“Then what was that shit about not going there with me?”
“Because, dude…you have a dick,” I pointed out like he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box.
Mistake.
Huge mistake.
His head ticked back almost violently.
And I would so get why when he said carefully and oh-so sinisterly, “I am not him.”
“You’re all some version of him,” I retorted.
Another mistake.
Huge.
Colossal.
“That’s some seriously fucked-up shit to say,” he bit off.
“Uh, hello,” I shot back. “When we got home, you had to walk through my apartment to make sure it was safe.”
“Right, so you’re gonna transfer all his damage to every guy you meet?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said breezily. “His and Trev’s.”
And your dad’s. And high school boyfriend number one, along with high school boyfriend number two. Oh yeah, and your former bestest bestie Jen’s winner of a man, Logic added.
Oh, shut up, Dreamer snapped. You ruin everything.
“We are all not that guy,” Gabe said dangerously.
“Guess what, Gabe. After all this crap with Kev and Trev, I’ve learned, and my pick is henceforth gonna be the bear every damned time,” I returned.
With alarming slowness, he turned, looking down the hall where he, not ten minutes ago, just put himself out there to any potential…something…that might be lurking, in order to make certain my space was safe.
He then turned to stare at the front door, an eloquent reminder that, for the last several days, he hadn’t been doing his normal job as he should be doing it—this, to be sure I was safe.
After that, he looked at the ceiling, indicating, I was sure, Cap and Raye’s apartment, which could more aptly be described as a love nest. Because Cap was one of the very few good ones (even Logic could see that).
Changing his aim at the ceiling slightly, and that indicated one of Eric and Jessie’s places (they hit whoever’s space struck their fancy—his house, or her apartment—so they had two love nests). Because, you guessed it, Eric was also one of the very few good ones (and, again, Logic couldn’t argue).
Only then did he come back to me.
But now, I was getting mad.
“You cannot pretend you don’t get why I’m not all fired up to jump into another situation, considering the situation all of us are in right now…because of me.”
“Not a fan of repeating myself, woman, but I will right now to say it is not because of you,” Gabe replied.
I opened my mouth to say something but didn’t get it out.
Gabe kept going.
“And life is too goddamned short to waste it on other people’s shit. Their shit hits you, or they force it on you, when you clean it off, you take from it what you gotta take. You learn from it what you gotta learn. You shake it off. And you keep moving forward.”
“Thank you, oh Sage One,” I returned.
