I nod my head, my body losing the fight it had moments ago. “Do you know why I don’t want you, Nina?”
Her eyes fill with tears, but they don’t affect me like theyonce did. She looks to the floor, not answering me. I lift her chin with my finger, bringing her face up to mine.
My lips brush her ear. “Do you know what a whore does when she’s finished?”
She says nothing, her body rigid.
“She leaves.”
I step away from her, my eyes dropping down her body.
NINE
Nina
When I was a child, I told myself that letting people in was dangerous. Trying to protect the people around you is dangerous. Because theywillhurt you. They find the things that will hit the hardest and use them to cause you pain.
It’s why I don’t let people in easily.
“If you came here to hurt me, then mission accomplished.” I clench my jaw, hating how my voice cracks.
Anger is etched into every plane of his face, his body vibrating with the same fury. My eyes don’t leave him as he turns and leaves the apartment.
The second the door slams shut, the tears come, and I let them. This has been brewing between us all week and it had to happen. I always knew it wouldn’t be pretty, but I never expected it to end uglier than it already was.
I hoped we could find some closure.
Deep down inside, I know Mason isn’t a bad person, and he wouldn’t have meant the words he just threw at me. But he intended to hurt me. A quick hit to make himself feel better.
I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the way his words can cut me so easily.
“Nina,” his voice startles me.
I spin, rolling my lips as my throat burns. I try to contain the sob that breaks through but it’s impossible. My knees buckle as I cover my face.
“I’m sorry.” He closes the distance between us, pulling me into his chest.
I fall against him, giving in to the resistance and allowing him to heal the parts of me that only being in his arms can fix. My body shakes as I let it leave me, freeing myself of the emotions I’ve kept bottled up since the night I left.
His lips find my hair and I feel him inhale. I close my eyes and take my own deep breath, trying to commit this moment to memory. Because the moment he lets me go, I know I won’t be pulled back in again.
“We need to find a way to make this work.” My heart thuds hard against his chest, a warmth soaring through me. “Ellis deserves better than this.”
Ellis. Of course he’s talking about Ellis.
“If we can’t be civil for his sake” —he leans back, looking down at me— “then maybe it would be better to go back to the old setup, just for a while.”
He doesn’t want to see me. “Is that what you want?”
He watches me intently, as if I’m a mystery he can’t figure out. “It doesn’t matter whatI want.”
It’s too much. He’s too much. Pulling back, I wipe my face then wrap my arms around myself.
“I didn’t mean what I said, Nina, I’m sorry. I know how much it hurts you and I won’t do it again. I mean that.”
I nod my head, wiping my face. “We both said some shitty things,” I whisper, sounding dejected, and nothing like the woman that once promised to never take the type of shit he threw at me moments ago. Lucy is right, I need to find that girl again.
Cut out the waterworks, Nina.
