“And I realise now that I may have got carried away,” he admitted, looking behind me to the apartment.
“I need to think,” I said.
Nix was so happy. Or he had been.
“It’s been an odd day,” I told him.
He lifted me to sit on the kitchen island. “Tell me all about it.”
“I don’t think you’d want me to.”
His face hardened. “Did he touch you?”
“No.”
He didn’t relax. “What did he say?”
“He said…” I shuffled further back on the island to get ready for the conversation I couldn’t put off any longer.
I was never one to avoid conflict in relationships.
But this had been going so well.
Too bloody well, knowing my luck.
I could already feel our relationship cracking along with my voice as I asked, “Who did you have an affair with? Who was the married woman?”
His eye contact was intense as he went to speak and stopped.
“I want to hear you say it, Nix. I’ve got to hear it.”
He leaned against the opposite counter and closed his eyes as if physically pained. “CallyMendes.”
“So, you’re a piece of shit, too,” I snapped and jumped down, ignoring how faint I felt and the anger pulsing in my ears.
I had been right. I couldn’t trust him with anything other than my body.
He wasn’t even trustworthy with those he loved.
“Your best friend’swife,Armas,” I cried, shaking my hand as I picked up my bag. “Yourbest friend. The only person you liked!”
He snorted and shook his head, grabbing hold of my arm to stop me from leaving. “And you’re so innocent?”
I swallowed.
“You know, you’re not the only person capable of googling a name.VinnyGarvs. That picture in the papers of him and his lover? Do you know whose body I recognise? Do you know whosetattooI recognise in it? Yours.”
My eyes were burning as I tugged away from his grip.
“You don’t fuck your clients? That must be a new rule for you. One you’re really shit at abiding by.”
“It happened only once!” I shouted. My words echoed around the empty flat. “After my dad died, he got me stupidly drunk, took me back to my flat and I woke up in the morning —naked— without aclue. One second, I was absolutely fine. The next, I was blacked out. I don’t even know if I wanted it. I feel dirty that maybe I did. The one thing I do know is that he was sober. Completely sober.”
He let me go for his hands to ball into fists. His words brimmed with anger, practically spitting them. “What? He didwhat?”
“Do you think I don’t hate this?” I asked, forcing up my top and bra to show him the tattoo. “I got this done the day after my dad died with my brother. Over our hearts. His words. And it’s ruined. Ruined.”
Nix went to speak, but I wasn’t done.
