drunk and I want you to be sober when we have make-up sex.”

Her teeth sank into her lower lip as she tried to hide a smile and it drove me mad, but I pushed away from her anyway. “I’ll see you soon, baby. Apologize to Julie on my behalf, please. She’ll have my balls otherwise.”

Serenity giggled, nodding as she reached behind her to open the door. “I have plans for those balls, so I’ll tell her. Get home safe, Dash. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

With that, she slipped into her apartment and I heard her locking the door behind her. Leaving with a raging hard-on and an intense need to hold her, I blew out a heavy breath and climbed into the elevator, relieved that she’d forgiven me again but knowing I was going to have to up my game.

If I wanted to hang onto her, there was no two ways about it. I was going to have to do better. Apologizing would only get me so far. At some point, I was going to have to just stop constantly doing things that I had to apologize for.