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“Yes.” I grin.

“You’re saying that someday if you’re less mad at me, I can jizz all over your peachy goodness?” He rounds the counter and finds the garbage can under the sink and deposits the condom.

I say, “First off, that’s disgusting. Flush that. Don’t make the poor hourly wage workers pick up your semen.”

“Why are they picking it up? I tied it off. They won’t even know it’s there. You’re changing the subject. And BT Dubs, that was the hardest I’ve come in years. You’re incredible. Are you less mad at me now? Can I come on your ass yet?”

I put on his shirt and he stays behind the counter and we’re facing each other semi-concealed.

I try to tease an answer out of him. “I don’t think I’m ever going to be less angry at you if you keep lying. My dad wasn’t a great guy, but what you’re telling me is a bit much. So no. You’ll never get a crack at my crack. You’ll never get to batter my boobs or any other part of me again. Despite the fact that I do like that—and everything you did—I’ll never speak to you again.”

I can see his eyes pop open. Then he looks at me sideways and says, “You like that? You’re killing me.” He groans and smacks the cabinets.

I raise my brows at him and place my hands back on the counter where he demanded I keep them during sex. “I’ve evolved since I was eighteen. There’s lots of filthy fucking things I like.”

He pulls through his hair and steps closer to the counter. “It just doesn’t seem fair that I get to know these things and not do them.”

I say, “Don’t lie and we’ll see what the day brings us.”

He groans loudly and I walk to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. I turn and see he’s staring at me.

“It is good, isn’t it?” I say, waggling my ass at him. He nods. “Water?” He nods again and I give him a bottle. “Now, tell the truth so we can move on. Why the fuck did you hurt me like that?”

He pauses and his lighthearted demeanor is replaced with consternation. I don’t care for it. How dare he get indignant?

“Cool. Let’s not move forward. I’ll write the pitch. I’ll art direct. I’ll grab the job that you were never going to get anyway.”

My skin prickles. I forgot about the job for a moment. “We talk business and you stay the hell away from me until you’re willing to admit you ruined my life. And this time, it’s my turn to ruin yours. I’ll start with nabbing the job that’s mine.” I turn away from him and flash him my ass.

“Last look?” he yells at me.

I say, “Something to use next time you masturbate while thinking of me.”

He snaps back at me, “You know you DJ’d the hell out yourself while thinking of me. And I mean Hayden me, not Danny me. You like it a bit wicked. Like recognizes like.”

“DJ’d?” I turn back and he flattens his palm and pretends to scratch a record… I roll my eyes. “And for the record, I loved Danny very much. Hayden can burn in hell.”

He throws his hands in the air and yells, “You are the most maddening, ridiculous, tempting, useless, gorgeous, insane woman who has ever existed. THEY’RE BOTH ME. BeLizzie, I do NOT know what to do with or about you.”

“Well, don’t call me that name and how about not talking to me for a couple of days. Sounds like a good fucking start to our business partnership, you asshole. Just leave me alone, Danny. I can’t with all of this.”

“FINE! But when you’re sore tomorrow, remember I’m the one who fucked you hard. Hayden, not sweet Danny!” His voice rumbles through the room and I shudder a tiny bit. I slam the door, locking the adjoining room behind me.

He yells through the closed door, “You locked it? Come on. Afraid I’m going to come in there in the middle of the night and argue with you some more? I’m fucking done. I won’t call you the word that keeps floating through my mind, but each moment with you it’s getting harder not to.”

I fling the door open, and he’s startled and still naked. How is he this gorgeous and comfortable in his body? He’s so muscular, it’s like looking directly into a lightbulb, so painfully beautiful. His dick isn’t even shriveled and flaccid. It’s still full and goddammed gorgeous. Then he smirks because he catches me ogling his pretty cock.

I glare and say, “I’ll say the word. Fuck off, you little bitch.” I slam the door again and hear him growl.

“MADDENING!!! You’re Looney Toons, woman.”

I yell back, hoping to get the last word, “Badeep, Badeep, Badeep—That’s ALL Folks!”

BETTE

The fire-engine red café table is a little wobbly on the sidewalk today. I’m tucked into my now normal space at Buvette. I come here most days to work. There are two tiny tables with a wooden bench tucked against the front windows of the French bistro down in the West Village. I like to sit outside and stare at people going by, and the waitstaff is used to me scribbling in my oversized notebook. I’m here to get away from him. Ironically, I feel at home surrounded by French food and the language. I love this place, it makes me feel like an adult, the way Paris did.

It’s been five days since our sex fight. We haven’t spoken or “unpacked” any of it, as he likes to say in meetings. Mostly, I’ve tried to work far away from him. I can’t break first, but I wish he would. I’m lost. I don’t know who to be without the pranks, work, Sophie at my side, and decade old pain to hide behind. It’s fresh again, not buried deep so I can ignore it sometimes. It’s right at the surface and I don’t know the way through it. The really messed up part is I miss Hayden. I miss the playful, sexy, intelligent part of him. But when I banished Danny, I banished him, too.