Page 61 of Hate It with You

I pull away from him, my heart icing over as his hands slip from my body.

“I need to clean up,” I say matter-of-factly as I stare out the broken window to the parking lot. Light begins to fill the sky as the sun rises over the horizon.

Alex sighs, his shoulders slumping over in a way that tells me he’s too tired to continue the conversation. Another back-and-forth I’ve successfully won between us, though I can’t say victory feels good this time around.

“I’ll call Roman. We’ll get this cleaned up and fixed today. Go back upstairs, and I’ll handle it.” He doesn’t look at me when he asks me to leave.

There’s no energy left in my body to fight to stay. So I do what he’s asked, and I head back upstairs to my apartment.

I don’t miss the tiny blue camera lights that follow me on my path, or the light that stays on in my living room as I curl up in my reading chair for the remainder of the early morning.

24

ALEX

Only a day later, and I’m standing outside Beth’s bookshop with Roman and Theo at my side. Leo would’ve been here if he wasn’t on some business trip. He’s seemed preoccupied lately, and if I didn’t know him better, I’d say he was hiding something. Though that’s uncharacteristic for Leo if he was. Either way, it’s a problem for another day.

Today is the day I get this plywood out and the new window put in. A new window that cost me a fortune and a half, given the fact that I had to overnight it to make sure Beth had a properly secured building as soon as possible. I wasn’t going to risk her safety to save myself money.

Sienna’s already made her way inside, visiting with Beth. I’m happy she was able to stop by today. Graham has had her so busy, she’s only made it a few times since the opening, and her visits have been brief. Other than Sienna and Ben, I’m not sure Beth has anyone else. She’s clearly dealing with something, and if I can’t get it out of her, I hope Sienna can.

“How much did this cost you?” Theo asks, looking at the new window propped against the side of the building.

“Too fucking much,” I sigh, unsure if I should tell my brothers the details of what’s been going on. “I got it on a payment plan at least.”

“You need help with the payments? Business is doing well. I could—” I stop Roman with a lift of my hand.

“If you so much as think about giving me money, I’ll throw your ass in the ring,” I say, only half joking.

Roman nods his understanding before asking, “How did this happen again?”

I slip my fingers through my work gloves as my brothers follow suit. “Some asshole threw a rock through the window.” I shrug, then motion to the wood indicating we should get to work.

We start by prying the plywood off the window. It ends up taking all three of us when it gets stuck and requires more force than necessary. In our mission to pry it off, it finally comes loose with one final tug, the force of our efforts making it fly out of our hands. It lands on the concrete with a loud thud.

Beth and Sienna jump from inside the bookstore, a small screech escaping both of them at the sound.

Turning to look through the opening, I make eye contact with Beth. “Sorry,” I say, wincing, trying my best to lace charm through my expression. To my displeasure, she doesn’t respond with her usual snarky remark. Instead, she says a simple, “It’s okay,” and goes back to talking with Sienna.

“What’s up with that?” Theo nods his head in Beth’s direction, after clocking the exchange.

Switching out a few of my tools on my belt with the ones Roman brought, I get to work on the window seal. Roman is helping me, and Theo is unpacking the window for install.

“Nothing,” I say, brushing off Theo’s question. I’m not exactly sure now is the time to get into what’s been going on between Beth and me.

“Does this have anything to do with why you’ve put up so many cameras?” Roman asks, intently focused on his work but still engaged in the conversation.

Theo agrees. “I was curious about those. Certainly way more than what was here when the bookstore opened.”

“Nothing wrong with added security.” I shrug.

“Especially when you have people throwing rocks through windows,” Roman adds.

Theo takes a step back to assess the window's opening. “I’m surprised you didn’t want to hire someone for this, as you did with the air-conditioning last summer, Alex.”

I stop working to look at my brother. “I don’t trust anyone else to do it right now.” Without thinking, I glance at Beth, an effort to check in. She’s already looking at me, her gaze dropping from mine the moment we meet.

She pushed me away the other night, not wanting anything to do with me. It had to have been because of the note again. This fucker getting between us is really starting to piss me off.